Category: Container gardening

Back Porch Semi-Cleanup

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Parsley and cherry blossom

Yesterday, with temperatures forecast to be in the 30s at night, I decided to bring in my tender perennial herbs. I had brought the basil inside a few weeks ago, and now moved the thyme, rosemary and lavender. Thyme and lavender are winter hardy, but in containers, I have not had much luck overwintering them in the past. The thyme resides in the kitchen now, and the lavender rosemary live in the back hallway.

I still have two containers with parsley and also kale, some very skinny leeks, tiny radishes, chives, mint and nasturtium growing outside. The full porch clean-up including covering and/or putting away furniture will happen in a couple of weeks. We will have a few more warm days this week (sixties and even seventies), and I am looking forward to enjoy the afternoon sun on the back porch.

Big container with still very healthy parsley plus (now sadly almost dead) basil

Ginger

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This year, I experimented with growing ginger in a container. I started in February with a piece of store-bought organic ginger that I misted with water for about a month to encourage formation of growth buds. Then, on March 12, I planted it in a pot, very shallow, with the roots exposed.

Ginger today just before the harvest
March 12

I let it grow indoors for a couple of months until temperatures were warm enough to bring the container outside.

May 14 (ginger in center in the back)
October 17
October 17

Today, I harvested the ginger. The pot I used had a smallish diameter, and I did not get as much ginger as I had hoped. The new ginger is so juicy and fragrant! I am very excited to use it. Next year, I will grow ginger again, but in a wide shallow planter.

Harvest (notice the strong fibrous roots)
A piece of ginger with old growth on the left and new growth on the right

I saved a small piece with several growth buds (and two stems) and replanted it in the same container. I plan to overwinter it in my back hallway.

Overwintering ginger

Thai Hot Sauce

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This morning, I harvested my Thai hot peppers from the back porch and made Thai hot sauce. I used this recipe, but did not strain the sauce. I only had about half a cup of peppers, much less than anticipated, so I made a tiny jar full of sauce. I know the sauce is very potent, so it will last me a while. It will keep forever (my last batch lasted two years in the fridge).

Ready for the fridge
Mise-en-place
Peppers after a light char in the 450F oven
All blended and ready to be heated up again before being bottled

Zucchini

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Oven-roasted zucchini with pistachios and fresh herbs

I turned three zucchini I had recently harvested into a very tasty side dish. I first drew out some water (because one of the zucchini was pretty big) by sprinkling the finger-thick slices with salt and letting them sit for 15 minutes. After blotting them dry, I sauteed them and finished them of in the oven at 450 for 15 minutes. I then added chopped pistachios and chopped fresh parsley and basil from my back porch. Super delicious with fresh baguette.

Front Porch Preparation

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Container asparagus

Today, I finally transplanted the asparagus. It was very root-bound and definitely ready for a larger pot. I planted it in three large grow bags and sowed Zinnias (small mixed, and Giants of California mix) and cosmos (Rubinato and Sensation mix). I also planted one Dahlia tuber each (Top Mix Purple) into two medium pots and surrounded those with Nasturtium (Alaska mixed). Those five containers will go on my front porch, which I plan to revive this year. I put them on plant caddies with casters for easy moving and to prevent the floor boards from being water-logged.

Nicely germinated a few days later (May 27)

Mid-May Back Porch

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African daisy, mint, ginger (from the supermarket, I am very excited about this experiment) and lavender

Nice and sunny and warm today. I took an afternoon break to transplant some Salanova lettuce (4 tiny heads) from their peat cells into their own bigger pot. I planted the Thai pepper (from Neighborhood Farm because my seedlings strangely never set true leaves) with the radishes, and two basil cells (5 to 6 stems each) plus leaf lettuce mix in the large pot with the flat parsley. I also planted two Topmix dwarf dahlias (one purple, one salmon) in the pot with the fading tulips and sowed small mixed Zinnias and Alaska nasturtium in the same pot.

“Little Beauty” tulips on April 28
Current herb situation: parsley, cilantro, rosemary, chives and thyme.
Radishes, spinach and Thai pepper
Salad mix, transplanted from the tiniest seedlings on April 19th
Hardening off tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, Thai basil and flowers (night temperatures are now consistently above 50F). The spikes are to deter the birds from digging in the soil 🙂
Hardening off basil, Swiss chard, kale, marigolds, Zinnias; and for the community garden in the cardboard tray to the right: native perennials from City Natives (New York Aster, Goldenrod, Coreopsis, Black-Eyed Susan, Bluestar) plus fat-spike lavender and thyme from Neighborhood Farm

Re-Potting Zinnias and Kale

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Today, I repotted the Zinnias I started on April 19, and the kale. I had sown a handful of Zinnia seeds (three different varieties, Queen Lime Red, Queen Lime Blush, and Giants of California) into three different pots and today just isolated them into separate cells.

Zinnias before …
… and after
Most of my seedlings. Still to come: cucumbers and squash.