The plant starters after just one week!

Heather is in California, so I am doing my best to raise these plants on my own for a few days. These are some photos of their growth from their first week of life.

This is their greenhouse home. It cost us about six dollars at home depot, but I'm sure it would be rather easy to construct. We used the little starter boxes that will just disintegrate when we put them in the ground. Notice that some of the leaves are already hitting the top of the greenhouse. I don't think their going to make it in there six weeks.
This is me admiring the plants.
This little forest is a side view of what is growing.
These plants are winning for the tallest of the bunch. They are cucumbers. Next in line is the lettuce, the watermelons and then the lettuce.
These front little guys are the roma tomatoes, and behind them are the cherry tomatoes.

I am going to be looking into buying a composting bin and starting our compost pile. I know where to buy one in Portland, but I'm not sure about here. Any leads?

Keep checking back and letting us know if there are things you would like to know about. We are compiling a list of things of questions we can research.

Plant Babies

Tonight Carl and I were driving home from the airport when I realized it was getting dark, and cold, and the little box of seeds was at home, on the back porch, alone. They were braving their first little bit of cold and darkness on their own and I felt so worried for their well being. 'We've got to get home quick!' I told Carl, 'Those seeds need us! I've got to get them inside!'

Since we still had a ways to drive, I started to think about my panic for the seeds, and I realized that I need to remember that although I feel very protective and responsible for the tiny plants I am helping give life to, they are plants. And plants are resilient little things. They would probably know just what to do in a little bit of cold. They've weathered the storms since the beginning of this earth, literally. They've never needed me to grow and produce, they do that quite well on their own. Actually, up to this point all I've done is put them in a bit of dirt, water them heartily once and check on them about 20 times a day. Perhaps my pride and obsession with the week old little greenhouse of seeds that are maturing into real plants as we speak is a bit juvenile or silly. But so far, this experience is teaching me not about how much plants need me to be sustained, but rather, how much I need plants, and the beautiful things of the earth to be sustained.

My advice, go out today and plant a little starter box, or a pot, or a put something in the dirt. If you do not have the necessary supplies, come over and I will give you some dirt, a pot and some seeds (I'm serious). I want to garden because I want to know where things come from. I want to connect back to this beautiful earth in some way more than just walking upon it. If you have a moment, come see our little budding plants. The cucumbers are opening their leaves, the lettuce is growing tall, the snow peas and onions and tomatoes are threatening to outgrow their week old home! Better yet, you don't need to see ours, you can have this same thing at your own house. There is so much joy in this simple process. Heather and I consider ourselves the most amateur of gardeners, and things are growing even for us! Now is the perfect time to get your starters going!

Vertical Gardens

How amazing are these vertical gardens? What a great idea if your in a pinch for space! Flora Grubb created them and they are just a dream! She sells kits at her shop in San Fransisco.



via A Cup of Jo

Grand Opening!

Dear New Readers,

WELCOME to our grand opening of Lemon Balm & Basil! We are so excited to show you all things gardening and everything we learn along our way.

We will be featuring recipes on how to use the vegetables in your garden, tips on growing better plants, how to distress those stark flower pots, giveaways, guest bloggers, and much, MUCH more!

We are just starting out, so as the years come and go this blog will be FILLED to the brim with wonderful knowledge. With that said, we invite you get get comfy, maybe comment and let us know you're here, follow us and subscribe to this feed so you don't miss anything exciting!

We're still working on the appearance of Lemon Balm & Basil, so please excuse our mess for now.

xo, Ash 'n Heath

flickr

Classic Basil Pesto

Whenever I grow basil I never know what to do with it because it grows so fast and grows so much! Here's a simple solution if you wanna use up some basil! You could double or triple the recipe and have a little pesto pasta party or something!

photo via My Recipes

recipe via My Recipes

Ingredients

1/2 cup basil leaves
4 large or 6 medium garlic cloves
1/3 cup shredded romano cheese
3 tablespoons pine nuts
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Preparation
Put basil in a mortar with garlic, romano cheese, pine nuts, parsley, and salt. Pound until smooth, then add olive oil and mix until smooth. Or, whirl all ingredients in a blender.

*If you have a garden recipe that you'd like to share, e-mail it to heathermildenstein(at)gmail(dot)com

We'd love to try it and post it!

How To Grow Wheatgrass

A few years ago I did a little experiment to see how fast wheatgrass grew. It's such a springy, simple plant that adds a lot to a home. So I went down to the nursery and bought a packet of seeds for $1.35. I carefully sowed them and documented their life for the past week. Their growth rate was phenomenal! The best part was that within just about four days I had a beautiful green thing in my kitchen, and it was so simple! See the benefits of wheatgrass below.




Wheatgrass is grown through a process known as sprouting. Sprouts are "complete foods" because they contain all other essential dietary nutrients, along with the enzymes to help assimilate them. They are easily digested and enter the bloodstream quickly. The nutrients in wheatgrass juice are completely assimilated by the human body in 20 minutes. For this reason sprouts are "quick energy" foods. Wheat sprouts contain four times more folic acid, and six times more Vitamin C, than unsprouted wheat or ordinary grass.

Wheatgrass juice benefits the blood cells, bones, glands, hair, kidneys, liver, muscles, spleen, teeth, and other body parts. Wheatgrass juice protects the lungs and blood from air and water pollution, cigarette smoke, toxins, and heavy metals.

Wheatgrass juice is a safe, effective, and an extremely potent aid to weight loss. It works by suppressing appetite, and by stimulating metabolism and circulation.

Wheatgrass is an energizer. The vitality obtained from wheatgrass juice is remarkable. Two ounces of fresh juice equals 3 pounds of organic vegetables in vitamins and minerals, or the equivalent of two cups of coffee. You’ll feel refreshed and energized throughout the day.

To learn how to make y our own wheatgrass juice, go here. All other info that I found is here.

Ladies & Gents, We Have Sprouts!

After about three days the lettuce started to sprout! So exciting! The cucumbers were next and then the onions. They are just time little things, but there as alive as you and I.

Since the lettuce has sprouted yesterday it's tripled in size. Ash and I keep looking at it as if it were one of our children.

lettuce, day 4

lettuce, day 4

onion, day 4

Starting The Starters

When we got home with the supplies we were so excited to get the seeds PLANTED! We put the soil in the starter boxes, put the seeds in the soil, and watered...naturally.

We also made sure to mark the top of the box so we knew where we put each seeds. We also made a chart and wrote it all down so when it's time to plant them we won't be guessing as to what things are.

Starting Up

On March 11th Ashley and I headed out to Home Depot to get our supplies. Here's what we got:

1- 50 starter boxes (the kind you can just plop in the ground when you're ready)
1- bag seed starting potting mix
All the seeds we wanted!

Location

We're renting, and luckily we have great landlords that let us plant gardens so we make due with what we have. Here are the spaces that we'll be planting in.

Obviously they aren't ready yet, but this gives an idea of what we'll be working with. The bottom photo, the one that looks like a junkyard is old stuff that past renters have piled and left (gross, I know). We'll be clearing that out and starting fresh in there soon!

approximately 8'x10'

approximately 8'x10'

Welcome Friends!

Thanks for stopping by! We are a cousin-cousin duo who just started seriously gardening for the first time. We created this blog to not only document our progress, successes and failures, but to also educate and support other beginning gardeners.