Monday, June 23, 2008

Apartment Gardening Part II

I've been meaning to write this post for a week now. Life gets a bit crazy sometimes. With work, kids, plasma donation, applying for foodstamps (yes, sadly, it has come to that), and trying to dig myself out of the pile of laundry and dishes and toys, I hardly have time to post anything! But my kids are sleeping and the housework is waiting for a few minutes so I can sit and write about my flowers.


I planted petunias in April and have been anxiously waiting for them to bloom. I 've been watering and watching them grow (I would have been weeding, but they are in planter boxes). We went out of town over the weekend. When we left on Friday, there were two small blossoms on them. I gave them extra water so they wouldn't dry out during our trip. When we got home, I was happily greeted by this sight!:

Hooray! Finally, I have blossoms! This photo is a bit dark because it was late when we got home, but I just had to take pictures. These are my biggest success in my garden. My carrots were coming along nicely until my 3-year-old picked and ate all but 2 of them. It was partly my fault, though. I had him help my thin them last week, and we ate the little ones that we pulled. I told him not to pull any without Mommy's help, but the next day when I came home from work, Hubby said to him, "Tell Mommy what you did." He smiled and said, "I ate your carrots, Mommy!" He got in a lot of trouble for that. Here is a photo of the ones we pulled while thinning.


My cilantro was actually quite successful, but it didn't last long. It is now going to seed, which I guess I'd better harvest. Though I've never used coriander in cooking, I'm sure I can learn how. My tomatoes both died; one due to frost, and the other I think may have drowned. My parsley suffered the same fate as my carrots.


Here are some more photos of my pretty petunias!










7 comments:

Leslie said...

I'm no good at gardening. All of our stuff usually dies. Any tips would be nice!!

Laura said...

Good for you! Keep at it. That's too bad about your tomatoes. And as for the carrots, well, we have a strawberry patch in our yard but I've never tasted any because the kids eat them first. Same goes for peas and about half our tomatoes. They always leave plenty of zuchini for me though!

Heathie said...

Those petunias look great. The photos are really artsy; especially the one on the bottom right; it's kind of an eye trip.
We have some strawberries on our plants this year (they're actually red now!). I was thinking we'd have to get Westley over here to eat some; I'm afraid they'll be sour, but I know he likes 'em that way! :)

HeatherK said...

I love the use of one vibrant colour against the white railing. You have inspired my apartment living. Oh, but wait. I don't have a balcony. I'm sure the cat would find another use for indoor window boxes.

Me said...

I laughed when I read "I ate your carrots mommy!" I can just picture Westley,s cute voice and the smile on his face as he said it.

Queen of the Castle said...

Coriander (the seeds from cilantro) are used quite extensively in Indian Food! Yum! It adds a sort of spicy lemony flavor. VERY different from the cilantro leaves. I like spices a lot. I've got recipes. MMMM I miss my herbs.

Jamie said...

We hope to get some planter boxes for our deck soon so that we can plant herbs, flowers and maybe some vegetables. The petunias look great, Lura!

It's been my experience that cilantro always bolts to seed pretty quick, no matter what I do. But it's good while it lasts.