14 days till SPRING!!

Not that I think we won’t still have snow on the ground by then… but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel! And SPRING FORWARD clock change this weekend, which means more daylight after work. WOO HOO!

Live countdown here

Let’s get everyone up to speed, shall we? So last post I had was tracking Hurricane Sandy (well, I guess it was technically Halloween, but I’m pretty sure I actually wrote that one a few weeks ahead of time) and although we lucked out with no damage to our property or surrounding area, we lost power for 7 days, and internet for about 10. Then, it got cold. We had just about wrapped up for the year anyway — as made apparent by my lack of posts. To be fair, too, I was also in Germany for 10 days prior to the hurricane, pretty much leaving most of the month of October unaccounted for, and November was shot with the power outrage, then there was Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc., and then it was full out winter. My husband was awesome enough to clean up our community garden plot without me, too, to close out the season.

A couple things I missed..

• Happy 2013 – this is going to be a fabulous year! Had a rough start but ready for it to turn around.
• Happy 1st Birthday to Herbthis.com!  March 1st 2012 was my first post. At this point last year, we already had a ton of really nice days that made me ready for planting. This year, the cold weather has kept me a bit in hibernation.
• First day of spring equinox 2013… YAY!  We had a decent enough winter this year that I hope will bring the bugs back in check for the upcoming planting season (because seriously, last year was just ridiculous). I’m seriously ready for some nice weather though. Really hope all the snow is behind us now.

At the beginning of the month, I was in Germany again for work, and my hotel had these awesome samples that just kept staring me in the face reminding me of what was ahead (and it was gorgeous weather, too)!  ”Pure Herbs” smelled so good. I took a few bottles home with me!

And finally, for the big reveal… I’m finding out first hand (or belly) just how much fun it is to ‘grow stuff’.. my husband and I are expecting our first child over the summer!  So, that explains why my husband did the clean up himself this fall — I was newly pregnant and utterly exhausted just from existing.

This year, we are still planning on community gardening– we’ll probably go a little simpler with the tried and true veggies, but might be light on the posts and creative thinking at times.  Also, nothing crazy in the yard, just clean up & maintain, maybe a couple minor improvements.

Before the winter break, I did discover the fabulous world of Pinterest where I have an “herbthis.com ideas” board, which I am hoping to be able to test out over the summer — at least the simpler ones!

Alright, now that I have kicked off the planting season for 2013, I should get some of my seedlings started (I”m already behind — I need to get the tomatoes & peppers in THIS WEEK!!!). Unfortunately, that is going to have to wait until tomorrow — time for sleep.

Happy spring & happy planting!

Sitting here with the generator pumping and the internet hanging by a thread, my husband and I are sleeping in the dining room tonight because there is a giant evergreen that is looming in our backyard over our bedroom. It is a healthy tree, but after Hurricane Irene took out one of our other large, also healthy, trees last year, I’m not taking any chances.

It’s a nice tree though, hopefully it will be OK! (plus, ya know, hopefully the house will be OK). I’m not believing all the flooding going on in NYC and the coast areas… luckily the Rockaway River isn’t expecting record levels this time.

From the weather channel!

Q.  Why did the Golden Delicious go to jail?

A.  He was a rotten apple.

Q: What do you get when you mix a relative and a fruit?

A: A Granny Smith

Ok, I think these are a little weak, but they are both about apples, and you pick apples in the fall, and it’s fall now. So there.

Happy Fall! Happy October! I know gardening season is just about wrapping up, but I love this weather and it makes me happy.  That is all for today.

So… bring on the deep freeze and get these bugs out of here!!!!

“Busy as a bee” on a sunflower

Between the business trip to Germany, work, vacation to Vermont, (mini) vacation to Ocean City, NJ / Atlantic City, turning 30 (Holy crap! still not ready to accept it!) surrounded by my loved ones, cleaning the house,  actually tending to the garden/yard, and, finally, just enjoying the summer, I just didn’t get a chance to fire up the computer and sit down and write some posts.

I have (kind of surprisingly) been thinking a lot about what I really want out of the site, ideas for posts, etc. However, now I just need to start actually doing some of them — unfortunately, I have the problem in other areas of my life that I do too much thinking and not enough doing, too! (My sister made me get pinterest… and there are so many awesome ideas on there! More on that later.)

