#Gardeningallyearlong

As we've been saying all along, one of the nicest things about container gardening in Puerto Rico is being able to garden all year long. Even as the temperatures dip into the 70s (yes, that's a dip for Puerto Rico) we're still able to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and other warm weather crops. This has inspired me to create a new motto for this little blog, #gardeningallyearlong. So follow us on Twitter @ContnrgardenPR where we'll be using this tag when we tweet about gardening activities over the winter.

It's the Season... for Herbal Vinegars

The Holidays are here and we already feel the spirit. We just want to party, have some days off, eat the season's treats... but we also want to share with family and friends and give away nice reminders of love and care. (Editor's note: #spreadthelove) As a gardener you have lots to share. Today we'll talk about one of the many great gift ideas for the season: herbal vinegars. 


We previously talked about basil vinegar in our Yucky-Yummy post. The process to prepare any herbal vinegar is basically the same. Take snippings or leaves of your favorite herb, stuff them loosely into a glass jar with a fitting lid, and pour enough vinegar to cover all foliage. White wine and red wine vinegar are the best kind to combined with herbs. Wait about a week, strain off and discard the leaves (This is an important part since the leaves will rot in your vinegar. Yuck). There are numerous recipes that use herbal vinegar. Remember they make excellent salad dressings but can also be added to pot roasts, stews, sauces for chicken and fish or steamed vegetables. 

If you enjoy herbal fragrances, another delightful use for these vinegars is hydrotherapy. The process is simple: add about a cup of herbal vinegar to the bathwater, slip in and enjoy. Alternatively you can just add half a cup to use it as a hair rinse. Don't worry, the vinegary smell dissipates quickly and you’re left with a gentle herbal fragrance on your hair. Many herbs are good for your skin and so is the vinegar itself. Vinegar cleanses the pore, restores skin and hair pH to the proper level, it's also good for your scalp, and helps reduce dandruff.

Each herb provides different benefits to your body or hair: 

• Chamomile is considered soothing and relaxing and it is excellent for dry skin. 
• Bay, oregano and sage are good for sore muscles. 
• Basil, bay, fennel, lavender, mint, rosemary, sage and thyme stimulate blood circulation, so they are both invigorating and relaxing. 
• Calendula and spearmint are also soothing to tough or damaged skin. 
• The foliage and flowers of bay, nasturtiums, rosemary, and sage have astringent properties which will tighten the pores of the skin. 
• Calendula and chamomile lighten hair color, blonds get blonder and auburn and redheads get brighter.
• Sage darkens hair color.
• Calendula, parsley, rosemary and sage add shine and body to the hair, and help control dandruff.
• Chamomile makes hair softer.
• Calendula, lavender, mint and rosemary are good conditioners for oily hair.
• Parsley and sage are good for dry hair.

Safety precautions: Not everyone reacts favorably to herbs, beware of allergies. Test vinegars on your skin before using any new herb. Dab some on with a cotton ball and wait and hour or so for any reaction. Discontinue use if redness or itchiness appear.

Nice bottles with a few touches will make your gift extra-special

Once you are familiar with the pleasures and benefits of the different herbal vinegars, you will surely want to share the experience. Bottles of herbal vinegar make very nice gifts. Use the following hints to make them extra-special: 

• Use pretty bottles, the kind with removable stoppers are the best. 
• Strain the finished vinegar to remove all particles. Although a spring in the bottle does look nice, the fact is that it degrades too fast, creating unpleasant layers of sludge. If you really want to include a spring or some leaves attach them to the outside of the bottle.
• Create a gift tag describing ways to use the vinegar, both in cooking and cosmetically or add a recipe card.
• Add crafts or labels with floral or herbal designs, either to the bottles or the tags.

Send us your comments about your herbal vinegars or other gardening gifts this season. We bet everyone will be delighted. Happy Holidays!

Getting back on the horse

After two weeks sightseeing in India we're back (and better than ever?)! Time to get back on the horse and do some gardening.

