My Green Heaven?

It's an addiction, isn't it? 10 tomatoes! 10? And I thought my eyes were bigger than my deck. (And my eyes are big, my friend.)

I had never been a gardener before, but the balcony in my new place was just too enticing. Basil attracts these tiny little flies (even 140 feet up), but the tomatoes are doing well. Continue to post your results and what you learn. Newbies need help wherever they can get it.

I was tickled green (ha-ha!) when I read your letter, “My Green Heaven; I might be going a little overboard in the garden” in the Summer Guide 2010 issue. I, too, have overwhelming the obsession to grow my own vegetables and BUY everything to support my “growing” addiction.
In the late spring of 2009, armed with advice gleaned from websites, books and other gardeners, (some of whom were my fellow volunteers at the Fairfood Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market) I ventured to my five-by-eight foot plot of freshly turned earth in the backyard of my rowhome in Germantown. I was a bit trepidatious due to my lack of experience with an in-ground vegetable garden (previously I'd been an apartment dwelling, container gardener coaxing life off of my balcony) but full of hope. I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. I planted heirloom tomatoes seedlings that I purchased from Greensgrow (that lovely farm and jewel of a garden center in Bee-yew-tee-fool Kensington!), eggplant, basil, bell peppers, zucchinis and string beans. The string beans did great and the squash vines produced about five 5 pound zucchini, but everything else did not yield many vegetables because of all the rain we had. No worries, though; I told myself that next year will be better, and so it has!
In my spring garden, I’m grown and harvested Breakfast Radishes, Swiss Chard and Italian Arugula. In containers on the back porch, I’ve grown Dill weed, Nasturtiums and mixed Lettuces. My previously heretofore dead-looking box of oregano and thyme plants grew back (much to my shock and amazement) after having been buried under two large snowfalls this winter. I love the sight of the strawberries that trail from the baskets on the porch; they look like ruby-colored Christmas lights. When my daughter ate one, just picked and still warm from the sun, she said it was the best strawberry she had ever eaten! I glowed with pride as if I’d birthed it myself. As of this writing, I’m still patiently awaiting for my carrots and Chioggia beets to mature. I talk to the rows of peas in my garden, encouraging them to flower, and when they did I heaped loads of praise on their fragile looking but sturdy stalks. I commend the carrots for bringing forth their bushy magnificence into my life and let them know how much I’ll enjoy how sweet they’ll taste. In another plot I’ve planted my summer crop of seedlings. I am very much looking forward to the sight of big, brightly colored Brandywine and Cherokee Purple tomatoes, dark- purple Hansel Eggplant and the globe shaped Turkish Orange eggplant, Delicata and zucchini squash, sweet and purple basil plants, Ancho and sweet Bell peppers and cantaloupe (!) in my yard this year. I will be anxiously anticipating the outcome. For the fall, I’ve got plans to sow some Tuscan Kale, Broccoli and onions and to try again to re-grow from seed the spinach that failed in the spring crop. And maybe some more beets and carrots too! Anything else I desire to grow will live in the planters on my front and back porches, home to my herb garden. I feel that I am only limited by my lack of funds and the space in the car when I visit the garden center!
I know that some people find gardening to hard, endless work, but to me, it’s not so bad. You just provide a few basic necessities and the rewards are endless, the plants themselves are really doing all the work! Ok, ok, I’ll admit it isn’t all sunshine and roses; I hate weeding and battling the cats in my neighborhood for using my garden beds as a litter box, but even those irritations are minor compared to the rewards I get in return. This is evidence of a job well done. Did I mention that I LOVE to cook my homegrown jewels as well? Ah, but that is a letter for another day. Thanks for sharing your garden geekiness; as you can see I can certainly relate!