May 2011
16 posts
7 tags
New Acquisitions
I was way upstate this weekend, sipping down 43 gallons of raspberry iced tea at Pizzeria Uno when my bro-inlaw just casually handed me this:
Like a fine watch, this baby has WEIGHT. And luckily it came just before I pulled the trigger on that fancy Dutch “hand shovel” I was talking about getting to pass onto my grandkids. He did note it was made in China, but I’m fairly sure...
8 tags
Underplanting: the Underpantsing of the Garden
Do you walk around with no underwear on? In this heat, are you serious?! If you do, you probably shouldn’t, or only do it when you’re in an extreme laundry emergency. And even then… you should have some Japanese disposal underwear on hand. The point is, you wear underpants, so should your plants. Underplanting is the underpantsing of the garden.
Where possible, underplant. Got some...
4 tags
Summer is Better Than Winter
8 tags
Salad Pickins
Get out the air horns and bottle rockets, I picked my first salad! It’s only May and I grew something to eat and picked it before something else ate it. Unfortunately, I ate a tuna fish sandwich right before picking so… these fresh greens are sitting in my fridge.
Taking advice from fellow BK garden aficionado CityStories, I thinned my greens, which basically involves yanking out extra...
5 tags
The Dutch Make Nice Trowels
Looking at my crappy garden tools fills me with a tinge of rage, nevermind when I’m actually trying to do something with them. Now, looking at tools I could have… fills me with great excitement; nerdy, unattractive, old lady gardener excitement.
After complaining about my trowel, I received a healthy amount of advice. Most of it was along the lines of “Hey dummy, don’t...
3 tags
Cloneboy says: You compost meat! You’re my hero! I’m not to keen on composting machines, but whatever works for you. And a note: coffee grounds are “greens.” They have a high nitrogen content. “Browns” = carbon, “Greens” = nitrogen. Thank you sir! My operation is a city rooftop so the size of the machine is better than a huge bin for me. Also I...
8 tags
The Green Mile
I’m still trying to figure out what to call the newly added row of sub-irrigated planters along the front fence. The Green Mile? SIP Row? Tomato Alley? Wicked corny.
Name or not, I know that in my vast three years of gardening I’ve never grown anything that looks this good so soon. Get a load of these beasts! I’ve already started pulling suckers off my tomatoes.
Though old...
In a strange twist of fate, it seems that the band...
6 tags
This Year's Bad Breath
You might remember a little experiment last fall where I split it up a head of garlic and planted the cloves; the idea being to simultaneously multiply my garlic supply and impress some chicks (my mom).
You might also remember that the fall was warm. Or maybe you don’t. Or maybe you should get some damn ginkgo biloba and pull it together in the memory department.
It was warm enough to...
6 tags
Very Close Inspection
Thirty percent of the activity up in Panthy’s Garden could be described as real work. The remaining… uh… seventy percent is mental debate, obsessing and very close inspection. As I get older and start muting the applause on game shows, I’m sure this will all be neatly categorized as “puttering.”
During this weekend’s close inspection I noticed what looked like...
3 tags
Shack Attack
It just so happened that on my way to the doc’s for a checkup I found myself in some weird flower and plant district on 28th street, bursting with huge palm trees, planters, flowers and bamboo thingies. Seriously though, who has room for these TREES? Ah New York, you got surprises everywhere.
What should’ve been a surprise but wasn’t, was that this little green zone was...
May 14 is World Naked Gardening Day, watch yourself around the rose bushes: http://www.wngd.org/
6 tags
Filing the 'Sturtiums
In my winter bathroom reading I discovered that nasturtiums are a very good thing to have around your vegetable garden, assuming you’ve decided to grow vegetables in the first place. If you didn’t, well maybe you should be spending your time doing something other than reading this dumb blog, like uh… growing something. Or finally watching the Wire.
Nasturtiums are flowers, but you...
7 tags
Shame On Me
Not too long ago, the front fence of Panthy’s Garden looked like one of those empty spaces at the beginning of some home improvement show.
The episode starts out with a sheepish, annoying couple complaining that they have all this great outdoor space and just haven’t gotten around to doing much with it. It’s obvious that the only one who uses it is their over-sized dog, who...
6 tags
My Trowel Sucks
There are disadvantages to city gardening, like having to shop at my local hardware store. Imagine the entire industrial output of China piled onto shelves 12 feet high and in no particular order. Where there should be hardware, there are only mountains of plastic things, a funny detergenty smell and a surplus of fake blue Crocs, barely worth their weight in off-gas. But still, this is where I...
6 tags
Confirmed and In Custody
If you were some kind of garden forensics expert you might take a look at this picture and know exactly what happened. Two fully completed SIPs and a third, only partially full of dirt sitting unplanted in the afternoon sun.
What the hell happened here? Wasn’t there supposed to be 12 of these things done and ready for planting? Wasn’t I going to be able to stop hearing about these...
