Welcome to the (tomato) jungle

For some reason, unbeknownst to either one of us, our tomato plants, particularly our heirloom tomato plants, seemed to be growing and growing and growing and growing and growing...(you get the idea).  Initially, we tried to "handle" the situation.  Using a few leftover stakes and some trellises, we attempted to reinforce the tomato plants so they would stop toppling over and tangling with their neighbors.  But, as soon as we had one windy/thunderstormy kind of day, they'd all fall over again into a massive clump, as you can see below.

Soon, it became evident that we had 2 problems:

1. Our beds were too shallow, meaning we couldn't shove the stakes into the ground deep enough in order to support the weight of our tomato plants.
2. Our stakes were too short for our plants.  Or, to put it another way, our tomato plants were just WAY TOO TALL (duh, because we are such adept gardeners). And by tall, I mean very tall. These plants, when straightened, were well above my head. 

I'll pause here so those of you more irreverent readers can get all the short jokes out of your system....

Okay! And we're back.  So yes, we were having some major tomato problems.  I bet you're all chomping at the bit, anxious to know what we did to solve this problem, am I right??!!  Well I'll tell you-

Absolutely nothing.

Maybe next year we won't plant so many tomato plants.  And we'll definitely get some taller stakes.  

Cherry tomatoes anyone?

And yes, they DO taste as good as they look.

Another harvest!

Check out my feast! I cooked a delicious dinner featuring our very own kale! Well, as you can see by the picture, the feature of this dish may have actually been the plain, store bought pasta, while the kale played a more supportive role.  But this was only because our kale, once harvested, was not as abundant as it appeared while still in the ground, and not at all due to a lack of quality or taste.  Thus....SUCCESS!

Here's the recipe if you care to experiment with kale!  

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/winter-pasta-recipe.html 

Farewell Squash and Squash Vine Borer

While there are ways to rid oneself of a squash vine borer infestation, all seemed too costly and labor intensive. Plus, we were both so thouroughly disgusted by those slimy caterpillars, we were more than happy to uproot all the squash.  I would have done anything to never have to see those maggot looking things ever again.

And so....squashicide.
 
See below for the squash cemetery commemorating our loves ones.

Trouble in squash land

For weeks, we were utterly perplexed by our squash.  Each variety was growing, there was no doubt about that; the plants were spreading out, serpent like, all over the place- beneath the kale, around the carrots, right out of the garden itself!  And along each stem we saw dozens of squash blossoms.  Yet, we could not find a single squash.  We also began to notice that after a few days of blooming, each squash blossom was then shriveling up and DYING!!! 

Something was not right.

So we began to investigate. We donned our matching detective hats and scoured the internet for some sort of explanation. We ruled out the weather. While we've continued to be graced with ungodly heat, which, as I'm sure you remember, was the cause of death amongst our other dear friends (the beets and peas) it was not to blame for our sickly squash.  Squash apparently love the heat.  We also ruled out lack of nutrients or moisture as we've been fertilizing on a weekly basis (which by the way, is a very unpleasant experience as our fertilizer is quite pungent- and not in a nice way) and watering every day.   We also deduced that whatever the problem was, it was unique to squash as our other crops (we're down to tomatoes, kale and carrots at this point) were growing rather beautifully. 

And then...we figured it out.  We had a garden pest!!! A nefarious, foul looking creature called the squash vine borer.  dun dun DUHHHHH!!!!

The squash vine borer (Melittia cucurbitae) is a diurnal species of sesiid moth that attacks wild and cultivated varieties of squash. The moth is often mistaken for a bee or wasp because of its movements, and the bright orange hindleg scales. The females typically lay their eggs at the base of leaf stalks, and the caterpillars develop and feed inside the stalk, eventually killing the leaf. They soon migrate to the main stem, and with enough feeding damage to the stem, the entire plant may die.

