Amateur Gardening with Kirstin

June 10, 2007 - 11:30pm
Submitted by kirstin on June 10, 2007 - 11:30pm.

Last week at the Wednesday Farmers’ Market I bought some plants:
2 different parsley, 1 cilantro, 3 basil, rosemary, mini-gourds, jalapenos, catnip and peppermint. On Thursday a co-worker gave me 3 heirloom tomato plants, 1 cherry tomato and and eggplant. On Thursday I also picked up a free bag of coffee grounds compost from the Starbucks on the Square.

Saturday morning rolled around and I cooked a hearty breakfast before I started gardening. By 11am I was outside starting to plot how I’d plant everything.
Three and a half hours later EVERYTHING had been either planted and (re-planted) in the ground, or planted in pots.

It was a A LOT of work, a lot of digging, loosening top soil, spreading in some compost, some potting soil, and generally trying to plant things competently. I worried that by Sunday morning everything would be dead. So far everything except the cilantro has perked up and looks lively — especially the peppermint.

Wish me luck and I may have some fresh herbs and veggies to share in a couple months!

good luck

June 12, 2007 - 10:05am
Erin (not verified)

I grew cilantro in my window box indoors last year. It has a short life, so it’s almost not worth growing. I’m not sure if you can get it to re-seed itself so it will live through the summer. When I grew mine from seed, it took a long time to get big, then almost immediately bloomed, and even if I pinched off the blooms it seemed to just wither after blooming.

Maybe next year I can garden.

Jalapenos look sick

June 12, 2007 - 1:05pm
kirstin

I fear my jalapenos won’t last the week now. My extensive googling tells me that I need to get some sort of phosphorus fertilizer to perk them up and to stop watering them as much as everything else.

Aww.

June 15, 2007 - 2:38pm
Erin (not verified)

That’s too bad. I always thought those little jalepeno plants looked cute. I’ve never tried to grow one. I believe my parents were successful with bell peppers. I think they like SAND, and my parents have clay in their yard, although they’ve brought in a lot of stuff to try to remedy that.