Urban Gardening: A Day for Planting

We had a long day at the garden, or rather gardens.

It began with a lot of work at our two plots that are part of Gardeners In Community Development. We had a little bit of harvesting to do. The bush beans are producing, and several other items are growing well. The pole beans are blooming, and the broccoli and brussels sprouts are getting rather large.

Harvesting and tending to the first plot was followed by a whole lot of planting of carrots (multiple varieties), turnips, peas, lettuce, and spinach.

After several hours (and a bit of a sunburn), we ran out of steam and headed for home. Of course that meant a stop at our small plot at the Deep Ellum Urban Garden. (DUG also has a facebook page if you prefer that sort of thing.)

We started the DUG plot to have an herb garden much closer to home. It's going to come in very handy for cooking.

Urban Gardening

Today we got to harvest some onions and shallots from plot #1. In fact, we harvested over 15 pounds of onions. Not sure hom many shallots we'll have after they've cured for a while. TheKiddo™ says, "A lot." So I'll go with her measurement for now.
We also planted some pumpkins and watermelons. Between the melons we put down today and the cantaloupe that is already growing, we should have plenty of fruit to enjoy this summer.

Keep Your Veggies Fresh

Sometimes you find gear that is so good, you use it all the time and don't even think about how it well it does its job. If you're like me, you're much more likely to notice when something doesn't work.

Sometimes you find gear that is so good, you use it all the time and don't even think about how well it does its job. If you're like me, you're much more likely to notice when something doesn't work.

The FridgeSmart® system from Tupperware is something I rely on day in and day out. It's not  I reach for some still-fresh spinach that was picked in our garden weeks ago that I recall how wonderfully it works.

Yes, it's a set of expensive plastic. And it's worth every penny to keep veggies from our garden fresh and delicious.

Urban Gardening: Going Vertical

We have two plots in our Community Garden. We're not supposed to. We're only supposed to have one. We have two. And each of them is 10' wide by 20' deep.

In our initial plot, we're currently growing tomatoes, onions, shallots, herbs, berries, peas, bush beans and some romaine lettuce. While this sounds like a lot, we have plenty of room for the additional herbs and peppers we'll be putting down after next Saturday's plant sale.

The front half of our additional plot is full of potatoes. We have three varieties planted in two rows. They've been mounded a couple of times, and are currently about 18" to 24" deep. In the back half of the plot, we've seeded some cucumbers, pole beans, spaghetti squash and cantaloupe, and we've planted two varieties of sweet potato.

You would think that the two plots could contain all of that. Based on our experience in the garden last year, however, we know that it cannot and will not. The squash and cantaloupe will spread all over the second bed and prevent us from planting other varieties of squash or any watermelon. Since we already have twice as much space as we're supposed to (from a square foot perspective), we have to build up.

After consulting several books on vertical gardening, we spent last Saturday and Sunday creating room for plants from thin air.

The first order of business was to hook some netting to the chain link fence that borders our additional plot on the east side. This should provide the cucumbers we seeded with plenty of room for growth. We then built an eight-foot-tall trellis that we hope will hold the weight of the cantaloupe and spaghetti squash. It's a fairly simple design of two posts (buried two feet deep) and two crossbeams. We then hooked some wire that we found to that frame.

Granted, the melons and squash may become so heavy that we need to support them with slings or hammocks. We'll figure that bit out as we go along. Right now, we're just thrilled that by thinking vertically (down and then up in the case of potatoes and up in the case of melons) we've added another dimension to our gardens. 

So now we have two plots that are 10' x 20' x h. And that equals unlimited possibilites.

Urban Gardening

TheBetterHalf®, TheKiddo™ and I live in an apartment. Most of the time, we love it. We have access to swimming pools, a fitness center, movie rooms, meeting rooms and a variety of other amenities that are covered by our rent payments.

There are, however, two aspects of apartment life that we don't really like.

1. The rent is raised each and every year.
2. We don't have a garden.

While the first remains irksome, and is likely to push us to home ownership this year, we have addressed the second. We have a plot in a community garden that is associated with Our Savior Episcopal Church and named "The Plot Against Hunger." Our 10' x 20' plot is just a small part of the Gardeners In Community Development effort in Dallas. And we're thrilled that at least 10% of our harvest goes to a community food pantry to be distributed to the less fortunate.

For a few dollars a year, and many hours of labor, we are able to harvest and enjoy our own organically grown vegetables and fruits. And when you spend as much time working your plot as we do, adding a few hours to contribute to the community garden by harvesting, weeding, maintaining the walkways or feeding the chickens is a simple thing. In fact, you'll find that you've more than fulfilled the necessary time commitment to the community garden after just a few visits.

Currently we have tomatoes, potatoes, romaine lettuce, red onions and shallots growing, while our spinach plants go to seed so we can replant for the fall.

Water jugs keep roots warm.

Blooms indicate we could harvest new potatoes in 3 - 4 weeks.

We're about to plant a broader selection of vegetables and herbs following the annual plant sale. If you're interested in gardening and want some Dallas-friendly vegetables and herbs, you should attend the plant sale this month.

Come to the plant sale!

Eating the fresh produce and working with the soil are the two most obvious benefits to our garden. I happen to think that Teaching TheKiddo™ about science and nature, and having her be unafraid of grubs, worms, beetles and other bugs are the best parts.

I may hurt from the digging at times. I may complain about the blisters on my hands at times. I may even want to sleep in some weekend mornings and not tend to my chores. At the end of the day, however, I wouldn't trade our family time in the garden for anything. It's where we grow and discover nourishment for our minds, bodies and souls.

I'm sure that even if we do become house-dwellers this year, we'll keep our plot.