Our large apartment complex provides a limited number of garden plots during the summer to residents. We reserved one two summers ago, and the results were kind of sad. Most of our vegetables got pilfered–someone actually uprooted all of our broccoli–and a slug got to our radishes and ate them from the inside. Generally, we failed to maintain it enough, so it always had mad weeds.
Our total harvest when all was said and done was two inedibly hot radishes that survived the slug assault, and one nice red-yellow tomato that my one-year-old son threw on the concrete and smashed. I picked it up and ate it anyways, because I wasn’t going to have my whole harvest wasted. It was delicious. But it was also really sad.
Last summer we lived in New York City while I did an internship at a law firm, but this summer we will be staying in Maryland while I study for and take the bar exam. We won’t be moving to Chicago (where I have been hired by a law firm) until December–the bad economy is forcing a lot of law firms to defer start dates for first year associates–so we’ll be around. And I am thinking about gardening again.
As great as it would be to grow some vegetables and give it another try, I think that won’t really be prudent. I have no desire to work even harder only to have my harvest stolen. I have given some thoughts to growing an herb garden, though. I really like cooking with fresh herbs (it doesn’t help that all of ours are a bajillion years old and probably have long lost all of their savor), but buying fresh herbs is expensive, wasteful, and a pain in the ass. So a kitchen garden has a lot of appeal. Maybe since my bar class is in the afternoon, we can make a morning routine of taking the kids out to tend the patch.
There’s no real reason we couldn’t grow herbs inside. We get plenty of sun through our window. But historically that has not turned out really well. We forget to water them, and they die. and they come with aphids and stuff, and look all icky, and they are no fun to use.
I realize that my dream of being a farmer is probably a long way off if I can’t manage to keep herbs alive in my living room. Small steps for Kullervo.
Sailing to Byzantium 
Of all the things that can be grown in a small kitchen garden, I’ve found kitchen herbs to be the most satisfying. They aren’t as finicky as vegetables, they are less prone to being stolen by bandits (of the two- , four- , six- or no-legged kind), they yield generously, and they are easy to preserve. All of last year’s garden produce is gone now except for the dried fennel, parsley, basil and thyme (we ran out of basil and cilantro ice cubes sometime in February – need to make more this year, obviously.) Herbs just last and last.
That’s basically the idea. I have big, ambitious plans for gardening and ultimately even mini-farming, but at the moment I think we need to build confidence with some small success…
And fresh herbs are so fantastic! I think that having easy access to a variety of them will encourage me to cook more creatively. I have finally taught myself not to put every herb in every dish, but to use one or two to give a particular flavor. With that kind of seasoning in mind, more different herbs to choose from just means more variety built into basically the same foods. A basic pan-fried pork chop suddenly becomes seven different dishes if you can actually season it seven distinct different ways.
Most of the radish’s burn is in the peel, at least for the varieties I’m familiar with. Peel ’em and they’re fairly bland.
Even so, we don’t really eat radishes anyway. Whenever we start actually planting veggies, I plan on growing stuff we already eat before we branch out into experimental territory.
That’s our plan as well. I’ve already got some spinach in the ground, and plan to put in at least two (maybe three) tomatoes – enough for canning – as well as some herbs (basil and oregano, probably – I wish we could grow a bay laurel here) and the “three sisters“. If there’s any room left over I’d like to try my hand at some sunflowers… oh, and my daughter wants to plant an icebox watermelon (our next door neighbors have done well with them in the past).
We’ll be busy!
I want to do the three sisters as well! I was just thinking that today, actually. I’m all for getting a garden plot again this year. It really was heartbreaking when our broccoli was stolen though. Not only because it was the best surviving plant of the bunch, but the asshats who stole it stole the ENTIRE plant! Not just the florets, but ripped them right out of the ground. And stepped on the only one that the left–the runt–that continued to valiantly attempt to grow, resulting in a sideways growing plant. Just heartbreaking.
And I thought I was the only one who got emotional about broccoli. Mine was eaten by a weird black-grey fungus in about 2 days. I may have cried, for weeks I had been eating fresh broccoli and tomatos daily. Greatest luxury in my mind, fresh vegetables!
God Bless,
Gerald
And I thought I was the only one who got emotional about broccoli. Mine was eaten by a weird black-grey fungus in about 2 days. I may have cried, for weeks I had been eating fresh broccoli and tomatos daily. Greatest luxury in my mind, fresh vegetables!
God Bless,
Gerald
Sorry, forgot to add great post! Can’t wait to see your next post!