Wintery activities & Houseplant care

It's been a hard winter here so far. Lots of snow, cold and rain that lead to flooding. I'm eagerly waiting for the sight of daffodils, Crocuses, and other early spring flowers to create color in this dreary landscape. 

Of course, through this winter, it's important to provide your houseplants a lot of plant care. I don't know about you, my houseplants tell me that they hate being inside and they hate the winter. 😄 Often it feels like I'm just keeping them in survival mode during the winter months. It's hard to get enough sunlight and humidity, so you have to improvise. 

For instance, you can imitate a jungle atmosphere for them in a well lit bathroom and create a steamy shower for them. Plants during this time don't necessarily need fertilize, but depending on the type of needa your plants have, they may need a particular nutrient. 🪴 Fertilize plants with a homemade mixture of food scraps that contain the particular nutrient that thr plant is deficient in. Right now, I have some plants that are looking quite sad! Sometimes a little bit of Epsom salt if the plant needs magnesium, or a little banana water if it needs potassium. 🍌 

The houseplants here, draceanas, have dead and dying leaves. So I fertilized them with a mixture I made of chopped up banana peels and water that soaked overnight. I'm hopeful that will snap them out of their funk.

Be sure to provide as much light during the day as possible for these plants during winter, even if they naturally grow in shady areas in the wild.

One of the lime trees bloomed, and I kept it fertilized and watered as well as kept the humidifier around the lime trees; but unfortunately, the blooms fell off and don't look like they're growing any fruits. I hand pollinated the Lime blooms as Limes are self pollinating, but that didn't seem to help either. I've never grown them before, so I didn't know that their flowers are thick, sappy and fragrant. 

Steam from Humidifier around lime trees

Other wintery activities to keep the wintery blues at bay is making Sauerkraut or kimchi. Cabbage is a winter crop, and fermenting cabbage is one of the most common way to preserve it in mant cultures. I like Sauerkraut but I LOVE Kimchi, a spicy version of Sauerkraut. I made several of kimchi that I'd fermenting well in the fridge. I recommend waiting 3 weeks before eating, buy of course of you're really craving it- it will be fine to est in 3 days. 

The kimchi making process is fun and long. Normally takes a whole day to do a couple of jars or a big ceramic pot. It is so worth making your own. It tastes great with green onion pancakes, ramen, and any korean  

Because many of us are going through the wintery blues right now, I'll show you my cactus that made sure to bloom this fall before it got even colder. It was a fantastic flush of fuscia colored petals. I wasn't able to show you all this Fall, so here are a couple of snapshots.

Also this winter, I perused the local flea market, and just so happen to stumble upon this propagated Philodendron waiting for a new home! Live plants aren't common at this flea market, so it was a treat to see some green outside of my own home.

The weather here is in another wave of snow and cold, but I hope it means it'd coming to an end and warm weather is near. In fact, before the flooding event here, we had a decent warm day, so after work I took my cats to the creek and we walked around to admire the creek and pick up rocks. Keep trying to push through and enjoy the days as you can. We will see the beautiful flowers soon!

Bat flying above along the creek

Take in the beauty of it all...that's all we can do.

Winter into Spring (flowers, food, & future garden tasks)

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

First, I wanted to blog a bit and give you the goings-on. In February, Ash and I went took a day to celebrate our birthdays. We first went to an escape room, I ate Vietnamese food afterwards (Ashley was informed about the cilantro so she didn't eat!) We stopped in to the Asian market attached to the restaurant, as well. We found banana blossoms, Jackfruit, durian, and mushrooms. 

A couple weeks later, I visited my bff, we went to an Indian restaurant first. I had the vegan Bhindi Masala (okra over rice), and a samosa with chutney and a passion fruit mocktail. Afterwards, we went to an arcade bar and met up with our family-friend.

Next, I wanted to show you the beautiful bouquet of flowers I received and gifted on The V Day. I later dried the flower petals and used them as decor and potpourri.

February and March here start to have really warm amongst the cold, so I tried to enjoy some sun and warmth. Here, I went on an hour walk by the creek with my cats, enjoying the oxytocin of the rushing creek. 

Here are some of my snapshots of food this past February and March.

The first shot is fried spinach over a sweet potato. That's been my  favorite recipe as of late. I like to also garnish it with a balsamic agave glaze and chili flake oil. 

I also tried this weird tasting food called Dolma. I liked it at first, but it got kind of sickening after eating them by themselves. 

Here is a variety salad with orzo, garden green beans, chickpeas, vegan feta over greens with a homemade dressing. I think the dressing is so mix of vinegars, mustard, agave, and olive oil.

Ive also been eating on the kimchi I made last month. I'm about to finish my first jar of kimchi. I made it with Nappa cabbage, Carrot, radish, pear, homemade vegan fishy sauce based on Joanne Molinaro's recipe (Korean Vegan.) 

Batch of vegan kimchi

The vegan fishy sauce was made with a reduction of soy sauce, various vinegars, dried shittake mushroom, fresh garlic and onion, as well as Kelp powder. 

Vegan fishy sauce

And one of my favorite meals in the winter and spring is kimchi with Fried Kale over rice. After a thorough cleaning, I fry the kale with olive oil, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and then garnish with chili flake oil.

Lastly, I wanted to highlight the blooming flowers in the garden, and showcase the blooming fruit trees. The pear trees, nectarines, peach, cherries, and plum tree are blooming. I notices the blueberry bushes are too. 

Alberta Peach Trees and Nectarine flowers, intertwining branches

Nectarine

Plum tree blooming

The Keiffer pear trees blooming

Kieffer pear

Kieffer pear blooming

Kieffer pears, with white blossoms

I am actively cleaning up the orchard, as I have neglected it for the last 3 years or more. The reason for the neglect is that life has happened, but still, the trees and bushes continues to fruit and produce.

I sometimes wonder if plants need moments where they get a bit wild, let them go wild and then tame them when their ready. 

Maybe plants are like people.  

There are so many briars growing around the blueberry bushes that it's going to take months cleaning it. I am going to much and compost around the trees and bushes while I'm cutting back invasive plants. That'll help Jumpstart everything. 

I am letting my garden at my grandparents yard get wild again. Let it rest. And try to grow a garden back on my mom's yard where I have let it rest. I'm not sure how much gardening I'll get done, I'm working too much and going back for my Master's degree, so time for thr garden is sometimes impossible-- practicularly because I have to drive 30 minutes to get to both of my gardens, and you really need to be able to watch everyday for pests, water retention, freezes, and everything! 

But, I'll still encourage you to grow in containers at your apartment if you're in a similar situation like me! You can definitely grow fruit and veg in small containers and be perfectly satisfied at the abundance, even in an apartment garden.