Attempting To Get the Brown Off My Thumb: An Adventure in Gardening

One of the pitfalls of apartment living in an urban area such as Chicago, is there is no land. No land to BBQ, hang out in and importantly, no place to plant flowers and a vegetable garden. That is not to say you can't do any of the aforementioned things, it's just way better if you have a yard and a place to call your own.



Needless to say, growing up the extent of my gardening was growing a potato plant in a cup - until it would get kinda stinky and my mom would throw it out. My grandpa had an excellent garden when he still lived in the city. I remember getting bags of tomatoes and zucchini as a child and for several years he grew corn against his fence. When my parents finally bought a house about ten years ago, we started a small garden - cherry tomatoes, eggplants and bell peppers did well, but not much else. My dad allotted only a small plot in the backyard to garden, so we were somewhat limited as to what we could plant.

Amy has coveted a garden since she moved to the city. As a person who grew up with fields of corn literally out her front door (really, I'm not kidding), I'm sure the lack of vegetation here has been less than desirable. When we moved to our current apartment four years ago, we have a bit of a back porch in which we can grow a herb garden. This was last year's:

It is nice that we have fresh herbs for cooking right out our back door for six months of the year. We attempted to grow a tomato plant in a pot a couple of years ago, but we got nothing. Amy and I were regulated to the fact we probably weren't going to have our very own vegetable garden until we bought a house.

Amidst my constant puttering on the internets, I found a reference to the Peterson Garden Project. Some folks discovered there was a Victory Garden in a lot a little over a mile from our apartment during WWII. In the same spirit, they were creating a lot of raised beds (4'x6') so people in the community could have an opportunity to garden. They have an excellent website you should check out when you have a moment.  So me being a Chicago geek, and Amy wanting the garden of her dreams, after a little discussion we took the plunge and bought a bed. There was much commiserating over what vegetables to grow: I was of the mind to limit to 4 or 5 types, but Amy wanted to go all in. Considering she is the one who will be cooking the vegetables we grow, I let her have her way.

We started the garden 3 weeks ago. Here is the progress so far, in pictures (of course):

Day One

We had to fill the beds ourselves. Don't call me a hoe.

We used string to measure out 24 1' squares. We planted tomatoes, carrots, onions, 

squash, zucchini, peppers, potatoes, eggplant, beans and lettuce.

Day 5

Our first tomato! In fairness, it was already growing when we purchased 

the plant, but let me have my moment.

Zucchini plants are pretty

It's hard to tell in this shot, but we already had some seeds sprouting at this point.

Day 8

 

Yay, Cucumbers!

They have since extended the hose to our end of the lot - no more watering can lugging!

 

Day 12

From top to bottom: two squares of cucumbers, squash. Go seedlings, go!

I think the fact we had two weeks of near monsoons helped things along nicely.

Day 16

The little lettuce is so cute - Squee!

As you can see, our tomatoes were getting too big for their britches. And that bed behind us is still empty. At this rate, all those folks will get is a handful of frost if they don't plant soon,

Day 20

It was recommended to us that we put laundry baskets around our potatoes and fill it in 

with soil as they grow. I feel like putting a fabric softener sheet in there.

 

 We staked some wooden dowels around our tomatoes so they wouldn't 

keel over like a 21 year old woman in a bar in Wrigleyville.

Amy stands proudly next to our garden while wearing her chicken printed gardening belt. At

this rate the tomato plants will be taller than her by August!

I'm really happy we decided to do this. Not only because hopefully in a few weeks we'll have tasty, tasty veggies, but watching everything grow is fun and gives you a sense of accomplishment. And gardening is exercise - no lie.

I'll pop in every couple of weeks with a garden update. I am taking pictures nearly every time we visit and posting them in a Flickr group. So if you must see how things are going, go take a look.