Down on the farm

A couple years ago I joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and suddenly realized the world of vegetables extended beyond my love of broccoli. Somewhere in my growing-up journey, I started wanting to grow my own veggies.

Well, ladies and gentleman: the time is now.  Last year I read books on growing things in containers, poured through seed catalogs, and did not start a garden because I was moving.  A shame, really, since my old balcony got awesome afternoon and evening sunshine and my new one gets barely a few hours in the early morning.  But I digress.

This year, it's do or die.  And so far the race between do and die appears to be neck-and-neck, though considering the lack of sun I suspect we will lean towards everything mostly dying!

Meet the tomatoes (left) and the pea bushes, which I planted from seed:

 (Did you know that a pea seed IS a pea?  I mean, obviously it is, but if you're not thinking about such things when you open the seed packet, you may be pleasantly startled.  In related news, this is how little I know about growing vegetables.  Yup.  Also... I planted those peas on the same day.  Do you SEE how much taller the one on the right is?!  Growth spurt?)


Meet the lettuce colony (two different types, from seed) and the basil family (I killed at least 13 little purple basil sprouts before I gave up and bought these guys as-is from a local farm):

Meet sir strawberry:

AK asked me to get him strawberries from the farm, so I got what I thought was the ultimate strawberry gift: an endless supply of summer strawberries!  Considering all of the unripe berries, he was not as excited as I was...

Meet the weed-like cilantro plant (also from the farm), more basil (we love basil... although none of them are doing so well post-transplant), and parsley from my mom (also not surviving transplant very well):

Annnnnnnnnd... parsley from seed.  (see below)  Yep.  They are so sad.  I think I will pluck them, wash them, and throw the sad little sprouts in my salad some day soon.

So that's the farm!  I hope to add some summer squash and some flowers to the mix, but I think I'm running a little behind schedule now.  It is so satisfying just to think about growing my own food, that I can't imagine how exciting it will be to actually eat some of my own food!  Fingers crossed that I get to eat at least one pea, one tomato, or one zucchini this summer.  (We are already benefiting from the herbs and strawberries... and let me tell you: you don't know strawberries until you taste them fresh from the plant!)