We are very lucky, very lucky indeed. My friend–the uber talented Germinatrix and author of The Edible Front Yard–Ivette Soler has shared her recipe for chimichurri sauce with us! Now, I admit I had no idea what chimichurri was until last night, when Ivette posted about it on her Facebook page. But when I heard that it involved garlic, lemons, and parsley, I knew I would like it. And the awesome thing is that you can grow all the main ingredients in containers on your balcony or patio.

So, without further ado, here’s what Ivette has to say about chimichurri:

* * * * *

I am a lover of sauce.

I believe in sauce, and if that sauce is something that I can assemble from things growing in my garden, then it is a done deal – fresh garden sauce love!

Chimichurri is not really a sauce, it has an accent, so it is a salsa. It hails from Argentina, where it is served next to, or on top of, nearly everything. Actually, all of South America is in love with some form of this flavorful condiment – Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Peru also jump on the chimichurri express whenever they need a topping for meat or fish.

Food is not impervious to fashion, and the current popularity of chimichurri will attest to this. It pushed mango salsa clear off the catwalk. Chimichurri is the Supermodel of Sauce, seen hanging out at the best tables at the coolest restaurants. Everybody wants her.

And you, dear gardener, can have chimichurri – all you need to make it can be grown in containers on your patio or balcony! (I’ll let you off the hook on the olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper – but everything else is easily grown)

Ingredients:

• 4 cups coarsely chopped parsley (you can include the smaller stems)
• 1 tsp oregano, finely chopped
• 6 plump cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 shallot, finely minced
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1-1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 Tbsp red pepper flakes

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, add the salt & pepper, then let it sit at least one hour before serving.

Put it on EVERYTHING! South Americans love it on steak, but it is a wonderful addition to the vegetarian cookbook! Chimichurri on roasted potatoes, as a spread on sandwiches, as a dip for practically anything – I can’t imagine a savory dish that wouldn’t be enhanced by a spoonful of this magical, garlicky wonder sauce.

I also believe chimichurri makes me a better dancer. And gives my hair a certain bounce. My smile is wider when I eat it (but I have to check for parsley between my teeth). Try it and see what it does for you!

* * * * *

Ivette Soler is the author of the amazingly wonderful book, The Edible Front Yard: The Mow Less, Grow More Plan for a Beautiful, Bountiful Garden. In the book, Ivette uses her landscape designer skills to show folks how to create an edible garden that is beautiful enough to be placed right out in front of the house.

Great Container Gardening Info & Ideas:

• Beautiful photos and great tips on creating a beautiful balcony container garden from Isabelle Palmer on Fennel and Fern
• aHa Modern Living is having a seed sale. There’s still time to sow plenty of fall and winter veggies, check it out!
• Andrea has a great list of and info about winter vegetables, all of them are suitable for containers.
• Renee shares some really cool photos of her recent trip to the DC Botanical Gardens. There are some great ideas for vertical gardening among her pics.
• I loved looking at the progression of Marie’s watermelon from flower to fruit. All grown on her rooftop.

Win a Beautiful Pot from Sunset

Would you like to win this neat pot from the Home by Sunset collection from Bauer Pottery? Sunset Magazine is giving one away to the person who comes up with the best idea for what to plant in the pot. More details here.

Roasted Ratatouille Pizza

Doesn’t this recipe from Vegetarian Times look awesome?! Great way to use up late summer veggies…

• 1 recipe Chewy Pizza Dough (click here for recipe)
• 1 28-oz. can peeled whole tomatoes
• 1 small eggplant, quartered and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices (2 cups)
• 2 small yellow squash or zucchini, sliced into rounds (2 cups)
• 1/2 large red onion, thinly sliced (1 cup)
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbs.)
• 1 Tbs. herbes de Provence
• 1/2 cup prepared marinara sauce or 1 recipe Quick Pizza Sauce (click here for recipe)
• 1/4 cup black olives or capers, optional

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Prepare Chewy Pizza Dough.

2. Drain tomatoes, and discard liquid. Halve each tomato lengthwise. Toss together tomatoes, eggplant, squash, red onion, oil, garlic, and herbes de Provence on baking sheet.

3. Roast vegetables 25 minutes, or until beginning to brown, tossing every 5 to 10 minutes. Cool 5 to 10 minutes, or store in refrigerator up to 3 days.

4. Meanwhile, shape Chewy Pizza Dough into 12-inch disk on baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Spread with sauce, and top with vegetables. Sprinkle with olives or capers, if using.

