My Garden

So this year I actually did it. I built and planted my garden! Now I only have all summer to keep it from drying out and dieing like my tomato plants did last year. I built a box out of 2x10 boards, filled it with dirt, laid out my grid, and planted my square foot garden. My box is 5x5 instead of the recommended 4x4 to allow room for a border of marigolds. Marigolds are pretty, and I've been told they keep the bunnies out of your garden. Now that we're past the reasonable expectation of frost (although Columbus's official frost free date isn't until May 15 or something ridiculous like that), I'll be getting the flowers in soon. Maybe next weekend. Or tomorrow. We'll see. Currently my garden contains: peas, carrots, spinach, kale, and lettuce. I have two empty squares for tomatoes, and I'll probably put two more tomato plants into the same pots I had last year, and hope for a better outcome. I also have four more empty squares. I'll probably get some herbs to put there from the farmers market when it opens in May. I may also save a square for one of my neighbors to put in some beets. It is a community back yard, so the least I can do is share some garden space with my neighbors who have all agreed not to complain to property management about my garden box.

My peas are looking great!



My carrots are hard to see, because I just thinned them so they have all the space they need to grow big and fat and sweet. These will be dragon carrots. I thought the purple looked really cool. I may try another variety when these are harvested.

And here is my spinach. It's also doing very well, and I just thinned it down to 9 plants in a square.

I'm worried about my Kale. So far, I don't see anything in my two kale squares that looks like I planted it there. I may have to try again. My lettuce is looking good, but there are only 4 per square, and they're pretty small, so I didn't bother to take a picture. I'll get more pictures as the plants get bigger, and hopefully share how much harvest I get from my little square foot garden. And of course my two biggest helpers:

Goals Revisited

It's very easy to set goals at the beginning of the new year only to promptly get on with your life and never give them a second thought. That is until the next year, when you look back and realize that you changed nothing, and re make the same goals again. The first month of the year is over, and we are well on our way into 2009. I thought I'd take a moment to look at the goals I set up a meager month ago and see where I stand.

1) Live more mindfully
This is and always will be a constant struggle. But keeping it at the forefront of my mind helps me to evaluate decisions and stay present in the moment. I should really turn my computer off more often.

2)Eat more locally
Harder to implement until the farmers markets get going, but I did find local raw honey at Whole Foods for a good price, and I can get local Ohio eggs at my regular grocery store.

3)Maintain a successful container garden
I am planning two tomato plants, to snap pea plants, and one tub of potatoes. Possible a pot of herbs also. I'll get tomato and herb starts from the farmers market this spring. Peas don't like to be transplanted so I'll start those from seed once the last frost date is past. I'll order my potato starts probably from the Seed Savers Exchange.

4)Find a workable system for my recycling
This I have yet to even start on. However, I do have an idea. For some reason we have two trashcans in our bedroom, and we hardly ever use either one. I think there is room for the bigger one under the sink in the kitchen. This is important as there is absolutely NO room ANYWHERE in my kitchen for a single other thing, and several things that are there really don't fit either. If I can manage to remember to put it into the car before loading up the kids for a grocery shop, we're all set. It may even help me to remember my cloth bags too.

5)Move my body
Every little victory here counts. I did 3 yoga Sun Salutations today. I spent the first half of the month out of commission due to a nasty cold turned sinus infection. Now that I'm feeling human again it's time to get moving!

Well a month in and I have not managed to fail miserably at any of my goals, and many of them are being actively pursued. I think regular check ins will keep me motivated, reminded, and accountable.

Dawn and Direction

It has long been a philosophy of mine to never have too many concrete plans, because nothing ever goes the way you plan it anyway. On the other hand, I feel you should always have some direction to your life, because without a direction, you can't get anywhere. This is something that comes to the front of my mind as I'm sure it does for many as the new year turns over. I hate resolutions. Everyone brakes them by the time February is over anyway, so they seem rather pointless to me. I like the idea of setting goals, but I've always thought it was a cop-out to wait until Jan. 1 to set a new goal. Just start already! So I bring to you my New Years Direction. A combination of goals and wishes for my life and my family.

1) Live more mindfully.
To me, living mindfully means giving your actions purpose, and not just functioning on autopilot. It means making conscious decisions about what I do with my time, what I bring into my home, what I put into my body, the attitude I take with my children.

2) Eat more locally.
I don't begin to pretend that we'll give up buying bananas this year. It's one of the only things resembling a plant that my three year old will eat. But I do want to make a point to shop locally when possible: farmers markets, local craftsmen, local family owned shops. This decreases the amount of transportation needed to get things from where they were made/grown to me, since they were made right here. I'd also like to try to purchase locally in bulk to put up for the winter, to decrease my reliance on foreign and Californian produce in the colder months.

3) Maintain a successful container garden.
Last summer the two tomato plants I started in pots by my front door died a tragic and untimely death due to lack of water or caring on my part. I don't have visions of a huge vegetable garden in my small apartment landscaping, but I would like to coax a few plants to maturity and eat something that I grew.

4) Find a workable system for recycling.
My apartment community does not recycle. The truck does not pick up for us at all, so if I want to recycle I need to load it into the car and drop it off myself. The nearest place to drop off recyclables is behind the grocery store that I shop at weekly. This is about as convenient as it gets, which is nice. However, my kitchen is so small, I have yet to figure a place to store the recycling until drop off time that does not really cramp the flow of the kitchen. My other obstacle is remembering to put the recycling in the car before I leave for the grocery. Oh yeah, and to bring my cloth bags too.

5) Move my body.
Weather making time for yoga in the morning, taking the kids for a walk, or running with them in the park instead of sitting on my blanket, I want to try to find more ways to move my body while doing things we're already doing.

A new year feels like a new dawn. A new chance. A time to reflect on the previous year, and make choices about the coming year. Watching the new year come in mindfully is like being up early and watching the sun come up. At first everything is dark and hazy, only a hint or a promise of what is yet to come. Before you see the sun, the sky lightens, and things around you begin to take shape. As the sun peaks over the horizon the world is illuminated and all possibilities are bright and crisp. You only have to look around, and decide what you want to do.