2019: The Year The Plants Died

Don’t be fooled by the “green thumb” rhetoric. This may look like a garden full of life, but I am a murderer and a neglectful plant mother. See those curry plants? I tried to kill them in the summer heat, and was almost successful. There I sat in the garden with an empty heart, watching…

Tomatoes, Tomatoes (Pt. 1)

 An Ode to Tomatoes – A poem by Pablo Neruda A tomato seed was one of the very first things I ever tried to plant. I think I was eating a burger and saved a bunch of tomato seeds from the tomato slice, or something, and just decided to see what happened when it went…

AN ODE TO TOMATOES

The street filled with tomatoes, midday, summer, light is halved like a tomato, its juice runs through the streets. In December, unabated, the tomato invades the kitchen, it enters at lunchtime, takes its ease on countertops, among glasses, butter dishes, blue saltcellars. It sheds its own light, benign majesty. Unfortunately, we must murder it: the…

Growing Ginger

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” – Robert Frost Early this month, I harvested my first batch of ginger. I know, you’re asking the exact same thing my sister did: “Why ginger?? It’s so cheap!” And my answer to that is…why not?? I’d never grown it…

HERBS for Beginners

“He who plants kindness gathers love.” – Saint Basil Why an herb garden? Having an herb garden is amazing! There’s nothing like having fresh herbs on hand at any time at home. I love having the smell of fresh rosemary and basil on my hands from just brushing them with my fingers in the morning.  They’re…

Butterfly Pea Vine (clitoria ternatea)

Clitoria ternatea, commonly known as Asian pigeonwings,[1] bluebellvine, blue pea, butterfly pea, cordofan pea and Darwin pea,[2] is a plant species belonging to the Fabaceae family. The flowers of this vine were imagined to have the shape of human female genitals, hence the Latin name of the genus “Clitoria“, from “clitoris“. From Wikipedia, the free encylopedia The butterfly pea vine is a climbing or cover vine that produces violet or…

WELCOME!

Just a simple urban gardener here who likes to put things in dirt and watch them grow. Follow along as I document growing different herbs, vegetables, flowers, and all kinds of other plants in a tropical, concrete environment. Hopefully, we all learn something along the way and you, too, can start your own urban garden!…