handmade something: determined to grow

There is going to be construction soon, near our community garden. This news has been extremely disappointing for us as we have learned that the construction will essentially prohibit us from getting to our garden right at the peak of the growing season! Well I cried about it at first. Then I did a lot of complaining about it. And this weekend, Mark and I bought some big cheap plastic buckets so that we can do something about it. We're transferring our plants to containers and we're going to try our hand at container gardening. This is going to be new and I'm worried about transplanting some of the bigger plants, but we're going to keep on growing things no matter what.

I think that the garden is essential to my happiness in the summer months. Last summer, there wasn't much gardening because the deer ate our plants before we could get them all in the ground, and with our wedding planning and long distance between us, there was really no time or energy to redirect into gardening. The two years before that I had a small back yard garden each summer and the harvest of basil and sun gold cherry tomatoes kept me going!

I'm determined that this year is going to be the best gardening year yet. We've got six varieties of tomatoes (Brandywine, sun gold cherry, black cherry, Poseidon Pink, Purple Cherokee, Green Zebra), four varieties of basil (sweet, African blue, Thai, and purple ruffles basil), lavender, chives, cilantro, lemon balm, two tomatillo plants (you need two plants in order to have fruit), two eggplant varieties (one white, one purple), two squash varieties, blushing beauty and chocolate bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, a jalapeno pepper, and a small, but hopeful yellow watermelon plant (we had rosemary, too, but it died).

I've successfully transplanted two varieties of basil and the two tomatillo plants so far. We're going to need more containers to finish the job-- and then we will most likely be transporting water as the new location for the containers is not close to a spigot for watering. One thing is certain, however: gardening is the way to get me out in the heat of summer!