Our little garden.

One of our big reasons for moving apartments at the end of our lease was because in an ideal world we wanted a little outside space for Mila. It is important to understand that a "garden" in Manhattan is a general term (you could probably have an extended step with a a leaf on it and it'll be marketed as an "outdoor space") and is incredibly rare. So when we saw that the apartment (that we ultimately moved into), had a paved terrace and over-sized flower beds, we were sold.

Case and point:

Another advantage of having some outdoor sun is that one can start to grow things. Optimally one would want to start this process at the beginning of spring (April/May over here) so that plants have sufficient time to develop a comprehensive root system to better battle the winter. For this reason, we have mostly laid mulch over the plantable areas with scattered perennial grass to reduce Mila (and her friends) running dirty paws into the house. Provided it doesn't rain this system works fairly well. 

Another thing. I have been trying to do is grow my own herbs and veggies. Again, it is later in the season to do this but I am hoping to "harvest" (haha) some of them before winter sets in, and where possible to pot them and bring them inside so they don't literally die of cold. I started by growing herbs from seeds but soon discovered that if we want to use them any time this year, I would to invest in a fully grown plants. I am still going to work with the seedlings over the next few months and hopefully next year they will be big enough to yield some goodies. 

  

My basil (Mr Pesto - don't plants do better if you coo at them?) is by far the front runner in terms of germination and determination. Mr Pesto is still a little young to make this but he's getting there. I cracked and bought a full-sized Mr Pesto from the supermarket - he has added an extra oomph to my salads.

What Mr Pesto (first picture) wants to be when he grows up. 

Next up is coriander or cilantro as they say over here.. I have discovered that the cilantro plant is actually very fragile and has definitely not grown as fervently as Mr Pesto. I again, caved, after having cilantro in my fridge and making a really flavourful cilantro pesto, and bought "above's" grown-up version (below).

One thing my garden definitely lacks is colour. We're on the brown, green and mulch colour train at the moment. Hoping my pansies will break out in full bloom before they get too chilly and give up.

More hopefuls: lettuce, carrots and cucumber. If nothing else, it's fun to watch them grow and marvel that they were mailed to me as seeds from Amazon!

So watch this space for my outdoor action! Hopefully in a month or two, I will have something more to show than just lonely soil. I'm still holding out that we can get some chairs and a table for outside dinners. Hey, it all starts with a dream.