garden | kimberly ah

Aug 02 2013

gardening, home is a 1970s apartment, homemaking, summer manifesto

The Summer Balcony

The balcony is in full summer mode right now. Everything is blooming like crazy, even my old geraniums! (They started blooming in mid-June and have been going strong ever since!) And, I’m happy to report that it’s August 2nd and ALL of my plants are not just alive, they are thriving! I think this is only partly due to the fact that I’ve been diligent about watering, but mostly due to the mild weather and the fact that I picked pretty easy going plants this year.

In the spring, Naoto and I relocated the bird feeder to the north end of the balcony. We also decided to stop filling it during the summer. The birds can find plenty of food in nature right now, and the birdseed makes such a mess on the balcony and blows into my flower pots, starting weeds in my flowers. We’re happy to fill it up again in the winter to feed the birds when they need it most and (more importantly) to give Presley back her birdwatching pastime. Once we created more room, I made a little conversation area on the south end of the balcony. It’s hard to work with the space, since it’s only five feet wide. There’s not much room for walking (as you can tell by the fact that the chairs are soooo close together!) It’s not perfect, but it’s fine for small gatherings. We’ve had our neighbor friends over quite often lately and it’s been wonderful to take advantage of the mild summer nights out there. On the north side, we have our little bistro table and the “potting area” (the pile of pots in the corner). In the morning, this area is nicely shaded for early morning letter writing, reading and crafting. (You know…the things I should be doing instead of watching the TODAY show!)

I’m a little nervous that August is going to be sweltering since we’ve had such a perfectly mild summer so far, but for now, I’m just going to try to soak up as many hours as I can outside.

Tagged decorating, garden, gardening, home, home improvement, homemaking, summer

Aug 01 2013

4 Comments

gardening, homemaking, Simple Summer Suppers, summer manifesto

Simple Summer Suppers: Homegrown Panzanella

Tuesday I was watching the TODAY Show (Don’t judge…it’s a sickness, I know.) and Giada was whipping up a dish with bread and tomatoes and artichokes and vinegar and basil–panzanella! I could not stop thinking about it. So I decided, eying the fresh harvest of tomatoes and basil sitting on the counter, that we would have to have panzanella for dinner.

Panzanella is the perfect summer meal. It’s the ideal recipe for fresh garden (or farmers market) tomatoes. I can’t imagine this dish could ever be enjoyed in the winter with the mealy, barely pink, imported grocery store tomatoes. Nope…better enjoy it now while we are harvesting the rich red tomatoes of summer.

Homegrown Panzanella
(slightly adapted from Giada’s Artichoke & Tomato Panzanella)

3 cups bread, cubed into 1-2 inch pieces (I used ciabatta)

3 large tomatoes, cut into 1-2 inch pieces, or sliced (I used a mix of tiny Juliets and two big Brandywines, all freshly picked from our garden!)

1 can artichoke hearts, sliced in half

handful of chopped basil

2/3 cup good olive oil (For salads, we love Trader Joe’s California Estate Olive Oil.)

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

drizzle of olive oil for cooking

salt & pepper

Preheat a grill pan on medium heat. Toss your bread and artichokes with a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and add the bread and the artichokes to the preheated grill. Turn every couple of minutes until each side is golden brown. Remove from the grill and add to a serving bowl with your tomatoes and basil. Toss to combine.

Whisk the good olive oil and vinegar together and add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the salad. Toss and serve.

You could add olives, red onion or parmesan cheese.

As it was, the panzanella was amazing. We ate it as our main course, with a side of fresh green beans from the farmers market and a couple of glasses of red wine. We took advantage of another mild summer night and ate outside…it just might have been the perfect summer meal.

Tagged food, forest park, garden, gardening, homemaking, summer

Jul 30 2013

3 Comments

adventures, gardening

Oak Park Conservatory–Uncorked

I am a sucker for local events. The Oak Park Conservatory is hosting Uncorked Summer Nights on the last Fridays of the next few months. The first one was last Friday and I went with Naoto and our neighbor friend Karen to check it out. For $10, you get two drink tickets, a tour of the conservatory, passed appetizers and then a chance to mill around with other plant lovers both inside the conservatory and outside on the patio.

