Urban Gardening

I guess the cliche is true.
"You can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl."

I moved from 7 acres up in the mountains to an apartment on the valley floor.  I knew I was in trouble when I found my fingers itching to pull weeds in front of other apartments.  (I'd already picked the ones in front of my apartment!)

I am actually quite excited about gardening on the valley floor.  Up in the mountains we were at 3300 feet which put us anywhere from 2-4 weeks behind the growing season on the valley floor.  I can't tell you how frustrating it was too wait for a tomato to get ripe.  It would be October till we would get a bounty of tomatoes and they would be full of cat's eyes because it was already cooling off at night.

Then there were some plants I just gave up on trying to grow in our short growing season- cucumbers, green peppers, cantelope....  Cayenne peppers grew well as well as winter squash, zucchini, acorn squash and pitty pans.  We had success with carrots, onions, garlic, and herbs such as oregano, sage, thyme, and dill.  Too many aphids to have much success with broccoli and cauliflower.  Green beans and peas did well also till the gopher discovered them.

I brought one plant from the mountains and it was a sage plant in a pot.  Since then I have added rosemary, oregano, thyme and my friend Kathy just gave me basil and parsley.  I bought 1 tomato plant and 1 cucumber plant.

I am wildly excited about the tomato and cucumber.  My patio faces south so it should be excellent sunlight.  My tomato and cucumber should be on valley time and I am so hoping for lots and lots of tomatoes and cucumbers to eat.  I never seem to get enough of them in the summer and grocery store ones have no flavor of the sun.  The Farmer's market is too spendy around here to afford anymore.  The locavore/organic movement has turned vegetables to gold.  (So only the rich can afford the "pure" vegetables.)

Along with my vegetables I have 1 fir tree and a pot of pansies.  I want to have sunflowers and zinnias too.  I could never grow zinnias up in the mountains either.  I want a sunflower because they just look so glorious and happy.  I will also grow some cilantro so I can make homemade salsa!

So today I washed the dirt from underneath my fingernails and it was a good feeling to be dirty!  Later this evening I made myself a glass of ice tea and sat in my "urban garden" to read the newspaper.

Hummm,  I think some lemon balm or peppermint will be my next herb!