But, the only way to be 100% sure that we had a squash vine borer was to cut open one of our squash stems and look for these "caterpillars" which look more like maggots.

And so we did...and this is what we saw...

GROSSSSSSS!!!!!

Yup, we definitely had squash vine borers. 

Garden Progression

Our burgeoning garden. We're so proud!

We are actually GROWING VEGETABLES!!! That my friends, is a squash. (at least I think)

Tomatoes! Whether they are cherry or heirloom is unclear, but should be evident soon enough.

How to grow tomatoes- Part 4

The next step in the tomato growing process is staking. The rationale behind this is, once the actual tomatoes start growing, they become quite heavy, and will eventually weigh down the whole plant, which is not so good.  So, you have to stake your tomato plant to provide some support.  And, as our tomatoes will obviously be succulent and bountiful, and thus very heavy, our plants definitely need the support.

So...here's how our version of staking goes:

1) Go outside and find some sticks, roughly 3-5 feet in height that are sturdy and relatively straight and no wider than an inch in diameter.  You'll need one stick per plant.

Now, in our situation, we realized that sticks are actually extremely difficult, borderline impossible to find in the city.  So, when we ventured up to Vermont to go hiking one weekend, we decided to stock up on sticks.  Before we began the hike, I collected some absolutely perfect looking sticks and left them in a neat little pile at the bottom of the mountain, so we could pick them up on our way home.  But, when we returned later that day, THEY WERE GONE.  So we learned a valuable lesson that day: no matter where you are, whether it's New York City or the mountains of Vermont, sticks are, and always will be, in very high demand.

2) If you fail at Step 1, as we did, you can always just go to a hardware store and buy some "sticks."  These usually come in the form of bamboo or plastic.  When we took a trip to our local hardware store, look what we found!!

3) Buy a pet pig.

Just kidding! But wouldn't that be nice? Sigh....

4) Place each stake next to each tomato plant.  The stakes should be pushed about 6 inches into the soil- enough so that they can stand alone.  Take some string and gently tie each stake to it's corresponding tomato plant. I tied each tomato/stake combo together in 2 places- near the bottom of the plant and near the middle-top of the plant. 
 
Below you can check out my staking skills!

RIP Beets

The time finally came to uproot our poor little beets- they just couldn't take the heat.  Their poor little leaves were all withered and brown.  But, they will return this fall.  We are going to replant them once the temperature isn't quite so extreme. And this time, they will flourish!!!

However, in spite of this tragic ending, look at how cute and tiny the little bulbs are! We considered eating them, but then we came to our senses.

Well, Shit

I guess our beets and snap peas aren't fans of the unadulturated sunlight and 100 degree temperatures we've been having of late.

The pictures don't really accurately depict the withered, brown look these veggies are currently donning, but you get the idea. I wonder how they'll taste...

                 

Our first harvest!

We have reaped a crop! Check out our delicious looking mesclun leaves.

OMG our seeds are actually growing

Yes, it's VERY exciting. Every vegetable has at least one seed that has sprouted.

FEAST YOUR EYES!!

Maintenance now is very easy. If it doesn't rain, one of us goes out and waters at night.  That's about all.  Someone once told me you should only water at night so the water doesn't evaporate during the day. I have no idea if it's true or not, but that's what I do.

It's fascinating to see the different growth patterns of each vegetable.  Some are big and leafy, like the squash, others are more spidery and twist their way up the trellises we stuck next to them, while others seem to attract the most attention from the birds and are currently covered in layers of bird poo....

How to grow tomatoes- Part 3

Remember in my "How do grow tomatoes- part 2" post when I said that once the seedlings reach 5-6" in height they should be moved outside? That was, and definitely still is, good advice.  It is advice that I, in spite of having written it down, did not follow.  So our seedlings were...a little too big.  Some of them had outgrown their cartons, literally.  And some of the cartons were, after being moist for so long, (perhaps because of my overly enthusiastic watering), a little moldy.  However, despite the tight quarters, excessive watering, and furry growths, every single one of our seedlings was THRIVING!!!

