Gardening seems tough to me because I get bogged down in too many details. Part of this, I blame on Food Not Lawns — a great book, but one that sort of pushes gardening to its limit.
Basically, the book recommends trying to get all your stuff without buying anything: Instead of buying starter plants and seeds at Home Depot or wherever, get seeds and clippings from other gardeners. Instead of spending money on gardening equipment, hunt down pots and other materials second hand. Instead of buying fertilizer, make your own compost. Etc. etc.
All excellent advice, but combined together, I get so overwhelmed I have a tough time getting started.
Luckily, Jenn and Nat — with their own flourishing edible garden — helped me out. I left their place armed not just with fresh lettuce and swiss chard to eat, but also a couple mint clippings and some buckets for growing things in.
Apparently, you can just clip a piece of a mint plant off, then after nipping off some of the bottom leaves, plant the stem and watch the mint regenerate. This seems v. magical to me — When I got home I poked the clippings into pots and watered them.
So far, they are not looking so promising (see left). They are looking rather wilted and sad, in fact. However, I stil have hope they’ll perk up –
Then today I picked up a basil plant (top pic) and a tomato plant (right) at the farmers’ market, for $3 each. I got home and repotted them. These’re looking quite fresh and lovely! However, they came that way; they have not been under my black thumb for very long –
The tomato went into one of the buckets I got from Jenn and Nat — which means I have one bucket left. I was thinking of throwing some potatoes in there with dirt and seeing what happens, mainly because I have a couple old potatoes I forgot to eat that’ve now pretty much become house plants….
Your new plants look beautiful!
I kill plants all the time, but every time I start over, I do better and better. I think I’m in the “if at first you don’t succeed…” school of gardening over here.
I figure buying a potted plant costs about as much as buying a single package of herbs or a meal’s worth of tomatoes, and has the potential to yield much more food. It’s my version of buying lottery tickets, I think.
Comment by Jill — June 9, 2007 @ 7:39 pm
hehe… I first started my herb garden in my old apartment for the purpose of mojito’s too!
I’ve since moved and now have slightly more room to play with but I still have a pot full of herbs in the kitchen, it’s fantastic. Fresh herbs beat the dried stuff any day.
Gardening is a lot of fun once you get started. (though I have to admit my back yard is looking slightly neglected when it comes to the veges!)
Cheers,
Robbie.
Comment by Robbie M — June 9, 2007 @ 9:56 pm
Propagating plants from cuttings can be hit and miss. Some plants will sprout roots without any additional prodding, but using rooting hormone improves your chances.
Comment by Brian — June 9, 2007 @ 11:22 pm
Thanks for the encouragement! The mint status: status quo. I’ve watered them again and hope for better luck –
Robbie M — I used some fresh basil in my lunch — V. yummy. Herbs are so expensive at the grocery store, so it def. makes sense to grow those if you’re gonna grow anything at all — provided you don’t kill ‘em too often :P
Jill — I’ll try to take the lottery ticket perspective instead of getting so disappointed :)
Brian — rooting hormone? The phrase itself stresses me out — I have no idea what that is!
Comment by Siel — June 10, 2007 @ 1:04 pm
Hey! I totally support the gardening effort with the mint and basil, its a great idea especially during summer! Luckily mint is actually one of those plants that once you get going will grow FOREVER and ENDLESSLY, so make sure to keep it in its own section of a garden if you move it out of the pot. The basil should be great for the summer and will continue to grow with the right attention, best of luck!
Comment by Colleen — June 11, 2007 @ 6:11 am
Hey Siel! Don’t stress on the mint–it’s pretty vigorous and will firm up in a few days. Don’t water it more than 3 times a week! If it dies, we’ll bring you some more and we’ll try again! Beautiful thing, gardening is…
Comment by Nat — June 11, 2007 @ 8:14 pm