Got a pineapple in the last grocery order. Gonna try my hand at making tepache w the rinds.
Gonna start growing a new plant w the top. Already have a 1:year old plant in a large planter that I started from a top last year. Figure I'll do 1 a year so that I'll have one maturing each year on a 3 year cycle. Bring them inside during the winter and during warm weather, they decorate the back deck.
Today's harvest of fresh dill from the balcony garden.
This is probably the 10th harvest I had and I'm going to use it to cook northern Iranian Baghala Ghatogh (chicken eggs, beans, garlic and dill stew).
Some people have bastardized it and using fawa beans instead, but I use the large white beans (insteadof pach-baghala used in Gilan province of Iran), soaking them in water overnight then peel them and cook them in oil for a few minutes before adding to the stew.
PS. I love the smell of fresh dill, it reminds me of my childhood and my mother's hands that smelled like fresh vegetables all the time.
I have cut back my purchase of bananas because they are not local and most brands are from questionable companies.
Went to our local shop and found a huge pack of "old bananas" at discount price. So I purchased them.
This gave me the opportunity to create banana juice for my plants. Cut the peels into small pieces, added water and let it sit for w days.
Going to use the water as #potassium boost for my plants and crush the peels in a high speed mixer with coffee grounds, egg shells and a small amount of baking soda to adjust the pH level to create my speed #compost mix.
It will go into the bottom of the container I'm preparing for a friend with cherry tomatoes. Hopefully she will be able to grow them as tall as I managed (3M+) and get a lot of #tomatoes from it.
Project Pineapple Watch continues. The baby pineapple has about finished blooming and is now beginning to grow a clump of green leaves out of the top of the fruit. I never knew they were so colorful in the early stages. We should have a ripe pineapple by summer!
This time is about 700g and going to freeze them while waiting for the next batch to grow (I have one more with parsley, one with #leek, #coriander, #mint, and #dill that are not producing as much. Each unit has 15 grow holes. One is almost empty. I am missing #taragon and I'm missing Iranian Shanbalileh (شَنبَلیله یا به فارسی دری شینبل (نام علمی: Trigonella foenum-graecum) ) to have all vegetables I need except to spinach that is not worth growing in small space that I have to be self sufficient in having all necessary vegetables for cooking different Iranian dishes.
This single Ikea unit has givene 5 batch of parsley since I started it and ther are no sign of decline as ww are getting closer to summer.
It has already paid off the initial cost I paid for it and from now on, it's all profit. Next it trying to setup the Mimi tower unit to grow them with solar powered water pumps and sunshine (no artificial LEDs for this trial.
Just need to buy some fertilizer because running low.
I'm looking for advice on preparing potting soil prior to planting. I know there are fungus and gnats that can cause issues that can be treated. What else should I be considering prior to planting? :ReplyOK:
My container-grown lettuce is doing nicely despite repeated freezes. Now if only I could convince the squirrels to stop digging in it. I swear, there are no acorns buried in there! 😆
One of the 3 hydroponic Kratky tomatoes I started a few months ago is doing really well and I missed the blooming period and was surprised to see the tomatoes growing in the back.
Not expecting much, I just did it because I gate seeing the balcony empty in the winter. I guess tomatoes like the climate of South of France more than I expected.
New hydroponic setup is in it's winter position. By the balcony door to get afternoon, evening sunshine and will add LEDs later.
The one on top is the small 7 holes unit that is growing spring onions and a midget tomato. The ones bellow are going to be herbs and possibly midget tomatoes.
My biggest jalapeno pepper plant had overgrown it's 5L pot and it was time to move it to a new pot.
But I'm on extreme low budget and not buying anything so decided to empty part of a 10L soil bag and replant the j#alapeno into it and added about 3L of #compost to it.
Placed it on the left side of the balcony where it gets a lot of evening sunshine and waiting for it to give me even more fruits.
Tried to sell it but no one is interested, so I am keeping it to see how big it gets. So far it's over 1m fall and about 50cm wide.
Earlier this year, I planted some spring onions between my strawberries to prevent them from getting attacked by bugs.
Surprisingly it worked well and now that the strawberries starting to fade. The spring onions are growing faster and I have already harvested 2 grocery stores size plants from another pot and have some 20 more growing.
Lost lot of of them in the aphids infestation that I didn't detect earlier, but I have more than enough for my personal use and enjoy having fresh leaves of them with my stews and sandwiches.
My first lavender bloom! I have two lavender plants that survived an entire year - another first - and one of them is blooming. The fragrance of the fresh flowers is quite delicate compared to the way the scent of the essential oil positively clobbers you.
I don't eat or even like Kale but when my plants bolted and grew some flowers, I kept them to save the seeds!
I honestly have no idea if I ever going to use them, but my stuburn mindset forced me to separate them and going to save them! Maybe I find someone who is interested in organic kale and can do a seed exchange with them!