Which of course left us with a huge problem:  we had roughly 75 seedlings ready to plant, and only enough space for about 4 full grown tomato plants.

I guess we didn't anticipate that we'd have such an amazing success rate.

And so, I did what I could:

First, I disposed of the more moldy/runty looking ones.  Sorry guys.

Second, I planted the healthiest looking ones wherever I could. Our original plan was to plant one tomato seedling into each giant pot (we have 4).  Instead, I planted 2 or 3 into each pot. (I figured they could handle the crowding, based on what they were already used to).  I also found more space in our upright beds, near the mesclun, and planted a few more there.  Then I found/purchased a few more pots and planted a few more.

Ideally, you would want to strategically place these tomato plants in the areas that get the most direct sunlight.  Obviously, that isn't exactly what happened in our case, given the circumstances, but I think most of our tomatoes ended up in fairly optimal spots.

That left about 25 seedlings without a permanent residence.  I left them in their little cartons outside, and thought about where I could plant them or who I could give them to.  I brainstormed for days, maybe a week, and by the time I went outside to check on them, my decision was already made. They were dead.  It was somewhat heartbreaking.  But it certainly made my life easier.  Off to the trash.

Lesson of the day: tomatoes seedlings are fairly indestructible, therefore don't plan hundreds of seeds unless you live on a farm.

How to sow seeds

This was, fortunately, extremely easy, especially in comparison to our efforts on the garden thus far.  Listed on our seed packets were instructions on how deep and how far apart to plant the seeds.  We simply read the directions. And about 15 minutes later, we sowed our seeds.

The only slightly odd thing we did was to create mounds of dirt in which to plant our squash and cucumber seeds. Why, you may ask? I actually have no idea. But Pat told us to do it, so we did it.  I think it has something to do with drainage....I was obviously not paying attention during this tutorial.

Before and After Pics- Pre Seed Sowing

Before...

(Obviously we had some very wild terrain to hack through)

Action Shots

 

After Shot!

(See you later overgrown shrubs and dirty dirt!)

How to grow tomatoes- Tips

GROW LIGHTS

If you don't have an area in your house that gets abundant sunshine, try a grow light! They are very inexpensive and easy to set up.

As you can see from our photo here, we rigged up our grow light onto the bottom shelf of a book case.  We also added tin foil to the sides for added reflection.

PET YOUR PLANTS

Yes, you read that right. Because your tomatoes are inside, they have yet to experience wind.  By petting them, lightly petting them, you are simulating wind and thus making them stronger and more prepared to move outdoors. 

How to grow tomatoes- Part 2

1. Once your cute little seedlings grow their second set of leaves, they need to be thinned out and transplanted into larger containers. 
2. First, let's discuss thinning out. Because you planted 1-3 seeds per container, (in our case, we may have planted more like 10 seeds per container...whoops, don't do that) there's a chance that all 3 seeds have sprouted (again, in our case, we had some containers with all 10 seeds sprouted...we may have underestimated our growing abilities). So you need to literally thin out the seedlings, aka, separate the sprouts from each other so they can grow individually and not crowd each other. Do this CAREFULLY as the roots are very delicate.  I found it was easiest to scoop everything out of the container and then gently pull each sprout with it's roots apart from it's neighbor.
3. Next, re-plant each individual sprout into a larger container with potting soil. If you were like us and a little too generous with how many seeds you initially planted, you'll end up with lots of containers... so you'll have to be creative about finding places to put them...

   4.  Same as before, give them lots of water and sunshine.

   5.  Once your seedlings grow their third set of leaves, (they will be roughly 5-6" in height), they are

        ready to join the big leagues in the garden!

