New Moon Spring Self-Care

Spent an amazing Saturday evening *by myself*.  This week has been a really intense ending to a fairly intense semester.   As part of my self-care, I finally got out in my garden and planted all the seedlings I bought weeks ago (some of which look the worse for wear after waiting outside for me to find time for them).   I sifted through the springy, alive compost I spent all winter making, and just got back in touch with the ground that I hadn't touched for almost nine months.  I pulled weeds, cleared ground, and dug nutrient-rich compost into some of the harder winter dirt and planted about half my garden with kale, cabbage and tomatoes.   Last year, I tried, as usual, to have it all - but my cabbages, shoved into a shady corner, grew slowly and  were ravaged by bugs and bunnies.  This year, I thought about what I *really* wanted, and what I had energy for.   Instead of tucking in carrots or onions where they really wouldn't have space to grow, or crowding in larger plants in an effort to "have it all," I chose a few plants I really wanted to prosper - cabbage, kale, spinach, tomatoes - and spread them out all over the garden.  I gave them a crap-ton of compost and plenty of room to be strong and well.   I knew this meant I would have to give up some things - eggplants, for one, and maybe green peppers - but I know that I won't have time to tend high-maintenance seedlings or slow-growing, disease-prone tropical plants like them.   So I did the hardest thing for me - I said "no" to possibility and variety.   Instead, I channeled strength and power into the "few good things."  Cabbage, kale and spinach have become staples- this summer, I'm hoping to provide weekly food instead of dazzling breadth.   We'll see if I can hold back, though.   I do love the *4* eggplants or peppers I usually get.


This is, as usual, a metaphor for my life.  I am fueled by the possibilities - or my dreams of how life *could* be.    This is both beautiful and dangerous.  

Sad Cabbage

 In the end, my cabbage will look like this:   

see, doesn't it look delicious?

But first I had to take off all this:

Because something ate the entire top half of my beautiful cabbage plant!

I know.  It's gross.

Stupid bunnies.  Go eat something else.

Spring planting

You know, I always tried to restrain myself from too much "crop update"-style posts where I just listed everything that was happening in the garden - but in reality,  I just went back and read the late-May posts for the last two years, and it was really cool.   I really like having photographic evidence of what I have done each year, and feeling like I have some kind of record of the seasons.   For example, yes, this week it is rainy and not the warmest, but it seems like its been a whole lot warmer than it was in past years.  I already have tomatoes and eggplants in the ground, and my lettuce is straight-up edible size.

Also, although I notice that each year I do resolve to "tone it down," as of last May I was still calling for a "no ground left uncovered policy."   If I continue reading into June, however, I see all my frustration: peas that were just starting to bloom when it was time to plant the cucumbers, lettuce that was still producing (and stealing growing time) when I needed to plant the eggplant, etc.

This year I'm not only trying to "plant within my wants" (meaning planting only the things that we will truly eat and want), I"m also refining  from last year - no bean teepee, more eggplants, more arugula, no broccoli (which I don't think I could say no to last year!).   Furthermore, I'm also continuing to plant "within my means" - which means doing the work that feels right, not what "must be done."

How to make pickles and sauerkraut - Part I

All right, kids, I had to do a little quick research on wikipedia before writing this blog entry....because a) I got confused reading all the different recipes to make pickles, and b) there are at least two, completely different ways to make pickles, and I wanted to make sure I had the terminology/verbiage right for this.  

So....If I say that I am making pickles, there are two different methods I could be talking about.   One method, that I'll talk about in another post, is to simple submerge a vegetable in vinegar (or a vinegar-salt-water-sugar-and-spices) mixture for a certain period of time.   I've done this with carrots, beans, beets, onions, garlic and cucumbers.   The finished product can either be canned (safely, because of the high acid content of the vinegar), or stored in the refrigerator and eaten within two weeks (although some recipes say these "refrigerator pickles" can be good for months at a time...I've certainly eaten commercial pickles months after I opened them and stuck them in the fridge...but then again, I often eat things I shouldn't....:)

June - and Companion planting

So....for me, the art of urban gardening is doing a lot with a little space.    Or rather, cramming in lots, and lots and lots of vegetables (often too many, really) into my backyard.  (and my front yard). There's a part of me that loves the engineering challenge of how to squeeze everything in, and get a full season's harvest out of a very small plot.  One way to "double up" your space is to think seasonally - many plants that love the cold can share space with warmer-weather plants.  Here are some of my tips n' hints for packin' it in in the transition-season of June.   (PS: check out the June 1 post to see how each of these plots looked when I started them in May - its pretty cool how lush they look now compared).                                               

Spinach, with eggplant and onions around the side.