My mother has this great photo of me as a baby, playing with a wooden spoon and a mixing bowl. But it wasn't until recently that I finally heeded the call, trading my laptop for a chefs knife and a secure job for an adventure. My experiences in restaurants and on farms have fundamentally changed the way I cook, eat, and think about food. I'm in the D.C. area now working on sustainable food and agriculture issues. This blog is an effort to recount some of my adventures and new-found perspectives.
Ok, so we didn't actually have to fight for our right to garden. But if you watch the video at the end of this post, you'll understand the title.
What we did do is decide that despite the limitations of our suburban apartment's balcony, we'd garden nonetheless. With help from our good friend over at Arcadia, Farmer Mo, we decided on a combination of deep pots for vertical veggies like tomatoes, some more shallow boxes for shorter plants such as herbs and radishes.
Dina and I celebrated Easter by heading over to Cravens Nursery and Pottery last Sunday to choose seedlings for our garden. We were wowed by exotic bushes from Japan and lovely little lemon trees, but made our way eventually to the vegetable section. As we strolled through the herbs and tomatoes, the excitement of growing our own food took hold. I think, if we could, we would have walked away with one of everything. But given our budget and our space limitations, we had to make tough choices - green zebras, cherry peppers, and chocolate mint, for example, all made the final cut.
We then headed over to Home Depot for deep pots, long planters, railing box holders, and organic soil. Before long we were home and elbow deep in warm, dark soil.
Except for today's torrential rains which shook some of the more fragile herbs up a bit, the garden's great. We even have radish sprouts breaking through the soil!
I'll keep you posted on our progress. And in the interim, here's a first garden video...
What we did do is decide that despite the limitations of our suburban apartment's balcony, we'd garden nonetheless. With help from our good friend over at Arcadia, Farmer Mo, we decided on a combination of deep pots for vertical veggies like tomatoes, some more shallow boxes for shorter plants such as herbs and radishes.
Hahahha, love it! Too bad nobody in Germany will be able to see parsley's debut....
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