Are you planning big changes, or minor tweaks to a working system? Are there new-to-you plants you’re excited to try your hand at? Let’s share our dreams and goals and inspire each other!
Are you planning big changes, or minor tweaks to a working system? Are there new-to-you plants you’re excited to try your hand at? Let’s share our dreams and goals and inspire each other!
What herbs are you planting? I have been focusing on herbs, especially perennials and self seeding annuals. I know I will never be able to grow enough vegetables to feed my household but I can get enough herbs for all my teas, salves, seasoning for a year at some point I think.
Not entirely sure yet. I’m going to go for some things I tend to wish I had fresh when I’m buying them for cooking, like thyme and sage. Maybe oregano and basil too but I think I might use too much of that to grow it myself. My balcony can only hold so many plants 😅
Herbs for teas are a great use. Do you have suggestions? My cousin gave me some homegrown lemon verbeina a couple years back and I loved that so maybe I should try growing some of my own.
Both Thyme and Sage are cold tolerant perennials so good to grow even on a balcony. We have thyme in a portion of our yard which grows like crazy. I made some infused vinegar and thyme tincture with it.
Last summer we started buying basil plants from the grocery store instead of basil leaves because it’s the same price. We had two in rotation until we stripped one bare and then replaced it. We put the bare one in the ground in our garden which did regrow a little by fall. So I would do that for Basil because you really go through it for dishes.
I did lemon verbena which grew great. I got tons of it by harvesting it every few weeks to dry. I did the same with catnip (which humans can also drink btw), mint and lemongrass. Really most of those should work in a pot. Really whatever you like to drink. We won’t ever grow enough mint to fulfill our needs so we buy dried in bulk but for the rest we got enough for the year I think
There’s tons of ways to properly compost! What kind of setup are you considering?
Something small 😅.
I currently just have an actual bin with a ton of mulch that I put my dead plants in and give it a little water sometimes. Has been working fairly well for a couple years now.
I know there’s ‘proper’ ways to compost but I never really got into it because it feels like overkill for the amount of compost I actually use (there’s already basically a never ending supply).
Any suggestions for a small setup?
We have a few small welded wire rings, roughly 3 feet in diameter and 4 feet high, that we use around the bird yard. That’s about the minimum size to get the piles to heat to the point of being able to kill off most seeds that make it in there, and it’s a simple thing to lift the ring and move it over so the pile can be turned. You could make it smaller if you’re not too concerned with volunteer plants sprouting. I know a few folks who will line the inside with landscape felt (not the plastic stuff) to have less material fall through the gaps in the wire and make them look a little cleaner, if that’s something you’re interested in.