This post is a part of the 2013 Bucket List series, in which I tell the whole world my goals so I have to complete them. You can read the original post here. Here is an update on one of my 2013 goals:
Look at my plants! I might be the last person anyone would expect to grow a garden, especially since I live in an apartment complex with more concrete than soil. But the best part about this bucket list thing is that I'm challenging myself to do things I never would have tried before. It's not that I hated gardening before, I just never saw myself as the kind of person who could make things grow. It never crossed my mind. Let's just consider this a trial run for motherhood. If I keep these plants alive, maybe I'll have a chance with some babehs?
So where did this all come from? Last month I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and it basically changed my life. Her family of four decided to pick up house in desert Arizona and move home to their farm on the east coast. They were tired of eating food with unpronounceable ingredients, so they decided to do a one-year home-grown food challenge. That's right...they grew (almost) all their own food, and bought local + organic when they couldn't grow their own. She laid out the process so passionately that I'm completely open to doing the challenge myself one day. It's probably not going to happen anytime soon, mostly because I just love Chipotle too much. And Matt just really, really (really) loves steak. But, I'm working my way up to it (see: Coconut Juice).
The next step in this bizarre food journey is to start growing my own things. When the zombie apocalypse comes, I figured it might be handy to already know how to grow my own food. I could run a racket!
Since the growing season is right now, I had to act fast! I headed over to the Farmer's Market on Saturday and picked up a wee little roma tomato plant from a happy hippie in a wooden trellis. On my trip to Home Depot to pick up gardening supplies, I couldn't resist snatching up a red pepper plant. I came home, perched myself on the porch, and started digging. I may have Googled a few things, but for the most part, I'm learning as I go. After 20 minutes and some arm work, I had my own little garden!
I told my mother in law about my newfound desire to grow all the things, and she was so excited! Her backyard is full of plants she grew and planted herself, including green onions, tomatoes, peas, herbs, flowers, trees, and so on and so forth. They even keep chickens and bees! It's a modern-day garden of eden back there, and I'm slowly starting to appreciate that more and more. After family dinner on Sunday, she pulled me aside and handed me a cherry tomato plant she grew herself. So now I have three little plants to call my own. I'm basically in heaven.
If anyone has any advice or words of encouragement, I could use it! I'm just starting out and merely excited that nothing's died yet.
Below are some rogue pictures of the Farmer's Market. There isn't any produce yet, but it's fun to walk around. Notice the wooden trellis I was talking about on the bottom picture. If you're looking for something to plant, get something from this guy! He's so nice and doles out advice to novices like me freely. And each plant is only $2 (and organic).
