garden update

While our enthusiasm for vegetables is boundless, neither myself nor A have particularly green thumbs. I grew up with bountiful gardens that my parents tended, though I never evinced any real interest in them as a teenager. A's family gardened back when she lived in New Mexico, but gave in to the weeds once they moved to the Northwest, maintaining only some strawberries in an old toilet bowl.

As for houseplants, I retain a windowsill of sad cacti that our cat repeatedly walks across in his attempt to see out the window. Time and time again, I diligently re-pot them, hoping the cat finally tires of tormenting their spiny limbs.

Clearly, neither of us have very much successful growing experience.

However, our bellies often tell us what to do, and it was our veggie-hunger that led us to try our luck at container gardening as soon as we had moved into a place with a patio. Last year, we started out small and blindly. We planted two tomatoes in too-small containers; a handful of herbs crammed into shared, shallow pots; and a habanero pepper that longed for warmer climes. We ended up with a bumper crop of resilient herbs, some chiles that ripened in color only, and a few runty tomatoes. We resolved to do better this year.

Nationwide, there has been a surge of activity this year from non-profits and artists in reviving the idea of victory gardens. We've actively followed the many projects, but I have to admit that it didn't exactly translate into bountiful rows of veggies in our yard. Blame it on apartment living. We did make some big improvements over last season, though - we got proper-sized containers, we increased the number of tomatoes we planted, and we tried a few new varieties. So far, so good. As small as our patio container garden is, I've really come to enjoy tending it. It's nice to walk out on our back stoop and water the plants in the evening, pinch back the buds on the basil, and obsessively check the growth of our tomatoes.

There is a lot we still have to figure out. We didn't fertilize. We didn't really pay much attention to sun/water needs. We still don't quite understand pruning. We certainly didn't start anything from seed. I can only imagine that gardening in the actual ground is even trickier. Still, we have picked up a few new tricks and our plants are doing worlds better than they were last year.

Easily the best advice I've received this year is that harvesting herbs requires care, not just willy-nilly plucking. Maybe this strikes everyone else as obvious, but it never occurred to me that you just don't head out to the garden and pick leaves. Mint should be snipped between leaf pairs, basil should be plucked so as to leave the delicate shoots below the developed leaves, and umbelliferae like parsley and cilantro should be harvested from the outside of the plant in, because new growth begins in the center. I get a real kick out of these kinds of details, sort of like, "Wow, there's a reason you do it this way, huh?" While I'm on the subject of herbs, flat-leaf, Italian parsley has been the real standout star this year - its flavor is much bolder than store-bought, with strong anise notes. Next year, we'll be planting much more of that.

And in my imagination, we'll also be planting artichokes, brussels sprouts, tomatillos, chicories, climbing peas, pole beans, lovage, fenugreek, winter squash, potatoes, cavolo nero. It's fine to dream, but once I start planning out make-believe succession schedules and looking at plans for cold-frames and greenhouses, it might be time to remind myself that I'm a real greenhorn at this.