It's been a slow evolution. It first started with trips to the Ballard Farmers' Market. We'd see stacks of produce, cheeses, and meats. All supplied by local farmers. Then came the homegrown eggs. (Well, homegrown by one of my coworkers who sells them to me. ) These eggs, most brown, but a couple green, some freckled, some not, have the richest golden yolks... When placed side by side with store bought, there's no comparison. And now I've created a vegetable garden. What's next I wonder?
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For a while now, one of my "popcorn" ideas was to have a garden where B & I could enjoy some fresh cherry tomatoes and maybe even save some money by having home grown veggies. So about a month ago, I decided to act upon that idea, and build a garden box. I scoped out the location, took some measurements, and went to my nearby home store for some lumber. Quickly I realized that any notion of saving cash in this venture was quickly dashed -- untreated Cedar is EXPENSIVE. But nonetheless, I bought the wood, and hauled it home. Too bad the buck didn't stop there.
Another thing I realized was I didn't have enough dirt around my house to fill the boxes. So I decided to load one box half full of garden soil (I'm fortunate enough that the dirt I do have has is pretty rich), and combined it with store-bought top soil. In the other box, I filled it with only purchased potting soil. I figured I could compare the two throughout the summer, and whichever box produced more, I would do the same with both boxes next year.
So after dropping around $250 on wood and dirt (Two things I never thought I'd have to pay for), I have myself two nice garden boxes. But no veggies. So, it was time to go shopping again.
Long story short, after purchasing vegetables from the Seattle Master Gardeners' sale, Home Depot, and three school fundraisers (Olympic View Elementary, Nathan Hale HS, and B's own Franklin HS), we have following: multiple tomato plants, spearmint (2 types- one regular, one chocolate), basil starts and seeds, various lettuces, snap peas, broccoli, fennel, cucumbers, strawberries, cilantro, chives, and carrots. We planted some of the lettuce and seeds right after the garden box was installed, but most of them we "hardened" (keep indoors until it warms up more outside) until last weekend. And the lettuce we planted first? We were able to enjoy our first "harvest" on Sunday. The romaine was the perfect wrap to go with our homemade grilled chicken skewers. Just thinking of it now makes me hungry again.
So in what started as a simple home project for me has morphed into something bigger. After hundreds of dollars, and tens of hours, I have my own garden. My hope now is that my plants will grow as large as my expectations. If so, B & I will literally be eating the fruits of our labor all summer long!
(Hopefully, the first of many harvests to come!)
2 comments:
Looks great Spencer! I decided to start with containers on the porch this year instead of the full-on boxes. But then our weather (late season frosts) means we actually won't start planting until this weekend.
I do love the local eggs though. Now that we've been eating those muti-colored shells for a while, I can't bring myself to buy the white ones in the store!
I feel the same way about store bought eggs... The bummer for me is that my coworker/egg supplier's last day at work is this Friday. Not sure how I'll be able to get homegrown eggs after that.
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