apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

While bad coleslaw is truly awful, the good stuff is to die for. There was a very tasty sounding one posted over at Confections of a Foodie Bride on Wednesday:

http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/

I love that someone just put out these plants for the taking, by the way. A great alternative to tossing them out--gives you the sense of a real neighborhood. In our new Chicago neighborhood, we just discovered a cool sharing device: At one of the busier corners, two former newspaper boxes have been converted to book and video exchange boxes. Having just moved, we've already unloaded some of each there.

Did you take a plant? What a wonderful surprise, to find a bunch of plants!

I'm still trying to figure out how to put a garden of sorts on my Brooklyn fire escape (so illegal, I know!). I want to grow herbs- parsley, thyme, cilantro as well as some dahlias. I know these can probably be grown on my windowsill as well, but there's something so appealing to me about them actually being in the wind and rain and sun.

This is so lovely! What a cool sign it made me laugh! Eliza I saw this thing on Craftster.org where people grew vegetables in hanging-upside-down recycled tin cans; they had tomatoes and everything. Or you could get an allotment? Rentable vegetable garden hurray! I've just got one and I love it!

Tin Angel,

by rentable do you mean a little plot somewhere? Unfortunately, I think my plants wouldn't get much attention if I had to go somewhere else to take care of it...

These tin cans sound very intriguing! maybe I'll poke around on craftster. Thanks!

Eliza--I would go for the thyme, definitely, but I would skip the parsley and cilantro. They're both relatively cheap to buy at the market, and they go all rangy in the garden--you wouldn't get much of a crop, I fear. Instead, think about growing rosemary and basil [both are relatively hardy, versatile, delicious and not cheap at the store].

I second Terry B's comment. Rosemary does really well indoors, especially if you have a southern exposure. Wonderful aroma and can grow to be quite large.

Forget coleslaw, if I had a garden full of cabbage it would be all about the homemade kimchi. I hadn't thought about growing cabbage at my new house. I only like to grow those vegetables (tomatoes and peas at the top of the list) that are infinitely better fresh than storebought. Is cabbage in that category? I don't think I've ever had it really fresh.

Eliza - I agree, thyme, rosemary, and basil - especially basil - are the herbs worth growing at home. Also, mint is indestructible (and good for container gardening, since it will consume a real garden). And it's so nice to have a sprig of fresh mint in your tea or lemonade or ginger ale or mojito or hot chocolate or ice cream or...

I second on the kimchee -- they are great pickled! And depending on the variety of the cabbage, the different textures can be quite interesting!