Vertical Gardening!

Barnes and Noble had a fantastic coupon the other day, so I used it to buy "The Vertical Garden, from nature to the city" by Patrick Blanc. It is nearly 200 pages long and almost every page contains his art work.  And they really are functional ART.  "The Green Man" has been all around the world studying different types of plants and incorporating them into his designs.  This book is a well organized, all inclusive, encyclopedia of his vertical gardening thought process and designs.  I just flipped through and read a few pages, but it looks great!

Here is a link to his website:
http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/

I would like to do a vertical garden for my herbs. I saw it in a blog and I thought it was a fantastic idea!  Plus it will use up less counter space.   :)

Sick Days

I'm home sick (everyone in my department is sick now that the stress of school is over). So what do I do? Sleep, drink water, and buy a book ALL about CHILIES!
I'm super excited (how dorky)!  It gives the history, cultivation, processing, preservation and cooking with chilies-so literally everything. 
Here's a link:  
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ean=9781604691399

The book is by Dave DeWitt who is an expert on capsicums.  So far, I am really enjoying this book and suggest it if you really like cooking with chilies; I did a fair bit of research into finding a comprehensive guide on peppers.  I bought it because my boyfriend and I like to cook, and make most things from scratch.  We recently started making our own grilling rubs and wanted to know more about it.  You can download a preview of the book from Barnes and Noble to check it out and see if it's right for you too.  I bought the nook version and read it on my computer because I don't have the color nook.  Plus I use my computer to store all my recipes, so it's convenient for me.  But they also sell it in hardcover.  

Going to get better now!

Katie

Catch Up!

So I've been slacking on my blog, but now I have 10 min to play catch up! 

In the past month, I've cleaned up the garden, pruned the trees, and planted my garlic!  It takes me a while to do all this because of my back, but if I do little bits at a time, then it gets done.  :)  This is the first year I've planted garlic.  I decided to get a hard-neck variety since it grows better in colder climates.  It doesn't keep as long, but it will survive, which is the important part!  They were pretty big cloves, so I imagine I'll have some good sized bulbs come next August! 

I also found this website on pumpkin care! 
http://www.pumpkinnook.com/howto/vines.htm
And another!
http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/pumpkins/how-to-grow-huge-pumpkins-article10276.html

I was looking up how to prune the pumpkins so they don't take over my garden next year. 
So that's about it.  You're all caught up.  I'm getting through my semester.  I've survived this long, what's another 3 years for a phD?

Toodles!

Fall Begins

Yesterday my helper bee (my boyfriend) noticed one of the morning glory plants had a flower!  It is a huge blue one! I couldn't find my camera though (hopefully just buried in my room), so I didn't get a picture, but it was exciting!  After months of growing, FINALLY have a flower. 
I picked 6 more cucumbers, a few leaves of lettuce & another 1/2 lbs of beans.
I picked most of my tomatoes (all the big ones) off their vines and put them in paper bags to ripen.  I'm afraid frost will get them; but I did leave a bunch of the smaller ones on the vine in hopes that they will turn red if I give them another week. 
I have a few more jalapenos left and some bell peppers are growing!   I think it may frost before they are full grown though; but at least I know for next year that they will do well when planted at the proper time.
I also rotated my pumpkins so they won't rot on the bottoms.
And I have to get out our old sheets from the basement to cover the plants at night, just in case it does frost.  This way I can get a few more weeks out of them. 

Cheers!