The Garden – Part 7

March 15, 2009 - The garden is truly ours now. The ground was warm, it was a beautiful afternoon and we decided to plant. All four of us were out there getting dirty. It was a wonderful productive afternoon. We had hot black compost from the bin and our piles of fresh wood chippings to tuck the garden in. Although I have seen it happen all of my life, it is always a miracle, a thing of wonder to me, to see seeds actually sprouting up from the soil. I plant, I water and I wait. But I have such a hard time believing there will really be a plant appearing from that tiny insignificant seed.

We planted rows of bush beans. One garden supplier has gotten clever and has packaged smaller amounts of different varieties of seeds for the “backyard gardener.” That’s us. The Obamas and the Stover/Wongs will have our harvest in somewhere between 60 to 90 days. We hope. There are beets, spinach for now. Chives and marigolds for fun and for natural bug control. My neighbor shoved some garlic cloves down and is asking to plant carrots and celery. We bought some tomato plants since they take forever from seeds and they help make it look like a real garden. There is a glorious pineapple sage that I could not resist. It sits regally above the scrawny tomato plants

March 22, 2009 -- When I wrote most of the above, we had spent two days playing at being gardeners. Albert got ambitious and cut up scrap lumber to build a rough fence because Fanny the Wonder Dog is indeed fascinated by the garden. She pulled up and ate the first plant that Albert put in the ground. Now she can look but no nibbling, no digging. She hangs out with us and wonders what the heck is keeping us so occupied but she’s thrilled that we’re all playing in the dirt together. The miracle has happened. The beet seeds that are the size of sand or coarsely ground pepper have sent up their flags of life. Crowds of little two-leaved seedlings are poking out around the soaker hose which also marks the rows. Biology is amazing. I still cannot believe that a real plant with a fat red beet at the bottom of it can possibly come from a piece of grit but there they are.

March 24, 2009 -- Even though germination is supposed to take 10 -12 days, I still am the great doubter. The beans have appeared today. Not all of them but a fat coil with flat leaves is curling up as though fighting its way out of the ground. There were four different varieties of bush beans all mixed together so I guess this really will be pot luck, but one variety seems to be getting a head start on the others. This afternoon there were even more. And the spinach is appearing now. Unbelievable. We really are urban gardeners. We have a garden. Things are growing!