Early Summer apartment garden

In Mid-May I planted germinated seeds of grape tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, lavendar and basil. Slowly, as different plants thrived, I transplanted them into bigger pots from their recycled containers. As you saw from my last post, these containers were used to act as a mini greenhouse. Because they were in their own greenhouse containers, within the standing greenhouse at night, they survived fantastic through the late Spring nights. 

 

The eggplant here was transplanted about a week ago into bigger pots. They are growing and I have transplanted more eggplants with some basil. 

Transplanted eggplants 🍆 

Eggplant growing a week later after transplanting, and some just transplanted days ago

Growing eggplant and basil together

Lime fruits growing in a pot in
Gardening Zone 6, first year 

Houseplant & Apartment garden

Some of the houseplants and veg

Many of the veggies seen in the main garden here were from plants I started from seed on my small apartment porch. 

Tomatoes growing around the old tree

Coxcombs and tomatoes in the flower garden

I also snapped a picture of the veggie garden with cucumbers 🥒 beans 🫘 squash/zucchini, tomatoes 🍅 peppers🫑& pumpkins 🎃 I snapped these pics even after weeding and watering the plants! I swear there's vegetable plants in there, but it is hard to tell! 😄 

These are pictures of the flower garden within a month span. The begonias, inpatients and tomatoes really flourished here. And obviously, some decor was moved around! 

May 31, 2025 flower garden

July 4, 2025 

I've been pretty diligent about keeping the veggies weeded and watered. We have had extreme temperatures in our region with what feels like weeks of 100 degree Temps. Despite that, the garden has remained unphased by the heat as this garden is very shady. 

While i believe the veggies frim my garden will at least take another month to grow for harvest, at least a coworker gave me a bounty of vegetables from their garden. With the cucumbers, I have been making tomato and Cucumber salads. With the yellow squash I have made squash pancakes. I grated the yellow quash, and then seasoned with salt, black pepper, onion, and garlic powder; then, I mixed a potato starch paste with water (used Energ egf replacer), and all purpose flour ti get to the right consistency for frying. Fry with a little oil for about 4 minutes on each side, should be good. 

Yellow squash pancakes

Remember to take a break from work, and enjoy the outdoors with loved ones and friends! Be safe from ticks! There's a lot of ticks this year in our area, a lot of people getting sick and getting Lymes disease. 

Eat delicious food and listen to music...

Grilled vegan burger, vegan cheese,
fried onions, & lettuce.

Me and Ash at my cousins wedding,
Enjoying the scenery 

Grill corn on the cob

Grilled tofu, peppers, tomatoes &
Onion with Avocado 

Of course on these hot days, it's always nice to enjoy a rocky creepy to splash in.

Video screenshot of me tubing down the roaring creek

Like I said, be careful this year outside. There's a lot of people in my area with lymes disease and getting sick from tick bites as well as bacterial infections from lakes. Take all precautions, but have fun and enjoy your precious time on this earth. I'm feeling emotional lately, because this year I have been around a lot of friends and coworkers that's loved ones have died. I don't know if it's because I'm older now, but I feel like I know more people that are dead or dying. 

Keep well and safe, my garden friends...

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.