Sunday, October 5, 2008

Our Tiny Plot

spinach, arugula and watercress

We couldn't take living without one anymore, so we built up a little raised bed and planted ourselves a garden. It's only 4x6, but Mason had to schlep a lot of bags of soil from the car to our back door for this tiny thing and it's 24 square feet that we didn't have before. We bought some seedlings from Redenta's and ordered seed from Baker Creek. The Baker Creek seeds haven't come yet, but the seedlings and a few discounted organic Burpee seeds have already been dug in. We've got two kinds of basil, fennel, rosemary, thyme, oregano, chives, two kinds of onions, two kinds of kale, spinach, watercress and arugula. The radishes, nasturtiums, peas, chard and mesclun should be sprouting up in the next few days or so. I also have some spinach seedlings and some really nice looking brussel sprouts that I need to pot up today. But, what I'm really excited about are the Baker Creek seeds. I lust after their hundreds of heirloom seeds every year, but I've never actually ordered any until now. We're waiting for Thai dill, he shi ko and flat of Italy onions, Spanish and Chinese radishes, French spinach, Chinese kale, baby bok choy and dwarf pak choy. I can't wait to get them all into the ground. I've missed having our old garden and tons of land like mad for the past two years, so this is a really great compromise--we have a garden and civilization.

If you have a garden, join up on Freedom Gardens. It's run by the family from Path to Freedom, which is my dream project. If you haven't heard of them, they have a .2 acre urban homestead in Pasadena where their garden produces over 6,000 pounds of food annually. In addition to their amazing gardens, the vegetarian family keeps chickens, worms, cats, ducks and goats, and have spent years and years turning their homestead into a sustainable living center. I found their blog three (or so) years ago became obsessed immediately. I could go on and on about all of the amazing things that they do, but I'll just stop now and let you read more on their site if you're interested. When we find a house of our own (or just an empty lot we can afford), we would be glad to do even 10% of what they've managed to accomplish.

5 comments:

Joanne said...

I'm so envious of your little garden! You sure have an eclectic assortment of plants that I have never heard of before. We're getting ready for winter here, so nobody is planting much these days except for flower bulbs that will sprout next May. I'm going to check out the website you suggested. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Gardens are great no matter how big or small.

jessy said...

oh my gosh, i love your plot! the Baker Creek seeds sound awesome! i hope they arrive soon! i can't wait to see it all growing and green and glorious!

i'm gonna check out the freedom gardens - i have seen the path to freedom site and it's amazing! stunning + awesome, indeed!

hooray for grow'n your own! that rocks so hard! :D

megan said...

The good thing about enduring the Texas summer heat is knowing that you'll have a mild winter, so we should be able to grow at least a few things year round.

Baker Creek is so awesome! They travel all around the world to find new seed in the hopes of keeping all of these varieties alive. That's why I'm growing some of these things that I've never even seen before--to add some much needed variety (and better flavor) into our veggie diet and keep Monsanto out of my kitchen.

Definitely check out Freedom Gardens! They're just getting started and the site is still in Beta, but I think it's going to be great and I've already met some helpful gardeners. There are people with huge plots and some with just a few pots, so everyone is welcome.

Sonya said...

OMG thank you for those Freedom Garden links! I have been envisioning and looking for something exactly like this.

Also, I am INSANELY JEALOUS that you get to *plant* at this time of year and grow stuff year round. We've had a few frosts up here in Duluth, so I brought some of my containered plants indoors to try to extend the season (the tomatoes and peppers still had flowers, and the cabbages were *just* starting to form heads). I read an article in Mother Earth News a while back about growing tomatoes indoors in the winter... we'll see if I have any luck.