City Gardening
Our parents planted an amazing vegetable garden every summer, so we were fortunate enough to grow up eating the most delicious, fresh produce. Thinking back on my childhood (and with the price of food sky-rocketing) I got inspired to grow my own vegetable garden.
Dan and I live in an apartment in Portland and we knew it was going to be a challenge. City gardening requires a certain amount of creativity. We scoped out the grounds of our building and found a great little nook behind our kitchen (if you have landscaping, you may want to check with your landlord before planting).
After choosing a spot, we went to the Portland Nursery to pick out our plants! We chose Roma tomatoes, Cayenne peppers, Green Bell peppers, California Purple Bell peppers, Japanese eggplant, Basil, Sweet Leaf, Rosemary, Lavender, and Spearmint. We also bought some planting soil and natural fertilizer. The fertilizer is actually chicken poop in pellet form which sounds pretty gross and smells even worse. It works, I promise!
We started by pulling up the grass and weeds. Then we did our best to make a straight edge and loosened the dirt. Then we added our planting soil and got to work. We barely fit everything we bought into the space we had. I recommend researching how much room each plant needs and analyzing your space before you buy. Most vegetables need at least 12 inches around them. It’s been about 2 months and things have been going great. That is, until last weekend…
We went camping up in Washington for the 4th of July weekend and came back to find half our garden missing! All the peppers, the eggplant, and the lavender had been pulled out and the dirt was neatly smoothed out where they had been. It was as if they had never existed! It was a devastating blow. For a few days we thought they had been stolen, which sounds totally crazy, I know!
It turns out nobody stole them, someone just pulled them up and threw them down a 7 foot well by the basement window. Outrageous! Well, that tragedy aside, we still have our tomatoes and the rest of the herbs. They’re doing great!
*Tomatoes, Basil, Rosemary, and Sweet Leaf. You can see the area to the right where the “missing” plants were.
I’ve had so much fun gardening, even in such a small space in the city. It really takes me back to childhood in Michigan. I can’t wait to take my first bite of fresh Roma tomato!
Yay for city gardening! I can’t wait until Jonathan and I can grow some vegetables. Our place is surrounded by huge trees, which keeps it cool during the hot Atlanta summers, but too shady for tomatoes. Someday… Here’s some unsolicited gardening advice: pinch the flowers off your basil to keep the leaves healthy and sweet.
I am so sad that someone would just pull your plants and toss them. I loved the idea of the eggplant escapades…the villainous vegetable snatcher…you get the idea. This takes all humor right out of the situation!