Cooking enthusiasts should learn how to grow their own kitchen garden. There is a different kind of joy and satisfaction in having your own garden where you can have continuous supply of the freshest natural ingredients for your dishes. Some of the plants that you can choose are herbs which can be grown in small pots so you can bring them inside your kitchen. Place them in an area where they receive a good amount of sunlight in order for them to grow properly. Popular herbs include Dill and Rosemary. These are also commonly used as garnishes to top off a prepared dish. You can order their seeds online. While you’re at it, make some research on the other herbs that you can grow and which are easy to take care of. You don’t want herbs that require much of your attention and do not have much culinary values whatsoever. Tomatoes and peppers are also great addition to your garden. They are common ingredients to most dishes and can bring variety to your supply.
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After spading the bed a foot deep and mixing in well-rotted manure, I put a handful of sand in the hole before setting the bulb. After the first freeze, cover with a mulch of leaves or straw.
Why not try some Glory in the Snow? (Chionodoxa). Plant in masses, or drifts for best display of this sky-blue white hearted flower. Plant the bulb 3 inches deep, and 3 inches apart. Leave undisturbed for years.
For winter enjoyment you might grow hyacinths in glasses 5 or 6 inches tall and small enough for the bulb to set on top, and not fall into the glass. Fill the glass with soft water so as to nearly touch the base of the bulb. Place a piece of charcoal in each glass to keep the water sweet. Then put them in a cool dark place and keep them until roots almost touch the ‘bottom of the glass. Then give more heat and gradually expose to the light.
Tulips may be grown indoors too. In six-inch pots put a mixture of two-thirds clean garden soil, one-third leaf mold to which a little bone meal has been added. Plant six bulbs in a pot, cover with an inch of soil, and water thoroughly. Put pots in a cold frame, or bury them in the garden 8 to ten ,weeks to force root growth. Then bring pots indoors, first in a cool location, then to the living room.
After the Fuchsia is done blooming gradually withhold water. In mid-November shift to a large size pot, water thoroughly and prune back half way. Set it in the cellar watering about every two weeks. Soil mixture should be 2 parts of loam, one of leaf mold, one of sand and one part manure.
Both summer and fall blooming perennials may be divided in the fall. I prefer fall to spring because they are easier to move then. But spring bloomers are best divided in the spring.
An interesting fall blooming bulb is the Colchiurn or Meadow Saffron. The crocus-like blooms appear in September and October, without foliage. The foliage comes in spring, disappearing in June. The bulbs if kept indoors, will bloom without being in the earth or water. I have them doing just that now, one flower following another from the bulb. I will plant the bulbs in the ground in early November in the Rock Garden.
We think of a color being a characteristic of fall. We can add to Nature’s many colored trees and shrubs, by having shrubs and vines noted for their brilliant colored leaves and fruits planted in our gardens to brighten up in autumn, and we can enjoy them during the cool evenigs with the malibu lighting glowing. Some of these are Euonymus alatus, Oakleaf Hydrangea, Nadina Cesstrum elegans, Chokeberry (aroma) Japanese Barberry, Red Maple, Sourwood or Sorrel tree, Abelia, Coralberry, Sour Gum, Dogwood, Mountain ash, Rock crotoneaster. Birds love the berries, too.
After frost hang a few tomato plants in a dark cool room where the green tomatoes will ripen.
When we first moved into our new home, it was the dead of winter. When we bought our home there was also snow on the ground. As the days got warmer and spring began, I started to look forward to seeing what would pop out of the ground in our new garden. I was hoping for bright flowers and easy care perenials. What I got was just the opposite. I started to watch buds emerge from the ground, excited, only to find out that they were weeds, or even worse, invasive plants that had gotten out of control. I started to weed, and weed, and weed.
Every day I went out in the garden and removed (it seemed) hundreds of plants. Slowly, the garden began to resemble the garden of my dreams. Today, it is still a battle, and I remove many plants every day. I have however, planted some plants of my own choosing, and I am looking forward to seeing them grow next year. We’ve also installed a lovely wooden gazebo into our garden too.
It is definitely an investment in time, and I am paying with my own manual labour, but I know that next year when spring arrives and the first crocus pokes its head through the ground, I will feel overjoyed. I can’t wait!
