Category Archives: le jardin

This week, le jardin got moved off of the bench in the living room and out onto the patio.

I never thought this day would come.  Except for when I did.

Can we all just take a moment to give thanks for another year where I planted things on finished wood that we can’t rip out and managed to avoid ruining it?

Amen.

Some people might prefer to harden-off their plants over a progression of days.

My beef with that concept:

• I have no desire to wrangle plants in and out-of-doors on a daily basis.  This would be akin to having a pet.  There is a reason we don’t have…a pet.
• I don’t want to pay that much attention to the weather.  Is it freezing?  Is it not going to be freezing?

Or we could just distill that into I don’t care that much.

So, rather, I waited until I was feeling very certain that we would not be seeing a frost again.

And now that I’ve typed that, we will probably have a frost which requires me to bring my tiny patio-Eden indoors once more.

But anyway, I brought the plants outside and so naturally, instead of worrying about cool(er) temperatures, my plants got to play Sahara in the mid-80′s.

They are now growing sideways.  And none of them are pointing in the same direction (AKA towards the sun).

I just don’t think this is how it is supposed to work.

What is your spring weather like?  Tropical or tropical?

Gardeners: Do you move your plants in and out-of-doors as the weather warms up?

How it’s possible to transition from beer drinking/touring to gardening, I’m not sure.

So let’s all take a moment to watch some paint dry, shall we?

The Genovese and Lettuce Leaf Basils continue to flourish.

They promise to Perform and cover themselves in glory in the same way that last year’s Basil was a spectacular.

On the other side of the coin, the Purple Basil seems deadly uninterested in doing anything that would bear a resemblance to productivity.

Where the other Basils sport four leaves, it only shows-off two.

Like, how hard is it to grow when you’re a plant?  I mean, honestly.  I give it water, I give it sunlight and then it’s supposed to uphold its end of the bargain and give growing a shot.  You know, since it’s a natural biological process.

In the interim, I don’t even know how to deal with the sage.  Like, what does the end-result of sage even look like?

Are you not as perplexed as I am?  Because I do not get where this is going.

After doing a bit of Googling I’m mildly alarmed, because it looks like it might flower ferociously OR grow into a bush.

Like last year’s rainforest-style tomato debacle, I am NOT equipped to handle bush-growing.

Pray for me, kittens.

Have you ever planted anything, not knowing what the end result will turn out like?

What is your favorite use of Basil?  Margherita Pizza? Caprese Salad?  Bruschetta?  Pesto?  We may as well get the idea mill turning now, since obviously I’m going to need to address the issue at some point.

Since Minnesota got hit with a decent string of storms on Sunday, I decided to take a snap of the flowering tree before Heavy Rains and Hail had the chance to batter the blossoms, leaving my driveway littered with petals.

And in the spirit of acknowledging that Climate Change is happening, (as if the 100+ tornadoes that the string of storms dropped across The Plains over the weekend weren’t enough of an indicator), I thought I would take a look to see when, exactly, it was that we were blooming last year.

Answer: May 17th.

I bet it’s nothing.

So, Le Jardin managed it in its seedling nursery-state until Thursday evening.

At which point, after realizing that I had plants with roots that were growing out of their starter-pods, I felt the urge to re-plant immediately.

Strike while the iron is hot, right?

They seem quite happy in their new home.  From left to right: Genovese Basil, Lettuce Leaf Basil, Sage, Purple Basil.

En ce moment, I’m a little bit concerned that the Purple Basil could be this year’s Cilantro-Parsley-Tarragon.  But we won’t really know until June or July, will we?

The next step is digging out the plastic, 2 liter beer pitcher that I stashed in the garage with the rest of our gardening supplies last fall.

Who needs a real watering can?  I mean, honestly.

Do you have any flowering trees in your yard?

Over the past week or so, things have really started progressing where Le Jardin is concerned.

The Sage sprouted and absolutely shot up like a weed (seriously, it’s beating The Basil) and I realized that I needed to cull my seedlings.

High drama, I know.

