gardening | kimberly ah

Jul 22 2013

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 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

Jun 19 2013

2 Comments

Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening, summer manifesto

Garden Update: We Have a Tiny Tomato

The garden is booming with excitement this week. We went last night to water and check on the progress and I found a teeny, tiny Juliet tomato!! (Pictured above in the center of the picture…isn’t she a beaut?) I couldn’t contain my giddiness! All of our other tomato plants (the two Big Boys, the Brandywine and the three Early Girls) have blooms but so far the Juliet is in the lead.

Everything else is doing well, except the loofah that never grew and the slug-devoured limas are still up in the air. We’ve harvested a few daikon and they are pretty small…tasty, but small. We want to buy another pack of seeds and try them again.

This weekend, when we aren’t eating and working, we will be gardening. We can’t wait very much longer to get a handle on our vining plants. So far they are behaving, but it’s only a matter of time…

Tagged food, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

Jun 08 2013

3 Comments

crafty adventures, summer manifesto

#30DOC Week 1

I’ve been working through my 30 Days of Creativity Challenge all week. Like a champ. Of course, it’s only the first week–the real challenge will be keeping up the momentum all month. Here’s what I’ve been working on:

From the top: 6/1 plant markers, 6/2 handcrafted cocktails, 6/3 two handmade thank yous, 6/4 one handmade envelope and three more pieces of mail art, 6/5 this (free) pattern from Wild Olive (I loved making this! Thanks, Mollie!), 6/6 water colored stationery & envelope (I’m really enjoying playing around with water coloring things lately!) and 6/7 a kitty donut in honor of National Donut Day (from this Wild Olive Donut Shop pattern) I’m a little disappointed in my execution of the kitty pattern…I think I might need to re-do some of the stitches…I don’t feel like my interpretation is fulfilling kitty’s cuteness potential!

I’ve just been winging it each day, but the next two weeks are looking much busier, so I might have to plan out my creative projects to ensure I’m carving out the right amount of time for them. Also, I’m finding myself sticking in my comfort zone and not stretching myself…the whole purpose of this project (for me) is to get a jump start on a few artsy things on my Summer Manifesto…I must try harder!

Tagged crafts, diy, garden, gardening, rubber stamp, summer

Jun 07 2013

3 Comments

crafty adventures, gardening, homemaking

Plant Markers for the Balcony

We still have a few herbs growing on the balcony this year. It’s easier to use the herbs in our “daily” cooking when we can just pop outside to harvest them, plus we wanted to save all of our space in the garden plot for vegetables.

I wanted to make some plant markers for the herbs, similar to those I made for the garden. For the balcony herb makers, I gave the craft sticks a simple watercolor wash (using my cheap set of watercolors from Michaels), let them dry, and then stamped them with my letter stamps in StazOn ink. I love how they look so “official” poking out in the pots!

Tagged crafts, decorating, diy, garden, gardening, homemaking

Jun 06 2013

5 Comments

Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening

Garden Update: Things Are Growing

Naoto and I spent some time at the garden on Saturday afternoon and again last night. We are both amazed at how much the plants grow within such a short few days. Here are a few shots of our garden, complete with my homemade plant markers:

And, in the most exciting news of all, our Juliet tomato already has a blossom!!

It’s so weird to me because the Juliet was the last tomato we planted (just last weekend with my dad).

And, now that the vining plants are growing (except for the loofah…the loofah is doing nothing), we have to come up with a plan for handling the vines. We’ve seen some good ideas in other garden plots, so we just need to buy our materials and build something simple.

And, in our first gardening challenge, our limas are being eaten by…something…a rabbit? A bug? Who knows. But the whole crop is not looking good. I still have hope that maybe one or two plants will produce some good ol’ lima beans…

One thing that’s been fun and helpful for me so far this gardening season is participating in #SeedChat (with @SeedChat & others) on Twitter. It happens on Wednesday nights at 8pm CST and it’s a great way to “meet” other gardeners and ask questions (if you’re a newbie like me) or offer advice (if you’re an experienced green thumb). If you’re into gardening, check it out!

Tagged community garden, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

Jun 03 2013

4 Comments

celebrations, Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening

Our 7th Anniversary Weekend

Naoto & I spent the whole weekend together celebrating the every day of seven years of marriage. We did nothing exceptional, we just enjoyed each other’s company and lots of good food. Naoto popped out on Saturday afternoon and brought back this huge bouquet of flowers “from Presley”. It was such a sweet surprise and I’m enjoying having them at my desk (for maximum enjoyment and minimum Presley “enjoyment”.)

After relaxing on the balcony with breakfast and coffee, we headed to the community garden to check on the plants. We did a fair amount of weeding and watered our plot. (I will talk more about the garden later this week…we are both amazed and thankful to see it’s growing!)

After relaxing out on the balcony and watching it rain, we headed to the Golden Steer for our traditional (since moving to Forest Park) anniversary dinner.

It was our fourth year going there and it never disappoints. I always fill up too much on the cracker basket, the French Onion Soup, the salad and the baked potato to eat much of my steak! And the lone button mushroom floating around on the steak plate makes me giggle every time…

After the Steer, we went to the Marion Street Cheese Market for dessert. Naoto had a chocolate dessert with a homemade chocolate marshmallow and some snicker doodles and I had a strawberry rhubarb dessert (sweet pastry layered with strawberry rhubarb and topped with meringue).

Sunday was our actual anniversary. We slept in, had coffee and exchanged gifts (more on that later). Then we reluctantly went to the gym together. So romantic, I know.

After the gym, we headed to the Little Goat Diner. This was Naoto’s choice, not that I needed any arm twisting. I did a little research and realized that it’s an easy trip on the el (too easy…I think we might have to get pie and coffee at least once a week now!)

Little Goat was busy, but they could seat us right away at the counter, so we decided to try it out. We’ve sat in all of their seating options now (communal table, booth and counter) and while the booth is nice and quiet and private, we both really enjoyed the frenetic people watching at the counter. It was neat to see the orchestration of the orders and to hear the cooks interacting with each other.

We ordered the Smoke Fries…and I don’t think I will ever NOT order the Smoke Fries in all future visits. They were skinny and perfectly crisp and savory…my idea of the perfect fry. (My passion for these fries will now rival my love for the pie.)

Naoto got the Tonkatsu sandwich, which came with this tasty-creative pickled daikon radish, zucchini and rhubarb salad. I decided, since I always feel too full for pie, to get a CUP of the Tomato Apple Soup, which now comes with a tiny Monte Cristo sandwich on the side (instead of the original, reeeeallllly good cheesy toast from our visit in February). I was super disappointed…until I took a bite of the Monte Cristo…it was like eating a tiny ham and cheese sandwich in between two savory donuts…

And for dessert, of course I got the pie (Blood Orange Meringue) and Naoto got the Miso Hungry Banana Split…ice cream covered in a miso sauce with miso chips on top. Weird? Not at all…it was amazing!