Sunny days + shiny floors =

One rather large speck of something.
And I just ran the dust mop. Grrrr.

lots o'dog hair and lint and dust showing up and driving me crazy.

Of course, I don't have far to go, as some of you know quite well. Heh.

But if 15 daily minutes of scooting the dust mop around the floors and the carpet sweeper on the small rugs helps reduce the number of times I have to do a major, major, MAJOR move-the-furniture mop job, well, I'll do it.

All the plants have now been moved indoors, and not a moment too soon. It could get down to 41 degrees tonight here in the Middle of Nowhere. I'm not sure how the potted plants would fare.

Lots o'dust on the coffee table, too. Note to self:
Next coffee table must not be shiny. Or black.

The inventory increases every year. Last year it was a spider plant, a pot of rosemary and another of chives. This year I ditched the chives, but am trying to overwinter a lantana, a eucalyptus, a laurel bay and a saucer of succulents. I also have a tiny lemon tree in a little pot that is doing quite well, but won't fruit for a couple more years. We'll see what works and what doesn't. I have plants hanging from tree limbs and I'm not sure what to do with them. I haven't figured out where to put them in the house yet. I think they'll spend their nights in the garage until I put up hooks for them indoors.

What's kinda funny about the new plants is that it's a mix of herbs (food) and flowers (decoration). Until last year I didn't care at all about flowers. If it wasn't productive, I didn't want to mess with it. After three summers working at the garden center, however, I've changed my tune. There's not a single food-bearing plant in the landscape bed in front of our house.

But the herb bed, which also contains rhubarb, horseradish and onions, is nearby.

Okay, that's two consecutive gardening posts and I still haven't written about the other stuff rattling around in my brain. Ah, well, it'll wait.

Unless it sifts out while I'm pushing the dust mop.

Indoor crops

Today I am inspired by a post I read last week on Faith's blog, Gracefulfitness. Faith wrote about forcing paperwhites indoors, something I've never tried. I love the fragrance of those delicate flowers, as well as their cousins, daffodils. But I like the look of them outdoors, so I planted 50 daffodils over the weekend near the edge of a little pine grove at the far end of our front yard.

My indoor gardening is, of course, food. Because that's how I roll. (And if I don't quit coughing and don't get some energy back so that I can begin walking again, I will – literally – be rolling. I'm at the waddling stage right now. Kidding! I haven't gained a pound since I got sick. Un-effing-believable!)

So. Back to my indoor garden. The light was lovely the other day and I took lots of pictures of the current crop. Only one plant is purely decorative; the rest are producing fruit and herbs. In the case of the lime tree, lots o' fruit! See?

The entire garden, except for the lemon and lime trees, fits on a shelf. How handy!

The spider plant, in the large pot on the left, isn't just decorative. Spider plants purify the air, absorbing carbon dioxide. I rescued mine from an outdoor planter at summer's end. I've seen significant new growth and there are several shoots with little baby spider plants on them.

Three of the plants are herbs, and when I figure out what to do with the supplies currently stored on the lower shelf I intend to add more. Right now I'm growing chives, rosemary and something that I think is spearmint, but it could just be a weed. It tastes like spearmint and it hasn't killed me yet. I noticed it growing vigorously in the new landscape bed we installed this summer as I was cutting things back, so I popped it in a pot to see what would happen.

The rosemary and chives were well-established in my herb bed and I use both of them frequently when I cook, so it made sense (to me) to bring them indoors. Fresh herbs trump dried in my kitchen.

The other plant on the upper shelf is a new Meyer lemon tree. (I bought it before my daughter donated one to my collection.) It's only about six inches tall now, and it will be three years before it fruits. I think that shows extreme confidence in both my gardening skills and the quality of my health. Heh.

So what will I be adding to the lower shelf? Basil, basil and more basil, although I understand it's difficult to grow indoors. But I'm willing to try. I believe I've turned into a plant person.

For the past three years I've been dabbling in gardening, but feel like I've been on my way to being a real gardener. In that time, I've learned a lot and added some fruit (strawberries and blackberries) to the vegetable bed and general landscaping (apple trees).

The new landscaped bed in front of the house is purely decorative and I think that's what pushed me into the "real gardener" category. When you start growing things for how they look instead of for just how they taste, I think you've graduated. Will I ever be a master gardener? Not on your life. That takes a lot of work and effort and study and so far gardening has been fun, fun and more fun. I wouldn't want to change that for anything.

The bottom line is this: If you admire others' gardens and are tempted to dip your toe in the earth, so to speak, go ahead. You're not going to lose much if you have a crop failure. (You have no idea how disappointed I was to not get any butternuts this year. No idea!) You'll gain immense satisfaction when you see that first strawberry to add to your morning cereal, or asparagus soaring – literally – inches overnight (I highly recommend asparagus as a first crop, even though you'll have to wait a year to eat it), or the most magical of all – garlic, which survives in the ground over the winter to produce a truly bountiful harvest in July and opens up another bedding area to plant in late summer.

The possibilities and rewards are endless. And delicious!