Spring Has Sprung

Today is the official first day of spring, and it did not disappoint! It was a whopping 73 degrees today in New York City.  The weather is outstanding, and yet, very scary.  I hope this is not a peek into a very hot NY summer. On my way home from work today, I stopped dead in my tracks from the scent of this beauty!  The Magnolia tree in my neighbor's yard is in FULL bloom!  One month ahead of schedule!

How gorgeous are these?  And the scent is intoxicating!  I absolutely love the smell of magnolias!  And they are so pretty!

This tree was also full of blooms.  I don't know what type of tree this is, but it had lots of white flowers.  Ahh, spring is in the air!

Vegetables Growing in a Mild Winter

Yesterday, I took a walk around the garden and to my surprise shock, I saw some vegetables still growing that I had left in the garden. This past autumn, I became so busy that I never cleaned up the garden.  I didn't pull any of the brassicas or other greens, I left everything that was still growing in the ground.  We've been having the most mild winter, where temperatures have been hovering around the 40s and 50s.  Sometimes even going up to the 60s. Therefore, the Fall vegetables have continued to grow.  Check out the broccoli, it finally grew crowns!

The leeks also going strong!  This was my first time growing leeks and I have to say I love it.  The smell of the leeks is incredible!

The kale has continued to send out leaves!  I am so surprised that these plants all survived the two snow storms we had.  There is no sign of frost burn at all!

Even the brussel sprouts are starting to form their heads. I love brussel sprouts, so I definitely am hoping to be able to harvest these babies.

I decided to harvest some leeks and broccoli crowns to use in my dinner. I wish you could smell these leeks.  The smell was so strong, I could smell it two rooms away!!

I pulled out some garlic scape pesto that I had in the freezer and made a penne pesto pasta with the garden leeks and broccoli. I would have never thought that I would be eating this seasonally in mid-winter!  It's pretty cool but scary at the same time.  I live in NY, there is usually snow on the ground this time of year. So the fact that I can walk out to my backyard garden and pull fresh veggies to use for dinner is a little.... strange.

The World of Mushrooms

It's not a secret that I've been wanting to learn how to grow mushrooms at home.  I'm taking a class at The Hort next month to learn all about mushrooms, how to identify them in the wild and how to grow some at home. I am so excited to take this class!  We are going to learn how to innoculate wood with mushroom spores.  I love mushrooms, if I could, I would put it in everything I eat. I can barely contain my excitement. If you are in NYC in April, you can sign up for the class here!

Photo screenshot from TheHort.com

And today, I saw that the Back to the Roots Mushroom Kit is on sale for $16 on Fab.com, 20% off it's regular price.  I've been pining over these mushroom kits for awhile, but cheapskate as I am, I haven't taken the plunge to buying one.  Now that it's on sale, I have a good excuse to try it. The sale can be seen here. The kit grows 1.5 pounds of Oyster mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms are one of my favorites.  I love them simply sauteed with salt and butter. Delicious.  And it grows in recycled coffee grounds which is so sustainable.  I think I can chuck the whole thing in my compost bin when it's finished growing too! So no waste, sweet! (Update: one of readers mentioned that you can continue regrowing the mushroom kit more than once and even use the spores to innoculate a log of wood.  I am sooo going to try that!)

Photo screenshot from Fab.com

BBG's Making Brooklyn Bloom

I got an email today about an event next Saturday, March 10th, that I am definitely excited about. Brooklyn Botanical Garden is hosting it's 31st Annual Making Brooklyn Bloom.  It's a Free all day conference that is focusing on sustainable growing innovation.  From their website,  the "event features exhibits and workshops on the cutting edge of sustainable urban gardening—from growing food on roofs and windowsills to reducing your garden’s carbon footprint."  I looked at the day's schedule of workshops and the ones I am most excited about attending are

Lasagna Gardening - The Lazy Composter’s Friend
The Farmer on the Sill: High Yields at Window
Testing Soil for Toxins: Now What?

A FREE event all about sustainable urban gardening????  Hell yeah! Sign me up!

Screenshot from Brooklyn Botanical Garden Website