[insert garden pun here]

working really hard

I was at my breaking point, it had been cold and wet and rainy long enough.  Last Saturday was beautiful but I was sick and lost the entire day on the couch.  By Sunday the rain had returned.  For the first time in my adult life I had a back yard of my own and the only one who was able to enjoy it was my dog.

Well, the weather gods blessed us with another beautiful weekend (a chilly weekend for Los Angeles) Sunday I took the full advantage of the day.

i even taught jaime to garden

The morning began with a trip to Garden Sphere in Tacoma, thanks to Groupon who ran a deal: $20 for a $40 gift card.  This was exactly the opportunity I’d been waiting for, to finally stock up on everything in needed for the garden; seeds, starters, and supplies.

chocolate tomato plant with hidden marigold seeds

I’m not well experienced in what gardening stores look like or should look like, but in my opinion Garden Sphere is a great place.  Knowledgable staff, nice selection, perhaps a little pricy but all in all it was a fun experience.  Also they had chickens and baby chicks in the back.

Most of my planters and pots were ready, I needed only to get the starters planted and seeds in the ground.  So here is a list of what I planted.

-cilantro (starter)

-moroccan spearmint (starter)

-sage (starter)

-walla walla onions (starters)

-broccoli (seeds)

-carrots (seeds)

-cucumber (seeds)

-pole beans (seeds)

artichoke and two chinese cabbages

I combined these with what my Guru had given me the previous evening.

-artichoke (starter)

-chinese cabbage (starter)

-chocolate tomato plant (starter)

-more lettuce (starter)

I also bought a few flowers at Garden Sphere, I didn’t choose them for any reason other than I just liked how they looked in the pictures.  I also bought some Marigolds which were to be planted along with the Chocolate tomatoes.  My Guru informed me that planting marigolds will help keep bugs off the tomatoes as they do not have an appealing smell to them.

olive, not working hard at all

The beautiful turned into a fantastic evening. I invited my parents over for dinner, and it stayed warm long enough to sit on the patio and enjoy a barbecued dinner (flank steak, bok choy, and asparagus).  The lights I hung earlier in the afternoon shown like stars as the sun began to set.  I could not have asked for a better day to lift me from my depression and fill me with excitement for what I hope are many more similar days this summer.

posted by: brian snider

dr. green thumb

thyme and lavender.  impulse buys

Despite a reference in my previous garden post not easy getting green, I said that if the basil had not grown, that I would go to the grocery store and buy a starter plant and claim that I’d grown it from a seed myself, I have decided to be honest is all my gardening adventures.

For the sake of honesty I will admit that the latest additions to my garden were not grown from seeds but rather purchased as starters from Whole Foods.  On Saturday while doing a little shopping I came across a tempting layout outside the main entrance.  The stand held a variety of herbs and vegetables that were being advertised as two for $5.

After circling the stand twice I decided that rather than selecting starters for herbs or vegetables that I was already planning on planting from seeds, I would choose something else, lavender and thyme.  They were both healthy looking and smelled delicious, I immediately fell into the trap that grocery stores, including Whole Foods are betting that you will get caught in, the impulse buy.

I brought the plants home and set them on the table, they were beautiful looking.  I wondered why I wasn’t buying all my plants this way, certainly it was much easier, it satisfied my desire for immediate gratification, and it seemed to me that it was simpler to keep plants alive than to grow them.

When I put them next to my “first grow” my week old basil plant I realized why I wasn’t simply buying starters for everything in my garden.  Unlike the basil I hadn’t earned the satisfaction that comes from growing a plant from a tiny seed in the soil.  I will enjoy these herbs, fresh lavender teas, and thyme smothered on legs of lamb but they will not be the same as the basil used in a delicious pasta or the lettuce tossed in a summer salad.

chives growing from the head of this elephant

Speaking of the lettuce, it’s not yet begun to sprout.  Perhaps I’m being a tad impatient, since the basil has begun to grow I have become a junky to see my vegetables sprout and grow and flower and develop.  It’s possible that I’m simply being impatient but then the worried parent in me is concerned that I planted them too deep, or drowned them in too much water.

I will give it another week, maybe by next weeks update I will have little green sprouts just like the basil.

As for the rest of the garden, I was busy both Saturday and Sunday and did not buy the seeds necessary and have yet to plant everything I hoped to.  I suspect that I need to get these in the ground as soon as possible, we have had such beautiful weather of late that I don’t want my precious seeds to be missing out on the valuable yet elusive sunlight.
posted by: brian snider

not easy getting green

infant basil

This would be a great title for a blog about money, I’ve decided to waste it on a post about my garden.  The picture at the top of the blog is the beginnings of a basil plant, the seeds were planted the day I posted how does your garden grow?

