March 27, 2025

The first signs of spring are here! These little daffies are always great to see. Getting row covers for the hydrangeas, mini roses and little water garden worked really well. They all survived the winter and seem to be thriving...

Below are the seed starts in Aerogardens. Bush cherry tomatoes, Cayenne Peppers, mesclun greens, sweet lettuce greens and a couple of Basil starts in pots.

Really can't wait for the milder weather here!

January 24, 2025

Just because it is January and 20 degrees outside doesn't mean you can't have flowers and greens! There's nothing nicer on a cold winter day than having a bay window blooming inside. You may need the help of a grow light or two for those dark winter days. I have a grow light that has 4 flexible led lights that can be set to individual times and brightness. So, far it's just been on and off when needed and it has all the light spectrum that's needed.

Growing inside does take some attention. Be on the lookout for white flies, scale bugs and aphids. (They can come in on plants from outside or are on store bought). Use some Dawn diluted in water spray to discourage them. Don't over water as it can ruin the roots and make sure there is drainage. Don't underwater either as it can get pretty dry inside with indoor heating. Give the plants some food about once a month and don't dump it on a dried out plant... it can burn the roots. Just a little investment in time and attention and you can chase away the winter blues with flowers and greenery.

2024 Garden Season Recap

12/12/2024

Here are a few highlights that weren't included in the postings. Views of the water gardens, peppers, super moon, morning glory. Click arrows to view.

More garden pix on Instagram at mycitygardenjc.net

Always hate to see the season end but then, there is planning for next year's garden already! Bring on the seed catalogs!!

October 7, 2024

• Been waiting a long time for these Morning Glories to bloom. Lovely sky blue with a yellow sun in the middle. Like the Moonflowers, they take their sweet time and start up in September and October.The weather has been so nice with balmy temps in the 70's in the daytime. Have a nice crop of cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and greens still going in the garden. As long as the weather holds mild,there should be a harvest around Halloween.

September 28 - The colors of Fall

As the growing season comes to a close, it's time to harvest. Here are Bliss Hybrid tomatoes (golden grape, have a lemony taste).

Mini Red Bell Pepper

Cayenne Peppers - pretty hot They add zip to pizza!

Sweet Thing peppers have a smoky sweet taste. They may acutally be a form of Tibetan Lhasa.

Not shown - some Tiny Thai Hot Peppers.

Still growing are salad greens, red and yellow cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, rosemary and a few exotic peppers. Time for the row covers soon and turning the vegetable cage into a cold frame for the roses and hydrangeas.

September 19, 2024

End of summer is here... moonflowers, crickets, peppers, tomatoes, (not many cicadas this year!)

Pictured are:

Sweet Thing Peppers - I'm told are Tibetan Lhasas

Late sown lettuce on lockdown (due to squirrel and Catbirds)

Cucumbers (hope we get a few before the animls do)

Sunflowers, beautiful multi flower

Moonflower - only blooms at night

Cherry tomatoes

September 8, 2024

Fall is in the air. The colors of the garden have switched to yellow, red and orange. Late crops of Spicy Greens, Cukes (don't know if the cooler nights will allow flowering and fruit but it was worth a try) and a few Radishes in a fence box... It was a lovely growing season with lots of fresh greens and tomatoes. The Squirrel and Catbird raids continue. A second crop of cherry tomatoes and a few Bliss Hybrid tomatoes are on the way. The Hot Sweet Peppers may actually be Tibetan Lhasas. There are a few Serrano peppers along with Cayennes, Mini Sweet Red peppers and tiny Thai Hot Red Peppers. Time for Pesto Palooza with the Basil soon.

