urban gardens
The Urban Garden
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:
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• 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,
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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
Jesse’s Brooklyn Garden Begins!
I think I’m more excited about Jesse’s garden this year than my own. I’m always curious as to not only what he will plant but how he will plant it. He has very little space in his urban setting but it doesn’t stop him from thinking big.
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.”
seeds on seed-starting mix
seeds and seed containers
recycled garden
eggs new home
More from Brooklyn
It seems that peppers are about the last things to ripen. Jesse sent this yesterday……..
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
A Kitten Grows in Brooklyn
From Jesse comes a little gardening story…
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
From Andy…
I got the following note from Andy today. He also sent some wonderful photos of his urban garden.
hey dad!
i just transplanted my pumpkins into a larger container to be left outdoors. here are some photos! i grabbed an old ginger sack from work, filled it with potting soil, placed that in a crate for structure, and added the pumpkin plants. i’m only concerned that there are two plants. i grew them together in a milk jug until this point. do you think that i should take one out? one of them might be better off than two growing together.
andy
