Posts filed under ‘gardening’
Rudimentary Rain Catch
New York City isn’t exactly a desert, but any time you use tap water you’re also using the energy that it took to purify that water, so I’m trying to use rainwater as much as possible for irrigating my garden. Originally I just put a bunch of buckets out and hoped they would fill up, but that took up a lot of space and didn’t yield many gallons.
So I had to take more drastic measures – with a hack saw. (more…)
The Great Seedling Massacre of 2009
I just wanted to give you an update on those lovely seedlings that I cultivated about a month ago: they died. After a couple weeks of happy growing on my windowsill, I decided to mess with them (separating the biggest ones out into different pots), and a lot of them perished in the process. The plastic containers that I started them in didn’t have holes, either, which meant that they didn’t drain properly – also a big no-no. The ones that did survive (mostly peppers and a few herbs), I moved out into the back yard into a rinky-dink greenhouse (or cold frame, as it were) that I fashioned out of six old windows and some rope. They did ok out there, because they got a lot of light, but I still probably ended up wasting about $30 worth of seeds. Boo.
The whole experience was educational, though. And I like my little greenhouse – I think I’ll rebuild him when fall rolls around and see if I can grow some kale and other hearty greens out there next winter (in the same vein as my mini greenhouse experiement at my old apartment). The windows I’m using now are double-paned, which I think will help raise the temperature during the day and insulate overnight, so hopefully we’ll get some food out of the deal.
Anyways, RIP to those poor little guys that I obliterated, and let’s cross our fingers for the seeds that I just put into the ground. Hopefully Mother Earth will take better care of them than I can.
Seeds Sown
Finally, after what seemed like an endless cold spell that nearly ruined the first half of April, this past weekend brought a heat wave that gave me permission to plant my seeds outside. The timing really couldn’t have been better, to be honest, because with the heat wave came a tidal wave of soil. I liken this soil to a tidal wave because when the truck dumped the five yards of it onto the sidewalk in front of my house Saturday morning, it reminded me of tidal wave nightmares that I used to have when I was a child. I think the dreams were symptoms of being overwhelmed by homework and whatnot, whereas the enormous quantity of soil represented my and Boyfriend’s naivete about the actual size of a yard of soil.
I have never been responsible for anything so massive in my life – this was literally a ton (maybe more) of dirt. With the help of my brother and some neighbors, we hauled it, bucket-by-bucket through my railroad apartment and out into a heap in the back yard until it was clear that we weren’t going to need any more back there. The rest (about 3 yards or so) was left for the neighbors to take.
In most neighborhoods, a pile of dirt would be an unwanted eyesore, but this might as well have been a pile of gold. We have a serious soil shortage here in NYC. So the folks next door grabbed a bunch, and then throughout the day a variety of characters, including a few community garden representatives, brought trucks and buckets and picked away at the heap until it was all gone. Thanks to Craig’s List for facilitating those connections.
Now that I had my soil and my warm weather, I got to work planting my seeds. I found a nice companion planting chart online and planned out what plants would go where, and then started shoving the little guys into the soil. I put in about 20 kind of vegetables (corn, beans, tomatoes, radishes, peppers, greens, etc), and another dozen or so herbs as well as some flowers. Planting seeds is always quicker and less labor-intensive than every other part of gardening, and once I was done I felt like there must have been something I left out. Dirt? Check. Seeds? Check. Water? Yes, I watered everything. Check.
Now I can sit back and wait for them to spring to life. Soon I’ll be weeding like a madwoman, so I might as well get some rest while I’ve got the chance.
Lazy blogger, mediocre environmentalist
It’s been over a month since I last wrote here, and I don’t really have an excuse. I think it’s because I keep coming up with blog topics that are kind of hard to research and/or comply with. Someone recently told me that it actually slows down your boiling water if you add salt to it first – I always have added salt in the beginning because I thought it sped up the process. Does anyone know what the truth is? I’m too lazy to look it up, but I would really like to know whether I’m wasting a ton of energy trying to heat up salty water all the time.
I’ve also been thinking about greening up my cat’s litter situation, but I’m totally hooked on Fresh Step (which is clay-based and not at all green, plus it costs about $10 a box). I’m not at all interested in potty-training my cats, (more…)
Garden Update
My garden is still a ways away from the green eden that I imagine it will be in a few months, but it’s coming along. Last weekend my dad came down to visit and brought a little electric chain saw that my grandpa used to use in his own tiny back yard in Jersey back in the 80s. We used it to cut down some dead trees that were hanging precariously over the garden (one of them already fell down a few weeks ago on a particularly windy day), and then chop up the tree branches and trunks to use as fire wood and for lining out my garden beds. The beds are still empty and I need to get some more good compost to fill them with, but it’s exciting to see where my food will be growing this summer. I plan to get test the yard soil tested to make sure I don’t end up poisoning myself – I hear you can send it to Rutgers and they’ll test it for you. Which reminds me, I should call them. Later!