August 24, 2024

Late summer in the garden... the crickets and cicadas are back. The rainy spell seems over for a while. Peppers are ripening and another crop of tomatoes is on the way. Pictured is a late summer salad. Sadly, the greens are on their last legs.  This salad has mesclun greens, lettuce, parsley, garlic chives, red lettuce and tiny Thai red peppers. Now, to come up with something to plant that can last through the fall

I had to invest in a cage for the garden. I have some tomatoes and exotic peppers from Tibet, Malaysia, and Georgia. Unfortunately, they could not be put outside due to the tag team of squirrels and catbirds... Everything in pots was being dug up repeatedly. I have found open walnut shells and holes dug into the soil. Something odd is going on here. I have never seen this kind of digging looking for food (or burying it) before. The birds might be looking for insects (which may be in short supply). I have seen very few butterflies and darning needles this year.  Plenty of Lantern Flies but I think something is going on with the food supply. The cage will do double duty in the winter covered with plastic as a cold frame for the hydrangeas and roses.

August 19, 2024

Soon it will be time for Pesto Palooza here. This year there is a bumper crop of Basil. Usually in September a whole afternoon or two is spent harvesting, cleaning and creating pesto with garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. This year will try some Asiago cheese too. It involves using a mini food processor to blend the ingredients into a Pesto paste. Then the paste is transferred to ice cube trays and frozen.(takes about 4 cubes to make a topping for pasta). These are stored in small bags and there's nothing like taking this out for pasta and defrosting to get a whiff of summer in the dead of winter...

August 9, 2024

The latest news is that we are going to be having an extended growing season in the Northeast. They've been getting longer, but since it's predicted to last through October, I started more peppers, cucumbers, greens and herbs. Why not? Might as well get something out of climate change. Except the light shifts down to more red instead of blue as fall progresses. Plants like blue light.

The squirrels have been the persistent pests in the garden. The cucumbers were planted with a plastic grid that came with air filters. The sprouts had to be threaded through the grid and will have to be thinned out eventually, but for now the squirrel can't get in to dig holes to plant walnuts.

The other pic is of a new variety of pepper we can't wait to try. Hot and sweet at the same time.

July 23, 2024

Peppers started inside. There is a crazy squirrel outside digging into every single pot and wrecking seedlings. So seedlings stay in until larger and I can find a way to keep the squirrel out. So far, pepper and garlic and forks with prongs up have not worked...

Pictured are the peppers started from seeds from our friend that makes Dr.G's Mumbo Sauce. From the bottom up:

Tibetan Lhasa

Hot Sweet Thing

Sugar Rush Peach (2)

Goronong (Malaysian - yellow)

Tibetan Lhasa (earlier start)

Sweet Thing Hot Red Pepper (earlier start)

Pictured below from top:

Thai Hot Pepper, Sweet Thing Hot Pepper, Serrano Chili and Mini Sweet Red Bell Pepper.

July 13, 2024

Hot fun in the summertime! The water lilies are coming back to life here after a vacation of a few years. Probably due to not enough light. These are really solar collectors and need at least 6hrs of sun a day. It's great to have a bumper crop of tomatoes and blackberries. Never treated with anything except maybe some Dawn diluted with water to discourage bugs. Some things are airborne though, viruses or molds that get the tomato and rose leaves every year. Don't spread stuff by working in a wet garden!

We've had a few darning needles, Admiral Butterflies, Tiger Stripe Swallowtails, a couple of Monarchs and this little lavender butterfly (I had to look twice) yes, it was a light shade of lavender. Enjoy!

July 5, 2024

The tiny yellow Helvola lily I have owned since 1992 has returned. This plucky little lily has survived being dragged out on the sidewalk by robins, dug out and wrecked by fresh water clam seeking racoons, skunks and is still going. There were no blooms for 2 years. So, this year, it was moved to a sunnier spot, given lily fertilizer after being kept outside to over winter (with insulation of course). This is the second water lily (had a large white lily back in June). These plants do survive if they are taken care of properly. The BBG Brooklyn Botanic Garden has some wonderful water lily ponds on display now along with Lotus that are ready to bloom...

