Gardening in 2010

Last summer, I kept a little garden on my fire escape in Greenpoint. I had enough room for basil, catnip, sugar peas, green beans and lettuce; in the end, only the basil got used. It was a mega-pain to climb out the window to weed the window boxes of lettuce and I only produced enough peas and beans for one meal.

But this year, I'm a little smarter. I'm also in a bit of a different situation in terms of where I live. We have an 600 sq foot deck attached to our place, which means that my garden dreams can handle a ton more energy. Having some friends that are into gardening helps too.

I read through Grow Great Grub yesterday and discovered some tips for the summer. Part of the reason I only ended up with a few peas and beans last summer is... (wait for it...) that I NEVER HARVESTED THEM. I let the same beans and peas on the vines all summer, until I finally picked them in August, when they were dry and inedible. GGG taught me that I have to harvest all summer long so that the plants keep growing food. Genius! (Or really, really obvious).

So how do you grow a garden in Brooklyn? We don't have a yard, so I'll be container gardening like I did last year. Container gardening feels a little restrictive, but I'm hoping to find a way to combine the boxes with the space. One of the coolest plans is to have the sugar peas wrap around the railing that goes all the way around our deck. Decorative peas! Here's a look at what we inherited from the previous tenants:


This year I decided to get things started with seeds instead of small plants. I was itching for spring to start and knew that I could start seeds inside sooner than sowing directly outside. I asked our local garden store for some advice two weeks ago and they told that the last frost of the year is scheduled for mid-April (according to some Farmers). I had about 6 weeks to get the seeds going. And holy crap, are they going!

Sunflowers and sugar peas, plus the watering spoon.

Squash, cilantro, basil and sugar peas.

Sugar peas, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers and oregano.

Here's what I have planned for this summer:
* sugar peas
* broccoli
* squash
* tomatoes
* cucumbers
* watermelon
* basil
* cilantro
* oregano
* sunflowers
* maybe if I'm really brave, a blueberry bush

One of the shortcomings I found on the Internet with regard to growing plants from seeds is a lack of images that show what plants look like after a week, 2 weeks, etc. How do you know you're on track?

I'm hoping to use this space as a seed image archive, a site that new growers can consult to see how their seeds are sprouting. I'm also going to report back about the challenges of container growing and the problems and successes with urban gardens. Planting seeds in boxes on my cement deck sure doesn't feel as earthy as it did when I spent four summers working at a farm during college, but it's a compromise (and creative challenge!) for now.