With today’s post I want to introduce some gardens other than my own.
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Two of my “city kids” have gardens. Andy is in Pilsen in Chicago and Jesse is in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. They both have very limited space for growing vegetables but that doesn’t seem to stop them from rather ambitious plantings.

Andy says, “It’s really amazing just how much you can grow if you have enough room and decide to devote enough space for plants. I’ll be totally set with tomatoes for the summer with three plants. Oh wait, actually four plants.”

In addition to the tomatoes Andy is growing:

• habañero and jalapeño plants from seeds Jesse gave him from last year’s plants

• herbs: thyme and basil

• a two-year old strawberry plant that hasn’t yet produced any fruit

• mustard greens

• a forget-me-not plant

It’s important to note that all of Andy’s plants are inside his second-floor apartment in front of his large north-facing windows.

Andy says, “I’ve been using Terracycle plant food, which is the worm crap fertilizer and it has worked pretty well. I also like how they recycle old plastic pop bottles for the packaging. I guess one thing about container gardening is that you have to keep up with watering because the dirt in containers dries out very quickly.”

Andy's Chicago garden

Jesse also has an amazing garden in a very small space. I asked him last evening if he could send me a photo. He answered this way,

i saw your message and directly went and shot a photo of my tomato plants. there was supposed to be a storm tonight and this was just as the rain started coming down. those are in my bedroom window. they are growing strong, but they have not fruited yet. many brown leaves. perhaps i am not watering enough? i have a feeling this is it. nothing i have is in the ground and i think the water runs out quickly. it is also possibly very crowded. i have five large plants in my window. in my other bedroom/office/darkroom window i have my squashes and one other tomato plant. they are doing similar. the squashes have been fruiting slightly, but they have fallen off when they do . i will keep at it.

Jesse also notes that container plants need to be watered more often than ground plantings. I would also add that tomato plants are self-pollinating. That is, they don’t need insects to pollinate. They DO, however, need wind or something to make this happen. With indoor tomato and pepper plants you may need to tap the flowers gently to get them to pollinate. Some people use an electric toothbrush to make this happen! Since Jesse’s are on an outside window cage he should be fine. I do wonder a little about Andy’s north light for tomatoes! And… wait a minute… Did Jesse actually say that he has squash plants in his window?

Jesse's Brooklyn garden as the rain begins to fall

my grandson's cousin enjoys some baby carrots

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I made an obvious decision to forgo writing about and photographing my garden so far this year. It was a nice break that actually allowed me to enjoy getting my patch of green off and running without the encumbrances of camera and computer. Gardening is a messy business and I recall last year finding sudden inspiration while having muck up to my elbows. Dashing to the camera or computer in such a state required significant clean up which somewhat interrupted the flow of both the gardening AND the inspiration. This year when inspiration came I simply said, “Eh…” and returned to pulling weeds in the rain.

A friend on Facebook asked me “What do you have in your garden?” That’s my reason for returning to this.

I am experimenting with new varieties of mostly heirloom vegetables. This year I have purchased nearly all my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, an organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the heirloom seeds of our garden heritage. With any luck this year’s garden will contain:

• Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans from SSE – This is a wonderful old standby that I grew in my first garden in 1973. It’s the only bean I’ve ever grown. For next year I have my eyes on some Rattlesnake Snap beans. I don’t think I can resist “dark green pods that are streaked with purple – very fine flavor.” I like the name too.

• Wisconsin Lakes Pepper from SSE – I’ve always grown California Wonder peppers but wanted an heirloom variety with seeds I can save for next year.

• Jalapeño Peppers from Burpee – just one plant in a bucket from last year’s left over seeds

• Summer Crookneck Squash from SSE – I love the nutty flavor.

• Burpee’s Fordhook Zuccini – I used some leftover seeds from last year.

• Sweet Dumpling Winter Squash – I got these seeds from my son who grew them in Brooklyn.

• Purple Top White Globe Turnip from SSE – I’ll plant a fall crop of these too.

• Scarlet Nantes Carrot from SSE – I’ve finally discovered that the secret to growing carrots is deeply-tilled ground.

• Cherry Roma Tomato from SSE – These are replacing my Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes from the last two years. We’ll see…

• Red Brandywine Tomato from SSE – These are replacing my Better Boy Hybrids from Burpee. Those were pretty good but I want to save my seeds for next year and I can’t do that with hybrids.

• Brandywine (Sudduth’s Strain) Tomato from SSE -another experiment in flavor and seed saving

• Calabrese Broccoli from SSE - I was looking for larger heads this year which I didn’t get from the DeCicco variety I grew last year.

• Giant Noble Spinach from American Seed - These are left-over seeds from last year. My twenty-month old grandson likes this!

• Lettuce a variety of nine lettuces including a Gourmet Blend from Burpee, Black-Seeded Simpson, Burpee Bibb, and Roman Emperor (romaine)

• Mary Washington and Jersey Giant Asparagus from crowns I purchased at Home Depot

Please feel free to leave comments, questions, useful information or idle chat below. Maybe you can tell me what’s in your garden. There is more to come. I promise.

And thanks for asking, Mark.

