Backyard Farming, Day I

Maybe a little over a year ago I told Olek that I was really interested in starting a rooftop garden. He thought about it for a second and said that he pictured roots tearing through his ceiling, eventually caving the house -- and that he was totally down for it. But, as most half-baked ideas go, rooftop gardening was never actualized.

Then Angela came over a couple of days ago and noticed all of the ceramic pots in my backyard that my step-dad used to grow basil, peppers, and lettuce in. Since he's moved out, all of it has lain fallow and become overrun with weeds. Angela mentioned wanting to grow something and gardening -- though not of the rooftop variety -- was back in motion. Seeing Tim's mom's herb garden on Friday redoubled our resolve, and we set out for Home Depot earlier today in search of seeds.



Unfortunately it's mid-way through summer, so we basically missed the entire planting season. The only seeds we could find that would grow before the cold dashed our harvest were peppers, basil, and oregano. We also decided to pick up two varieties of flowers (marigold and something else I can't remember) and catnip for the family of strays who have taken over my backyard.

Because Angela and I haven't planted anything since beansprouts in elementary school, we basically made up the farming method as we went along:



First we broke up and de-weeded all the dirt. My step dad actually bought soil for all of the pots and only used them for one summer, so I'm pretty sure it's still packed with nutrients. (Also, we found a turnip when we were digging around, which is a pretty good sign, I think.)

Then we dug little troughs and sprinkled in the seeds.

I found some Miracle-Gro, so we tossed that on to ensure that our plants will be super buff. Then we watered the concoction, covered it all up with an inch of dirt, and soaked it through and through.



And now we play the waiting game.

-Arv
Twitter.com/ToImpale