From the Southwest

I moved recently and I'm no longer in the Midwood area. However, the blogging continues over on The SW Exposure. Join me there as I will be brewing up a storm with ideas for the Spring.

Bits of 2014 Garden

I found some more images from last year's garden.
This rainy and snowy weather sure makes me miss the summer's heat and sun on my skin.
Seasonal affective disorder is in full effect.
   

The garden lush and full with random tomato plants scattered among flowers, fruit trees and other plants. A happy little ecosystem.




Morning glory climbing on the pear tree.




I started these dwarf dahlias with seeds instead of bulbs. They are surprisingly easy to grow. The fun part is not knowing what colors I'm getting with the assorted mix.

In Water

It devastates me whenever I see any plant that can be saved die so I try to bring them indoors to extend their lives a bit longer. Sun coleus has definitely become a favorite in bringing some color into the house. I also paired it with the leggy wandering jew. They camouflage nicely together with their common color palettes.

The change

I haven't really spent much time tending to the garden this summer. Kind of bummed that I didn't take many pictures of the garden. Early summer was overflowing with chamomile which I picked for tea and I am still enjoying now. Note to self: Pick more chamomile next year. The dwarf dahlias didn't bloom as much as last year and because I sowed from seed again this year (didn't save bulbs from last year) the colors were selected by random. I had a huge sunflowers taking over the front part of my yard and also on the street. It was nice to see them swaying and insects collecting pollen.

There will always be next year.
For now I will keep tending to my indoor babies.

Hen & Chicks

I bought these cute hen and chicks from Brooklyn Botanic Garden and I'm so happy they're still thriving. I love how full they are!

Blooms

Finally! Some blooms in the garden.
There is some honeysuckle growing and they smell absolutely divine!
My neighbor's roses are gorgeous and couldn't help but take a snap.

Chamomile

While we had an incredibly brutal snowy winter this year, I noticed there were two types of flowers that survived through it all. One of them is the bachelor button blues and the other one is chamomile. I was really excited as I had been wanting to grow chamomile for tea and it's great to know that winter didn't effect its growth at all! At first I thought the chamomile were cosmos as they have similar leaves.

I just harvested the first batch of flower heads. According to the sources on the internet, the flavor is supposed to be the best when the flowers are picked the day they bloom. Also "pinching" them helps promote new growth. The more flowers the better. :) I'm leaving them in a paper bag in a cool place away from the sun. Hope to have a nice couple of tea in a few weeks.