Tag: Garden

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Gardening on the Patio

Container garden

I’ve been wanting to garden for awhile. While I still don’t have a full garden, I have started a little container garden. SciFi man kindly drilled some holes into the bottom of two aluminum tubs for drainage. We’ve had these tubs since we bought them to hold drinks at our wedding reception, and it’s good to finally give them a purpose again. We put them up on bricks, added a layer of pea gravel for addition drainage and topped them off with some good potting soil.

I planted “patio” tomatoes, which the tag informs me are good for container gardening, sweet basil (and one errant Genovese basil that snuck into my cart), and marigolds. I read somewhere that marigolds keep bugs away from tomatoes. Even if they don’t, they add a pretty splash of color. I chose to plant tomatoes and basil so that once the tomatoes ripen, I just need to add some fresh mozzarella and olive oil for a delicious caprese salad.

The marigolds are producing more flowers, the basil is getting tall, and the tomatoes are starting to show a few green “baby” tomatoes. All this growth makes me happy, since I don’t always have the greenest of thumbs. I think being extra careful about having proper drainage may be what’s making the difference.

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Recycling Onions

Green onions, sprouting.

Back in May, My Byrd House posted a tutorial about how to “recycle” those green onions that always seem to go bad in the fridge before you can use them. I know when I buy green onions, I always use a few and save the rest for “later,” which seems to come after the onions have become unusable. It’s frustrating to waste the onions, and frustrating to buy them when I know I’m only going to use three and the rest are going to go to waste. This tutorial solves both problems, and satisfies my hearts desire to garden. Basically, cut off the root ends on any onions you use (which you would probably be doing anyway) as well as the root ends of the onions you don’t use, and plant them. The onions don’t go to waste, and best of all, they make new onions! I planted a few last week, and already they are sprouting new green onions! I highly recommend you give this one a try.