apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Italian Basil and Rosemary

I don't just have a black thumb, I have a--I don't know-- a black hole thumb. My stuff doesn't just die, it dies spectacularly. I keep trying though. I started a tabletop herb garden. The cilantro, sage and basil are doing fine, but the dill and thyme died right away. Oh well.

I'd really like to grow some grape tomatoes in a container in our patio. Any advice?

i really want to do basil, parsley, and cilantro this year on my windowsill. maybe some cat grass. gardenias. lavender. mmmm.

oh CaseyB...I feel for you. I have a similarly black-hole thumb. Amongst my victims: the three plants I got for housewarming gifts (a bad omen?) and countless herb gardens. Sigh.

If it makes you feel any better, Michelle, I promptly killed the orchid my boyfriend gave me for Valentine's. Oops. Hope THAT'S not an omen!

I do a container garden on the porch-- just yesterday planted from seed radishes, peas, lettuce and spinach plus some poppies. I'll do some peppers when the weather warms up, and some herbs which I'll buy from the farmer's market.

I'm planning on a few containers of herbs, and want to try alfalfa sprouts but haven't had luck finding the seeds around town.

Faith - My boyfriend bought me an orchid for V-Day as well. When he took it out of the backseat of the car, he snapped off all the blooms. He was really upset. :( But I have noticed that is growing again. You never know. If you still have green leaves, your orchid could rise from the dead.

you should look into the square foot garden method. i can't do it as i'm in the city with a landlord that won't allow anything on the roof, but everyone else should! i wish i could grow all my own vegetables. a friend of mine does it at his home in the country and has had great success!

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

oh and not to dodge the actual question here - i have several herbs growing in my apt and want to try to grow a variety of lettuces also.

I just have a balcony, so I always do tomatoes and herbs and a few flowers. I've started my morning glory seeds already since they take awhile to get going.

My available "gardening" space is laughably small. I went to the farmer's market on Saturday with my daughter and we picked out a little mint plant and a small chive plant. Now the trick is to keep them alive (tough when she keeps demanding mint leaves to eat). This weekend I will attempt repotting, maybe with her help. God this is going to be a mess.

Everyone says you can't kill mint and you can't kill chives. I can, people. I most certainly can.

i have a basil plant on my indoor windowsill. i really, really want to garden, but live in the city with no green space of my own.

http://threadtrace.wordpress.com/

all kinds of garden plans!

at the community garden: collards, chard, and various herbs wintered over; lettuce, arugula, radishes, cilantro, and poppies planted; baby daikons, baby turnips, japanese peppers, and okra seedings currently sprouting at home for transplanting; will buy tomatoes (heirlooms of some kind?) and other annuals at brooklyn botanic garden sale soon. oh, and purple beans and persian cuke seeds will go in sometime soon.

at home: morning glories, moon flowers, and red cypress vine seedlings sprouting to put in the window; a very determined mint plant i still haven't killed, despite letting it dry to the point of brittleness over and over again....

I'm glad to hear you're starting some gardening posts soon. I've got my seedlings ready to go and I've prepared my garden bed. http://keithandanita.blogspot.com/

I have: poppies, peonies, dahlias, foxglove, coneflower, mallow, roses, lysimachia, trees, lillies, english cucumber, lemon cucs, edamame, zucchini, cherry and heirloom tomatoes, arugula, brussel sprouts, basil, cilantro, parsley, oregano, bell peppers, chili peppers, onions, garlic, eggplant, watermelon, cantelope, corn, strawberries...

For those of you who think you have a black thumb, maybe try something different. Herbs can be finicky to start from seed and nursery started plants need to be nurtured by changing the pot, adding more soil, provide ample lighting and keep the soil most but not soaking wet. Store bought plants tend to be really "root bound" and need some sprucing up which is why it doesn't do so well once you take it home. Organicgardening.com has a lot of information that is helpful.

Happy Gardening!

This season will be my third with a backyard vegetable garden. I've already started my tomatoes, peppers (sweet and hot), eggplant, broccoli, kale, parsley, basil,sage, hyssop, and some marigolds and zinnias. Pea seeds went into the ground last weekend. I'm also going to sow carrots, beets, radishes, chard, turnip, cukes and beans

This is one of my favourite times of year! My perennial herbs, tarragon, thyme, oregano, chives, mint, start to grow. I miss my garden so much in the winter.

I am going to plant a small hydrangea bush in a pot (with help from my dad), some tomatoes, and some flowers in the window boxes on my balcony.

