Gardening


I have always wanted to plant a garden.  I remember my parents loved gardening and turned our backyard into a beautiful and very productive vegetable garden every year using the square foot gardening technique, companion planting and heritage seeds.

Me?  Well, my cats ate all of my houseplants so growing things inside was never an option, and despite deciding to try every year to plant something in the little bits of ground in the city I could use, I just never did.  Our first apartment had, at the end of a long, dark hall, a little deck.  The deck was dilapidated, but it had some planters filled with dead plants on it into which I always intended to sprinkled morning glory seeds one year.  We moved before I did, though, into apartment #2, which had absolutely no outdoor space and no access to the roof.  Which is why I was thrilled when we moved into apartment #3 that had a shared yard!  I grew some plants, but no vegetables, and then the moment passed because my husband informed me that he was going to be a minister when he grew up and we moved to apartment #4, which is where we are now.  Our apartment does not come with outdoor space.  Two Summers have passed here, each one full of good intentions that THIS would be the year I would plant a vegetable garden just like the one I remember as a child.  And then this Spring I finally said "you know what?  We may never have a yard, and I'm not waiting anymore."  And that's how you get this...

A dryer top covered in egg cartons and cookie trays filled with seeds.  Look very closely because right here...

Is a lettuce sprout!  I called everyone in to see my sprout, of which I was very proud.  Actually, I go to check my sprout almost hourly, it's gotten a little embarassing.  I have been very firm with everyone (four legged inhabitants most emphatically included) that they are not to touch Mama's garden on pain of death!  There will be enough time when everything is planted outside to tear up dirt and rip leaves off of things.  Right now, let me savour the moment...

My very first garden!