Seed Update
Look how big my seedlings have grown! It’s only been a week and a couple days since the little guys were just ova, and now they’re real live plants. Not all of them have grown to this size yet – the herbs and peppers are slower growers than the ones you see here (from left to right: cabbage, basil and brandywine tomatoes). Pretty soon it will be time to separate them out into larger containers to their little roots can spread out and their stems and leaves can get big and strong. Watching these teeny guys grow makes me feel like a proud mommy – I almost teared up when I saw the first little sprout push up through the soil. In a few short months I’ll be picking their fruits, chowing down and then saving their seeds for next year.
Start Your Seeds
This morning I checked my handy Farmers Almanac to find out when this year’s last frost will be, and it turns out that it’s in five short weeks – which means I’m a week late at starting my seeds! There was no need to fret – it’s better to start your seeds a little too late rather than a little too early – but I didn’t want to hold out too long so I got right to work and planted about 20 out of the 40 veggie, herb and flower seeds that I bought this year. Starting your plants indoors is relatively simple, and it only took me about 2 hours to get all my seeds in dirt. Here’s an overview of what seed starting takes: (more…)
Read This
I got this book as a christmas gift and it’s turned out to be the best present I ever received. It’s called The Urban Homestead, and it was written by an LA couple -Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen – who have a real knack for sustainable living in the urban environment. They cover all sorts of things, from making your own homegrown booze to city bike travel, but my favorite parts of the book are the sections on growing food. These guys have a full-fledged food forest in their back yard, and have also cultivated all sorts of crops on the road median out in front of their house. The book offers a slew of tips on mulching, container gardening, irrigation, and is a great place to start if you’re interested in growing some food but don’t have tons of experience. It’s been a pleasure to read this time of year, while I make decisions about what seeds to buy and daydream about digging in the dirt.
The authors also have a blog, which I recommend checking out, too – the web ads a layer of interactivity and accessibility to the authors that I can really appreciate. These guys are real pros – and they can write, which is always a plus. And they have chickens, which I’m kind of jealous about (for some reason I’m finding myself increasingly draw to animal husbandry – unfortunately I think my cats would torture and perhaps even kill a chicken if given the chance).
Big props to Kelly and Erik – you’re an inspiration! And if you ever find yourself in Brooklyn, you’re welcome to stay at my house and help me make my yard into an urban oasis.
Seed Season
This nice piece in Alternet today reminded me of something important: just because it’s cold and miserable out doesn’t mean that it’s too soon to start planning my garden. And planning is half the fun. Or, almost half -say forty percent.
I’m getting my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, as usual, but I’m also going to try out this place called Seeds of Change, because I’ve got a gift certificate. There’s also a handful of seeds that I saved from last year (and the year before), including some flowers that were in my yard this summer in Alaska, and some squash seeds that I dug out of my dinner before cooking it. But I still need to get seeds for most of the plants that I plan to grow in my new garden, so I’ve started a list and in a few days I’m going to hit the seed sites and order a bunch before they run out of the good stuff (and they do run out – a few years ago I just couldn’t get arugula and it was really upsetting).
Here’s my seed list so far:
-Herbs-
Dill
Oregano
Basil
Rosemary
Thyme
Cilantro
Lemon verbena
Lavender
Parsley
-Veggies-
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Pickling cucumbers
Carrots
Turnips/parsnips?
Hot peppers
Bell peppers
Lettuce
Arugula
Squash/pumpkin
String beans
Broccoli
Onion?
Green onion/chives
Potatoes
-Fruit-
Strawberries
-Flowers-
Sunflowers
Bulbs? Daffodils?
Mulchfest 2009
New York City has this great tradition, where the Sanitation and Parks Departments pick up all the tossed-out Christmas trees, bring them down to the park and grind them up into mulch. I had the great pleasure of volunteering at one of the parks where the mulching was taking place last week, and it was really something. As you can see in the photo below, they had this big industrial-strength chipper and within a few hours had turned well over a hundred trees into a huge, piney pile of mulch. I had the foresight to bring my car with me (cars are bad bad bad), and filled it up with bags of mulch that now exist in the form of a large, decomposing lump in my back yard. Come spring time (or as soon as the snow melts and it’s not unbearably cold outside) I’ll use the piney stuff to make paths between my garden plots – this year it’s too fresh to use on the plants themselves. Yay for mulch! And more on my garden coming soon…
