Welcome!

Hi, and welcome to my little blog about gardening in a city! Minneapolis, to be exact.  One of my best friends suggested I start a blog so he could keep up with what's happening on my little slice of paradise, and I took him up on the offer. Disclaimer:  I'm no professional-I just happen to have grown up in a garden-crazy household (and I swore through gritted teeth that I would NEVER do this stupid stuff when I was older) and I'm blessed with some really knowledgeable friends. I hope to share the goings-on of my gardens, and learn from all of you, too!
My husband and I live with our two dogs in a little white house (yes, there's even a white picket fence!) on the south side of town with lots of gardens scattered about. My love for plants is equally divided between edible and ornamental, so this blog will cover both. We find that we're mixing the two more and more-mostly because one thing an urban garden does not have is a lot of space. Last, but not least, Jon and I are committed to the principals of organic gardening, and while not experts by any stretch of the imagination, we hope to show how easy it is to do.
I also happen to be a chef, so if it's O.K. with you, I'll be sharing what happens once my lovelies are ripe and ready for eating, cooking, preserving and more.
Thanks for stopping by, 
Heather

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Happy Earth Day

It couldn't have been a more idyllic Earth Day in Minneapolis.  The weather was unusually lovely for this time of year: sunny and warm with mild breezes.  Even more importantly, my sweet husband spent a part of his day off tilling the veg garden for me:

As you can see by the photo above, our urban vegetable patch is really quite small. It's about 16' x 20', and it used to be the nicest part of the lawn-but who needs grass when there's so much potential in the awesome black dirt of Minnesota? Don't let the diminutive size fool you, either-this piece of land can make trips to the farmer's market obsolete during the summer months. That is, assuming we manage everything properly and there's no plant-based disasters...
I am so excited for today's activities, it almost rivals Christmas Eve. You see, for the past month, once a week I drag out all the seed packets, eye them anxiously for half an hour, and try to figure out what I can plant, frost and snow be damned!  Common sense always prevails, but now I am justified in my seed packet mania: The time is right for planting. We're set to have an unusually warm (read 80 degrees F) day tomorrow, followed by a weekend of rain.  According to my friend, Josh, this is the perfect scenario for spring plantings. What else was there to do other than set up Command Central and enlist the husband to help plant seeds.  Luckily we love several cool-weather crops, so I am not only able to satisfy my seed packet mania, but plant things we can't wait to eat: beets, carrots, radishes, lettuces, peas, kale and spinach:

My parents gave me some Walla Walla onion sets, as well as a fistful of shallots.  So, we put the little guy to work:

In all, a super-productive way to celebrate!  We'll have to pick up some more liquid fence or garlic shake-away to discourage the biggest predator known to Minneapolis:

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