I’ve never been to the conservatory…what a shame because it is such a local treasure! The actual conservatory was built in 1929 and it holds more than 3000 plants. There are three sections in the conservatory–the fern room, the rainforest room and the desert room. Our docent gave us a thorough tour of each room and I took plenty of pictures.

Above is the view as you walk into the fern room. You are overcome with green, in the best way possible. Here are some other views from the fern room. I’m not sure what the first two plants are (I just loved their interesting shapes!), but the last one is a lemon tree.

As we walked into the rainforest room, we could feel the change in humidity. Three birds live in this room (they chatter at you as you walk by!) and there’s a river running though the room with a few large, colorful koi fish and a tiny turtle! (It’s hard to see the little guy in my picture, but he’s right by the koi’s tail.) We also saw a cacao tree (third picture down) and a huge fiddle leaf fig (not pictured), the biggest “thing” in home blogging since chevron.The last room, the desert, was dry and warm (obviously). I was most looking forward to seeing the century plant, an agave from Mexico that only blooms once every thirty years. The picture below is from a few weeks ago when the plant started growing through the roof of the conservatory. The book club ladies and I walked down one evening to take a peek at it poking through the roof of the conservatory. Sadly, before it had a chance to really flourish, it broke off in a bad storm the week before. But we got to see the blooms up close on display since the conservatory staff was able to save those from the broken plant. From the inside of the conservatory, the base of the century plant looks like an enormous, Dr. Suess-ish plant with a giant asparagus poking out of it. I’m really not a desert person, but I loved seeing the cacti and succulents up close. There were so many interesting ones! The one below was part of a series of enormous aloe plants. Naoto cut his leg on one. (We were warned not to touch the cacti!) There were also plenty of little mice frolicking about the plants in here. It was alarming at first (they were really out in the open!) but they quickly became fun to watch (as long as they didn’t run out into the walkways!) Karen took this picture of Naoto and me in front of the century plant. I decided to wear my new floral dress (as a departure from my usual summer black and grey and cat shirts) for the gardening occasion. I’m already looking forward to going back and exploring more during August’s Uncorked event!

Tagged adventures, garden, gardening, summer

Jul 24 2013

2 Comments

Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening, summer manifesto

Garden Update: Let the Harvesting Begin!

Well, at least a small harvest can being…

Above is our first summertime harvest from the garden on Saturday. Small, I know…but things are just getting started. We picked our red Juliet tomato on Saturday afternoon before heading to the progressive dinner. We sliced it in two and toasted our first home-grown tomato. The peas were a little bit of a surprise, since they were planted in the Wild West portion of the garden and it’s hard to see what’s going on with them (a rookie mistake!) There are quite a few smaller peas still out there, but these three were ready to be picked and they were sweet and fresh and perfect.

In the “garden challenges” department…yesterday I received a tweet from Mr. Brownthumb about a fallen tomato plant. Sure enough, when I went to the garden later in the afternoon, I found this:
So, lesson learned…get larger, sturdier, more expensive tomato cages… At this point, it’s too late, but you can bet that Naoto and I will be doing some research over the winter to learn better ways to support our tomatoes next year! We just need to support them long enough to produce their little fruits and keep them out of the pathways. I re-staked the fallen Brandywine plant and tied up more wayward branches. The garden isn’t pretty at this point, but more tomatoes are turning and that’s really all we asked for in our rookie year!

Tagged adventures, food, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

Jul 22 2013

4 Comments

adventures, Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening, summer manifesto

Community Garden Progressive Dinner

On Saturday night, the community garden board hosted a progressive dinner for all of the gardeners in the Forest Park Community Garden. Naoto and I had a really fun time getting to know all of our fellow gardeners. We’ve decided that gardeners might just be the nicest group of people around (gardeners and letter writers, for sure!)