5. Place on middle rack in oven, and preheat oven to 350°F with pizza in oven. Once oven reaches 350°F, bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until bottom is crisp.

Gardening Posts

• MeemsNYC solves a problem a lot of us have right now: What to do with all those zucchini?!
• I loved touring around Laura’s patio garden. Keep an eye out for her ‘Pretty Much Picasso’ petunias. They look great on the black ladder/plant stand!
• If you enjoy seeing cute kids in the garden, hearing about stories of cardinals nesting, and laughing at kitties who attempt to monitor said cardinals, then click on over to Vetsey’s blog!
• Jenny reminds you to take in all aspects of your garden’s beauty, even the shadows!

Don’t Forget to Submit Your Carnival Posts!

For the July Carnival, I’m seeking posts about how your container garden has changed and grown as summer progresses. You can write about about any aspect of a summer garden, so long as it involves a container garden. You can write about the fruits and vegetables you’ve been able to grow, how your flower containers have filled in, the pests that have shown up and how you’ve dealt with them, or whatever else suits your fancy. If you need help or have a question, don’t hestitate to email me.

To submit a post, use this form: Container Gardening Blog Carnival Page. You can find it by going to Contact > Blog Carnival at the top of the page too. You need to publish your post on your blog and submit it through the blog carnival submission page by July 24th. I’ll be publishing the carnival on the 16th.

Hey So Cal! Join Adriana And I For Our First “Eat Me” Meetup!

If you’re in Southern California, I hope you’ll join in a meetup group Adriana of Anarchy in the Garden and I have created. Eat Me is a group for Southern Californians who want to meet other gardeners who like growing their own food. It should be a lot of fun to meet in person and chat about gardening. I hope you’ll join us! “Like” Eat Me on Facebook, or follow @SoCalEatMe on Twitter.

It looks like out first meetup is going to be at H & H Nursery in Lakewood, CA on Sunday, June 25th. I don’t think it’s set in stone though, so definitely “like” the group on Facebook or follow it on Twitter to find out if there are any changes.

[Recipe info on the LOTB Facebook page]

If you’re in Southern California, I hope you’ll join in a meetup group Adriana of Anarchy in the Garden and I have created. Eat Me is a group for Southern Californians who want to meet other gardeners who like growing their own food. It should be a lot of fun to meet in person and chat about gardening. I hope you’ll join us! “Like” Eat Me on Facebook, or follow @SoCalEatMe on Twitter.

Container Gardening Posts:

• Interested in growing carnivorous plants in your apartment? Check out this post on Far Out Flora about Nepenthes, also called Monkey Cups.
• Check out how beautiful Kim’s container garden has become on her Barefoot Gardening blog (which is a great way to garden, in my opinion).
• Kerry has reviewed a nifty looking watering can called U CAN. I like the positive subliminal message of the name.
• If you’re looking for a slender, modern style BBQ for your balcony, check out what Robin posted on Urban Gardens.
• Congratulate Mike on his first homegrown salad eaten on his new LA balcony!

Congrats Karen!

As you all know, I held a quick contest this week to give away two boxes of Triscuits with cards impregnated with seeds, and a $20 gift card to buy gardening supplies. To win, LOTB readers had to submit recipe ideas that used fresh from the garden ingredients and Triscuit crackers. I loved Karen’s simple, yet original idea to combine Marigold flowers, tomatoes, cream cheese & Triscuits. And I’m going to try recipe combining Nasturtium flowers and leaves, figs, and Camembert for the next GROW Project post. Karen, I’ll send you and email so I can get your mailing address. Your prize will be in the mail next week. Enjoy! Smart Pots Update I wanted to pass along a quick observation about my Smart Pot comparison. By now I’ve had my two identical tomato plants in their respective pots (one plastic, one Smart Pot) for about 5 months. I’ve been harvesting tomatoes from both plants for awhile, but the Smart Pot plant is more prolific, healthier, and about 18 inches taller. Cheesy Gardening Joke

Photo by Melissa Robison

Two friars are having trouble paying off the belfry, so they open a florist shop. Everyone wants to buy flowers from the men of God so business is quickly booming. The florist across town sees a huge drop in sales and asks the two friars to close their shop, but they refuse. A month later the florist begs the friars to close because he’s having trouble feeding his family. Again, they refuse, so the florist hires Hugh McTaggert. Hugh is the roughest, toughest thug in town and is hired to “persuade” the friars to close. Hugh asks the friars to close their florist shop. When they refuse, he threatens to beat the crap out of them and wreck their shop every day they remain open, so they close. This proves once again that Hugh and only Hugh can prevent florist friars. [Source] Container Gardening in the News

• New York City reached an agreement with it’s community gardens. The Wall Street Journal has the story.
• Dill is a superb herb. Or at least that’s what Jana Louise Smit of Helium thinks.
• The Seattle Post covers two of my favorite topics: container gardens and cocktails.

