The Fun and The Freaky of Trying New Things

Or, my personal history as a gardener.

Trying new things is kind of like a scary story— it’s freaky, but I have to know what’s glowing on the other side of that creaky door.

When I landscaped my front yard with flowers last year, I soon found out that glow was fire, and I was baptized in it. I didn’t have knowledge on my side, and the learning curve was steeper than Mount Everest (I’m speaking in past tense, but let me be clear— I am still on that mountainside!) At one point, it felt like everyday a new plant had a new dire problem. Powdery mildew ruled with an iron fist. Spider mites ran rampant. Everything was dehydrated. Most of my time was spent watering and assessing the landscape design— at one point I relocated almost half the plants. When all was said and done for the season, the plants looked okay and I could still hear a cackle from a spider mite or two.

Dahlias were the happiest, prettiest flowers I grew last year! On the right, my baby yard in late August, after moving around a lot of plants.

And what am I going to do this year? Try a bunch of new stuff again! Namely, starting flowers and plants from seeds. Why? Because I’m insane! No— (I mean, a little)— it’s because in the end, opening the freaky creaky door is more fun than it is scary. And, I just really want a yard chock full of flowers.

Basically, I want my yard to look like the castle from Enchanted April.

Right now I’m in the research-before-trying phase, which is my favorite phase. I loooove research, It’s all the fun of learning without any of the risk of doing. I’ve learned that most perennial seeds (plants that die back and return each year) need cold stratification (simulating winter) in order to sprout. I’ve also learned that most annual seeds (plants that grow for just one season) can be sown directly in the ground, but that often they’re sown in trays so they don’t get washed or blown away, eaten by birds, or mowed down by slugs after sprouting. I plan to experiment with all of these methods, so stay tuned.

Nasturtium, borage, and hollyhock seeds

If you want to just throw some seeds into your yard or a planter and see what happens (your untethered spirit is an inspiration!), try a toss of these low-maintenance seeds after your area’s last frost date: poppies, shasta daisies, or hollyhocks; all of which need light to germinate and don’t even need to be buried!

For edible flowers, try nasturtium (sow 1/2-1” deep), bachelors buttons ( sow 1/4” deep), or borage (sow 1/4-1/2” deep.) All beautiful,  delicious, and easy to grow right in the ground!

I recommend Johnny’s Seeds for great, reliable seeds.

 

My vegetable garden from last year.

Speaking of edibles, the shining exception to my rocky gardening resume is my vegetable patch, a great success since it started (knock on wood!) This is largely thanks to raised beds, and to my previous place of employment, The Works Seattle, where I learned to grow a vegetable garden using easy direct sow crops (meaning the seeds are sown right into the soil in the Spring.) I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to put a teeny seed into the soil and pull out a gorgeous red radish in its place three weeks later! This year I’m adding several new direct sow crops to my plan, and hoping to devour 3-4 harvests from mid-March to mid-September. I’m also thinking of writing up a blog post with a direct sow vegetable garden plan.

My 2024 vegetable garden plan. Makes sense to me!

The last new freaky creaky door I’m currently opening up in the gardening realm is that of a drip irrigation system. As all the YouTubers have assured me, it does seem easy enough to install yourself, but I’ve still devoted several hours to wrapping my head around the required concepts that go along with the installation, like water pressure vs water flow rate. I’m hoping this installation will give me more time, better hydrated plants, and less powdery mildew (if there’s any mercy in the world!!) You can likely expect a blog post devoted to this topic as well.

Hot Tip

In a different realm, here’s something new you can try if you’ve not tried it already—Remove wax from various vessels and surfaces by sticking the whole thing in the freezer! 9 times out of 10 it works like a dream. (The 1 time out of 10 it’s just still stuck and you’ve got to use hot water.) Throw candles in the freezer, take them out when you remember, the wax pops out, and you’re free to reuse the vessel. The freezer even got the melted wax off of my Swedish angel chimes after Christmas, a truly impressive feat.

Just for fun, here’s my cat. She fell asleep face down and smooshed her lip into this grumpy face.

Here’s the best things I cooked this week:

Salad Tacos

There’s actually avocado, sour cream, and a little seared steak under there too, not that you can tell. But mostly, salad! I tossed shredded red cabbage, carrots, radishes, jalapeño, and cilantro with lime juice and ground cumin. Shockingly delicious.

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Tofu + Mandarin Salad

This is a take on the recipe that Andrea Nguyen shared on her Substack recently for Tofu and Watercress salad! I had escarole, so I used that in place of watercress. I made the ginger dressing verbatim, and added carrots and cilantro, which were suggested add-ons. I also added celery and peanuts cause I had them and it sounded good! It was delicious. The tofu is fried (prepared like this recipe)— I needed some fry in my life!

Steak with Horseradish Cream

A horseradish cream of horseradish, dijon mustard, yogurt (yup!), and vegannaise over a seared ribeye (my weakness) and a shower of chives and parsley. Also, roasted red cabbage and carrots and farro!

Egg Flatbread Wrap

Sliced tomatoes tossed with chives, basil, dill, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper, goat cheese, sliced spinach, and scrambled eggs on a Trader Joe’s ‘Middle Eastern Flatbread’.

That’s all for this Fryday, see you next time!

Kiya