We all met at Amelia’s for a drink and then we walked to Bambi’s house for tapas and mojitos. We could have ended the night here…there was so much food! At Gina’s house, we enjoyed grilled pizzas and sangria. Naoto and I brought basil from the community garden planters and from our balcony and Gina made a magical tomato, basil & mozzarella pizza with it. At Michelle’s house, we enjoyed dessert–a homemade plum clafouti and an ice cream pie (generously donated by Brown Cow!) Every step of the evening was just perfect, and even an unexpected rain shower didn’t spoil our festivities!

Have you ever done a progressive dinner? This was our first one and it was loads of fun, especially for a group who was just getting to know each other. Walking from house to house gave us an opportunity to mingle with more people, either on the walk or in a different seating arrangement at each house. I think it just might be the most ideal way to break the ice with a group of new people.

Thanks for a great evening, fellow gardeners!

Tagged adventures, food, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

Jul 19 2013

9 Comments

Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening, summer manifesto

Garden Update: We Have a Red Tomato!

Randomly, it’s the only one…all the others are green as green can be.

But this little red tomato gives me hope that maybe, just maybe we will have a tomato crop yet! It’s hard to see up there, but our tiny pepper plant, dwarfed by the tomato giants, has four tiny peppers on it. And, I’ve spotted a few peas and a few limas…we still need to finish conquering the wild west portion of the garden before I can really see what’s going on though. It has been hot, hot, HOT here all week, so gardening has consisted of weeding and watering as the sun goes down.

Tomorrow night, we are going to a progressive dinner hosted by the board of our community garden. Naoto and I have met some super-nice people in the garden and we are looking forward to hanging out with everyone outside of the garden (and of course talking about gardening!)

Yay for the weekend!

Tagged adventures, food, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

Jul 18 2013

1 Comment

adventures, Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening, summer manifesto

Farmers Market Thursday

This morning, I headed over to the Hines VA Hospital for their weekly farmers market. Since the Forest Park market isn’t happening this year, the Hines market is going to be the next best thing. Well, it might be anyway…it’s pretty small.

That’s it up there…thankfully there is a lot of signage at the Hines campus, because, really, if you blink, you might miss it. There were a few farmers and a few people selling bottled products (vinegars, honey, salsa) and there was a bakery. One farm was selling berries and plums and green beans and they were serving freshly grilled corn. Yum! Another farmer, Jessica of Purple Leaf Farms, who I know from our Forest Park Community Garden, was selling greens and turnips and flowers. I’m looking forward to seeing how it evolves over the summer. As more fruits and vegetables mature on the farms, I’m sure there will be more offerings, but for now, I’m happy with my tiny purchase of gorgeous blackberries and pretty blooms.

Tagged adventures, food, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

Jul 15 2013

1 Comment

Forest Park, Oak Park, home is a 1970s apartment, summer manifesto, thrifted

Saturday on the Balcony

Saturday was the last of a string of perfect summer days–low 80s, no humidity, sunny skies, gentle breeze…

Naoto and I had grand plans for the day, but we ended up lounging around on the balcony enjoying the weather and soaking up the rare gem of a summer day in Chicago. While Naoto caught up on reading the Japanese news (hence the laptop), I watered the plants, caught up on some letter writing and worked on cleaning my thrift store typewriter. It was a nice feeling of lazy productivity. While we were outside, this was happening inside: After lounging all day, it felt good to put on a dress and walk down to Cafe DeLuca for drinks and dinner. They make the best limoncello martini…a perfect drink for summer.Today, when I walked outside and into the thick-as-pea-soup, heavy and hot air, I decided that we made the right choice on how to spend a summer Saturday.

Tagged cocktails, forest park, garden, home, mail art, snail mail, summer

Jul 13 2013

Summer Manifesto in Progress

In case you are wondering how my Summer Manifesto progress is coming along…

* embrace the mornings (as in, get up and get something done before noon!) It’s sort of happening…

* tend to the gardens (balcony & community garden plot) So far, so good!! I haven’t killed anything yet! (The latest garden update is here and I will be doing a balcony tour next week!)

* take advantage of our Farmers Market in Forest Park (It’s in an inconvenient location & happens on Friday nights, but I want to support it so it sticks around!) I had to modify this one…the Forest Park Farmers Market was cancelled this year due to lack of participation. I found another market at the Hines VA that I’d like to try next week.