So I did that, and was left with a predictable end-result.

The culling continued for the remainder of the week as a post-breakfast ritual until I was satisfied that (most) all of the pods were down to one seedling.

As of today (this picture was taken on Saturday), I think we’re finally there.

It’s a process, kittens.  I mean, you wouldn’t want to rip the stronger seedling out, would you?  And how can you really tell when your plants are all of 2″ high and their miniature leaves all look vaguely the same?

Suddenly I’m transported to a future where my planters are filled with tiny, limp, thin-stemmed Basil plants.

I want nothing to do with it.

This is what you get for scattering the seeds all over the place without any regard to the 1-2 Seeds Per Pod-rule.

Lesson learned.

When you see instructions on a package do you follow them, or try winging it first?

And don’t forget, Salad Week is happening!  Allison @ Decadent Philistines Save the World will be hosting our Link-Up on Saturday morning and in the meantime, make sure to visit these lovely ladies’ blogs to see what’s happening in their kitchen!

I’ve spent a large portion of my day swathed in compression tights.

Did I mention how amazing those things are?  Because in our house they have thoroughly earned the title of Wonder Pants.  This afternoon I had to talk myself out of leaving the house and visiting public places (like a friend’s surprise party) in them.

Self-control.  I have it.

But tights are not the topic of discussion today.

It has been a week since I planted Le Jardin 2012.  Yes, that means that I posted about the planting a few days after it actually happened.  This is how things on the internet go sometimes.

Since I didn’t dedicate quite as much effort as I should have to counting out the correct number of seeds per-pellet and burying them, I was a little bit nervous that the whole situation was going to be a bust.

Mais, non.

Yes, we’re still waiting on the Sage, but the rest of it seems to be growing with ferocious determination.

Once things start sprouting, it’s “okay” to take the lid off, but I’ve found that letting it sit for another week or so is just fine.  If nothing else, it will help the sage along and allow me to ignore the fact that plants need water for a few more days.

My next project will be to figure out where I want to place herbs/flowers on our deck/front step.  Obviously we all know where the Basil will do its best.  But we have a few different hooks, etc. that I would like to be able to fill with something lovely this year.

Gardeners: How are your sprouts coming along?

What sort of flowers are good for full (and/or partial) sun boxes/hanging baskets/planters?

Let’s talk cause and effect, kay?

This weekend was just gorgeous, weather-wise.  So on Sunday, while we were at Lowe’s, I picked up the following.

Naturally last night, Mother Nature decided to do this.

Message received.  Winter is still alive and well in Minnesota.

Apparently we’re in some sort of weather loop where it’s essentially going to snow-monsoon on us for the next few days.  We got 5 inches last night and are projecting something insane like 14 inches by Saturday.

Oh, Lord have mercy.

But back to the cause.  As I realized last weekend, we are just a little over a month out from realizing le jardin once again.

When I had that revelation, I was simultaneously astonished and amused.

Astonished because apparently there is now a voice inside me that knows when it’s coming time to plant.  I know.  I KNOW.  And amused because when I took a whack at this for the first time in 2010, it seemed like this grand experiment.

I guess it still is in some ways.

We only have a few planters.  It’s an operation with some major limitations.

What I have learned: Until we have a yard with raised beds, we will NOT be planting Tomatoes.  Because I can’t turn the entire window seat into a veritable jungle again.  Also, the light we have for whatever reason is not conducive to Cilantro, Parsley, Tarragon or Oregano.  It feels so good to plant them, but they never really do…anything.

Noted.

What we will be planting: Sweet Basil, Genovese Basil, Purple Basil, Sage and Mint.  Because broad-leafed and full-sun are the word.  I have yet to find Mint seeds.  And I can count the number of times we’ve cooked with Sage on one hand.

But I just feel like there has to be some potential there, right?  I suppose we’ll have our answer by mid-July.

In the meantime, I need to focus our efforts on using up the pesto cubes and sundried tomatoes that we put up last fall.

Gardeners: What are you going to plant this year?

Feasters: What are your favorite herbs?