Our Garden of Eatin’
Sorry if I’ve depressed anyone with my bleak, the-world-is-coming-to-an-end talk. The hardest part about researching the environmental problems our society is currently facing is that it can be incredibly disheartening. The remedy, for me, is to concentrate on the present moment, and right now as I stare out my picture window into a backyard full of life things aren’t so bad. Just look at that garden!
The best part about this project is that it forces you to engage in fun and meaningful activities like building an earth oven. Or digging a hole in your backyard and calling it a pond. Or planting a garden. I can’t tell you how enjoyable it’s been to watch the seeds I planted in the ground last month turn into bushy green plants. My garden is going off right now, and, besides its actual creation, I really haven’t put that much work into it. On the far left side of the picture is a berm I created along the fence line with excess top soil. I call it Wildflower Hill, and that’s exactly what that mass of bushy green stuff is in the foreground, a clump of wildflowers. I also planted some carrots and watermelon on top of the hill, which only recently sprouted.
The vegetables in the garden proper are much farther along. Most of my tomato plants, eight varieties of heirlooms, are over three feet tall, and many already have green tomatoes hanging on the vine. To the right of the tomatoes in the picture is a row of arugula, which I started harvesting this week, along with spinach and chard. I’ve never had a garden before so all this bounty has taken me by surprise. If it all works according to plan, I’ll be eating fresh vegetables all summer long.
My boy Zephyr has been diligently helping me to water the garden and pick it free of weeds each evening. While so many of his peers are home staring at television screens, my boy is playing in dirt and making bridges and doing his chores a la Little House on the Prairie. Z’s principal responsibility is collecting the chickens’ eggs, a duty he always performs with a big smile on his face. Every day is like Easter on the Inner City Farm.