Container Gardening Blog Posts

• This is a neat shot of Marie of 66 Square Feet’s terrace. Also, check out her roof farm.
• Almost everyone can use frugal gardening tips these days. Mike over at Urban Organic Gardener has got you covered.
• Adriana has a roundup of photos from her Anarchy in the Garden booth at the Patchwork Festival. There are some photos of yours truly teaching a demo on growing tomatoes in a container.
• Did you know you can freeze zucchini? That’s what Colleen at So Cal Gardening did.
• Oh, and Matt’s Redneck Garden is growing up fast!

Cheesy Gardening Joke

Why did the tomato turn red?

Because it saw the salad dressing.

Pineapple Sage Recipes

The other day on Twitter, I mentioned that I was going to cut back my pineapple sage a bit, and I needed a recipe to use up the cuttings. I ended up making a pineapple sage smoothie. For a very yummy breakfast drink, combine the following ingredients in blender a pulse until smooth:

• 1/3 cup skim milk
• 3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1/2 banana
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 1/2 tablespoons packed pineapple sage, chopped

I also found recipes for Pineapple Sage Poundcake. And this recipe for Mango Pineapple Sage Salsa looks delicious, especially if served over their other recipe for corn fritters.

Container Gardening in the News

• This NY Times article about catios (i.e. patios for cats) seriously cracked me up.
• The Seattle Times reminds you to thin the fruit on your fruit tree to produce better results overall.
• I really enjoyed this article from The Tribune in Texas about water container gardens.

Must Read Container Gardening Posts

• Black and Tan Container: love, Love, LOVE this container design by Christina Salwitz. So amazingly beautiful.
• Speaking of Christina, she’s the featured guest on this month’s Nest In Style podcast!
• A Hanging Basket Story: Andrea Bellamy shares some new Proven Winners plants and combines them in a pretty hanging basket.
• Apartment Therapy has a good roundup of a bunch of their recent container gardening posts.
• Vegetable Grilling Guide: Jayme Jenkins provides a complete look at BBQing all those yummy vegetables you’ve been growing.

Bloom in the Park

Pat FitzGerald–of the eponymous nursery that produces the My Plant range of container friendly plants–has been at Ireland’s Bloom in the Park event, where garden designers Dawn Aston and Crawford Leitch used his plants to created a beautiful garden perfect for urbanites. Here’s what Pat had to say about the experience thus far:

After two days of Bloom in the Park all the hard work over the last month has paid off and we are delighted to announce Urban Oasis received a Silver Gilt Medal. Even more importantly the response from the visiting public has been amazing. Urban Oasis takes an unconventional and challenging approach for a Show Garden.  Dawn’s concept was to create a space which is a private oasis from the typical urban environment. Using an undercover of colourful blends of hardy evergreen and tropical foliage plants Dawn created a garden bountiful in all year round colour.

Here are some photos featuring Pat’s plants…

Container Gardening in the News

• A community garden in NYC is looking for a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T
• A few container gardening tips from Northern Colorado’s public radio station.
• Some super cute kids in Marin County, CA are going to be playing in a new play yard that features edible plants and CA natives at the local Boys and Girls Club.
• Holy smokes Batman! Dallas has a ton of great sounding gardening events this weekend.

This week there were some really good garden blog posts to share, and some kind of funny gardening news. I particularly liked Sue’s post about comparing seedlings growing in potting soil from last year versus ones that had fresh potting mix. There’s also a corny gardening joke, and a bit about the nasturtium seed scarification project.

Great Garden Blog Reading

• Sue has a really interesting post about what happens when you break some gardening rules.
• Check out Jenny’s idea for making your own herbed butter with the herbs you’re growing in your garden.
• Adriana also tried out DoLeaf. Check out what she ordered and her thoughts on the online plant shop.
• Mike is expanding his balcony gardening repertoire to include flowers. I like his choices!

The Mouse & Trowel Awards

If you haven’t already nominated your favorite gardening blogs for a Mouse & Trowel award, today is the last day!

Nasturtium Seed Scarification Project

If you participated in our little nasturtium seed scarification study, let us know your results! All of my seeds sprouted except for the ones that I didn’t do anything to. Though in all fairness, after awhile I got bored waiting for them to germinate and may have forgotten to keep the soil moist.

