Window Sill Compost: Did it work?

my window sill compost

That's the question now, did my window sill compost project even work?!

Hard to say! To be honest, this was not an actual compost pile since it was not exposed to insects, heat, and moisture as a "normal" compost pile would be (remember I live in the city), so there was no real degradation that took place, outside of the drying of the ingredients.

Nevertheless, I assume that while it may have had different effects, that it had at least some sort of effect on my plants. What you see pictured above is the end result of the ingredients dried, crushed, and mixed together. I then mixed this in with the soil in each pot. If nothing else, this should have provided my soil with a lot of nitrogen, potassium, calcium, and other trace minerals.

Due to the construction project on my building, my vegetables are less than ideal this year, so it's really hard to say if the compost helped or not, but I like to think it did!

I just stumbled upon this article on Apartment Therapy about making an odorless "true" compost bin for indoors, something to consider for next year.

How about you - have you tried adding food scraps to your planters and had either success or regrets?

Exotic Plants: Grow your own tea!

So I was sitting at work in our canteen on break one evening with some colleagues, drinking the tea I always bring (whole-leaf green tea), and a friend who knew I had a balcony garden asked if my tea came from my balcony too! I at first chuckled, but after digging around on the internet some, I came to the conclusion: WHY THE HECK NOT?!

What I hadn't realized before was that green, white, oolong, and black teas all come from the same plant, that being the Camellia Sinensis! Who would have though! Wow! There are 2 varieties, the var. sinensis and var. assamica, one being broad-leaved and one narrow-leaved. What makes the different kinds/flavors of tea is how the leaves themselves are processed, basically the conditions and amount of time under which the leaves are dried and oxidized. Of course the region on which the plants are grown affects the flavor as well!

my Camellia Sinensis var. sinensis, about 1 foot tall

So after realizing how cool that would be to grow my own tea, I did some snooping around and found a company that ships tea plants. Wasn't sure how that was going to work out, but I figured it was worth a shot - was around 7€ ($10). It came all wrapped up with foliated cardboard and in a big box. All was well!

It's been several months now since it arrived, and it is still doing well! It's gotta lots of new leaves, too. I guess at some point I'm going to have to prune it back - fully grown it can get up to 3 yards tall, too high for my apartment!

some new leaves!

For now I'm keeping it indoors on the windowsill facing my balcony (southwest), which is fairly warm and dry, which it seems to like.

Of course I'm super anxious to make some tea, but I think I'd better just be patient and wait until the plant gets bigger :-)

leaf close-up

In the meantime, The Fragrant Leaf is a nice website that I found on the history of tea, how to best brew tea, tea customs and cultures, types of tea, etc.

At the International Garden Show, which I recently attended, I also bought some tea seeds! They're pretty big, look kinda like a hazelnut. Can't wait to see if I can get them to germinate and prosper as well! 

Update on water-/soilless kitchen growing...

So I decided to go with the flow after realizing that my kitchen is a great place to sprout aging vegetables! Guess it's the not-too-hot temps and shade that promote growth, but I wanted to share how things are looking as of today (they've been "maturing" for maybe about 2 weeks now):

coriander

coriander (close-up)

napa cabbage

napa cabbage (close-up)

onions

I love it! Who would have thought that the napa cabbage would started blooming at that size! There is some root growth, too, so with a transplant it might actually go somewhere. And then such pretty little yellow flowers on it! The way the flower shoot is growing kinda reminds me of agave plants, which also grow a huge flower shoot out like that. Memories of warm weather and sandy beaches!

Looks like only some of the coriander is really "taking" to its new container...I may try to plant it outside soon to get some more root development and (hopefully) more stems and bigger leaves. That would be awesome to actually get another harvest from these plants (which I bought from the produce section of the Asian market, by the way).

And last but not least, the onions! They are also doing very well. The bigger one is getting a bit yellow (gee, I wonder why!), so I may have to use it as a green onion soon before it wilts again. The upper one has a nice strong stalk!

So, just a little kitchen fun and experimenting! Happy weekend, everyone, and don't be afraid to have fun once in a while, too! :)

Windowsill Compost

...well, not *exactly*, but along those lines!

As it's finally warming up and the below-freezing temps at night are starting to subside (and are hopefully now old news), I've been preparing some homemade and recycled nutrients to mix into my soil in my pots and planters for this seasons garden! I'd mentioned wanting to do this in this previous post, in which you can also get some more info on soil and composting.

my window sill compose

As you can see, I laid out a paper towel to let the items dry on their own. My kitchen seems dry enough that the banana peel is not molding, just shriveling up. I also washed some egg shells, which I will crush up before adding to the soil. I also have some old loose tea leaves (left) and coffee grounds drying as well. Not pictured are some other vegetable scraps left over from cooking (and I've been cooking a lot of vegetables lately!) which I will also dry and add to the soil.

I'm not going to overload the planters with these items since I'm not yet sure how much they will decompose, attract insects, or more importantly smell once they're doing their work fertilizing my growing plants! I don't think my neighbors would approve of a garbage pit next to their balcony, ha! If things go well, I may add a bit more later in the season, or next year.

Excited to see if my vegetables grow even more healthily and productive this year!!

Happy V-Day!

Red Beet Heart Stamp

Happy Valentine's Day to all the vegetable lovers out there! And a Happy Vegetable Day to my readers, ha!

As you can see there, vegetables are not only edible put can be made into cute crafts, like this red beet heart stamp I made for the occasion of the day!

Just:

1. cut the beet approx. in half (depending how big you want the heart to be), then
2. carve a heart shape on the surface with the tip of a small knife, then
3. carve off the outer part from the skin to the heart cuts, allowing the extra to fall off so only the heart is left protruding
4. make sure to cut deep enough so that the heart sticks up far enough, otherwise you will get a ring around the heart when you stamp
5. just stamp the heart down on a piece of paper! if it gets too dry, dab with a few drops of water, or cut off a thin layer to get at the juice on the inside!
6. Enjoy and be creative!

Great for those who want to make their own personalized Valentine's Day cards, and even better if that special someone loves veggies as much as you do!

Have a great day and share the love!