All in all, the garden has been quite productive, even though there have been quite a bit of challenges as well. Full disclosure: the sunflower above is not actually from our garden, it was from another plot in the community garden. Our sunflowers are actually doing phenomenal, but there wasn’t a good image of a bee on them.

Here is the veggie count to date:

Unfortunately, these are the final numbers for the squash and cukes. The squash had a good run (except for the golden squash, I really think we sprouted those way too early), and although the numbers aren’t super high on the others, we had a single squash (Greyzini) weigh in at 7lbs 4 oz, and the rest of them weren’t far behind in sizes. We really like our squash on the grill, so we let them grow quite large. I was really excited for a good year of cukes, picking 10 the first harvest! Then earlier last week, they just crapped out and the vine died in a matter of 48 hours (same thing happened with our garden neighbors – consensus is some sort of fungus got to them). At least we got a good bunch out of the 3 plants I had, and I have a few more that are holding on in the fridge I’ll eat this week.

As for the rest, we’ll just have to wait for more posts. I don’t want to overdo it the first time back in about a month!

Happy American Independence day!

I can’t blame the Tarragon, it’s my fault. I didn’t do the research. I was watching a cooking show last year, and saw a recipe for Lemon Chicken Soup that called for tarragon. Maybe it was the garlic, maybe it was the lemons, but I HAD to try this soup, and instantly decided I needed to grow my own tarragon (I couldn’t just buy it from the store, like most normal people). I bought some seeds, and the tarragon popped out of the soil, no problem!

Of course, there was actually a problem. One I was not immediately aware of. Once it came out, the tarragon was not as fragrant and delicious smelling as I hoped it would be. I thought, ok, just needs to grow a little bigger. Then, it grew bigger… still not appetizing. Ok, it just needs to have a winter, and come back in the spring and it will be super fresh. Nope! This spring, it’s still kinda ‘eh’ & I finally looked it up to see what the problem was.

Apparently, I have the WRONG tarragon!  The really good tarragon (the kind you are supposed to use in cooking) is French Tarragon, and it’s very hard to get from seeds, and most often “real” tarragon you must get from cuttings or division of existing plants. Although you CAN eat the tarragon that I have (likely, Russian Tarragon), it’s definitely not something that I felt I wanted to do.

Here is my gross Tarragon that doesn’t look so healthy these days anyway. Maybe it feels my resentment.

Now, to get me some real tarragon (probably just from the grocery store this time) so I can finally make that soup, and see if it’s even worth all the effort! If it is, I’ll have to try to find some French Tarragon.

Happy Friday!

Therefore, I’m not celebrating summer itself (especially since today kicks off a heat wave in NJ), but the best thing about the first day of summer: the longest amount of daylight in a 24 hour period! I do enjoy daylight (more time to garden). So…

Happy Longest day! Only 93 days to go until the fall equinox!

It’s really a neat plant, with grayish green leaves, it almost looks like its in the evergreen family (it’s not though). The curry dwarf actually smells like curry. Of course, if you are any type of food connoisseur, you know that real curry is just a mix of different spices, it does not come from a plant. It’s still pretty neat, and it can be used to flavor dishes. However, it is not really recommended for culinary purposes, because although the aroma is strong, the flavor is not, and once any heat is applied, the curry flavor becomes completely non-existent.

This plant also attracts butterflies, and within an hour of putting it outside I did catch one on it (of course, by the time I got my camera, it was gone!). I couldn’t wait to get it planted in the garden to attract more, but then a couple weeks went by before I actually got to it, and now I am having second thoughts. Apparently, those butterflies also like to lay eggs on it, and it was covered (seriously, COVERED) with little black caterpillars, about 1/3 inches big and tents that they hatched in. Super gross. I did not touch it. Then, a couple days later they grew into big caterpillars. Grosser.

As of yesterday, the plant is now caterpillar free, but it looks like they might have done a bit of damage and the leaves are looking a little weak. I’ll see if it recovers, but the curry plant may not be all its cracked up to be! I still might plant it in the ground and hope for the best.