urban gardening

My Balcony Garden

Abbreviated view of my balcony garden. Just as water is life, so is sticking my hands in soil. This summer, I am growing 6 chili plants, New Zealand spinach, tomatoes, borage (pictured) and red orach (a voluteer). I’ve also started seedlings for my fall garden (brassicas). Not pictured is the ginger I thought would decompose but instead took root. I am very proud of my garden as this year shows my patience has increased. Never before have my chili plants got to the point of producing peppers! For the past few years, I have been buying dried chilis to make my own chili powder. The reality that I’ll soon be able to make that powder from my own homegrown peppers is incredibly freeing…and a sustainable practive that drives me crazy with delight! The plan is to dry the chilis and grind into powder as needed. I hope to have enough to last through to next spring when I will start the process all over again but this time with allium (onions and garlic) powder.

Collards

They’re not on my list of favorite greens. That honor is bestowed on sweet potato leaves, callaloo (amaranth), various kinds of kale and spinach. However stopping by a community garden I saw the collards below.

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In a garden overly devoted to beans (monoculture), it was a welcome, glorious sight. I made it a point, when I was in the neighborhood, to park near the garden just so I could look at it. A few weeks ago, I stopped by and it looked like this:

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Some one, some family, will eat well, I thought. I was also inspired to try my hand at growing this green admittedly not one of my favorites. I bought a starter plant from a local farm, re-potted it and aside from lackadaisical watering, basically left alone. Yesterday, it rained, heavily. This is what the plant looked like earlier today:

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I am also practicing what I call lackadaisical gardening with some kale planted in my mother’s yard. I have watered it even less than I have the collards. It appears to not need my care or attention:

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When we lived in Brookline and community gardened, my plot neighbor had kale growing taller than me! I neglected to ask her how long she had been growing the kale but it had to be a minimum of 2-4 years. It could almost be said to be growing wild, if such a thing is possible in a community garden. Of course the growth is due to the self-seeding nature of the vegetable.  Now, kale is not on my list of native plants that I want to populate my mother’s yard with but the nutritional value outweighs that consideration.

With both the kale and the collards I plan on continue to not paying them any attention. I want to see how they do, especially with winter around the corner!