Sowing the first set of seeds.

Thai basil to the left, and sweet basil on the right

I paid a visit to Valley View Farms in search of Thai basil seeds.  I've also started sweet basil - the pesto I made last year has been such a great thing to have. I hope to make a whole bunch more this year. It occurs to me that I could probably have basil growing all year round in the kitchen. Yes, I think I will do this.

I was so excited when I also found a package of Cherokee purple tomato seeds. Last summer I bought a variety of heirloom tomatoes from the local farmer's market and these were hands down the best tasting tomatoes. I'm not sure if they grow well in containers - but I'll just have to try. Since my wish list for this year's garden keeps growing, I have looked into getting some space in a community garden. Apparently there is a waiting list for gardens in my neighborhood so unfortunately, this may not be an option.

I also picked up some lovely smelling mint. This winter I fell in love with mint tea, so I'm hoping I can make some of my own. I'm also planning to make some mojito this summer!

So far, I've started pak choi, romaine lettuce and swiss chard. I also plan to sow beets, sweet pea (need to get more seeds) and the radish that Granny sent me sometime this week.  It is great to be working with soil again - I had forgotten how fun gardening is!

Getting ready for garden 2012!

The weather is starting to get warm and Spring is fast approaching. It is time to start getting ready for balcony garden 2012! I got lazy after my last harvest last year and my balcony is in shambles. There is a lot of work to be done!

I need to pull all the old plants and replenish with new soil. I need a sieve to get rid of all the roots, but I haven't been able to find one anywhere. I could look online, but I think it might be quicker to make one.

The rope that was holding up the wind barrier cloth was not weather resistant and disintegrated. I read that nylon rope is UV resistant and is stronger than the poly-something-or-the-other rope I was using. Hopefully the nylon rope will keep the wind barrier up. Then I have to clean up the balcony overall.

I forgot to harvest one bok choy, but now I have pretty yellow flowers on the balcony.

There are also fun things to do like starting lettuce, snap peas, basil, and bok choy indoors. I might also pay a little visit to the local garden store:)

Versatile Blogger ^o^;;

Time flies!!! My balcony garden is pretty much dormant (amazingly I still have to pick some peppers!!). I am very happy with the productivity of my balcony garden. Early in my gardening/blogging adventure, Annie from Annie's kitchen garden was one of the first people to give me words of encouragement and share some seeds that she thought would do well in containers. I was so touched by her kindness and now...(well 2 months ago), she nominated me for the versatile blogger award!!!

I am very honored and humbled to be nominated by such an amazing gardener!

Now following the instructions, 7 random facts about me:

1. I am very surprised at how much I am enjoying the whole gardening experience.

2. I would like to live in San Francisco some day.

3. I speak 2 languages, English and Japanese, but I hope to learn Spanish and Chinese (I haven't decided Cantonese or Mandarin). They say if you are bilingual languages are easier to pick up...but if you learned to speak the 2 languages at a young age I don't think this rule applies.

4. I had been a perpetual student and got a "real" job 3 years ago, but now I am contemplating going back to school. I think the truth is, I just don't want to face becoming an adult with responsibilities.

5.  When I was little I wanted to own a bakery.

6.  I developed allergy to some fruits - apples, pears, peaches, plums. This saddens me. I can however, eat them in pies:)

7. I volunteer with CASA. It is inexcusable that there are children in this country (or any parts of the world for that matter) that do not have parents/guardian.

Now, I don't know 15 bloggers, but to name a few of my favorites:

My initial research started with Bucolic Bushwick. I got ideas about self-watering containers from her.

Diana from Kebun Malay-Kadazan Girls always has beautiful pictures of her harvest and cool recipe ideas for the various veggies she grows. She has something growing all year round. I hope to have a garden like that some day!

A fellow Maryland gardener. Wendy from Greenish Thumb has great recipe ideas. She frequently posts really cute picture of her daughters too:)

A blogger from Portland OR, Holly covers traveling as well as gardening at Tasty Travels. I wish I could travel more too!

I actually have been lagging behind in blogging. I need to catch up with all my favorite blogs! Thanks again, Annie, for the award!!

Monday Harvest - October 3, 2011

I was nominated for my first online award by Granny from Annie's Kitchen Garden!! I will comment soon, but for today I will like to post some pictures of my harvest from last week.
First I have a bunch of thyme to dry. Since it getting cold, I need to move some of the herbs inside.

I've got some bok choy, peppers and hot pepper.

The GIANT chinese pepper plant is still producing very cute small peppers.

And some lettuce. These lettuce are slightly bitter, but it also has slight hint of shiso flavor (the herb used to make picked plum).  I really like it!

I'm joining gardeners around the world for Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne!

Fall garden update

A quick update of the surviving plants @ charm city garden. I'm already thinking of next year's garden. The last ichiban eggplant. I'm letting it grow so that I can collect the seeds.

Red romaine is growing, one plant is starting to bolt. The lettuce itself is quite bitter but still pretty good.

Red Romaine Lettuce

I have 2 containers of bok choy. These are very good in stir fry. Next to the bok choy, I also have a container of romaine lettuce that I probably started too late because it is not growing very big.

Bok Choy and romaine lettuce (back)

Bok Choy

I have 2 containers of chinese kale...to be honest I don't know how big they are supposed to get. I should probably just harvest them and some point.

Two container of Chinese kale

The chinese pepper plant is getting bushy and still producing fruit.

Super bushy Chinese Giant pepper

Chinese pepper of varying size

The supersweet tomato still has many green tomatoes but I think it is too cold for it to ripen.

Both the jalapeno and thai pepper is starting to yellow but still has many peppers. The pickled peppers is so delicious! I definitely will make more pickled jalapeno with the remaining peppers. I'm not so sure what to do with all the thai peppers...

This plant fell over after the storm, so now is supported

The jalapeno is starting to turn red

Thai red pepper - so many peppers still!

Thai red pepper

Harvest Monday - September 12, 2011

The summer season has ended and the Fall vegetables are growing very nicely. I was able to harvest some (not so good looking) ichiban eggplants and a handful of lettuce and bok choi.

Ichiban Eggplant - scarred but delicious

Thai red pepper still producing many peppers

Pak choi used for stir fry

Red romaine for small side salad

Some more ichiban and a green homestead tomato

Linking to Daphne's Harvest Monday. It is so much fun to see what everyone is growing around the world!

cleaning up and fall crop

The summer garden is slowly coming to an end:( From the summer, the ichiban, thai pepper, jalapeno and chinese pepper plants are still producing some fruit. I bought a whole bunch of seeds for the Fall, but I realized cleaning up the container  is really very hard work!!  I wasn't able to completely recycle all the containers.  The ones that I did start are growing steadily. Here are some fall plants:

Red romaine lettuce

From left: swiss chard, bok choi, bok choi (with bug damage)

Chinese Kale

Fall Squash