My first foray into growing herbs from seeds was an absolute failure.  I planted basil, rosemary, and chives.  For weeks the pots sat empty, just these barren dirt wastelands.  I was so perplexed by the lack of growth that I left the empty pots outside for months just incase they were taking an especially long time to grow.

I thought I’d done everything properly, I tended to them daily, supplied them with plenty of water and copious amounts of LA sun.  In the end the seeds yielded nothing and I eventually used the dirt in the pots for a lemon tree which never grew any lemons.

As I planted these basil seeds I was filled with skepticism and expected that after a month without so much as a sprout I would go to the PCC and buy those basil starters I’d seen in the produce section.  I would quietly pant them and let people believe that I’d grown them myself.

You can see there was no need, amazingly the seeds have sprouted and now I have what hopefully will be a beautiful basil plant.  Of course that all hinges on me not murdering these fragile sprouts in their most formative years.

three kinds of lettuce I planted.

Concerning the rest of my garden; I’ve  managed to plant some starter strawberries supplied by my guru, as well as rosemary, and chives which are currently growing like green hair from an elephant shaped planter.  On what might have been the sunniest day we’ve had all year I panted three varieties of lettuce in one of the long planter boxes.  Despite my minor success with the basil I remain skeptical about the possibilities of the lettuce ending up in a summer salad and even more skeptical that that salad will include carrots, radishes or any of the other vegetables I plan on planting.

I still have much to do in my tiny garden, but as long as the dozens of other distractions don’t tear me away, I expect to finish planting everything by the weekend, and begin to wait.  Waiting for the green.
posted by brian snider

how does your garden grow?

not much now, i do plan on expanding

I’m fairly confident that no one has ever looked at me and got the impression that I was much of if at all, a gardener.  I’ve killed more plants in my life than I’ve kept alive.  A small pine sapling, a rosemary bush, two basil plants, a whole planter box of dill, english mint, sage, and lastly a lemon tree which despite constant blooming, after three years it never grew any fruit.  I don’t believe in green or black thumbs, but I definitely don’t have a green one for sure.  My one and only achievement in growing was a chestnut tree I accidentally planted in my mom’s back yard and which is now fifteen feet tall.  Needless to say, if plants were children, I would be in jail.

Just over a year ago Jaime and I made a drastic life decision, we would begin to buy locally grown organic produce only, local grass fed beef, pork, chicken and eggs, as well as wild caught fish only (no farmed fish).  In turn we cut out most processed foods.  I resisted this initially dreading the loss of my beloved Dr. Pepper and cheap Costco bacon.

In Los Angeles this lifestyle was really quite easy, due to their warm climate, a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables are available at the farmers markets year round.  We were also rather lucky that just three short blocks from our apartment was McCalls Meat (I demand that anyone who lives in LA who eats meat go there) where we were able to buy locally raised and grass fed meats.

I knew moving to Seattle that the conveniences we had previously enjoyed in LA would not be so easy.  I wan’t prepared for just how hard it really would be.  Washington winters are cold and wet, the farms must endure frozen soil and flooding on a weekly basis.  This drastically reduces the availability of fruits and vegetables, about all you could find consistently were; squash, brussels sprouts, carrots, some leafy greens but not much beyond that.

We also found it very difficult to find a nearby supply of meat.  There was some meat available at the market but the best local meat company required an hour long drive north.

We are now renting a house in Bellevue which had a substantial back yard.  Lamenting the convenience of LA I decided to make my life even harder by attempting to grow my own garden.

My gardening guru is my mother who has kept a fantastic looking yard for years.  Her breadth of knowledge concerning vegetables and when to plant them is immense.  Inspired by Michael Pollan’s Omnivores Dilemma, I will be reporting on the progress here in my blog.  While some of what I am planning on planting I will be consuming throughout the summer, I also plan on having a feast towards the end of the growing season utilizing the fruits of my spring and summer labors.

My first set back occurred two weeks ago when my garden guru informed me that the patch of dirt I had been hoping to use for the garden would not work because of the lack of sunlight.  Instead I will be using a network of long rectangular planter boxes, which while they won’t look as pretty or natural as a conventional garden, will provide me the ability to move my garden should I so desire.

I will be planting (and with some luck growing)

carrots

tomatoes (not from the seed but from on offshoot)

lettuce

strawberries

greenbeans

green onions

onions

peas

radishes

cucumber

asparagus

Additionally I will be growing; rosemary, basil, mint, sage, and chives.

I know that these are lofty goals for someone who has never eaten something that they grew and nurtured themselves.  I am determined to grow as much of my own food as possible.  With my guru at my side I will hopefully have a crop of vegetables with a Summer’s end feast for my friends and family to enjoy food grown in my own back yard.