CaseyB, I'm with you -- but am not giving up. I'm growing an assortment of herbs, as well as some cuttings. My SO is chipping in as well, although I don't know yet if that's a help or hindrance. He's not the encouraging sort.

This is our first year in our first house with our first garden. We have big plans: 200 square feet in raised beds is already in, with another 200 or so going in before mid May. That does not include the pumpkin/winter squash and melon mounds, or the berry patch. What am I doing on apartment therapy anyway?

I wanted to start my seedlings by now but I haven't. Last year I had a lot of success with the Burpee seed starter kit, but now everyone's sold out of the soil cubes! Does anyone have advice for the right mix of soil for seed starting so I can just do it myself?

I've got plans for zucchini, some herbs, possibly beans and tomatoes.

I have a pretty large deck for a city-dweller, but I have never gotten any plants to survive up there. Constant sun and wind create a pretty hostile enviroment, not to mention the killer three flights of stairs I have to haul everything up.

But this year is different. I successfully petitioned the association to allow me to put up a fence, which I hope will provide wind protection and some shade. I am working with a nursery to pick drought-resistant plants (but hopefully a pot of basil will make it up there, too).

I'm with the black thumb group...
I have successfully killed everything I have ever planted or have received already planted.

This year, I thought I would try to start my garden with seeds in little peat cylinders like the ones in the Flikr photo above. Some of them grew; some of them didn't. Two were ready to be potted last week, so I carefully planted them in a self-watering pot, in Miracle Gro for Gardens potting soil, covered the soil with a thick layer of mulch and watered thoroughly. It rained over the weekend and I watered on days that it didn't rain. Yesterday when I went to water them, they were dead. Dead as doornails. Arrrgh!

We have a pretty massive indoor collection of house plants and herbs on every windowsill, but we're moving soon, and hoping to find a place with at least a little balcony where we can grow some tomatoes...I really really miss having a garden!

I came home and the cilantro was dead. Argh.

Maybe we need two gardening sections--one for the green thumbs, and Death Watch 2008 for those of us who just know our little greenies are not going to make it. Points for every day it ain't dead! 10 points if you actually harvest ANYTHING!

I'm giving myself 10 points right now. I snipped a chive and scrambled it in an egg. Ha!

If you want to start seeds, IMO, you don't start them in soil. If you are doing herbs, wet a papertowel and sprinkle the herbs inside, fold the papertowel so that the seeds are spreadout, not overlapping. Put papertowel in ziploc bag and put bag in sun. In about a week, the seeds will begin to germinate. I put them in the soil then. I have done it this way for 3 years now and I have had great results.

A friend told me once that if you put a seed (of a small plant or herb) in a large pot straight off the seed goes into shock and may not germinate properly. Don't know if that is true, but I still do the papertowel thing and it works for me.

Good luck!

Sprinkle the seeds inside, not the herbs -- sorry :)

wwoolsey, that sounds really interesting, I'm going to try that.

Atm, I have lettuces, various herbs (and garlic), red cabbage and strawberries all doing OK - except the corriander (which I think is cilantro) which I've never had much joy with either...

@wwoolsey:
Good idea! We always sprouted seeds that way in elementary school when we studied plants, but I thought it was just so we could see them better. I'll try it that way next time. Thanks!

I live in a basement apartment that won't allow me to make a garden (no porch either), so this year I went to the library trustees in my town and asked if I could do a large garden behind the library. They agreed and I have as much space as I could possibly want!
I get first dibs on any yield and then the remainder will be displayed for anyone who can use. I got the Story Time program involved and they planted lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, two kinds of peppers, peas, chives, dill, basil and like 5 other types of herbs and veggies (can't remember anything else). We ended up with so many seedlings that we're giving the 'extras' away!
I'm very excited about finally being able to garden, and it's going to be great for the people in town who normally wouldn't be able to afford this kind of fresh. I've also gotten several volunteers, including some kids from the high school, to help!

Muffinator--I am very impressed with your initiative! I hope you and your community enjoy your garden.

I have moved into a new house and have a small existing garden. I am having a hard time deciding what I will plant--I will definitely have basil, oregano, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce. We will see what else fits. I would love to have some strawberries too.

Basil, chives, oregano, flat leaf and curly parsley. I have 4 mini pots of basil doing well and only 3 chives. The rest either sprouted and died on our super-hot weekend a couple of weekends ago or never sprouted (the mini parsley pots).
Also did organic lettuces and organic mesculun. Some of those are sprouting. I am semi-into the black hole, but I am going to try the ziploc/papertowel method with the herbs tonight.

That Death Watch 2008 cracks me up! How many points do I get?