More Garden Envy with Bonus Potting Soil Update

My brother-in-law in Ahmednagar, India used loads of potted plants to create a sort of a screen on his veranda--I love how it looks, and I want to do the same thing outside of my screened porch this summer.  I'm going to put up a bunch of hooks and plant lots of trailing vines and flowers to make it feel open but like we're surrounded with green, and also give us a bit more privacy.  I'm also wondering if I can channel the 70s and learn how to macrame hanging pot holders for my regular indoor plants, so I don't have to buy too many annuals.

As a side note, all of these pots, which seems to be growing beautifully, are planted with regular garden soil, not potting soil.

Blog Update

Blogging stalled out completely during the end of semester crush of grading that always happens.  Then there was all the Christmas shit that has to be dealt with, and the day after Christmas I got on a plane and came to India.  Blogging will recommence when I get back in a few days and recover from the jet lag, I swear!  I've got some awesome pictures of gardens in India that I can't wait to write about.

What the Hell Happened to My Basil?

One member of my household, who shall remain nameless, is a pesto nazi--nothing but fresh and homemade will do, and if we don't have it at least three times a month he feels hideously neglected.  In the winter, our basil bills add up, so I came up with the brilliant plan of getting a light shelf and keeping my plants going indoors.  From a distance it looks maybe ok, but up close you can see it's a total disaster.

In an effort to maximize my success, I brought one healthy (or seemingly healthy) plant indoors in early fall, took cuttings from two other healthy-seeming plants, and sowed some seeds.

I'm getting nowhere.  It's partly my fault.  My seeds sprouted, but I got busy at work and they dried up, no doubt screaming in pain.  My cuttings are just languishing, and my formerly healthy plant is has about three green leaves at any given time.

I think it may have something to do with the temperature indoors, which peaks at 67, and goes down to 57 at night.  I put a heat mat under my plants but I don't think it provides enough warmth.  I may have to try putting some plastic around my shelves, to try to create a slightly warmer microclimate that suits basil a bit better.

Garden Envy

We went to visit friends in Milwaukee and I was really impressed with this espaliered persimmon tree.  It's a beautiful addition to a garage wall, and might even produce something edible one day.  Like all other gardeners, L. couldn't accept a compliment, and told us all about crappy this is, since it was her first attempt to espalier something.  Apparently, if you use the candelabra shape you shouldn't have a thick central leader, and there are a few bumps where she left the pruning a bit too late.  However, since I'm not a card-carrying member of the espalier-nazis, a notorious organization whose mission is to provide devastating critiques of innocent gardeners' attempts to train trees into attractive and space-saving shapes, I thought it looked very nice.  I'm tempted to try this on the shittiest part of my yard, although I'm not sure it gets enough sun for a fruit tree.

I'm also really jealous of L.'s bamboo.

I want to get one, but bamboo plants are pretty expensive and I'm afraid it will die.  Milwaukee is just a bit more temperate than Madison.  There are a few varieties that supposedly will survive our winters, such as Rubro and Nuda, but I have my doubts (some sellers list them for zone 6, making me skeptical of other sellers who optimistically claim they'll make it in zone 5).  Rubro and Nuda are also spreading rather than clumping--my preference is for a clumping bamboo.  I really hate to plant anything that can be described as an aggressive spreader.  That so often ends in disaster.

So, to recap, I can't plant bamboo because I'm afraid it will either take over my block or freeze to death.

Conventional Wisdom and Potting Soil

My in-laws were visiting from India last summer and watched in amusement as I emptied bag after bag of potting soil into my various containers.  In America, someone said, even the dirt comes in a plastic bag.  I don't think it was a compliment.

However, it did make me think.  It's Gardening 101 that you must use a good container mix for pots for root growth and development, but maybe next year I'll experiment and see what happens if I fill a few containers with regular garden soil and a little compost.  Will it really be an unmitigated disaster?  Have we sold our souls to the potting mix cartels?  I have to say though that I bought really cheap potting soil once and it was really dense and awful and everything I planted in it just languished.  Maybe I'll just see if I can buy potting soil in compostable bags.

Institutional Landscaping of the Damned, A Continuing Series (Part 2)

I suppose I should give them points for trying, but these are just about the most depressing containers I've ever seen.  I'm not crazy about red geraniums (people have this dreadful tendency to combine them patriotically with those bluish and white petunias around the 4th of July), but this is awful.  It's hard to even blame the smokers for tossing their butts on the ground here.  It hardly affects the aesthetic at all.

It's so tempting to liberate these planters in the dead of night to prevent another atrocity in the spring--plus, those half barrels are really pricy and would look so much nicer in my garden!

Breaking News: Brussels Sprouts Not a Total Disaster

So, I've harvested two batches of sprouts.  The first batch I roasted in the oven with just olive oil, salt, and pepper, and they came out quite well.

Yesterday--yes, I actually harvested something from the garden on Thanksgiving, it was quite satisfying--I added garlic and a handful of grapes, which were supposed to break down and help caramelize the sprouts.  It didn't totally work; I think you have to halve the grapes, and the sprouts got a bit overdone because I was also making gravy and blanching broccoli, and I really am incapable of doing more than one thing at a time.  However, I think there's potential here.  Next year I might plant a few more seedlings so that we can have Brussels Sprouts more than twice, although they take up a lot of room for a pretty small yield.  Maybe I need to stake them as they grow also--my sprouts were all twisted and hunchbacked, which they never are in the store.