GARDEN! AKA my latest obsession

This spring I went on a plant buying frenzy. I felt like it was mostly justified, since I do actually have a large garden space this year… and though it is true that not all of my plants are functional, I think it's ok to surround yourself with a little beauty every now and then! I was watching The Botany of Desire a few weeks ago, and Michael Pollen makes a very good point, that plants have been very successful in surviving, because we are willing to pay money for them. No, the flowers on my front porch are not feeding me, or serving any practical purpose really other than looking gorgeous, and yet I do not have any buyer’s remorse. Plants are the one thing that I feel like I can purchase guilt free… where as other things I always question “did I really need that pair of shoes?”  Did I really need that pocketbook plant. Hell yes, I really did. (the same goes for the chocolate cosmos, and the black petunias… how could you see them and not bring them home?)

Black Petunia

Pocketbook Plant

Chocolate Cosmos

And then there are the vegetable plants. I am so excited to harvest things out of my garden I can hardly stand it! There is nothing like being able to grow your own food, starting something from seed, and watching it grow. I am always amazed at how much things are changing and evolving in my garden. Some days I  come home from work, and find the whole landscape completely changed. Inch by inch, things are growing and expanding, filling out, blossoming! It’s pretty exciting. I know it will still be a while before I am ready to harvest anything (minus the radishes… and sadly I don’t really like radishes… I really want to like them, and I planted them because I really want to like them, and I think they are beautiful, and they grow really fast… I can tolerate them slathered in dip, or sliced really thin over bread and butter, but still they are not my go-to dish… I needed the quick fix of growing something fast though, in this miserable spring when it seemed like it would never be warm enough to grow anything for real… and so I grew radishes… and I may or may not eat them….). Here is something I find ridiculous…. I can go to the grocery store and spend $2 on tomatoes for dinner…. Or I can go to a nursery, spend $2 on one tomato plant, and let it feed me for several meals. The same goes for herbs. I can spend $2.50 on a sage plant, or thyme, or rosemary, or chives or any other perennial herb, and have it last me YEARS. Or I could go to the store and pick up a tiny pre-packed bunch of herbs for the same price… Its not only about the enjoyment of growing things, it’s about saving money, and being efficient with my food budget. Not to mention that the time I spend out in the garden is very zen.  It is so calming to be out there with my watering can, weeding between rows, getting a little sun-tan…. It is way more relaxing than a trip to the store! 

Happy Little Garden

Over the past few years my love of plants has been building. I started out with a pot of herbs on my back porch…. I had a few house-plants here and there…. And then I started working at a Nursery, and it unleashed my green thumb…. Or at least my desire to have a green thumb. I found myself in a tiny loft apartment installing window boxes… planting flowers, herbs… trying to grow enough mint to keep me in mojitos. Once I moved to an apartment with a large patio I thought I was in heaven. Out came the container gardens, suddenly one herb boxed turned into 6 pots of mint, a barrel full of carrots, two tomato plans, and some cucumbers… and yet it still wasn’t enough. (ok for one single girl…. It might have been enough, but I wanted more damn it!). So when I was looking to move again, I knew that the one requirement I had was a garden space. (there were other requirements… but that was the biggest…. And I must say my garden is by far my favorite feature of this place). Who knew that one raised bed could grow so much? Am I going a little over-board on the produce? Maybe…. But I’m excited. In my small garden plot I have Snow Peas, and beans, leeks, carrots, beets, 3 types of cucumbers, 3 types of tomatoes, tomatillos,  2 types of potatoes and yes, that row of radishes. I also have a barrel full of lettuce, and a container full of kale… and 5 containers full of mint. I have sorrel, and red veined sorrel, and an artichoke…. 4 types of thyme, 3 types of rosemary, savory, chives, dill, sage, and nasturtiums and calendula for adding to salads.  Look out folks, I’ve got a garden, and I’m not afraid to use it!

Beets

 

Alaska Mix Nasturtiums

First little tomatoes

Beans

I’ve discovered that growing things in the ground is a whole different beast from growing things in pots. The principles are the same, but it’s a little easier to pour some soil into a pot, add a plant, and voila! (I know it takes more than that… but generally speaking) As I was prepping my soil for planting, I realized there would be a lot of sweat and blisters before the ground would be ready for planting… and yes, now that things are in, I think that growing in a bed is probably easier than a pot, but there is a lot more ground work (bad pun, sorry couldn’t resist) that comes with a raised bed. And then there are the cat terrorist that live in my neighborhood, who think that my garden is a well landscaped litter box. As if I wasn’t a cat person before this…

Having a garden has been a great bonding experience for me and my dad. He bought me a Sunset Vegetable Garden book, and we compare notes daily…about our various veggies. His lettuce is doing better, my tomatoes are about 10 times further along… our peas are about the same, my beans are growing faster… The main difference between our gardens is that I went with a few more heirloom varieties… I’m trying my hand at Armenian cucumbers and rattlesnake speckled beans. 

Kale

Potato Blossom

Tomatillos

Without fully realizing it, I made my garden purple themed. I am growing purple beans, purple carrots, purple potatoes, an purple tomatoes…. Of course I also have some orange and yellow carrots, candy striped and golden beets, a green zebra striped tomato, a sungold tomato, and some Yukon gold potatoes as well… and hopefully with enough love and luck, everything will turn out! I know it will be a lot of trial and error on my part… and it’s a lot of guesswork too… I know nothing about tomatillos, besides the fact that I love salsa verde, so I figured why not give them a shot? Why not give it all a shot… even if I only get one tomato… I think it will be a success.