Bad Gardening Joke

Why do potatoes make good detectives? Because they keep their eyes peeled.

And in Other News…

• It’s apparently more dangerous to garden in the U.K. than it is to ski. Who knew?
• The Philadelphia Inquirer says you can grow $1000 worth of vegetables for $100.

I had planned a post for today about ironic animal statuary. Alas, that post will have to wait for another day. Yesterday I saw a great idea for a garden mentioned on Twitter, and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share it. @FromFarmToTable tweeted that she’s reinstating cocktail hour come spring and invited people to share what they’d plant in a “cocktail garden.” To me, a cocktail garden should be two fold: contain plants to be used in cocktails, and be pleasant to spend time in during cocktail drinking hours.

Luckily pretty much all of the plants commonly called for in cocktail recipes are easy to grow in pots. Just like all other edible gardens, you should grow the plants you love, so I’ve organized the plants below according to the cocktail that calls for them. Just find the drinks you enjoy and plant those fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

Margaritas

• Recipe – Perfect Margarita
• What to Plant – Lime tree

Hard Lemonade

• Recipe – Sunny’s Hard Lemonade
• What to Plant – Lemon tree
• Variations – Add strawberries, watermelon, or lavender

Bloody Mary

• Recipe – Upgraded Traditional Bloody Mary or try this Bloody Mary Swizzlers recipe
• What to Plant – Lemons, celery, and if you’re really hard core, cherry tomatoes to make your own tomato juice. Or if you’re into a more adventurous bloody mary, plant garlic, horseradish, and/or basil.

Mojito

• Recipe – Stephen’s Famous Mojitos
• What to Plant – Mint, but feel free to experiment with different types of mint!

Strawberry Daiquiris

• Recipe – Strawberry Daiquiris
• What to Plant – Strawberries and limes

Screwdriver

• Recipe – Classic Screwdriver
• What to Plant – Oranges, though why not spice things up and plant blood oranges instead?

Pina Colada

• Recipe – Ultimate Pina Colada
• What to Plant – Pineapples (just save the top from a pineapple and plant it) and strawberries.

Oh, and about making a garden that is enjoyable at night? Check out these ideas for creating a moon garden on your balcony.

What’s your favorite cocktail?

This is a Basil variety called ‘Pistou.’ It worked really well in my strawberry pot. The plant stays nice and compact, perfect for tight spaces.

If you have a really bright window, or you live in a mild climate like mine, basil can be grown almost year round. Though there are limits. December-February in Southern California doesn’t get very warm (highs in the 60s on a good day), and basil seems to grow really slowly during that time, so I don’t bother. I recently harvested all of my plants from my strawberry pot and will replace them with a really beautiful variety of Spinach. I love edible plants that are as beautiful as ornamental plants.

Anyway, I was really excited to see a somewhat unusual recipe in House Beautiful magazine, basil mashed potatoes. It seemed like the perfect thing to try with some of my basil. Yummy comfort food for the winter with fresh herbs from my garden. And since it came from the Barefoot Contessa herself, you know it’s delish.

Basil Mashed Potatoes

• 2 lbs large Yukon Gold or white boiling potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, lightly packed*
• 1 cup half and half
• 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Cook the potatoes for 20-25 minutes, until very tender. Drain well, return to the saucepan, and cook over low heat until any remaining water evaporates. Set aside.

Meanwhile, blanch the basil leaves. First, fill a bowl with ice water and set aside. Bring a medium saucepan to a rolling boil, add the basil and cook for only 15 seconds. Drain and immediately plunge them into the ice water bath. Drain, and set aside.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the half and half and Parmesan and bring to a simmer. Place the basil in a food processor and puree. Add the half and half mixture to the basil and process until smooth.

With a handheld mixture, beat the potatoes until they are broken up. Slowly add the half and half mixture to the potatoes, along with the salt and pepper. Pour into a serving bowl and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

*Judging from the photo in the article, though it doesn’t specify in the recipe, Ina Garten used a large leaf, sweet basil. But I used what I had on hand, which included purple leaf basil. It still tasted wonderful. And looked pretty too!

My thoughts on the recipe: I used the mashed potatoes as a base and served a winter vegetable stew on top of them. It was amazingly tasty and hearty. This recipe is a keeper, even though it is a bit of work.

Related Posts

• 3 Ways to Preserve Basil
• Peach and Basil Summer Roll Recipe