Category: Gardening

I am very excited that I might actually have a real garden in my backyard this summer. I have done all of the prep work and put in the stakes for the tomatoes, and now all that’s left is putting the plants in the ground (and managing to have them not be killed by squirrels or lack of water).

Now if you are thinking that I am a proper locavore who is doing this to be closer to nature or organic gardening or some such, let me tell you how I first got into gardening. My sister and I went to Space Camp, so we got on a list that was invited to try growing Seeds from Space! Sorry, let me say it again = Seeds From Spaaace! *glee*

So before the Challenger explosion, a satellite (the Long Duration Exposure Facility – LDEF) was installed into orbit. The plan was to see how well various construction materials would withstand orbit in space, and they contracted out space to non-government experiments as well. And one of the experiments was to test 25 pounds of seeds.

So we received our packet of seeds, and we weren’t told whether they were space seeds or control. And we got out a little lab notebook and grew them. And it was awesome. They were delicious. My sister and I had never had read tomatoes ripened on a vine before. And we preserved seeds and observed the same strain of tomatoes for about three generations. And then we started adding other varieties and some hot peppers… and we had kept a garden ever since. And ever since I’ve moved to the city, I have been craving my own garden, instead of having to drive out to the suburbs to forage from my parents’ garden.

This year looks like success.

So I’m planning what to plant:

Garden

• 4 tomato plants
  • 2 early girl
  • 1 grape
  • 1 roma
  • I am really tempted to try to plant more, but I don’t really have the space, and I don’t know that I’ll be sharing the harvest with that many people
• hot peppers
  • 1 regular jalapeno
  • I saved seeds from my neighbor’s garden last year that had small jalapenos that turned red quickly
  • maybe something else
• Squash – I saved some delicata seeds last summer, so I’ll see if they sprout. Otherwise, I have no idea. But just 1 squash, whatever the variety
• Herbs
  • Basil – I hear it does especially well near tomato plants
  • Cilantro? I always manage to kill it in pots. Maybe it will do better in the ground
• onions? I have an onion that was sprouting that I properly rooted. I hear that alliums help deter insects

Small pots on my porch

• 6 – 4″ pots (need to buy 3 more to replace cracked ones)
  • dill
  • parsley
  • sage
  • thai basil
  • marjoram or savory
  • lovage
• 6 – 6″ pots (need to buy 2 to replace cracked ones – there was an incident with a dog with a loose leash on my porch last summer)
  • bronze fennel
  • more parsley?
  • more rosemary
  • lettuce
  • ?
  • ?
• up to 4 – 6-8″ pots (I have three plastic 6″ whose rims are too wide for the other plant stand)
  no plans yet for this stand

Step 3: Profit!

I want a whole field to plant. There are so many things that I just keep not even considering because I don’t have the space.

Confronted with unexpected free time, I considered crawling back into bed and cuddling my cat, but instead I got out my broom and tidied my porch. Well, actually, first there was emptying last year’s pots back into the container of dirt; mixing the completed compost into that container, too; moving all the containers and plant stands to one end of the porch; sweeping half the porch; piling the containers of dirt (compost one on bottom) in the corner of the porch and arranging the plant stands; getting together all of the trash hanging out on the porch (broken glass from when the roofers were by (not my window), broken flower pot, cover to the plant shelves that got broken by the roofers, etc.); and finally, sweeping the other half of the porch.

Whew!

And then I got to eat breakfast sitting out in the sunshine on my re-happied porch. That’s totally a word.

Now I have to plan what I’ll grow this summer –

Not tomatoes. The squirrels won that war.
Same goes for lettuce, sadly. Well, at least not in a convenient container… maybe on one of the more tricky plant stands.

Though at the very end of Fall, we had a visit from a hawk or a falcon-type bird (I just saw it out of the corner of my eye as it flew by) that put a dent in the squirrel population, so maybe that’ll help.

I think my biggest plant this year will be a hot pepper plant – so there, squirrel bastards!

