Fresh Start

Usually by this point in the growing season I've got a few posts up. I've fallen a behind a bit, though fortunately not in the garden. We've made some changes, and I'm excited to see how it all shakes out.

For one thing, our little veggie plot is no longer a veggie plot. As I've mentioned before, we share a difference of opinion with our neighborhood stray cats. What's a raised planting bed to us is, unfortunately, a litter box for them. We got a little lazy this winter and didn't cover the plot up. No matter how many cubic square feet of fresh dirt we dump in there, for us that little plot will never be food-safe again. So we now have a cutting garden underway. I'm terrible about cutting my flowers. For as much as I love entering a room and admiring the fruits (or flowers) of our labor, I also love seeing blossoms in their natural habitat. And I never feel as if I have enough to satisfy both desires. Well, by dedicating some dirt to the sole purpose of generating flowers for cutting. And by selecting flowers particularly suited to that purpose. I can have my cake and eat it too. Yay!

Of course, we haven't given up on the idea of veggies. How else are we going to ensure that we'll have lots of tasty low-mileage meals this summer? Upon reading about the fab Brick City Urban Farms in nearby Newark, we're full-on Earth Box gardeners now. Last year we invested in two Earth Boxes and were particularly pleased with our lettuce "crops." As luck would have it, my sister and brother-in-law decided to put in raised planting beds in their spacious yard so we were able to take over their old Earth Boxes. We now have 7 up and running with everything from eggplant to herbs.

Photos to come should the sun ever decide to shine again. Of course if it doesn't, there won't be anything worth photographing anyway.