Urban Cowboys

This post is dedicated to all of you city farmers who are already familiar with the ridiculous lengths you have to go to in order to grow anything in the city. This was our first attempt at a garden as a family, and as we live very close to Boston, our first attempt at what I call Hood Gardening. The whole experience was quite fascinating. Special thanks to Dad for fielding some less than intelligent questions as we decided how to start. 

 

We were inspired to start when mom and dad came back from their recent grandchild tour with this.
Seeds for four types of hot peppers! We don't eat them, but a must for a man garden.

 (Note the packaged dirt, a must for gardening in the hood.)

Next, Michelle used up the last of our wedding gift certificates with an indoor herb garden. This one is my favorite because you make your own dirt! Check it out.

Here it is, not just packaged dirt, but unprepared dirt. I wasn't aware such things existed. They look like hockey pucks in plastic wrap. 

Tyson measured out the water.

The best part is that you soak the pucks in H2O for 10 minutes and they expand like those Grow-in-Water animals from the late 80's. Since Laree wasn't born yet...

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/grow-in-water-animals-5-pack-grows-50-times-larger-in-water-8648

And then mix until the consistency of real dirt. I'm sorry, this seems a little ridiculous, mixing your own dirt. As if my manhood wasn't already shattered. At this point you can almost hear Martha Stewart's helpful hint,"And if you don't want to get your hands dirty you can just throw it in your Bosch." Tyson and I had to watch the Bourne series a few times to recover.

The humiliation paid off, if all goes well we'll have Cilantro, Basil, and Oregano.

Planting day, atleast now it turns from Martha Stewart to a more "Bob Vila special edition" feel.

Our chief gardener with his plants...

And his #1 assistant...

Since mom and dad are close, and still plant a full garden, we are trying to plant a wide variety of plants in small numbers for experience. 1 tomato, cucumbers, peas, green onions, zuccini, and a jack-o-lantern Pumpkin for Tyson (his executive decision).

We had to put up a fence to keep out the neighborhood dogs and raccoons out, and then some chicken manure to discourage unwanted human tampering.

Instead of rototilling we used a shovel. One downfall to planting in the hood. But it worked out.

As you can see, not much excitement yet. We'll update when it gets going.

We're thinking of expanding by adding a steer next season.