Gardening in California

June 18th - first entry

Due to some contact I had with the West Oakland community garden City Slicker Farms, I recently started to get a little interested in gardening. As a Midwesterner, raised by very down-to-earth parents (they are so down to earth they composted all kitchen scraps in the backyard garden - just to make the plants grow better), I had some previous experience working in gardens. That involved mostly the aforementioned composting activities, weeding, and in springtime, being a "human rototiller" (take a shovel, dig, turn over dirt, move to next spot, repeat). So I guess you could say my previous experience was mostly labor-intensive with not a lot of enjoyment. I will admit, however, that I did always like to eat the fresh tomatoes we would grow and Mom did me a favor by showing me that home-grown vegetables can be tasty.

Anyways, without recapping too much of my past, one could call me a novice gardener with a fair amount of experience in the "dirty aspects" of gardening. And, now that I work full-time sitting in front of computers, and then do more of the same at home (like maintaining this blog), I've become more interested in gardening and other such "primitive" hobbies that get me out of my cube and apartment.

So it came to be that last week, when the director at City Slickers offered me a bunch of tomato, cabbage, and lettuce seedlings that they couldn't use, I said "yes" without too much hesitation (though my mind was asking the question, "but what will you do with all those plants?" and "Do you really think you'll be living at the place that long?") My landlady had once mentioned the possibility of maintaining a garden at the house, right behind my apartment. So, here was the perfect opportunity to take her up on it. I took the seedlings, plus some planter pots and a couple bricks to line the "new plot" with, in my Ford and unloaded them at home. Next I needed some tools to do the digging and planting. Rummaging around in the dark, dusty basement of our 100+ year old house, I did manage to find one old wooden shovel. I was in business. Here is the scene then when I initially began planning what to do:



Actually, I didn't do much planning at all. I just started to dig up sod and cut down bamboo. You see, bamboo has pretty much taken over our backyard here on Harrison St. In fact, if the gardener didn't come once a month to cut those pernicious stalks down, we'd have a veritable bamboo forest growing right behind my apartment.



For any of you who have not yet had the pleasure of dealing with bamboo, here is some quick info. Firstly, bamboo grows "rhizomes" underground in a lattice-type fashion, searching for ideal spots to send up "shoots", like periscopes from under the surface of the ocean. If you don't know this in advance, like I didn't, then you sit there and chop, and chop, and chop those stalks and wonder why in the hell don't those things ever stop growing?! Well, here's one why: it's all one interconnected plant! (when you have the "running" bamboo, as we do) So, the first order of business for me to get this garden planted was to rip out all the roots.



I hope you're getting an idea of the amount of work this involved. Needless to say, my ordinary garden shovel wasn't up to this task, so I had to go bug the neighbors to borrow some "weapons" like a small pick and axe. The similarity to the gold miner's picks is striking. Except now I am digging for "bamboo rhizomes", and not gold.

It's getting late, I'm tired, and I don't care too much anymore about being neat.

Basically, the "garden" for now looks like a bomb hit the backyard.

Total time spent on the garden so far (est.) : 4 hours.

June 22th - 2nd entry

Today I finally got the tomato cages in. It took me a while to go to the store, buy this stuff and then finish up what I started last weekend. I noticed when I got back with the cages that I actually have 5 sickly looking tomato seedlings planted, but only 4 cages. Darned it all - I should have counted better! That's ok though : I will have to get other supplies later, too. I spent most of the 2 hours I was in the yard this evening "grading" the dirt (by shoving it around with my hands and a little with the shovel) and moving the plants around again to give them enough space to grow. I'm sure I'm breaking some kind of Gardening Rule by doing this "replanting" while the seedlings are still so young and unhealthy looking, but I have little choice. Besides, half of gardening for me is aesthetics.



If I actually get any edible food out of this in the end, it will be a bonus.

Nevertheless, I am pleased with the result so far, and I think that I've finally reached a point where I can just water the plants and not worry too much about digging anymore.

Total time spent today : 2 hours.