July 5th, 2024

Cherry Tomato Palooza has begun. This is the harvest from this morning. Every day in the heat more and more ripen. The trick is to harvest them before the rain because they split. We have a crazed squirrel here hiding walnuts and peanuts in the pots.  We have

to come up with a solution to keep them from digging holes in our pots... Some have suggested forks with prongs up or hot pepper flakes... I have already used plastic grids from air filters for the salad greens. I have some plastic webbing but getting it secure over the pots is the problem.  I'll keep looking into it though.

June 28, 2024

The salad greens are this morning's harvest from 5 fence boxes of greens(I re-use the store bought boxes to store them in the fridge after rinsing with salt water) along with the first of the red and yellow cherry tomatoes. Salads, tomatoes, small peppers and herbs are possible in the small urban garden. We have had pears, apricots, blackberries, cucumbers and peas too. Salads and herbs are best for limited space. I start some pak choi and Asian cabbage inside for when the weather cools.

June 24, 2024 in mycitygardenjc.net

It's salad days in the garden. A few golden cherry toms but the peppers always take longer. Peppers include Cayenne Long Hot Pepper, Miniature Sweet Red Bell ( great for salads and dips) and Serrano Pepper. Pictured below is the Basil Farm for pesto and pizzas.

June 17th 2024 in Mycitygardenjc.net

In keeping with the "salad bowl" school of growing in a small urban space:

The garden is getting in gear finally. The vegetable residents are:

Cherry Tomato - yellow

Cherry Tomato - red (Heritage)

Greens (in hanging boxes) Mesclun Mix, leafy lettuce

Pak Choi

Miniature Sweet Red Bell Peppers

Hot Sweet Red Peppers (Sweet Thing)

Thai Cayenne Hot Pepper

Serrano Pepper

Garlic Chives

Chives

Basil (in pots)

Rosemary (bush in pot)

Lemon Balm

Blackberries

Sunflowers

Nasturtiums (flowers and leaves(spicy) are edible

Started inside are:

Bliss Hybrid (Yellow Grape Tomatoes)

Brown Jalapeno

Goronong (Maylaysian pepper)

Sugar Rush Peach

Tibetan Lhasa

(These inside start pepper seeds are courtesy of Gary Glassman of northern California.) He produces a hot sauce called "Dr.G's Mumbo Sauce" that's a favorite here...

The summer garden residents for 2023 include:

Pak Choy, Tat Soy, mixed lettuce, mesclun mix, garlic chives, green leaf lettuce, cherry tomatoes, miniature sweet red peppers, hot chili peppers, thai peppers, cayenne peppers, cucumbers,apricots and blackberries.

Herbs: Lavender, Rosemary, Dill, Catnip, Spearmint, Lemon Balm and Chives.
Flowers include: Voodoo Rose, Lincoln Rose, Clematis,Water Lilies, Hydrangea, Pansies, Allysum, Sunflower, Marigold and Nasturtiums.

July 16, 2023



Pictured is a homegrown salad. Includes Dill, Mesclun Mix, Lettuce (gourmet blend), Cherry Tomatoes, Chives, Tiny Red Pepper and Basil. No pesticides, etc. This is all pretty much from a 6' x 4' box with fence boxes and a few pots. There are second plantings of greens in the shade waiting. Even in a small amount of space you can supplement your summer diet. Waiting for ripening are Hot Red Chili, Cayenne Peppers, Thai Chili, Cucumbers, Pak Choi and herbs, Rosemary and Garlic Chives.

July 20,  2023

Two new fruits in the garden.

We lost our beautiful Dwarf Bartlett Pear to Pear Rust this year. Over the years it produced such sweet fruit and everyone looked forward to the harvest. Treatments, pruning,etc. were done to no avail.

Almost as a consolation prize, the Apricot tree delivered a ton of fruits. The same happened with the Blackberry bush. We've been reaping the harvest from it everyday.

July 26, 2023

The garden delivers salad ingredients at least 3x a week. This time, it's lettuce, pak choy, tomatoes, Rosemary and hot peppers. With food prices climbing, it's nice to have organic produce right outside the door...ew paragraph

Summertime - yellows, reds and orange are prevalent colors in the garden now. Harvest time has begun.