WINDOWSILL GARDENING

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D.

 

          Windowsill gardening is one of the bright spots for winter gardeners as well as for year-around foodies.  Without expensive greenhouses, we’re pretty much left with our windowsills during the non-growing seasons in Flagstaff.  This means growing herbs.  Of course, herbs are what make the culinary world go around.

 

          As I puzzled over the best herbs to grow on our sunny windowsills, I decided to consult an expert.  Nancy McCulla of Simply Delicious/Café Daily Fare came to mind.  If anyone were knowledgeable about culinary herbs, it would be a chef.  Perched high above “66”, behind Babbitt’s automobile agency, and up a rutted dirt lane, McCulla holds forth as a premier caterer and daytime restaurateur in a former foundry.   

 

          As I munched on delightful apricot and blueberry tart over a cup of tea, we went through nearly all the herbs that can be grown on a sunny windowsill.  The number is, to be use the dismal vernacular, awesome.   At first, I thought of basil because it’s easy to grow and is universally useful although I’ve never tried it in my oatmeal.  Then cilantro came to mind, but some people, such as Julia Child, object claiming that it smells like soap.  She advised throwing it on the floor.  The best way to cure cilantrophobia is to smash the leaves, releasing an enzyme which dispels the unwanted odor of the aldehydes.  Along with garden cress and fernleaf dill, cilantro needs to be reseeded once harvested. 

           
 

Then four old favorites came to mind, Greek oregano, thyme, parsley, and tarragon.  As we chatted, others tumbled out: chives, marjoram, chervil, English mint, creeping savory, sorrel, lemon grass, parsley, and, of course, fernleaf dill.  Even sage (dwarf garden) and rosemary (Blue Boy) have been downsized for the windowsill and are best propagated by cuttings.

 

          Since most herbs are expatriates from the lands around Mediterranean and Asia, growing on sunny windowsills has its advantages because these herbs require sunlight, warmth, and well-drained soil.  Unglazed clay pots with leak-proof saucers are the best containers for growing herbs because the unglazed clay allows for air circulation and evaporation so that the soil will not be waterlogged, a number one adversary in windowsill container gardening.  Potting soil mixed with a little perlite or sand is usually the best choice for growing herbs because it contains compost and nutrients and won’t become compacted, the enemy of all root systems.

 

          Even though a windowsill may receive lots of light, most of the plants will need at minimum six to eight hours of direct sunlight.  Sometimes additional light is needed.  A fluorescent light set about six to ten inches the plants should be enough for a sunny windowsill.    

 

A little mulch of gravel will help keep the gnats and fruit flies at bay.  If other pests attack a plant, a convenient response is to dunk the whole plant in a bath of insecticidal soap.  As far as fertilizing is concerning, the best and most convenient is fish emulsion, diluted to half-strength every two weeks, except for marjoram and sage.  Organic fertilizer is safest if the herbs are eaten.

 

Some tips: pinch flower buds to keep the plants growing, don’t allow the plants to touch the window glass so that the foliage won’t freeze, and plant herbs with the same cultural environment in a single container, and pinch back branching herbs to keep them bushy.

 

Now, to the point.  Fall and winter are the seasons for stews and soups, slow-cooking, comfort dishes that require herbs and spices to bring them to life.  Also, they’re needed to add vigor to our sauces, such as pomodoro and fish, and various marinades.  Much to my surprise, McCulla said that the herbs and spices should be added toward the end of the slow-cooking because then they’re “like sunshine, waking us up at sunrise.”  In using spices and herbs, her advice was to “be careful, but bold,” which means, I think, “when you’ve got it right, go for it.”  She calls it “ramping up the herbs.”

 

Of course, for those of us in the southwest there is always fresh cilantro to add, as does McCulla, some sass to our fish tacos.      

Copyright © Dana Prom Smith (2013)

Dana Prom Smith and Freddi Steele edit Gardening Etcetera for the Arizona Daily Sun.  Smith emails at stpauls@npgcable.com and blogs at http://highcountrygardener.blogspot.com.

