2014: A YEAR IN REVIEW

Wow, how did it get to be December 31 already? It seems like the year just flew by. Come to think if it, since I was 25, they all seem to have flown by.

It was a good year on the blog. I've been doing this since April 2009 and I wrote (a few) more posts this year than any other. I hope to keep that up in 2015, but I never like to set a schedule because I don't want to start writing stuff that you don't want to read.

Anyway, let's take a look at the highlights of 2014 on The Impatient Gardener.

JANUARY

To keep myself busy during the cold winter months before I allow myself to really start dreaming of gardening, I made this really simple little magnetic chalkboard for the inside of the pantry.

FEBRUARY

I wrapped up what was probably the biggest indoor project of the year when I put the finishing touches on the small hallway outside the kitchen. For such a small space it sure was a pain to fix up. In the end it got smooth walls, a fresh coat of paint all over, a fun blue planked ceiling, a new light and a new thermostat. It wasn't pretty, but in the end it was so worth it, even though I still find drywall dust in odd places.

MARCH

The ugly vanity in the ugly bathroom got (another) coat of paint. I still hate it but it's much better navy than it was pickled pink. I'll be happy the day that the vanity, and the rest of the bathroom, are tossed out.

APRIL

Finally, after what seemed like the crappiest winter in history, it was time to garden. Indoors, anyway. For the first time, I started a lot of things from seed last year. Overall, I really enjoyed it because it helped the gardening bug a little and I had a lot of success with some of the things I grew from seed (and not so much from others).

MAY

The garden finally came to life (albeit slowly) in May. I was rejoicing in every swelling leaf bud and bit of green I could find.

JUNE

I showed off the wood planter we built. It ended up being heavier than heck and way more expensive than we planned, but it was still a fraction of the price we would have paid for something similar. It was a really satisfying project.

JULY

In July I finally finished up the back yard garden renovation I'd been working on. By creating a little more form in the shape of ovals, I defined the space much better and finally made the edge of the property much nicer to look at.

AUGUST

It was a pretty good year for containers and I shared some of the progress in August.

SEPTEMBER

I grew a perfect tomato. I grew very few tomatoes last summer, but this one was damn near perfect.

OCTOBER

Thanks to growing parsley from seed, I had a welcome abundance of it. I saved the harvest in a variety of ways and we're still enjoying it.

NOVEMBER

I experimented with a new way to ward off deer this winter. So far it's been successful, but since we've had no snow, the deer have plenty of other food to eat. We'll see what happens the rest of the winter.

DECEMBER

I added a little color to the drab landscape by decorating the outside containers. I'll enjoy them until March.

Not bad for a year. How was your 2014?

WHAT TO DO WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF PARSLEY

I grew parsley from seed for the first time this year, and as I was harvesting armloads of it over the weekend, it was a bit of a head-slap moment. It was so easy I can't understand why I haven't been growing it from seed all along.

The big end-of-season parsley haul.

I really like parsley. I think it freshens up every kind of food (well, other than sweet things which deserve a helping of mint, in my mind) like no other herb can. And I grew way more than I could possibly use over the course of the summer. But there was no way I was going to let all that summer goodness go to waste.

I pulled all my parsley plants, roots and all, as frost is most certainly coming our way very soon. I plucked the leaves—well, as many as I had the patience for— and gave them a really good washing in my salad spinner (how did I live before I had a salad spinner?).

Then I just packed them as tightly as I could in the bottom of a large Ziploc bag, making sure to roll out all the air. I made three logs in this manner and popped them all into the freezer. When I need parsley, I can just pull out a log and cut off what I need.

Frozen parsley logs.

I did this with basil several years ago and it worked great, although you are limited to using frozen herbs on cooked items (it doesn't really work fresh in salads or anything). That's fine especially with parsley because that's what I use it on most anyway.

Margaret Roach has a slideshow on how to do this if you really need step-by-step instructions on this, but seriously, it's as easy as it sounds.

Parsley pesto frozen in ice cube trays.

I also made a small amount of parsley pesto (well, sort of pesto: just parsley, garlic and olive oil) which I froze in ice cube trays and popped out the cubes to store in a plastic bag. I can see this being really good in soups.

I'm not a big preserver of food. Canning still scares me because I'm afraid I'm going to kill someone by not sterilizing or sealing a jar properly. But I can freeze stuff and I love to eek out the last bit of goodness out of the garden.

Did you save any of your home-grown produce this year?