I’m thinking of taking advantage of this end-of-summer sale at Chiasso to get a hanging planter for our dining room. At half their original price, this is a deal I thought I’d share.
Not all hanging pots are meant to be used inside, so I was most excited to find these planters are indoor-friendly. I’m hoping that means when I water the spider plant (now living in a small bowl) it won’t drip down onto our hardwood floors.
Image: Chiasso
Besides all of the edible treasures from today’s trip to the Midtown Farmers’ Market, we also took home a small group of succulent cuttings ($2.00). I thought I recognized the plant from my new (old) book, Plants for the Home, purchased at a thrift store for just $0.69. Of the succulents for sale, this was one of the few the woman selling them couldn’t identify. I told her I was pretty certain it was a Burro’s Tail (Sedum morganianum). She kindly wrapped it in newspaper so that the little guy would survive our bike ride home. After some looking around on the internets, I have decided this is most likely a Peperomia columella or Pearly Column and *not* a Sedum morganianum. I’m more than a little disappointed it’s not a Burro’s Tail, which is clearly more fun sounding… but it’s still pretty and will probably grow into long braids one day with proper care. Have you grown either in your home?
Last year Tom decided he’d like to start an herb garden on one of our window sills (After my agreement, this went into the grocery budget!). Living in a older brick building, we have the luxury of having large areas outside of every window on which to place planters. It’s true we have a northern exposure, but we have to be thankful for what we have, people. Since we had such a great summer of rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme, peppermint, and oregano in 2008, this year, we decided to continue the garden.
As in ’08, we headed for Mother Earth Gardens, where we originally purchased our window box and plants last year:
Luckily, tarragon is an perennial. It came back all on its own:
On May 3 we planted (or replanted, the case of the tarragon pictured above):
As of Wednesday, it will be 1 month since planting. I hope to be able to plot our herbs’ progress as the season goes on so that we can both have a record of their growth and share it with you. And, of course, expect to see [Tom's] entries on how we use the herbs in our kitchen.
Finally, I wanted to share a project from the weekend. Below are my newly acquired pots from my favorite Swedish store with extras from the work at Common Roots. We’re now officially out of soil, so I think this will be it for the season. Given that, I’m hoping these two bell peppers and a small crop of tomatillos will produce fruit. Tom, the doubter, isn’t sure we have the sun required. We’ll see. The first victory is that it is possible to water the plants *without* removing the screen (as long as the watering can is full enough).