Dirt Removal: Final Chapter

As you can see by the title of this post, our dirt removal woes have FINALLY ended. After the many disappointments and failures, Plan E proved to be stalwart. I can't express to you how accomplished we both felt and still feel, after finally ridding ourselves of over half a ton of old dirt.  Here's how it all happened:

It began with a night of, you guessed it, MORE digging. Yippee, my new favorite pastime.  We headed into the backyard, both of us having just finished jogging and thus full of endorphins and energy.  Our bags of dirt were not in the best shape after three days of heavy rainfall.  Nonetheless, we each took a stance over one of the lumpy, "unliftable" bags now covered in pools of swampy smelling water and mud, and began shoveling out small clumps of dirt which we then threw into new, freshly opened Hefty bags. Though it was dark at this point, our one motion-detecting light was able to provide visibility. Although... I learned a couple things about our motion-detecting light that night.  One, the light only shines brightly for about 30 seconds after detecting motion.  After this 30 seconds, the light becomes significantly dimmer.  This wouldn't be a problem at all if it weren't for the second thing I learned about this light:  It seems to be very picky about the types of movements it deems worthy enough to earn its light.  Thus, we found that the only acceptable movement involved jumping up and down and waving our arms all while positioned in one far corner of the patio, nowhere near to where all of the "unliftable" bags of dirt were in fact sitting.  So you can imagine how quickly our frustration developed when we were forced to stop digging every 30 seconds in order to walk over to that specific area of the backyard and "charm" our motion-detecting light with our frenetic movements. After doing this 14 or 15 times, we both decided it was less obnoxious to work in near darkness.  Remember when I said we were full or endorphins and energy? Yea, that lasted about 5 minutes, after which, we grew increasingly ornery. There we were, bundled up in 5 or 6 layers (because the Northeast winter finally decided to show up, 4 months late, which is especially cruel after that summer tease we had a few weeks ago) shoveling dirt from one open bag to another, all in the dark, at 10 at night, cursing anything in sight- stupid dirt, stupid shovel, stupid bag, stupid LIGHT- all the while, our bags felt as though they were cloning themselves.

It sucked.

And then we were miraculously done, save the 3 bags that we had initially left in the alleyway.  But, when we went to retrieve them, we instead encountered a large, pigeon-y looking bird sitting right next to the bags, almost as if it were standing guard...weird.  We slowly approached the bags and bird, growing more and more nervous, as this bird was not moving, but instead sitting there, staring at us. We whispered back and forth- What should we do?! This is creepy! Should we leave the bags?? No! We've come so far, we're almost done! Okay fine, should we move slowly?! I don't know! I'm scared! Should we just grab them and run? Why are we whispering? Is it even alive?!- I might also mention, that this seemingly pathetic fear of birds is ENTIRELY warranted due to a previous incident in which a bird broke into our apartment, completely unannounced, and proceeded to hide for several hours, and then pop out, scaring the living daylights out of us, and then fly around like a crazy person, completely at random, for several days before finally departing...but I won't get into that...back to the very suspenseful part of this story.  We continued to step closer, our eyes darting back and forth between the bags and the bird.  We were only a few feet away, furiously debating whether or not this bird was in fact alive, when, quite suddenly, it moved. I won't embarrass myself by narrating the next 10 seconds of my life, but let's just say, this effectively ended our work for that evening.

A few days later, the Polish men from Craigslist returned. Without a word, they began moving out the roughly 30 bags of dirt, including the few we had left in the alleyway, from our backyard to their truck out front.  20 minutes and $125 (TOTALLY worth it) later, we were dirt free.

It was, quite possibly, the best day of my life.

Fertilizing 101

Look at what has just arrived on our doorstep! Yes, that’s right, it’s every girl's dream…a box of organic fertilizers! Could this day BE any more exciting?? No it could not.

At least that was our initial reaction when this adorable miniature farmhouse of plant nutrients showed up at our apartment last weekend. Our enthusiasm lingered just long enough for us to rip open the package, remove the various colorful bottles,  and come to the unfortunate realization that we had absolutely NO idea what we were doing (in case you haven’t noticed, this seems to be a common theme). Here’s a glimpse of what we found inside:

16 oz BioThrive Grow

16 oz BioThrive Bloom

8 oz CaMg+

8 oz BioRoot

8 oz BioWeed

8 oz BioMud

8 oz BioMarine

8 oz Diamond Black

Umm…..what? Should we be totally ashamed to admit we were expecting one giant bottle that said something along the lines of “Organic Plant Fertilizer- use daily” ?? Apparently this was going to take even more research than we originally predicted.

Thankfully, the General Organics website appears to have been designed specifically with ignoramuses like us in mind. “Growing vegetables? In soil? Great! Follow this schedule without knowing a THING about plants and your veggies will grow big and strong and beautiful!”

Okay- seems simple enough, BUT, being the gigantic science nerd that I am I clearly wanted to know more about what was going on here. After all, I do have a Master’s degree in nutrition. I could explain to you the path of Vitamin A in the human body without a second thought, but I literally could not describe how photosynthesis works without a deep investigation into the pages of Wikipedia. I happen to find this rather embarrassing.

As it turns out, there are tons of resources through the USDA, state and local departments of agriculture, and local cooperative extensions that are just dying to teach us city-dwellers a thing or two about plants and how to grow them. This particular info on plant nutrition was mostly taken from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ website. The segment was actually entitled “KidsWorld: Plant Nutrition,” but hey, who am I to discriminate? Here’s a summary of the basics so you can sound super smart and informed the next time you happen to be hanging out with a hot group of organic farmers or botanists (you never know?):

Plants need 3 non-mineral nutrients and 13 mineral nutrients to survive. Non-mineral nutrients come from air and water: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon. In photosynthesis, plants use energy from the sun to convert these into starches and sugar for food! Hooray!

The 13 mineral nutrients come from the soil. Soil doesn’t always have enough of these nutrients for plants to thrive, which is why we need these crazy organic fertilizers. The mineral nutrients are divided into macronutrients and micronutrients.

Primary macronutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium – plants need tons of these so they usually need to be added to the soil and are the main components of fertilizers. Our organic fertilizers source these from natural foods like seaweed and squid. Regular fertilizers add specific ratios of these nutrients, designated on the package in the form N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium). 

Secondary macronutrients: calcium, magnesium, sulfur – calcium and magnesium are usually added to the soil to make it more alkaline (more on this later), and sulfur comes from decomposing organic matter, like compost (more on this later, too).

Micronutrients: boron, copper, iron, chloride, manganese, molybdenum, zinc – again, compost is an excellent source of these minerals, but they can also be added into fertilizers.

There are lots of other factors that play into the nutrient composition of the soil, like texture, pH, temperature, etc…but this possibly exceeds the scope of Fertilizing 101... so you will have to stay tuned!

Dirt Removal: Chapter 4

Plan D, once it became a plan, made us smack our heads over our stupidity for not thinking of it WAY earlier. All this time we had been trying to figure out how we'd get this dirt out ourselves, but duh, we would pay someone to take away the dirt for us! And, upon searching Craig's List we found that there was quite a market for "backyard rubbish removal." So the next day, I called one of the listings, negotiated a price of $150 and made an appointment for that evening.

I waited in anticipation. When I finally got a knock on our front door, I opened it to see two giant men and one giant truck. All good signs. I happily lead them to our backyard and presented the haphazardly thrown bags. One of the men immediately stepped forward, moved to lift a bag, failed to lift the bag, and concluded, in a heavy Polish accent, that the bags were "unliftable." I mean, I knew they were "unliftable" by someone like me, but I assumed that for these men, the bags would somehow be "liftable." I guess not. They instructed me to redistribute the dirt amongst more bags, so they were lighter. And then, they left. It took only 3 minutes for Plan D to completely crumble.

And now it's today. I'm sitting in our backyard, smiling at our garden and then cringing at those bags, which are growing heavier by the day, I'm sure of it. They stare back, mocking me as I strategize on Plan E.

"body" bags

Dirt Removal: Chapter 3

Fast forward from the joy of breaking ground and getting started on our garden in the beautiful sunshine, to five days later, at night, when I glanced outside and saw to my horror that those bags of dirt were still sitting there! My anxiety levels at an all new high, I decided to execute our plan of throwing the dirt over the fence and into the empty lot, all in pure darkness. I carried out our ladder to the backyard and found some weird little container in which to scoop the dirt. Then I attempted to make a dent in the enormous mound of dirt in one bag, trying not to look at the other 19 bulging bags, including the first few we had left in the alleyway. Just one step at a time, gotta stay positive, keep your chin up, these were my thoughts as I scooped up the dirt, climbed the ladder and threw it over. Of course, while I was doing all this, I completely forgot about the trees that are sitting in our yard and the adjacent yard because it was PITCH BLACK OUTSIDE, and so my dirt ricocheted off the branches of those sneaky trees and came flying back at me before landing right back into our backyard. After a few more throws with the exact same unsuccessful result, I gave up, and began constructing a plan D.

Dirt Removal: Chapter 2

After spreading our dirt throughout the backyard, we decided to throw the rest of the dirt into the Hefty garbage bags we had purchased. Again, no plan here. I guess we just assumed that those garbage bags would miraculously transport themselves from the backyard to the front with little to no effort on our part. But, as we filled a couple bags, only halfway might I mention, and realized, even half full, they were so heavy we could only move them by dragging them, we called for a time-out and had a proper discussion on the dirt removal process. It was at this point that we had our first semblance of a plan. Upon inspection, we saw that the fence on one side of our backyard, by our alleyway, has a door that opens to the next yard over, which is also connected to the street. So, we decided that we'd drag all the bags to the alleyway, and then hope that the people next door would at some point allow us to drag all these bags through their yard and into the street. Whereupon, the car that neither one of us owns, would be sitting there waiting for us, in a parking spot which is normally not available, so we could easily load up the bags and drive to the dump that may or may not exist in our neighborhood. Easy peasy. Both of us agreed on what a great idea this was and began to drag the bags toward the alleyway.

(Bags abandoned in alleyway)

An hour or so later, we came up with what we thought to be an even better plan. So the back side of our backyard faces an empty lot- it's one of those lots that is basically all dirt and weeds, with a few scattered bushes and what not. So we thought, why not throw the dirt over the fence and into the lot? Sounded good to us. Of course...we didn't want to get caught doing it, so we decided we'd do it at NIGHT. Yup, that was our plan- be super sketchy and throw dirt into the empty lot next to us in the darkness. So for the time being, we decided to drag all the bags toward the back fence instead of the alleyway. Our process was as follows: Fill a bag with dirt (takes about 1 minute), take turns straining with the weight of the bag and dragging it toward the back fence (takes about 5 minutes), repeat. Soon we had a nice little trail of bags leading to the back fence. Once we finished digging out the garden, we were too tired to deal with the bags of dirt. We decided to figure it out another day...

Dirt Removal: Chapter 1

One problem we did not foresee upon starting our garden was how difficult it would prove to be to get rid of the old dirt. When we initially planned all this, we barely batted an eye at the so called "challenge" of dirt removal, even when our landlord, who is built like The Hulk, expressed some serious concern. So our backyard is completely blocked in on all four sides with no access to the street? No problem! We'll "figure it out." Those words are now haunting me as I stare at 20 Hefty bags filled with dirt, too heavy to be lifted, and scattered throughout our backyard, looking more like body bags in a scene from Dexter, than bags of dirt because honestly, WHO HAS 20 BAGS OF DIRT LYING AROUND??

But, let me explain how we got to our current situation. When we first started digging, a week ago today, we decided to scatter the old dirt throughout the rest of the backyard. Not a bad idea, even in retrospect. We threw some dirt over here, threw some dirt over there, no problem. We were previously warned that if we did this, we had to make sure the dirt levels weren't higher than the patio level, as a rain storm would cause a serious overflow of dirt and lead to a mud pit. So while Alyssa uprooted the shrubs, I handled the dirt dispersal. At first I just shoveled the dirt and chucked it into some nearby areas, barely having to move at all. But fairly quickly, in order to ensure that I didn't cause a "dirt overflow," I needed to travel a few steps from the garden pit so I could throw the dirt onto a new spot. And very soon after that, I seemed to have exhausted all easy to access spots and so, while tromping around, spinning this way and that in search of sparser areas, all the while holding my extended shovel, causing Alyssa to shrink back in fear, I happened to knock off the ears of every single porcelain garden rabbit that had been placed in the backyard by the previous tenant. Oops. All in all, our first attempt at dirt removal was relatively successful. Aside from the rabbit casualties, I was able to spread a good amount of the dirt throughout our yard and not cause any type of overflow. Of course, much to our chagrin, I had barely made a dent in the volume of dirt we still had to remove.

How to grow tomatoes- Part 1

We were told that tomato seeds are the only ones, of the ones we purchased, that we cannot plant directly into the ground of our garden as they are too fragile. Instead, we need to germinate them indoors (yea I said germinate, check ME out) until they become sturdy little sprouts, and only then can we transplant them to the outdoors. So, these were our steps for growing tomatoes:

1. Start with a series of small containers that can be functioned into a seed starter tray. You don't have to buy anything fancy (we ended up buying a proper seed starter tray but only because we happened to be at Home Depot and there was one staring us in the face). Dixie cups or egg cartons work just as well. Just make sure they are somewhat porous to allow for drainage, or you can poke a few small holes at the bottom.
2. Fill each container about 3/4 of the way full with seed starer soil.
3. Create 1/4" deep little indents into the soil.
4. Drop 1-3 seeds into the indent and GENTLY cover with soil. (I had trouble with the "gently cover" part which is why I'm emphasizing it here).
5. If you're growing more than one type of tomato (we are- Heirloom and Cherry) this is a good time to notate somewhere which container is growing what.
6. Water! The soil should stay moist, but not sopping. We had to water twice a day in order to keep the soil moist. A spray bottle of water is the best tool for this so you don't accidentally dump a ton of water on your delicate little seeds.
7. Keep the containers somewhere warm, about 75 F (above the refrigerator is actually a great spot).
8. It should take a week or so for them to sprout. Once you see little sprouts, move them to a place where they can get LOTS of sunlight. And don't forget to water!!

Let the digging begin

We broke ground on a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon. Our landlord had allowed us to use the random assortment of spades and hoes that he has in the basement. So we armed ourselves with our tools, along with a fancy pair of shears we had purchased the day before, and began hacking away at the shrubs and plants while clearing away the dirt . One change to the initial plan- instead of creating two separate 4'x6' sections, we decided it would be easier to just make these two sections into one giant section. We mostly decided this because the other section in which we had planned the garden has an enormous shrub in it with thick branches that our shears would not have been able to handle so well. Plus, it ended up begin easier to remove all the dirt and add the new soil into one giant section, versus doing it in two sections. So, after several hours, we were able to haul away all the old dirt and plants, bushes and weeds. By "haul away" I really mean, we threw all of this stuff into a bunch of heavy duty garbage bags which are now sporadically lying across our backyard, as these bags, once filled with dirt, proved to be unbelievably heavy and difficult to maneuver. We're still trying to figure out what to do with said bags...more to come on that. But for now, back to the garden!

1. We dug into the ground about 6-8" deep.
2. Next we leveled off the ground with our hoes.
3. We laid the landscape fabric over the dirt.
4. We dumped our rocks evenly throughout the pit and over the landscape fabric.
5. Finally we emptied a combination of potting soil and compost over the rocks and spread it around. Our calculations of how much soil we needed were a bit off, we never claimed to be math experts here, because we have a few extra bags, but we figured the dirt may settle a bit and we'll need this extra dirt at that point. We'll see.
6. Voila! A beautiful raised-bed garden ready to go!

Soil has arrived!

And so it begins... After several failed attempts at delivery, due to the garden store owner’s extreme flakiness, which consisted of a no-show on the first delivery date, a miscommunication on the second delivery date, and a 2 hour delay on the third delivery date, our soil arrived! We stood aside as the soil was carried through the apartment (our attempts to help were almost laughed at- 40 pound bags of soil are not as easy to carry as you might imagine) and watched in anticipation as the bags piled up in the backyard. Meanwhile, our landlord, who had happened to stop by that day, stood in the doorway, at first shaking his head and laughing at our garden aspirations, but then quickly becoming more and more horrified as the number of soil bags continued to arrive. We tried to placate him by painting a picture of a quaint little garden with luscious, ripe veggies poking through the greenery, but his stress levels continued to rise as he pictured, not a quaint veggie garden, but rather a massive construction zone.

Next steps:

1. Buy some gardening gloves and gardening shears- there are some aggressive looking shrubs in our current garden that need to be uprooted.
2. Buy some giant, heavy-duty bags to put all the old dirt in. Eventually we’ll have to cart all this old dirt to some sort of dump.
3. Recruit more gardeners to help dig! Our next-door neighbors expressed some interest...
4. Start digging!!!

Where do we start?

It's what we asked ourselves, for days and days. We scrutinized urban gardening books, which proved to be useless, scoured the web, and searched for classes or workshops in the area, but still, we had no idea what to do. If only we had a teacher to help guide us...and then, we remembered we already knew someone! Our friend Pat, rugged outdoorsman and gardening aficionado agreed to be our mentor.  

And so, we began constructing a plan...

1) First, we decided on raised beds ie: no planting directly into the already existant dirt, rather, fresh, newly-bought dirt would need to be hauled in. The reason? This is New York City and we don't want rat poo in our veggies! Plus, we want this to be an organic garden, so all soil needs to be preservative and toxin-free.

2) Next we picked our favorite veggies (well...our favorite veggies that also happen to be "easy to grow" according to Cornell Cooperative Extension)

• romano beans
• beets
• carrots
• cucumbers
• kale
• mesclun
• shell peas
• sugar snap peas
• heirloom tomatoes
• cherry tomatoes
• summer squash
• butternut squash
• delicata squash

3) Then we had to plot out which parts of our backyard we wanted to use. We decided on two approximately 4'x6' sections as well as a few free standing pots. Pat our mentor told us that our beds needed to be at least 6"-12" deep. So then came the most challenging part of the process thus far- math. Based on all those measurements, we needed to come up with cubic feet, then figure out how many pounds per cubic feet, so we could know for sure how much soil to purchase. I'm still not sure if we did our calculations correctly but we ended up with 24 cubic feet and around 30 40-pound bags of soil.

4) Finally, on a crisp Sunday afternoon, we journeyed to Crown Heights to a gardening store (we chose it just because it was the only gardening store that happened to be open at that time) in hopes of buying some soil. After deliberating with the owner of the store, who appeared to be competent in the art of gardening, (more to come on that later) we walked away with $350 of soil/supplies to our name:

• 1 roll of landscaping fabric (this goes at the bottom, for drainage)
• 6 bags of rocks (these go on top of the fabric, also for drainage)
• 30 bags of soil (mix between potting soil and compost)
• 1 bag of peat moss (to keep the soil light)

It would be delivered the following week. We left the store that day feeling accomplished with our progress, slightly intimidated by the task ahead and also extremely discouraged after having spent $350 on dirt.