I live in a small townhome in practically the center of the District of Calamity (sic). Since my quarters are so “intimate”, I have sought to utilize my urban back yard as an extension of my living room. When the weather is warm, I tend to spend my evenings sitting outside.
In the past, I have made some tentative steps to garden. For years, I have maintained a small, in ground compost pile. Due to the presence of vermin, the only foodstuff which I compost are coffee and tea grounds. Lately, I have started to supplement the compost with eggshells. I can see the contrast between the good soil in the compost area and the clay on much of the rest of the yard.
For the past couple of years, I have cultivated a few plants. The pepper pot was pretty successful. I also managed to keep some herb plants alive, albeit without transplanting them out of the starter containers.
This spring, I am inspired to create more of an urban garden. Buoyed by the tantalizing taste of really fresh produce and considering the space limitations of a packed refrigerator, I hope to have some crops which supplement our groceries.
I want to eat more salad. Aside from liking the crunch of fresh vegetables, I know that it is healthier for me to have more fresh greens. My beloved likes bag salads mainly comprised of Iceberg lettuce or and baby carrots, both of which I find bland and have a short shelf life.
As an adult, I discovered that I liked spinach, as long as it was fresh (NEVER in a can or frozen) and that it worked as a mixed salad. But when we bought bagged baby spinach, it persistently got buried in the produce drawer and went bad. Personally, I like arugula, but that is something which others would pick out of a salad. I also enjoy sprouts, but that does not suit my other half. Thus, I see growing some greens as an opportunity to get more of what I like with less of a chance of storage spoilage.
I also have nurtured an interest in cooking, which has a nexus with gardening. I like to pickle but bristle at the grocery store price of Kirby cukes. I also had some price shock with dill. Buy growing them in a garden, it will be tasting fresh, presumably thrifty AND giving a sense of accomplishment. While I am not a huge tomato enthusiast, fresh ‘maters in a salad or a sandwich might please my palate.
One other objective which I think could be accomplished by gardening is having some cover. I have longed to get a bicycle for short city trips, but there is no place to put it. My shed is quite packed and there is no room in the abode. The last time I locked a covered bike in the yard, some thief hacked the chain off when stealing the wheels (and he had time to enjoy a cigarette and a cheap can of beer). Now that my satellite dish pole is redundant, I realized that it would make for a sturdy bicycle rack, but it would have to be obscured from street view.
When some handy guys helped with some home improvements, one of the guys heard that I homebrewed so he wondered if I would want some hop rhizomes. Since hops grow like gangbusters and they need a trellis for support, this might be a way to honor my homebrewing interest, do some fun gardening and provide camouflage during the growing season.
Even though I am interested in doing some gardening, I don’t want the pursuit to fully occupy all my free time. While the image of a city center rooftop garden, ala Green Card, might seem romantic, that is not my passion. My neighbor is a fanatical gardener, but she seems to concentrate on flora and her yard is cluttered with pots (of the garden variety).
After planting, I hope to limit maintenance to fifteen minutes a day.
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