Even with a garden-sitter some of our plants suffered while we were on vacation since our friends went away for Thanksgiving. This left our plants without water for 3-4 days. As a result we lost our cucumbers (which were already struggling), a cherry tomato (which was already struggling), our bell peppers (which were already struggling due to an aphid infestation) and a few seedlings. I hope you saw a pattern there. Basically, all plants which were already weak or young were lost. Every other healthy plant was spared although some (such as our miniature and our new cubanelle pepper) were weakened and attacked by aphids (Damn you aphids. Why won't you go away! Mental note: Write a post about aphids). But alas not all is bad news. Our arugula looks gorgeous and the small leaf oregano has spread considerably. Also, some basil seedlings have matured and the payasitos are starting to bloom and multiply.

With all that being said we're ready to get back on the horse (Didn't we say that already?). Yesterday we planted some cucumber and bell pepper seeds to replace the ones lost. We previously had 3 cherry tomato plants which produced more tomatoes than we can consume (and gift to friends). Therefore, we're looking into what we can plant to substitute the cherry tomato plant. Maybe a plum tomato, some heirlooms tomatoes, a few lettuces, some flowering plants, who knows. That's one of the great things about container gardening. There are hundreds of possibilities to choose from; a little something for everyone. Keep tuned for more information and for updates on our little container garden.

Going away? Plan ahead

We're going to take a little vacation soon which means we need to prepare. The last time we left for a few days our cucumbers suffered (see A Death in the family). It also means no posts for at least two weeks! (It also explains why we haven't posted anything in a while. Planning a vacation is time-consuming) So what things you need to take into account when you're going on vacation?

1. Watering - Your first (and probably only concern but we threw a few additional ones just for the fun of it) concern should be watering. Your plants might survive a day or two without water outside and maybe 3 or 4 days if you move them inside. For short trips you can get some water bottles or 2 liter soda bottles and fill them with water. Make a small hole in the cap and insert the bottle upside down in the soil. Water will slowly trickle out as the soil dries out. If your time away will be longer than a few days then we suggest a garden-sitter. We recommend that you take this person to your garden and instruct them on how to water your plants.  Also, you can mix water retaining hydrogels into your soil. This will increase the availability of moisture in your pots. There are also automatic watering solutions but we cannot comment on them since we haven't tried them (Crystal ball: I see a future post about this topic).
2. Pruning - Take this opportunity to do a little pruning (Editor's note: Joel hates pruning but he knows it's necessary). This will help reduce the water requirements of your plants. 
3. Harvesting - Harvest as many fruits and vegetables as possible. Also teach your garden-sitter how and which plants to harvest while you are away. They won't mind eating some fresh vegetables while you're out.
4. Location - Since you have a container garden you also have the opportunity to move your plants to a shaded location. This will obviously reduce the water requirements for your plants.

These tips should help you in keeping your garden alive while you enjoy your days away. We'll be back in a few weeks. Until then keep on gardening!

The Holy Grail

Strawberry plant. Easily recognized by its 3-parted leaves.

Gotta admit that finding some plants in Puerto Rico is hard. Orchids, roses, citrus trees, oregano brujo, avocado, tomato. Easy. Strawberries, especially in fall. Hard. So this is the story of how two little adventurers braved the scorching sun and high humidity in search of a strawberry plant. Cue the adventure theme music. In all seriousness we've been searching for a strawberry plant since we started our garden a few months ago. We both love strawberries and have been wanting to grow our own since we tasted a freshly picked strawberry in Verona, Italy in 2010. The difference between a fresh and a supermarket strawberry is, as we say in Puerto Rico, "del cielo a la tierra" (from heaven to earth). After months of searching we were able to buy a plant at a garden center about an hour from where we live.

Growing strawberries in Puerto Rico is not an easy task. Some say it is impossible unless you live in the mountains. Due to the high temperatures and humidity extra care must be taken to avoid fungus, root rot and burnt plants. In temperate, and even sub-tropical, climates strawberries should be grown in full sun. In the tropics full sun will most likely kill your plants so it is recommended to grow strawberries is semi-shade or 3-4 hours of early morning or late afternoon sunlight. Another precaution to take is not to get the leaves wet which will likely cause fungus (usually, powdery mildew) to develop.

Strawberry plants are technically perennials but are usually grown as annuals. The plants you find at the nursery are called mother plants. These plants produce a significant amount of berries and also produce runners called daughter plants. These daughter plants can be allowed to root or cut from the mother plant since they drain energy that could be directed towards fruit production. If allowed to root they will become a mother plant next season. A good trick is to put a rock over the stem of the runner to pin it to the ground to encourage root growth.