             

 

         

 

                   

GARDENING WITH ELIZABETH DOBRINSKI

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (11/5/2013)

 

          Elizabeth Dobrinski heard about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941, after ice skating on a frozen pond off Schultz Pass Road.  She’d turned 18 the day before.  This coming December 6, she will turn 90, and she as is as close to being fit as a fiddle as most people half her age. 

 

I told her that I felt old when one of my twin sons retired as a Los Angeles County firefighter and paramedic.  She put her head in her hands, laughing, and said, “How about a grandchild?  That’s when you really feel old.”  Her grandson, Clinton, is a retired firefighter and paramedic from Sedona. 

 

Elizabeth comes from pioneer stock with two homesteads in her family’s history.  Her maternal grandparents, the Andersons, homesteaded out Fort Valley Road in 1883, where her grandfather, William, nicknamed “Spud,” grew potatoes.  He and his wife, Lorinda, lived at first with three children in a one room cabin without a stove.  Lorinda cooked over a campfire outside.  A city girl from Los Angeles, she wasn’t fond of Flagstaff.   

 

Her father, William Wallace, and his wife, Ethel, homesteaded out at Mormon Lake in 1909.  He was a farmer, cattle rancher, firefighter, and forest ranger in addition to being one of Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” during the Spanish American War (1898).  The homestead is still in the family.  One of her sons, John and his wife, Sharon, live on the land in a large, hand-wrought log house.

 

Along with her late husband, Maurice, who was superintendant of mails at the Flagstaff Post Office, she raised four other children.  One son, Daniel, is a cook at the Marble Canyon Lodge near Lee’s Ferry.  Another son, David, died of brain cancer at the age of 44.  Her daughter, Lorinda, and her husband, Tom, both now retired, live in Phoenix where he was an engineer with ADOT and she was an accountant.

 

          She says, “By the time I could walk and follow someone around, I was playing in the dirt.”  It was her favorite pastime in addition to building streets, passes, and tunnels in the mud with the boys down the street.  Loving to play in the dirt and mud as a child is perhaps the best training for gardeners because a gardener had better love the feeling of dirt.  She also rode horse bare-back before she rode saddle.  She says she was a tomboy.

 

          When her parents moved to Flagstaff, they lived near the city park during a time when there were Pow Wows and cattle would often trample their garden.  Most of the streets weren’t paved. 

 

          One thing that separates pioneers from people today is the source of fresh vegetables.  The pioneers grew them while people today buy them.  There were grocery stores, but they were mostly stocked with canned goods and food that could be either dried or milled.  As a scion of pioneers, Elizabeth kept on gardening, eventually building a 12 by 20 foot solar heated greenhouse where they grew their vegetables.

Sad to say, her tomatoes were “puny” this year.

 

          One of her proudest achievements is growing all the flowers, including gladioli, pink and white stock, for her daughter’s wedding at the Federated Church.

               

          Elizabeth wasn’t home-bound.  Indeed, she says that her grandmother, Lorinda, was “a women’s libber before her time.”  It rubbed off on Elizabeth.  In addition to raising her children, being a wife, keeping a home, and gardening, she had a career, beginning at what would become the Arizona Daily Sun then at the Northland Press for nine years where she says that “book publishing was fun.”  During her time at Northland Press, she became a member of Soroptomist International of Flagstaff where she is a life member.

 

          Since Flagstaff was a small town, she knew everyone in town, including the Colton’s and the Danson’s of the Museum of Northern Arizona.  After leaving Northland Press, she became Edward (Ned) Danson’s secretary for 17 years, retiring in 1988.  She says all of her jobs were “fun” which may be the reason she’s turning ninety and on the lookout for something to strike her fancy.      

Copyright © Dana Prom Smith 2013

Dana Prom Smith and Freddi Steele edit Gardening Etcetera for the Arizona Daily Sun.  Smith emails at stpauls@npgcable.com and blogs at http://highcountrygardener.blogspot.com.