Planting the seeds

I planted seeds in my garden today. I mostly used leftover seeds from planting attempts in the last two years. I purchased some additional seeds from the market. Note bene: for anyone who wants to save some money, hit up Market Blooms in the Reading Terminal Market. They sell Seeds of Change organic seeds for less than on the SOC website, and you get them right away.

Here's what I planted:
Lavender Bergamot
Lemon and Tangerine Gem Marigolds
Mixed Nasturtiums
Blue Lake Pole Bean
Scarlet Nantes Carrots
Cilantro
Dill
Summer Savoury
Envy Parsley (a curled dwarf variety)
Purple Top White Globe Turnips

I managed to have screwed up already by planting the carrots right next to the dill. They cross-pollinate. Oops. At least I planted marigolds near the squash, and savoury near the beans.

I still hope to plant some more herbs (thyme, maybe lemon thyme, a fruit-flavored mint such as grapefruit, lavender, chamomile, oregano, lemon balm, maybe epazote). I saw an interesting variety of marjoram, syriaca zaatar that sounds tasty- a flavor combination between thyme, oregano and marjoram. I may try this instead of oregano. The lavender is going to have to go into pots because the soil is so clay-dominated, and the garden doesn't get a whole lot of sunlight. I guess I can chain them to the roof or something. Maybe I could put them up on the top of the entire building. I don't know if it is worth it.

As for vegetables, I will try tomatoes and some smaller peppers like jalepenos. I don't think I want to risk growing these by seed, I guess we can see. My secret ambition is to try growing tomatoes upside down (like here: http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/tomato2.html ). Throw some parsley and basil on top and we're mmm mmm good. I just don't know where I can hang them, and if they'll get enough light. My idea right now is on the fire escape railing, but then how would I reattatch the handle? I still need to figure that one out- maybe I'll just put some cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets up there, and hope no one steals them. I also need to make some sort of trellis for the beans and nasturtium. I have a while before they germinate and training becomes necessary.

There's a gun in my garden

I moved into a new apartment at the end of last summer and was thrilled to find a large raised garden plot outside, which no one was obviously tending to. Overgrown with smartweed, dandelions, grass, nightshade, and a mass of irises in the back, it definitely needed a human friend to look after it. Since this is a place that I'm hoping to live in for some time, I was beyond excited to put some work into improving and maintaining the plot.

When I arrived back in town at the end of August I did some preliminary planting (after getting rid of the weeds) just to see what conditions were like. Purple mustard was prolific. Cilantro grew successfully as well as a mound of zucchini, which sprouted three flowers before the season was out (not bad for a late planting and 59-cent seeds). Carrots and turnips did not perform well, but as I did not put a whole lot of work in yet, I was not concerned.

Today I had off, and decided to work the soil. First in order was a thorough run-through with the old cultivator. Some of the weeds had started to sprout up, and I wanted those root stocks out. As I was going through and getting rid of roots, rocks, and glass, I found....a gun. No, I'm not making that up, there was a gun half-buried in my soil. Who knows how long that was there for. Not wanting to know what the implications of touching it were, I removed it with the hand tool. As I was coming into the house to contact the appropriates, I said out loud to myself, "I can't believe there's a gun in my garden". I then realized how fitting a phrase that is for the average US citizen, or that of many individuals of the world. For there is a gun in the garden of our blissful, ignorant life here, and if we don't do something about it soon, we will be shot in the back.

Anyway, I was thinking of making both a political/esoteric blog for a while, and also something about the garden. I've never really had a blog before, so here's a good go to combine both. Yours here first folks, the only blog that combines greens and Gurdjieff, ponerology and petunias, Fulcanelli and fennel. At least, I hope it will do so.

I'm hoping to snag a camera from somebody to take some photos. In the meantime I will try to draw something on Illustrator.