apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I am most excited for my sugar snap peas, which currently boast the cutest, tiniest little peas.

I'm a first time gardner and I'm thrilled that my veggies are starting to come in - especially my orange bell peppers. It looks like I'm going to have a lot of peppers to eat and giveaway!

I have my first potted herb garden this year, and I've learned a bit already, but have some mysteries to figure out, too.

Most notably, I killed my oregano by picking up the pot to turn it (balance out the sun exposure), and ripped the roots out of the ground, that had grown straight through the pot to the ground underneath.

I have the pots set in a little bricked off over-grown garden area so my building's maintenance guy doesn't kill them with his riding lawnmower. I didn't think that the potted herbs would set root in the ground like that! Now I know :)

One mystery was my cilantro. It took off like a champ, but then I suppose I didn't use it quickly enough, and it went to flower so fast. Now, after trimming it back, I'm guessing it's just done? The italian parsley has been fine, bouncing back as I cut away what I use, and hasn't flowered yet. I figured those two would behave similarly...

Maybe next year I'll try out some potted veggies!

Emma, So random- I also grew some plants that look like your husked cherries (I call them poha or cape gooseberry plants-- perhaps they are the same?) but I am waiting anxiously for them to ripen since this is my first try.

My jalepenos have all bloomed but no fruit either.

I don't know about the rest of the country-- the rains here have really slowed the growth of my plants.

Our peppers are producing very happily, but our 5 potted tomato plants have produced tons of flowers which all die and drop off before pollinating - apparently the heat keeps them from setting properly? I don't know exactly, but it's making me very sad - the plants are huge and leafy, so they're happy in that respect, but I want me some tomatoes!
Our potted beans and cucumbers are working on leaves and blossoms, but aren't producing yet.

I have a potted garden because I'm working on landscaping my entire backyard, so I have 3 hot pepper plants, 3 bell peppers, 3 tomatoes, and 4 strawberries. I was so excited this week because one of my hot peppers finally turned to a sunset shade of red, and my romas are finally dark orange, and my early girl is finally moving from a camouflage-like green to yellow!

I am stoked to see my first garden growing up-I love the anticipation of waking up in the morning to water and seeing my lovely vegetables transform almost over night. Although, I'm worried about this unexpected 4 day trip to California, I hope they don't dehydrate!

Our peppers and tomatoes are starting to come out pretty well. Getting great basil and parsley for a few weeks now.

Unfortunately our cilantro, rosemary, and arugula aren't doing so hot, and we're having some beetle issues, grrrr. Thank goodness for the farmer's market!

tonight I was thrilled to have the neighbors over for a meal of baked potatoes with tons of sauted veggies... all of it (including herbs) from my garden.
I've started dehydrating herbs for putting up and within the month I'll be harvesting and canning tomatoes, pickles and other such goodies.
yum! I love summer!

My mother-in-law is growing a ground cherry plant that looks quite similar to those husk cherries. I wonder if they are the same?

They do sound delicious, and I'm very excited because this will be our first time trying them.

Our swiss chard is lovely and replenishes itself so quickly that with just about 10 plants we have all we need for weekly side dishes (and more for sandwiches). The herbs, alas, have all gone right to seed.

Last year we double-dug a small patch, planted 6 tomatoes and were picking about 10-20 per day. This year, we just put them into a regular bed and we've had one ripen so far. We have two more in the old bed that grew from seeds apparently dropped last summer. They are doing better than all of the store bought plants.

I have a balcony garden going that I've worked hard on and have been learning from trial and error. I started from seeds. The other day I discovered that I have baby roma tomatoes growing and the excitement was almost too much to handle!! Basil is doing well and the jalapenos are growing, but not doing much. My chives don't look too bad either. Failures: parsely looks bad and the sugar snap peas did not survive a freak heat wave that hit us in early June. I keep the progress recorded on flickr (here if you're interested: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chickpea981/sets/72157604576569012/ ) One day I'll do this right and not have any major failures. I long for the day that I have a small pot of land to plant in.

i'm growing some apple green eggplants, not sure how i'm going to cook with it!