…water plants.
Years ago, I saw in an old issue of Martha Stewart Living pictures of water plants being grown in glass jars indoors. I loved the way these looked and decided to use this idea when we were planning Q’s nursery.
We had a bunch of old jars left over from our wedding decorations so I used these as containers. Using monofiliament tied in macrame knots, I then hung them from hooks in the window of Q’s room.
At first, I didn’t know where to get water plants so I just took clipping from plants that I had around the house. They would root in the water, and live for a little while before getting all goopy and gross with algae. I got recommendations from a few people who had ponds and they said to check out Hill Haven. This place is wonderful. The woman who worked there was extremely helpful and I ended up getting a number of different plants including Temple Plants, Taro (Black Magic), Parrots Feather, Water Lettuce, Duckweed, Azolla, and Salvinia.
-c.
We’ve been having a few days of fall-like temperatures around here, and it hit me how fast this summer went. The garden is still doing its thing and we still have green beans, soy beans, butternut squash, carrots and potatoes to harvest. There are some straggler tomatoes and peppers out there but those are about done. We’re thinking of trying to grow lettuce indoors during the winter. Anyone have any luck doing this?
Here are some photos of this year’s bounty:
-c.
This year we took a different approach with the bean trellis. Last year, we did this for our peas and lima beans. It worked well enough, but it was hard to get the stakes in the ground and the strings were a pain in the ass. So this year we decided to go with something more simple for our green beans and made teepees out of tree branches. It was hard to get a pictures where they didn’t just blend in with the surroundings, but I think you can get a good idea from this picture:
Andrew simply found some thin branches and cut them all roughly to the same height (about 6 feet) and we pushed them into the ground and tied them together at the top. The beans took to them wonderfully.
Unfortunately, last weekend storms wreaked havoc on our garden. We’ve had a lot of rain this season and up until this past weekend the garden has been holding up pretty well. But last Friday and Saturday proved to be too much to handle. Two days in a row of powerful winds toppled corn, bean trellis’, and tomato plants! I don’t think anything was seriously damaged, but it was a sad sight to see.
-c.
We’re hitting that time of year when the garden starts getting out of control. The bugs, the weeds, and the heat are in full force. It’s also about the time everyone realizes that they didn’t allow enough room for everything they planted to grow to their full potential. Gone are the days of neat and tidy beds. Mother nature laughs at our feeble attempts to keep her in check.
But with all that said, it’s also the time when the garden looks full of life! We have been harvesting salad greens for a good month or more now and we’re just about reaching the end of this batch. As the days grow longer and hotter, eventually the greens will get bitter and go to seed. Our greens are right on the verge of becoming inedible (some of them have already turned bitter) so we’re considering pulling them out and planting another round.
This was the lettuce around mid-June:
This is the lettuce now:
This year we planted a few rows of Mesclun but we weren’t too happy with it. Last year it was great, but I don’t know if we just planted and harvested it too late in the season or what. But there was something in the mix that got really bitter. Plus, there is arugula in the mix which normally we love. But it grows so much faster than the rest of the greens and gets tough and extremely peppery if left to grow too long. It can really make or break a salad. Next year I think we are just going to stick to the individual varieties instead of the mixes.
-c.