Strawberries are classified into three classes: June-bearing, ever-bearing and day neutral. June bearings bear fruit in June (no surprise there), ever-bearing produces two batches of fruit (one in early summer and one in late summer) while day neutral are not affected by the length of a day and produce small batches of fruit from June until frost stops them. We have no idea which plant we actually got but I will assume it's a June bearer since it's the most common. (Editor's note: Always research your plants before buying.) It would be interesting to see how day neutral plants would behave in Puerto Rico since there is no frost.

Will we succeed in growing strawberries in the tropics? Keep tuned to find out and for more information on growing strawberries.

Did someone say party?

Pink and red flowers on our verbena.

For all our Spanish challenged readers the title of today's post will make absolutely no sense. Probably won't make sense to Spanish speakers too but I like it so I'm sticking with it. Verbena, which means street party in Spanish, is a flowering plant from the Verbenaceae family. There are many species commonly called verbena which all share the characteristic of producing small five-petal flowers in bunches or clusters. Flowers come in many colors including red, pink, purple, blue or white. We have no idea which verbena species we have but I assume it's some type of Verbena X hybrida.

In prehistoric times when the world was in darkness (before the blog was started) we went crazy and bought (almost) every seed pack we could find. (Editors note: If it wasn't for Jessica Joel would have bough every seed pack including watermelons and pumpkins. Good thing Jessica can keep him straight.) One of these seed packs was for verbena, a truly beautiful flowering plant. We placed a few seeds in peat soil pellets and two plants emerged. Verbena germinates quickly in Puerto Rico's hot weather although I cannot recall exactly how long it took. After a few weeks we moved one plant to a mixed pot with tomato, chives and oregano while the other was placed by itself on a pot. The plant in the mixed pot received full sunlight (6+ hours a day) while the other received only 3-4 hours of sunlight in the early morning.

The verbena which we grew by itself before the whiteflies.

We learned a few things from this little "experiment". Verbena prefers full sun with a good draining soil. Boggy conditions will cause fungus to develop, most commonly powdery mildew. However, don't let the soil dry completely or the plant will wither. Too little sun will stress the plant and attract pests. Whiteflies in our case (Yes, those whiteflies). Also, the plant that received full sun has flowered multiple times while the other plant has yet to flower. This may be due to lack of sunlight or because the whiteflies were draining its strength. In any case full sun may have solved the problem. After the plant has flowered the deadheads must be cut to promote new flowers. Failing to perform this task will cause the plant to stop flowering.

Have you grown verbena in your garden? Let us know. 

Arugula Follow Up

Our lonely arugula. Soon to be joined by four more friends

We mentioned that we were raising some Arugula from seed back in mid-August (yes, it has been that long - see The more the merrier - Arugula). For comparison we posted a picture of our arugula today. Definitely not pretty but oh so tasty. A the time we promised a follow-up which hadn't happened until today (no, not because I'm lazy although that was a good guess). The reason for the delay is that I wanted to know if the arugula would bolt in Puerto Rico's hot weather. Two months later the plant hasn't bolted yet and we're harvesting leaves every week or so. We felt so encouraged by this that we planted four seeds a few days ago which have already sprouted into four tiny plants. This should give us enough arugula for a few tasty salads (nice!).

Arugula is a green leaf with a growth pattern similar to open-leaf lettuce. It has a peppery flavor which contrasts with other mild-flavored green leafs such as spinach or lettuce. Young leaves develop at the center of the plant and expand outward as they grow. Once the leaves reach full size they may harvested one leaf at a time. Remember not to take too many leaves or they plant may die. Since arugula is considered a cool season vegetable it is recommended that it be planted during the "cooler" months (September - March) to avoid bolting. Also, provide some shade during the hotter hours of the day. That being said bolting is inevitable. Once it happens you can remove the plant or allow it to go to seed. The flowers are also edible and can be added to salads to give it a spicy punch.

We definitely recommend having this plant in your container garden. Arugula is uncommon or non-existent in Puerto Rico supermarkets so your best bet is to raise it from seed which is fairly simple. Just plant, water and harvest. Have you raised arugula in Puerto Rico? Share your experiences with us in the comments section.