Took some quick photos of the plants. It looks like the basil may have reseeded itself - someting that looks like basil is just starting to come back. We'll see. Anyway, here's the measly offering for the summer since we'll be moving halfway through.

There was also a great article this week in the Times about balconies in the city. I was always very surpised at the lack of activity on the balconies along 7th Ave in Park Slope. One other apartment plants some flowers, but that's it. We're leaving the city for greener pastures, but I can only hope that whoever takes over will take advantage of the wooden deck that we built and puts it to good use with some greenery. Michael Pollan makes a good point about why that could be the singularly most important thing that we can do these days.

I always enjoy the first real gardening of the season. At least here in the city, the late winter and early spring is very wet. It seems all of the plants are waterlogged for a couple of months, and I'm surpised anything survives. Things are coming back, so I took the time to clean up and repot what I can keep and to compost the things I can't. Since we're moving to a house in a month or so, we won't have any tomatoes this year. That'll be a lot less work, but I will miss not having to buy a single tomato at the store for a significant portion of the year.

Here's a list of what made it:

• Bird's Foot Violet (viola pedata) - It still hasn't flowered. I covered it with mulch before the winter thinking that would be the last I saw of it, but it's there! I really like this plant and would like to try growing more of it sometime.
• English Ivy - This was inherited from a friend who moved overseas. It's never been extremely productive, so I decided to let it overwinter outside. It's still there.
• Peppermint - This is a great plant, and although it's died back to nothing two winters in a row, it's still coming back.
• Lime Thyme and some regular Thyme- Another couple of plants that are good about coming back just enough. Hopefully when grown in the ground, these guys will be a little more productive.
• Salem Rosemary - I started trimming this guy. Rosemary can get out of hand and turn completely shapeless, so I'm treating it a little like a bonsai.
• Christmas Fern - I'll definitely be growing more ferns soon. These are only in their second year, starting out as rhizomes from Home Depot, so they haven't yet taken off.
• Lillies - I picked up some lillies on a whim. I have to say that alone, they don't do much for me. I'm impressed though, that this year where I had one stalk per bulb, there are three to five stalks starting to poke up through the soil.
• Blue Star Juniper - Another evergreen that was threatening to turn into a shapeless mass that I made some dramatic cuts to.
• White Pine (pinus strobus 'soft touch') - This guy is still doing well, and is a good slow grower.
• Japanese Maple (acer palmatum) - Still doing great. It's starting to spread a little. I'll definitely have to cut back next season.
• Cliff Stonecrop Sedum (glaucophyllum) - This is one of the native area plants, and it's doing really well. Somehow, I noticed there was a little growing in one of my spare pots that was just soil, so I planted it. It seems this stuff might try to take over if left to its own devices.

It's finally warm enough to do more than just keep a bunch of twigs watered! Unfortunately, I lost more than I thought I would over the winter, but oddly enough, a few things came back that I wasn't expecting.

I lost the rosemary, sage, clematis, and all of my fall plantings including a fern and a couple of different grasses. That's a little sad, BUT the japanese maple came back extremely strong. Barb's bonsai redwood was almost a lost cause, but it is super green - it was hard to keep it watered during the winter when it looked like just a stick.

The regular thyme came back which I expected, but I didn't expect to have peppermint. What surprised me most were the two sprigs of flat-leaf parsley! I managed to save those three and set up some basil and tri-color sage.

We've also got about 12 tomato plants - and I'm gonna try to plant a few of them in upside-down containers. We'll see how that turns out.

Here's to tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella all summer long!