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I can’t believe it’s been four week since my last post… lots of good stuff has been happening, such as the ripening of tomatoes (see above) and the making of pickles (will write about that soon) and the reading of  books (more on that too.) We haven’t been having the hottest of summers… and there’s been more rain than I remember from years past. On the up side, that’s meant less watering in the garden. But with less than a month left of the season, it still feels like it hasn’t been enough. In a week we’ll be visiting Cape May at the Jersey shore — here’s hoping it will be sunny and dry there. After our return, I’ll write some updates to chronicle what’s been going on in the past month!

Gideon made this discovery just a few blocks from our house — two dozen jars, very dusty & most without lids. The box on the right has “6/78 STRAW JAM” written on it in red marker, as well as “FREE” and “FREE” and “FREE” in black. Looks like we’re nearly ready for canning and pickling. Just need to wait for enough tomatoes and cucumbers to be ripe.

I really like the wooden bowl, as well. It’s quite rustic.

This video is part of Kitchen Gardeners International’s “Eat the View” campaign to convert part of the White House lawn into an edible landscape. It features KGI founder, Roger Doiron, digging a new garden on his “white house” lawn. Check out their website to sign the petition!

To see more photos click here.

I’ve noticed it to be true that trash on the ground attracts other trash; I see evidence of it every day on the street in front of our apartment. We’re in a strange zone where one street dead-ends into another, with a parking lot on the corner that attracts things like broken bottles and shopping carts and random articles of clothing. Most of the garbage and recycling cans in the area have been tagged. The garages next to ours were spray-painted with a huge set of eyes and a mouth; the sidewalk in front of our courtyard was decorated with a painted purple heart. There have been worse things. I felt lucky when I saw the heart.

“We know we should take greater responsibility for the health of the planet by changing our habits of consumption and production. Gardening is one step in the right direction — and guerrilla_gardening is making that step regardless of the obstacles. Choosing to cultivate someone else’s neglected land is taking responsibility where others have not.”

I recently read On_Guerrilla_Gardening and quite enjoyed it, both content-wise and as a physical object: the cover design, endpapers, and sewn binding all contribute to a beautiful book. It’s divided into two parts, 1: The Movement (a history of guerrilla_gardening) and 2: The Manual (plant choices, where to plant, how to do the planting — sneaky, or in plain sight) and opens with the motto “Let’s Fight the Filth with Forks and Flowers!”

The author, Richard Reynolds, shares how he got into guerrilla_gardening, as well as the stories of others such as Adam Purple and his Garden of Eden in New York City (see the photo at top.) Reynolds details what we (as fellow gardeners) fight when choosing to work on unowned soil: scarcity, neglect, wilderness, lawns, pollution. The book touches on gardens as public art, as sources for gathering food, and as connections for communities. Following his metaphor of a battle, he asks: What is victory? Is it watching something develop over time? One of the interesting aspects of this kind of project/activity is that it is never done, never over. I have been re-inspired by this book to tackle the planters in front of our building, out at street level. It will take some tough flowers to survive the inevitable bottles and cans that are regularly dumped there. But the planting will be worth it. Borrow or buy the book, and check out the website too: guerrillagardening.org.

On_Guerrilla_Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening without Boundaries, by Richard Reynolds. Bloomsbury, 2008.

I had plans to do all sorts of things today, and intended to spend just a little time in the garden — but somehow, I spent the whole day watering, weeding, dividing, and repotting. Things are going well. I pulled up all the kale, with no regrets. It’s good to have the extra space. Maybe tomorrow I’ll sow some seeds — must get going on the fall/winter plants. For my own amusement, here’s a list of the plants we’re growing so far:

In our community garden

4 tomato plants
4 pepper plants
1 eggplant
carrots
3 swiss chard
lettuce greens
3 cucumber hills
bush green beans
x kale - eaten, and removed due to aphids
x arugula - eaten
x radishes - eaten
basil - 4 types
dill
cilantro
sage - 2 types
thyme - 2 types
lemon verbena
rosemary
chives
flat leaf parsley
lavender
mint
strawberries
raspberries
nasturtiums
calendula
marigolds - 2 types
sunflowers
cosmos
 zinnias

In our garden at home

patty pan squash
cue ball squash
watermelon
2 tomato plants
1 cucumber hill
basil
parsley
lavender
chocolate mint
variegated mint
lemon balm
…and many ornamentals

Here’s piece from Peak Moment Conversations called The Bicycling Horticulturist: