Gardening at Night

Family business has kept me traveling on weekends this spring, so time for gardening has been hard to find. I didn't spend much time planning or spacing. Instead, whenever I had a few minutes I just threw seeds or sprouts wherever looked vacant. Luckily we've had a lot of rain so I haven't had to water too often, and overall it has been going surprisingly well. We've been harvesting lettuce all spring, until it went to seed last week. I picked some peas that I probably let stay on the vine too long. Last weekend I picked a nice big green onion for a meal that friends grilled up on rooftop deck of the Accordion Player's building. I kept the herbs up on the window sill this year so that I could get to them more easily when I am cooking, and also to have more room for vegetables. I'm usually terrible with flowers but, I put out a lot this year and so far they've all survived.

One new addition was to put accent lights around the tree wells. Pedestrians often accidentally stepped on our garden last year and the lights have helped a lot. Also they really look cool.

Urban Garden Updates

My main goal in planting my gardens was to spruce up the ugly tree wells, but having fresh herbs was a close second. The basil from the garden has exploded. I've been using it almost every meal. We have so much that the accordion player made a delicious pesto sauce, and I've started drying some in anticipation of the long hard basil-less winter to come. I've also taken cuttings to grow new basil plants. The oregano got off to a slow start. I think part of that was because I put one out of reach of our high tech watering mechanism (i.e. hanging out the 2nd story window with a spray hose); I moved the worrisome plant, and focused on watering them both more. Seems to have paid off lately.

I've had mixed results with my chives, and all three plants are in the same place so I can't figure out what's going on. One is doing great. One is all but dead. The third is about halfway in between.

My other herbs have performed with varying degrees of success. The tarragon has done well and we've made some delicious fish dishes with it, but lately the basil is blocking its sun, so I'm considering moving it. I planted some thyme and mint recently which seem to be doing fine but it's too early to tell. I planted cilantro way too late, and only got to harvest it once. I clipped some rosemary from an overgrown bush down the street, but I think it may be getting too much water in my garden.

I thought I had mediocre results with the peppers, but was wrong. They produced for a while and stopped, then suddenly started again. We've had a lot of hard rains lately so I'm assuming that has something to do with it. The jalapenos are delicious but almost too hot to eat. The serranos and cleverly named "green chili" are a little milder but I don't think the flavor is as good.

Aside from all the herbs, to improve the appearance I added some flowers for color and I put a vining plant in each of the wells and tried to train them to climb the ginkgo trees to give some height to the garden. I put some succulent flowers in the hard to water area, and they have done well. I put various types of phlox which quickly lost their flowers and have continued more or less unchanged. I added a couple of other types of flowers later which did better, but I've completely forgotten their names. The jasmine is doing well and climbing up the eastern tree. The clematis I put in the Western well is doing fine, but doesn't seem to want to stick to the tree.

I've had a lot of fun with this and I'm looking for ways to expand the garden. There are some more or less abandoned beds in front of the parking lot next door which could probably be commandeered, but not easily watered. I've discussed hanging some leafy plants off of El Barrio's awnings, but I'm not sure if that would be messy or too hard to tend. I've also contemplated a guerrilla orchard in a spot that will remain undisclosed for obvious reasons. Finally there's the roof option, which seems obvious but I'm worried about the weight and the less than convenient access.

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Urban Gardening

Ginkgo trees line 2nd Avenue. The city plants them in 4 foot square tree wells every 25 feet or so. The trees look great and add a lot of warmth to the neighborhood. The city does not plant or cover the wells, so a lot of them are just dirt. It would be nice to have a unified look for the neighborhood, but in the meantime it gives us residents an opportunity to get creative and do some gardening.

Two weeks ago we dug up the old dirt around the ginkgoes in front of the Counts Bros building and added some soil conditioner. We surrounded the wells with a wood border to keep in the soil and discourage pedestrians from stepping on the plants. The wood fit with El Barrio's look, and the guys seemed pleased with it, although I think they were just happy to get rid of what had become 4 foot ashtrays.

Before I talk about the plants, I have to admit I know very little about gardening so I probably choose some items that won't work with the sun or whatever. I took some pictures and brought them to a local garden store and they did the best they could advising me on what to plant. We planted jasmine and clematis around the base of the trees to add some leafy greenery at ground level. At the corners of the wells we planted small perennial flowers for some color. I wasn't sure how vegetables would do, but it was hard to resist planting some cayenne and other hot peppers. Primarily we stuck to herbs: chives, oregano, and basil. We also commandeered a couple of rosemary shoots from a nearby bush that was overgrown.

Urban gardening presents some challenges that you wouldn't have with a yard. For example, I don't have a water faucet on the first floor, and lugging buckets didn't seem like a lot of fun, so I had to come up with a creative way to water the plants.

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