This year I have been bitten by the gardening bug.  Probably as a reaction to last year’s failure (in which I burnt all my potted herb plants by frying them in the hot sunlight on my roof), this year I am determined. Inspired by Holly, the true green thumb of the Crows, I committed to having a little green spot of my own, to eat some food I grew myself, and a find chance to play in the dirt everyday.

However, there are a few obsitcles in my way.  First of all, I rent, and on the third floor of the three unit, so it’s not exactly the backyard is my domain. Despite the fact that, thanks to my landlord, it frequently looks a like a junkyard, I feel it would be a little presumpous to just sart digging up grass and planting.  My landlord would probably consent if asked, but the yard is mostly shaded, and there is only a small portion that would really work for gardening anyway.  Unfortunately, this section is right in the middle of the yard and next to the house- there is no way I could ever reasonably dig a garden there without upsetting someone.  Plus, setting up a garden can be pricy, and investing into a place you won’t be living for more than a few years seems a little waseful.

So! Soulution!  A potted garden/weed-bed takover.  A garden that is 75% mobile makes big use out of small spaces.  It’s a combo between a tabletop pot garden and a pre-existing raised bed garden that was full of weeds and old leaves.  For the table I used an old wooden coffee table found in the junkyard of my landlord’s and when combined with the large variety of pots I had lying around I think it has a nice esthetic.

Raiding Home Depot with the man crow was a lot of fu!  I scored all the seedlings either there or at the Curley Plant Sale in JP on Saturday morning.   I also bought planting soil and four pots for this operation- the rest I had already from last year’s debacle.   On the table I am growing:

-Herbs: basil, italian parsley, thyme, oregano and rosemary.

- Two varietys of tomatoes

-Green Pepper

I can’t wait to mow on some fresh herbs!

Herbs!

Its going to smell so good when they get growing too!  Now the true inspiration here is the side-of-house garden. This raised bed has alsway been there, but you would barely have noticed it because it was so overgrown with weeds.  They took mere minutes to remove, and then I repaced them with a layer of soil I had leftover from potting. Here, I have planted:

-2 more tomato plants

-green lettuce

-green beans

Side of the house, raised bed garden.

Please try to ignore the cable wire. This will be really my first experiment in growing from seed, so I’m excited!  Of course there is a lot more I would have liked to try, but I think this is a good start.   Also check out my gardening supply bucket:

How can this not be a success?  Expect frequent updates as the summer moves on on!