The pots on the left are for spices. I have started growing chives, parsley, and basil in them. I was not sure if they would actually grow, since they do not get direct sunlight, but I hoped for the best. As you can see below, they totally started growing! There are tiny sprouts in each of them. Success! Matthew used leftover fence wood for the material and waterproofed them with red guard (usually used behind tile in showers). Total cost of this project – free (because all materials / screws / seeds / dirt was leftover from other projects). Yay! I am going to paint the names of the plants on soon, but I wanted to wait until they actually grew and we knew they were sustainable there. [The seed packets will then disappear.]

The spice cabinet is custom built for these awesome little spice jars (which we got for $1 at World Market). We are slowly buying more of them and transferring spices into them. I keep waiting for another $10 off $30 coupon, and a $10 reward for buying food there. Oh how I love rewards programs!

These little improvements have made all of the difference in our kitchen. I love the way that it is becoming our own home. Sure, we have had it for three years now, but each little improvement makes it feel so much more like home. I cannot wait until our spice cabinet is filled (which means we can get rid of the basket of spices to the right of the cabinet)! Yay! Do you store your spices in fancy jars, or just use what they came in?

In case you need a quick recap:

• If you have gophers, dig your garden plot down about six inches to one foot and line with chicken wire. Cover with soil and plant as usual.
• Choose whichever way you prefer to water your garden.  We put in soaker hoses which attach to our dripline.  In the video you see three; but we decided that was not sufficient, so we put in a fourth.  Each line drips three gallons of water an hour, and we have them on for four hours a night.

Any tips from your garden this week?  Anything else you want to know?  Let me know in the comments!

Before -- lots of weeds and crap on the side of our home!

Proof that I actually get work done -- pulling weeds in the little dirt patch!

The “lattice” is hung on some screws on the fence.  Matt put it there to see if I liked it.  This is not how it would stay though, as we needed it away from the fence so that the grapes could grow onto it.  You can see it “suspended” below.

Excited about our new grape vines -- Red and Green Thompson Seedless, to be exact!

If you want to see the after shots, you have to check out the video below.  I also explain exactly what we did, so you can replicate it!

Let me know if you have any questions — or if you noticed my poor grammar / mumbling — or if you caught my ADD (“oh there’s a cat, but you can’t see it”)!  If you have any specific garden questions, shoot me an email or leave them in the comments.  I will try my best to answer them soon!

Now, onto the garden.  We will start with this little video that I made.  It is actually the finished product, but I explained everything that I did.  I had fun making the video, but think I talk like I have marshmallows in my teeth, or braces — which is weird as I never had braces!  Anywho, check out my vlog, and excuse my nasty garden-dirty attire!

So, a few close ups….  This is where my garden used to be.  Remember that?

Yeah, you cannot really plant vegetables inside a shed… or in your compost bin!  Actually, you can totally start them in a compost bin (I did that accidentally one year)!  Have I got you interested in the new garden?  Well, there are more pictures after the jump.

This is where the garden will eventually be. However, this is a major project and we need to finish other home projects first!

This is the site of the new garden as it stood this morning. Two rosebushes and a shrub needed to go!

Here you can see my amazing hubby removing a shrub that just would not grow. This is where we put the other shrub (see above).

As I was mixing the dirt and compost in the garden, this is what I looked up to see. If only I could just lay around and relax all day!!

The garden, almost finished. To see it staked out and planted, check out the video.

There you have it — our sweet little garden in the front.  I was inspired by a lovely herb garden outside the Buzz Lightyear ride in Disneyland.  The rosemary and peppers and tarragon should stay beautiful all year long.  This is a sunny spot, so I made sure to pick plants that will do well in full sun!  Are you going to create a garden?  I know it is a bit late to get started, but I tried to choose plants that will do well in this So Cal summer heat!

My basil is all grown up!

I’m glad that the $3 kit from CVS ended up working out. I made margherita pizza and basil martinis — both were very tasty!

Margherita Pizza

Cheesy margherita pizza -- one of my faves!

1. Roll your dough out on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin. I picked up some garlic and herb dough from Trader Joe’s and it worked well. Although, it ended up sticking to the pizza stone, so maybe try using a baking sheet instead. I will also try to roll it out thinner next time.
2. Brush or rub about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil on top of the rolled-out dough.
3. Add about 1 teaspoon of chopped up garlic.
4. Slice mozzarella cheese about 1/4 of an inch thick and lay out over pizza.
5. Slick tomato in fairly thin slices and place them over the cheese.
6. Cut up about 4 basil leaves and place them on the pizza. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
7. Cook at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Basil Martini

Basil martini anyone?

I followed this recipe (good for one drink) but think I may go for a vodka version next time, since this one was a little “ginny” for my taste. Also, I chopped up about two basil leaves that went inside the drink, and added two large leaves for garnish. The longer you leave in the leaves, the more basil taste will be infused.

• 2 oz gin
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 3/4 oz simple syrup
• 3-4 fresh basil leaves

I’m so glad I flexed my green thumb so I could have a tasty meal and more to come. Do you use homegrown herbs in your cooking?

It's my baby basil sprouts!

With some more time, sun and a little water — not too much! — they have grown to look like this:

My basil is all grown up! Time to repot.

The guide that came with my seed-growing kit said to repot the basil after the sprouts reach about three inches. That’s definitely true for the one in the purple, as it is overshadowing some late bloomers. Although, it would seem to me that the purple pot is big enough for that size. Even the white pot seems like it is still about the right size.

