A garden!

On June 1, I moved into my new apartment in Toronto. It's the lower two floors of a house. Thankfully, a couple of friends live in the upper apartment, making this place feel a lot more like home.

Needless to say, my project list is huge. But one of the first tasks was to plant a garden. Yes, the house comes with a yard, which means a place to grow flowers and, more importantly, veg! Soon, my son and I will be on the 100 yard diet, noshing on organic greens!

Okay, not quite. June is a little late for planting, even here, so the garden was my top priority (even before repainting the hideous, pinky-beige walls inside). I've gardened a bit before, and have a good stock of organic gardening books, thanks to a review I wrote for Green Living magazine over the winter. (See page 21 of the online edition.) Even with my little patch, the yard doesn't look great. But a few flowers do spruce the place up a bit.


Particularly inspired by How to Grow More Vegetables, I set my back into removing a two-foot deep pile of construction waste (clay, brick, bits of glass) and turning the soil for a 25-foot by 3-foot bed. The soil isn't great, so I added a little bit of black soil, a couple bags of sheep manure and some humus-rich material. I know this isn't all particularly green, but I was in a rush and, having just moved to the city, didn't have my compost heap going yet.

I put in four tomato plants, which as of late-July are well over three feet tall. Back in May, I picked up some mixed greens and rainbow chard at a farmer's market in Flesherton, Ontario, and I've also planted a hot pepper plant and lots of marigolds. My son and I had a pleasant afternoon planting carrots toward the end of June.

Today, the tomato plants are nearing four feet in heights, yielding well, and growing up the new fence our neighbour erected (photos soon). The rainbow chard is beautiful and delicious. The greens are peppery, and the carrots are coming along nicely.

Next year will see another bed of about 50 square feet added, and I'm almost looking forward to winter to begin the planting. Hopefully I can find the same source for the rainbow chard and salad greens seedlings next year. They've proven to be superb!