GARDEN OF POSSIBILITIES

This is the time of year, as the days grow longer, where I think about growth. Tiny shoots are jutting their heads out of the soil to bask in the sun--however slight the sun is in the Seattle skies. I can always count on my Comfrey to attempt mutiny on both the Russian Sage and Feverfew, and the dandelions to reappear in multitude over our lawn with their riot of color.

My own way of gardening from Winter to Spring is to take the garden in whatever form it chose to take and start from there. I wait patiently to identify what has sprung up and then plan. This has been effective in seeing what likes to grow where but it doesn't help with the inevitable envy of the gardens of others. I end each Spring with the regret that I didn't try more. Shouldn't I make my gardens more whimsical with some artwork and interesting plant shapes? What should I do to make my garden more useful to my needs?

It intrigues me how people in my city can be so industrious when it comes to home gardening methods. From neighborhood to oceanic shoreline, communities are growing greenery in any way they can. Urban gardening is sometimes a statement, sometimes an industry, but more often a way to survive and of surrounding ourselves with a bit of the natural world. I love seeing the bees, birds, squirrels, and other creatures inhabit my gardens and relish the shade, water, foods, safety, or solitude they find. 

You must know that I am nothing close to an avid gardener. I am more like a tinkerer. I can grow herbs and some native plants in beds that existed before we moved into our rental home in North Seattle. I have experimented with lettuce, kale, tomatoes and eggplant in containers and created my first raised bed last year with various mild and hot peppers and even some corn thrown in for good measure. The peppers were tiny but flavorful and the corn languished in a bad combo of late planting and a patch of bright sun. I have grown native flowering shrubs, tried and failed at raspberries and experimented with shade plants. 

Strawberries in my front cement garden plot

I am more of an admirer of gardens. I have visited and photographed community gardens, walking among paths and peering into the center of flowers or feeling the texture of leaves and marveling at the abundance that caring hands tended. I also like seeing what wild things develop on their own. I am a lover of tendrils of vines weaving their way amongst stalks of rosemary and tomatoes. The mixture reminds me of the complexity of ecosystems. Speaking of ecosystems, I am an advocate of using alternative methods to pesticides and herbicides in my own gardens. This doesn't mean I won't remove and relocate the occasional slug who is munching on my kale!

In Seattle and surrounding areas I enjoy pea patches, school gardens, corner beds in local parks, planted strips along sidewalks, conservatories, green roofs, and inventive small gardens that literally surround each tidy home. In my city I have seen gardens in alleyways, in green space behind a cafe, gracing porches and patios at apartment buildings, and on the rooftops of skyscrapers. I am amazed by vertical gardening and hydroponics. I marvel at Companion gardening, Permaculture, and Integrated gardening techniques. I also love the beauty of plants in landscapes and art. 

Last spring I decided to go on the Seattle Urban Garden Tour. I did the tour in two shifts, one with a friend and her temporary foster child for several hours in the morning, and one in the late afternoon with my daughter, then age 17, to re-visit a home with bees and baby goats and to check out a preschool which had rabbits and a pig named Oliver.

Oliver, not too impressed with my camera

Urban garden tour 2012

 What amazed me on the tour was how everyday people can grow something. There were bees on rooftops and yards, chickens in movable outdoor runs, goats in backyards, mint plants growing in an old recycled barbecue on a patio, upright wooden pallets full of strawberries, fruit trees, wine bottles being used for garden borders, and flowers living alongside veggies. A world of ideas!

Hydroponic garden on porch, growing Tomatillos

Growing herbs, strawberries, and trailing flowers in old wooden pallet

So I digress.....

Mint plants in old metal barbecue

As this is my first entry in my journal, I’d love to hear what motivates you to garden. What inspires you. What new things do you want to try? What have you failed at? 

I believe in gardening there are no mistakes. When something doesn’t work you improvise. I have moved plants around the yard in finding the best place for them to grow, have attempted a raised “pond” only to scrap it the next year, have let wild things grow and been pleased by the results, transplanted shoots from some of my original plants over and over again and tried different kinds of containers. There are endless possibilities.



Regarding this journal....

As the bare bones of the journal progress, I welcome any input you have! I am sure it will morph into something lovely.  I see these kinds of projects as little seedlings in my life which need sustenance to grow.

Here's to you and to what you will grow in your gardens and for yourself this season!