attempted urban gardening, take 3:

THINGS!
yesterday, i moved my green beans into the RealAndActual ground, because they were begging for more dirt and room to grow. yesterday, they looked like this:



today, it looks like THIS!



that's my little shining glory on the end. it is Taking Over. in capital letters. :)



friday morning i got up at 6:30am and took my mom to the airport to visit my father for their 30th wedding anniversary. i got back around 7:30am and really should've gone back to bed, but instead i got a little manic, went to lowe's and bought pots and potting soil and repotted all of my plants. black seeded simpson lettuce and mixed greens.



well, almost all of my plants. i am trying to not overdraw my checking account by purchasing flower pots, so some of these guys will have to wait. the left three big peat pots are zinnias for my mom, the small one is spinach, then black seeded simpson and another thing of mixed greens on the right.



repotted spinach and arugula. i'm hoping that they will flourish and spread when given more room...but considering i'm making all this up as i go along, we'll see. :)



aaallllllllll thooooooooooose plaaaaaaaaaaaants. welcome to my backyard garden spread all over my table.



update on the shoe hanger: i added spearmint to the top right pocket. i also changed out all the dirt for both of the bell peppers and they seem to be growing better now. i also added some better soil to the tomato.

i've had one ripe strawberry which gavin and i split...it was excellent. and i think now i want to make a little compact garden box and fill it with strawberries, because my two little plants aren't producing quick enough for me.

i've also been working on a baby blanket for my new little girlcousin...i don't have any photos of it yet, because i'm teaching myself the stitch as i go along.

okay, actually it's because i'm lazy and it's always downstairs. anyway...the garden is coming along nicely. and i am a little obsessed. *shrug* it happens.

j.me

Kitchen Ninja's little bit of green.

BEFORE: no arugula. AFTER: Arugula EVERYWHERE.

BEFORE: FEB NOW: MAY

LETTUCE! SPINACH! SNOW PEAS! ZUCCHINI! BUTTER LETTUCE! ARUGULA!CHIVES! and more tomatoes than i should have ever started back in feb. I got so excited after seeing j.me post a fantastic urban garden idea, that I had to post an update on my little garden out here in PDX.

L - R: chives, zucchini, butter lettuce, parsley. Front to Back: Heirloom tomatoes, cilantro,basil, strawberries and more heirlooms.

It may be small, but it's doing pretty well, and i've been having some pretty great salads since March. Hopefully the zucchini makes it, but they're looking pretty weak sauce.

It's totally a learning experience, and it's nice to know that my tiny piece of earth is a little greener.

~kitchen ninja

TIMBER!

Kitchen Ninja built a bench! Thanks to my Dad up in the gorge that supplied the scrap piece of wood and two logs. All I did was buy a box of nails, pick up a scrap piece of metal border material and slap it together. Below you can see the log, and the metal border stuff -I'm attaching it the back of the bench this evening. As you can see in my drawing at the top of this post, I plan with near engineer-like precision. down to the primroses and spiderwebs.

Just look at those little suckers! Heirloom tomato seedlings, hanging out in the sunny apartment, waiting for warmer temps so they can burst forth with weird and colorful tomatoes.

Below (from left to right) Snap Peas, Strawberries, Primroses, empty yellow pot (soon to be home of Basil), Thyme, BOTTOM: Red Lettuce and Spinach, Rocket and Butter crunch Lettuce.

THIS POST BROUGHT to YOU BY:

this awesome t-shirt from http://www.timberpreservationsociety.com/

and the Kitchen Ninja. She's got skills, Knife Skills.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Kitchen Ninja is ALSO a Garden Ninja. Surprise!

No surprise to most people who know me, I am the girl that trucked a tomato plant all the way from KS to GA *sorry Sarah* and a Ranunculus plant all the way from LA to Kansas *sorry The Call friends*.

so, this spring I started Roquette Arugula, Spinach, Butter Crunch Lettuce, and a mixture of red leaf lettuce seeds. Today, I planted them out in containers on my porch. yay for Sunshine! I've also got snow peas going (you can see those little suckers poking their heads out of the dirt in one of the pictures above). There's also zucchini, heirloom tomatoes, morning glorys, thyme, lavender, chives, brussel sprouts, and spring onions.

I'm a fan of using cardboard egg containers to start seeds, then just planting the seedlings in the "cup". It'll break down in the soil and it spares those tiny roots from any extra handling.

There's nothing more rewarding than growing these from seeds, and then eventually making my spaghetti sauce from them in August. It makes me want to sing "the circle of life". Yes, dear readers, Kitchen Ninja is a nerd.