What do you gardening pros think I should do? And should I move it outside? I’m afraid the critters will be attracted to the awesome basil aroma and start nibbling!

Tomatoes, grown in my very own garden.

This recipe is so good that your husband who does not like tomatoes will eat many of them. (He’s actually allergic to tomatoes, but only if they’re uncooked.)

Looks amazing, right? Okay, maybe not -- but they are fantastic!

This recipe can be found in the Barefoot Contessa’s cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients, but basically you:

1. Top tomatoes with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic and then roast for awhile.

2. Once they are all blackened and roasted, top with freshly cut basil.

Now is that simple, or what? It’s very delicious and it was so nice to use tomatoes from my garden and an actual cookbook for a recipe, versus searching for something online.  How often do you use cookbooks?

Yeah, all of those in this photo I pretty much fried. I’ve tried moving them out of the direct sun, but it’s going to take some time and TLC to hopefully do damage control.

I’ve also haven’t had much luck with those little all-in-one kits. I don’t have photographic evidence of failure, but of sweet little basil sprouts of success!

Check out the basil! What, you can't see it?

I was a sucker in CVS the other day and I wandered over to the lawn and garden section. Everything was 50 percent off! So I nabbed this set for $2. It came with extra seeds and a ton of soil, so I was able to to fill a little Ikea planter.

It's my baby basil sprouts!

I’m definitely seeing basil martinis and margherita pizza in my future!

Did Megan’s gardening greatness inspire any of you to improve your green thumbs?

Tip #1:  Make sure you water! I know, it’s a bit weird, but sometimes you wake up late or get home early and think, nah it will be okay to skip this step one time.  Know what I learned?  It will not!  That was my lesson last summer when I accidentally scorched my plants.  You can tell when they are dried out, because the leaves get crisp and literally look parched.

Juicy red tomatoes!

Tip #2: Try not to get the leaves wet.  They will grow mold!  The leaves on our zucchini have some white mold spots from my sprinkler; so my ingenious sprinkler for watering the garden is not working out so well.  Bummer.  Matthew is working on a soaker hose that I can use.  I love the square foot garden, but it makes putting in a drip line rather impractical.

You can get orange pumpkins like these -- but avoid getting the leaves wet!

My mother in law came over on Friday and helped Matthew diagnose the problem with the leaves.  If I had been a good blogger, I would have taken pictures as what not to do.  Instead I got home and hopped in the car so we could go to Mexico for a weekend.

Fruits (or rather mostly veggies) of my labor.

How is your garden?  Do you have any other tips to share?  If you posted about it on your blog, share the link so I can see your pictures!

See those giant pumpkin vines? They are 2 plants (which are triple in size now) which are the result of my first "failed" seed starters. I tossed the dried out seed pots in our compost, because I thought I killed them. A few weeks later, my compost was growing! I carefully replanted the misc pumpkin / squash plants (I had no idea what they were) and that is how these pumpkins came to be. I have to get a picture of our tree out front as well, because my hubby turned the compost and then treated the trees with it. Needless to say we have about 8 pumpkin vines at the base of our orange tree!

Now I can share with you my tips on transferring:

Water the area.  You want nice and moist soil, not dried up clumpy soil.  I like to deep water the transfer area a day or two before I plant, so that the soil is welcoming to the new seedlings.

I love this sprinkler that I recently purchased. Now I just have to step outside the door, turn on the faucet, and voila - watering my garden!

Cultivate the soil.  If you have compost, go ahead and mix some of that into the top layer of your soil.  If you do not have compost, you can mix in some fresh soil (we buy ours at Kmart where it’s cheap).  And if you are really lazy (like I often am) just go ahead and use a trowel to loosen the dirt.

This soil needs to be turned with a little hand shovel before I transfer my seeds (but I actually planted rows of peas here, after loosening the soil with a trowel).

Prep your Seedlings.  Make sure they have grown big enough to be transferred.  This means you do not want to transfer a tiny little seed that has barely started to grow.  I transfer squash when they have reached about 2 or 3 inches, tomatoes once they are 4 inches or so.  If the roots are grabbing onto other seed pots, it is time to transfer them!  I also break up the bottom of the seed pot and separate the roots a bit before transfer, so they aren’t in one big clump.

See how the squash and zucchini (top center and bottom left) are getting tall, this told me that they were close to transfer stage. I let them grow for another week or so in the tray.

Once you have planted your seedlings, give them another water.  Here in the desert we have to water twice a day. That sprinkler above has greatly impacted my garden.  Now it gets all the water it needs (because before I would get tired of watering after a few minutes and think I had done enough), because I let it go for 15 or 20 minutes in the morning and evening.  You will also have a better harvest if you plant in the morning or evening, when it’s cool and the plants have time to adjust to the ground before being scorched by the sun!

Thanks to Terry for the Swiss Chard plants (in the back). The onions are also doing incredibly well, anyone know the harvest time on these babies?

I will share one last picture of the garden with you.  This was my attempt at apartment/porch planting.  I had all of these great little pots with seeds in them, and the cats made them their sandboxes.  No, they did not poop in them, but they did dig up all the dirt.  But here is what your porch garden could look like:

These pots would have been perfect for an apartment garden, don't you think?

So what do you think?  Have you transferred your seeds yet?  Have you had a successful apartment garden?  Let me know!