* travel to Boston Done! Read about it here, here and here

* take my camera out more often and practice Not done.

* make an anniversary gift DONE! (Read about it here.)

* master three more cocktails (Summer-y ones with in-season ingredients would be awesome!) Two down: the Blue Hawaii and the Vesper, and I have a few more on the horizon!

* host a Hawaii-themed party (We thought we were all partied out, but by mid-summer we’ll be itching for something new to plan!) We might do a mini Hawaiian dinner party with our neighbors.

* paint the bedroom (It’s the last big, nagging thing on my home improvement list!) Not even close to happening.

* create three pieces of art for our home (I have ideas…it’s the execution I’m lacking…) One idea just turned into a bigger idea, which means more procrastinating.

* participate fully in 30 Days of Creativity Done! Read about it here.

* start working on my zine idea (I’ve had the idea floating around for two years now…it’s time to get started. I have no dreams of selling it, I just want to create it.) July is apparently International Zine Month, so I think this could be my chance!

And three more from last year…

* find the ice cream truck We’ve found the truck a few times, but haven’t hopped in line. We are, however keeping a nice stash of Bomb Pops (pictured above) and ChocoTacos in our freezer!

* wear sunscreen & sun hats Still working on this one…hats are happening, sunscreen needs to happen!

* document summer & finish my summer minibook I’ve been collecting a ton of stuff & taking loads of pictures…

So far, I’m feeling good about things, but as I know from childhood, once July 4th comes around, summer kicks into high gear and time flashes before our eyes. So, it’s definitely time to check off some of those procrastination items (like painting the bedroom!)

How’s your summer list going?

Tagged cocktails, crafts, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

Jul 12 2013

3 Comments

Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening, summer manifesto

Garden Update: It’s the Wild, Wild West!

Naoto and I are the new poster children for Gardening in the Wild. One look at our plot and you can tell we are a) first time gardeners and b) total procrastinators. We’ve known since we planted our watermelon and Japanese cucumbers that we needed to build something for the vines to grow UP (rather than OUT) and we just haven’t done it yet. We hope it’s not too late to build something this weekend.

And, we need to stake our peas (those are in there somewhere between the limas and the Juliet). It’s going to take both of us to figure out where one vegetable ends and the other begins.

To add to the challenge of vining plants everywhere, our Juliet tomato has grown OUT. OF. CONTROL. (That’s its stem pictured up above.) I’m not sure if it’s just a freak-of-nature or if we totally messed up when we were caging it, but the cage is now tilting east and the tomato is reaching all over the garden and spilling into the area beyond our plot. It’s producing loads of tomatoes, so even though it’s taking up more than its “square foot” of real estate, I’m not complaining…I just need it to lay off growing over the limas and into our neighbors’ plots!

In other tomato troubles, yellowing, spotted leaves were starting to spread throughout our plants. After a little bit of research (if you count calling my dad and searching YouTube “research”) we found this video from The Rusted Garden:

Basically, we found that the yellowed leaves are caused by either not enough nitrogen in the soil, over-watering or inconsistent watering (letting things dry out too much and then overcompensating). Most of the gardeners recommend removing all of the diseased leaves and then spraying the leaves with either wettable sulfur or a mix of baking soda and water. On Wednesday night, Naoto and I went through all of our tomato plants and cut off all of the diseased leaves. We didn’t spray anything on the leaves because we were working in full sun (this can burn the leaves). On Saturday, we are going to check things over and spray the leaves at sunset. All of the tomatoes in our community garden are affected by the yellow leaves, so it feels good to know we aren’t alone.

In spite of the leaf issues, all of our plants are bursting with tomatoes! I just can’t wait until one actually changes from green to red! And, our tiny pepper plant finally has some tiny peppers! This poor plant is on the southeast corner of our plot and I’m afraid to admit that it’s getting overshadowed by our overgrown tomatoes. Hang in there, little guy!

So that’s the garden this week. If you have any advice or ideas for taming the crazy, feel free to comment. Just don’t burst my bubble of hope and tell me it’s too late to wrangle up those vining plants!

Tagged forest park, garden, gardening, summer