Large cities are notorious for their dismissive views on recycling programs. I know this is true for Chicago and Jesse tells me that it is the same in NYC. Our “city” kids – one in Chicago, one in San Francisco and Jesse in NY have always found ways to recycle and be a little more responsible about these things than their respective cities generally care about. (One exception would be San Francisco.) Jesse likes to find recycled containers for his garden.

This past weekend Jesse spent some time assembling his garden. Using compostable egg crates rather than peat pots as containers for planting his seeds he was able to re-use what would have gone directly into the garbage. I’ve warned him that these can work well but need some holes in the bottom to aid root growth before transplanting. The egg-crate planters were placed into Jesse’s darkroom trays (yes, he’s a photographer too) to hold water for bottom watering and for ease of moving them around. The photos below show his seeds before they were pushed into the seed-starting mix.

Jesse also used recycled bits of cardboard to label his delicata, heirloom tomato, habañeros, sweet dumpling winter squash and pumpkin seeds. He has no idea what variety of tomatoes they are. They were labeled “heirloom tomatoes” at a local market and he described them as “delicious.” I like his adventuresome spirit.

As you can see below, Jesse is proactively recycling. He bought eggs so he’d have the crates which necessitated his having to find a (recycled) container for the eggs! And of course, those are old film containers holding his seeds. Atta boy, Jesse.

I’m sure we’ll hear from Jesse occasionally about his garden’s progress. I’d love to hear from others who are experimenting with “urban planting.”

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seeds on seed-starting mix

seeds and seed containers

recycled garden

eggs new home

My seeds from Seed Savers Exchange

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Last year’s successes have emboldened me enough to expand the garden. For the first time I’ve saved some seeds from last year to plant this year. Jesse brought some seeds from Brooklyn at Christmas that I’m anxious to plant and today I got some pumpkin seeds that will give me “huge pumpkins, up to 70″ around!”

I’ve taken a different approach to seed selection. Last year I picked up seeds on sale from Ace and Home Depot. This year I’ve done that again but I’ve also investigated some of the seed companies that specialize in heirloom and rare varieties. I have also taken a look at some of the companies that sell primarily to commercial producers. Those companies that maintain their own test lots and labs and trial grounds and whose germination rates exceed federal standards are the places I want to shop for seeds. Although there are others, I’ve taken a close look at Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Territorial Seed Company, Stokes Seeds Ltd. and Parks Seed Company which has a wonderful Gardeners Handbook.

This year my favorite resource for seeds is the Seed Savers Exchange. This is a non-profit organization that saves and shares heirloom seeds. It is the largest non-governmental seed bank in the United States. They have 23 acres of certified organic preservation gardens. Their site itself contains a wealth of information on all aspects of gardening as well as seed saving and trading. Even their seed packets have instructions for seed saving . The Seed Savers Exchange is the source of the seeds photographed above.

Let me know if you’ve come upon a favorite seed source.

And yes, I know I already used this photo.

here’s a shot of my (habañero) peppers coming along. just waiting for them to turn….. i can’t remember what color i planted. orange i believe.

peppers

Little "Tabasco"

this is what i found sprouting in my habañero plants when i went to check them in my window cage this morning. only food related because of the peppers…. i don’t eat kitten often.          -jesse

ripe cherry tomato!

There are some good thing to report!

• In spite of a cool, wet summer our first cherry tomato has ripened.

• Pumpkins are getting large and on their way to 25#, or so the seed packet says.

• We are learning many ways to cook zucchini! Katie had a zucchini Asiago cheese-omelet this morning.

• Wildflower seeds I planted are blooming, although I don’t know what most of them are.

Anyone who knows wildflowers please feel free to help me identify them.

Any Brooklyn pumpkins yet, Jesse?

How about Pilsen jalapeños, Andy? Does the el cast too much shade on your garden?

This pumpkin is about 12 inches long so far.

unknown wildflower

unknown wildflower with bee

My children love to cook. They don’t always cook very normal stuff so when Jesse told me that he cooked something from his Brooklyn garden I was curious. Below are the results.

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while i could have climbed out my back window and walked fifty feet to taco santana for one of their delicious pumpkin flower quesadillas, i decided i’d just reach out the window and grab a few. unfortunately there were just a few, but i made do. i found out which are males and which are females; i think all mine so far are males. i picked them and got poked a bit. seems some of the ‘hairs’ on the plant are like very fine cactus needles.

i tossed them in a pan with a bit of garlic and cooked them until they wilted a bit and browned. while they don’t have a very strong taste, they are very earthy and squashlike.

today i threw a few more on top of a black-bean burger with gorgonzola and homemade ketchup!

-jesse

Jesse sent me some photos of what the pumpkins look like now growing behind bars outside his apartment. Those are the safest pumpkins EVER! Thanks, Jesse.

I got this from Jesse’s blog and really liked it! -Bill
There is an update to this here!
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here is my copycatted pumpkin planter. some old boards and an old sheet. it certainly doesn’t look as good as a burlap sack. i had to relocate my peppers to my bedroom window along with the random plants that happen to be growing in my hanging planter. i obviously need more soil which will be gotten tomorrow. hopefully there isn’t too much rain. for tonight my pumpkins will once again sleep in their bucket.

bonus #1 the tomato cage i labored over for far too long. some dowels and wire.

bonus #2 the reflection of my target gnome sheets i scored on clearance for 7 bucks!

may 23, 2009