Impatiens

You totally thought I spelled that title wrong, didn't you? ha.

Earlier this week, I had 3(!!) days off in a row, and I took advantage of the time to complete a little home project I'd been contemplating. Here at Chez Sweets, our back balcony is doing just fine, thankyouverymuch, but I wanted to spruce up our boringly generic front door. The biggest challenge to finding something to grow there is the approximately 20 minutes (seriously) of direct sun that spot gets, at least in the summer. When the giant, shady tree loses its leaves in the fall, there will be significantly more light, and I already have some mums planned. But I digress.

I did a little research, hit the garden center, found nothing on my list, but then saw and remembered about Impatiens. ah ha! I remember these guys! They love the shade. So I picked some in a pretty color, forgetting about the brick red door mat we have, and found some pretty planters at Marshall's (yes, I had a good week).

Garden Update

Happy Monday! I wanted to show of my little garden today. Look how far it's come! The picture on the left is from March 12, and the one on the right is from today. I'd say things are going pretty well. I recently added the wooden box (actually a free wine crate) and planted some sweet pea seeds. They're for flowers, not for food. I'm hoping for a small mass of sweet smelling beauties. 

My peppers are flowering, and my tomatoes are working on being productive. One tomato has even turned red. Speaking of my Instagram photos, I've got a side project going. I'm trying to take a photo and post it every. single. day. So follow shortandsweets on Instagram to keep up, or visit my online gallery.

The puppies love the sunshine and taking advantage of the sun-warmed floor. Unfortunately, they also like to take advantage of having a view to bark at.

How was your weekend? Ours was pretty low key: homemade pizza, errands, reading, and planning a long weekend for later this summer. Do you have any vacations coming up? (perhaps over Memorial Day weekend?)

Tin Cans as Planters & Garden Update

Left: this guy is winning so far with 3 baby tomatoes
Right: We ate salad greens I grew for dinner last night, and there's still more for tonight. win!

Happy Monday! It's an exceptionally happy one here because not only is it a beautiful day and I don't have to go in to work, but also a new cousin came into the world. Huzzah! Mom and baby are doing well, and I've even seen an adorable video in which she (the baby) yawns. Tough couple hours so far.

As you can see, our container garden, salad greens, and tomatoes are all thriving. All the sun lately has been great for them! We even are starting to get flowers on our pepper plants. You can really see a difference from three weeks ago.

These chic planters were once cans of tomatoes I used for sauce. All I did was spray paint them with some white Rustoleum (I checked when I got it for the tomato planters that it works on both metal and plastic), create some drainage holes in the bottom with a hammer and nail, add soil and seedlings, et voila! Almost-practically-free planters. I should note that this nail photo is from the first one I made. But by the second I figured out that I should make the nail holes first, then spray paint the can including the bottom to prevent rust. Pictured are nasturium and rosemary plants. As new cans become available, I'd love to have a few other herbs as well.

How was your weekend? Any exciting news or projects?

Garden Update

Today I've got a quick update about my garden to share. I took these photos on Friday morning, and already I can see a big difference between now and when I started these containers, tomatoes, and salad greens.

I'm so proud of my little spinach! The baby romaine seeds are starting to pop up too, but they're still too small to photograph well.

And, look! There's even a baby tomato already. I can't wait until a) it's edible and b) it has lots of edible siblings.

I hope that if you celebrated Passover or Easter (or even a birthday) this weekend, you had a good one. I got everything I wished for, and today I fly back to the west coast, Mr Official Taster, the puppies, and reality. How's your week ahead looking?

Grow Green Onions on Your Windowsill

This is the easiest DIY ever. 

1. Buy green onions for cooking something tasty, like these.

2. Use green parts for recipe. 

3. Stick the remaining onion in a glass of water somewhere sunny or bright.

4. Change the water every few days and add more onion as you use your original purchase up.

5. The ones in the glass will grow big and strong. Cut off pieces as needed. The onions will keep regrowing.

That's it. I started these at the beginning of March, and they are going strong. The new shoots taste just as good as the originals and didn't cost me anything. I suppose eventually they will run out of steam, but by then I will have certainly gotten my money's worth!

Planting Tomatoes in Buckets

The second unconventional planter I'm using on our balcony this summer is the humble 5-gallon bucket. I purchased two varieties of tomato plants that are container specific- two "Better Bush" and one "Patio." I picked up three buckets to plant them in, each for under $3. Since they were bright orange and advertisey, I also got some white spray paint to make them a little prettier. Later, I learned that Home Depot also sells plain white 5-gallon buckets for $1 more. Next time.

I spray painted the buckets in several nice and even and thin coats and drilled drainage holes in the bottom. Then I simply filled them with layers of potting soil and compost (our city gives it away free. If your municipality picks up compost along with trash and recycling, they may have a similar program) and planted my baby plants.

Et voila, three tomato plants that will hopefully produce some summertime deliciousness, and planters that are reusable and cost way less moolah than pots specifically sold as planters.

How's your garden looking?

Growing Spinach and Lettuce in an Upcycled Storage Container

When Mr Official Taster and I created our balcony container garden last week, I also wanted to figure out an efficient way of growing some spinach and salad greens. It didn't make sense to grow them in regular, deep planters because they don't need that much space or soil. As we walked through the hardware store, I mentioned to Mr OT that a kiddie pool would be a good solution, except that we don't have room for something that big. As I chatted with a nice guy about paint, Mr OT wandered off and returned a few minutes later with a plastic under-the-bed container.

It's shallow and even has wheels. He has some good ideas.

I drilled holes all over the bottom for drainage and added dirt. I chose spinach and baby romaine seeds and planted one row of each. I marked each row with pieces of different colored straws. My plan is to plant a new row of each seed type every couple weeks so that we will have waves of salad greens rather than a bumper crop all at once. Hopefully, we'll be able to eat our own lettuce for most of the summer and maybe even into the fall. 

Obviously, I don't know how well this will work yet, but I will keep you updated.

Have you gotten the spring planting bug? What have you started?

Creating a Small Space Balcony Container Garden

I mentioned on Tuesday that Mr Official Taster and I created a little balcony garden for ourselves over the weekend. We wanted it to be simple, efficient, and not cost and arm and a leg. I'm happy to say that we succeeded. (Roomba was impossible to keep out of this photo, sorry. She was way too interested in a) staying in the warm sun b) all the new smells and c) all the new tastes. she loves eating dirt. sigh)

We basically created a staircase out of planks of wood and cinderblocks. There are three steps. The lowest is set on top of sideways cinderblocks and the middle step is set on top of vertical cinderblocks. The third and highest shelf is set on top of "legs" made of three cinderblocks stacked sideways. Each step has three supports - one on each end and one in the middle. So for those of you counting at home, that's 15 total cinderblocks. Each plank is 4 ft long and 1 ft wide. We got everything at Home Depot, and those folks are nice and will cut wood for customers, so we picked a 12 foot long piece of wood and had them cut it in three pieces. That's it. We have a good sized balcony on our apartment, so this tight configuration means we still have room for more plants (tomatoes coming soon!) and for sitting outside and enjoying it all.

Have you caught the Spring Fever bug? What are you doing about it?



psst: I also started some spinach seeds- see how here

Succulent Boxes

Longtime readers may remember my little succulent container gardens. Some of those were crying out for new homes, and Official Taster and I wanted to condense our plants and pots. In a joint project, we created wine box planters. It turns out that some of Costco's wine comes in wood boxes and customers are welcome to take the empties home. Perfect! After adding L brackets as added support, Official Taster added dirt, I wiggled all the plants free from their former homes, and he planted them in their new digs. (ha!)
I'm really happy with how they turned out, and I love that the boxes were free and a reuse. I think wine boxes would also work great with herbs, bulbs, mums, etc. You could even set potted plants in them.

Vertical Garden

Over the past few months, the landscaping outside of my apartment has been torn out and replaced. Unfortunately, this included taking out a couple of big trees that provided wonderful shade from the morning sun. This was especially key in the hot, intensely sunny summer months. Curtains help, but I know that blocking the sun before it hits the glass is crucial to keeping the apartment cool. As I previously mentioned, I had a grand vertical garden plan that I started seeds for awhile back. Today I'm showing you what I did and how easily you can do it. Read on!

Spring is coming! Seeds and more

Last night and today I got my seeds started! I have a grand vertical garden plan, so hopefully these babies will sprout and grow strong and not too big. The lavender seeds I talked about in this post didn't do anything. nada. I'm not blaming the seeds (yet), but instead the fact that the day I planted them kicked off 8 days of rain. So they didn't get sun. This is my theory. I just started some more, and hopefully they will sprout. Then I can make yummy things like Lavender Extract. mmmm sounds yummy. (if it works, some of you can probably anticipate Christmas presents). On a related note, if you love gardens and gardening, check out Nadia Knows Gardens for a pretty and informative blog by my classmate.
This lovely Ranunculus was $1 this weekend and I couldn't resist! This area is somewhat known for them, mostly because of The Flower Fields, which are gorgeous in the springtime. You should visit if you get a chance!

And, finally, on a side note, I am very interested in trying out this recipe from Martha Stewart. It looks and sounds scrumptious!

Planning Ahead

it does happen sometimes.

I just planted my lavender seeds that I got. I figured out last week that I wanted to bake some things with flowers in them for flavoring and color and overall coolness. To bake with flowers, they really need to be organic since I don't think most people (myself included) would want to eat miracle-gro or pesticides. In a handy coincidence, I got a rose plant for Christmas that's waking up on the patio in a planter full of organic soil. Regular garden stores (or super stores) don't sell lavender seeds, I discovered, just plants that are definitely not organic. So I went online and found "French Perfume" seeds at Shepherd Seeds as suggested by a helpful garden center guy. They are sitting in their organic soil on my kitchen windowsill. Hopefully waking up from hibernation soon!