So I have 3 stands:
the first one will hold 6 3″ pots
the second – 6 4″ pots (but the bottom three are very low and get a bit blocked on sunlight)
the third – 4 larger pots (haven’t tried to see how big will fit and be stable – I might just do 4″ here, too)

Herbs:
2 parsley (4″)
2 thyme (3″)
rosemary (still live one from last year in 3″, 2 new in 4″)
1 dill (3″)
1 fennel (4″)
1 basil (3″)
1 thai basil (3″)
1 sage (3″)

Not Herbs:
1 hot pepper plant (first choice = serrano, but this one seems a good bet for a smaller container) – largest pot

So what am I missing? What would grow well in a 4″ pot but not look irresistible to a squirrel?

(I’m planning this so late because I don’t really have room inside my tiny apartment to start things from seeds – though I will try starting a few seeds late now that it’s almost warm enough to have them outside)

Things planted
4 different kinds of lettuce
spinach
arugula
mustard greens
scallions

Things nurtured
my thyme from last year has sprouted a few leaves, so I am watering it instead of pitching it in favor of a new plant.

I have mulched around the blackberry plants from last year (which will not be producing blackberries this year because they were cut down when the property manager cut down the poison ivy, but they have many happy green leaves already, so I think they are fine for putting up nice brambles this year).

I almost adopted a stray cat in my backyard. He always comes up for pettings and food, and I don’t think he knows how to hunt. So I put him in my cat carrier and took him off to my vet to get checked out and then fostered off to my mother… only the cat came back positive for feline leukemia. So he’s back in my backyard, and I have bought some wet (non-prescription) cat food to make sure he gets more regular meals.

Things spited
I have herbicide, and I have gone after all of the new sprouts of poison ivy. I suspect this will be a losing battle because the original vines are well entrenched and healthy in spite of the vigorous hacking that my property manager had done to it. And it not has its origin on a property not managed by my guys, but also it has a foothold in a third property (which is a parking lot and has no one to complain about the vines). But I am doing my very best to fight this war nonetheless. I might end up being one of those creepy neighborhood people who calls up and complains about things her neighbors are doing (i.e. not maintaining their backyards). Good times ahead.)

Things yet to be grown
The garden shops aren’t stocking herbs yet, so I bought some seeds for herbs (which were on sale because it’s a little late to be starting seeds at this point) and I might start those tomorrow. I’ll put a few thyme seeds in with the recovering thyme so that I can make sure there’s enough mass come seasoning time. Next summer I’ll see what pots of herbs are for sale at the farmers’ market.

I plan to have in 3″ pots (6 pots): thyme, rosemary, dill, sage, mint, lime basil (or some foreign basil that looks hardier and tasty)

In 6″ pots (up to 6 available): flat-leaf parsley, celeriac, maybe some more lettucy things, a small hot pepper plant (if I can find one small enough)

in larger pots: leeks, and maybe some other oniony thing (what? I totally read that the allium family keeps bugs away from the garden). And then I have one large flower pot that might work for a tomato plant… still deciding about that.

fannish duties
2 stories beta-read: for 1 I still need to hear back which kind of feedback the author wants, and the other one has been delivered and I’m waiting to see whether the author is insulted by my brusque style.

Neil Gaiman – showed up way early for his talk, camped out (and did the beta reading), listened all attentive-like, and then was very dignified and polite about asking for an autograph for my mum (and explained that the crazy woman didn’t actually want her name in the book, just his). He read “Instructions,” “The Day the Flying Saucers Came,” “Orange,” and a chapter from the children’s book he is in the middle of (and was still in rough draft and handwriting). Meanwhile, if you are in New York, he’ll be reading there tonight for eight minutes – only eight minutes because it is with other really nifty people – one of the first two things from our reading as he was taking the opportunity of our reading to time them for that one… which is odd since I’d first heard “Instructions” as an audio file, where it was clearly five minutes long.

And now I am at work.