Making Progress

Three weeks after our first seeding, all have germinated successfully. We kept the flat upstairs in the loft – moving it into direct sunlight once the first few seedlings sprouted.

A week after planting the seeds (on March 14th), Brian and I went to Moab and Betsy came over twice over 5 days to water the flat. Thanks, Betsy! The last things to sprout (out of the first batch of plantings,) were the jalapeño peppers around March 28th. Most seedlings sprouted between 2 and 10 days. We’ve been careful to keep the flat very moist. I was concerned we might be watering too frequently – setting ourselves up for mold – until Kacie told me that water should soak through the flats every time you water. We water enough for very small puddles to form under the slots.

On March 31st, we thinned our flat, snipping the stems of all by the best looking seedling in each slot. It seemed like such a waste! But, we planted way more seeds than we can possibly house expecting much more loss than we’ve experienced. Unfortunately, not 2 hours after we thinned out the flat, Brian sat on it, crushing a good 1/3 of the flat. Ha! He pointed out that I left the flat on the couch. Opps.

After some reseeding to replace the worst-off plants, our flat is looking clean and healthy. We seeded a few more greens, too: Red and Green Leaf lettuce, Spinach, more Arugula, Mache and the Mesclun mix.

So it Begins

The seeds have been planted!

This Spring my partner Brian and I are undertaking a grand experiment: we will attempt to transform our large, south-facing deck into an organic, edible vegetable and herb garden. Armed only with our one-season experience apprenticing with Laurie Loab in her beautiful garden in Carbondale, Colorado, Brian and I intend to produce as much food as possible in a space approximately 25 by 20 feet.

After being turned down for a plot at the closest community garden (all of Boulder's publicly accessible community gardens have significant wait-lists), we decided to take a shot at a garden on our own space. Unfortunately, this limits us to containers. While the obstacles we'll face are manifold, this approach provides some benefits.

The fruits of our labor will be much closer: only 2o feet from our kitchen and dinning room table! Easier access will certainly increase our attention and care for our edible little ones (expect me to refer to my vegetables often as babies).

Our location at the base of the glorious Rocky Mountains severely limits the extent of our natural growing season - especially in comparison to my home state, Virginia. Our container garden, however, will be somewhat mobile, allowing us to bring our plants into the safety of our cozy home in the early and later parts of the season - not to mention those random frosts in June.

The mobility, too, will allow us to mooch off our wonderful, supportive and local-food loving friends. When we head out to Moab for a mtn biking trip we can drop off our more fragile plants at other homes for more convenient safe-keeping.

However, in regards to this mobility potential, conflicts are already emerging among us gardeners. Brian wants smaller containers that can be moved around easily. In addition to the reasons mentioned above, it's important that we safeguard the wooden planks of the deck below. We are but lowly renters. I, on the other hand, am finding it difficult to part with the idea of a rich, full garden which resembles, well, a garden. Besides the aesthetic beauty, I want to maximize the benefits of companion planting. Kacie, a food hero currently planting the roots of a better society in Washington, DC, tells me this technique is properly referred to as "interspersing." I'll get back to the science of interspersing eventually. In the mean time, I wonder, how can my basil benefit my tomatoes when they're living in separate containers!?! At least the nitrogen which my legumes fix will stay in the soil for next years lucky nitrogen-needer.

Luckily, these problems can be resolved "mañana". Always, mañana. Today, I will relish in the progress made so far: despite our loaded grad-school schedules, commitments to plan a beyond-coal community bike ride (Wooooo!) and the routines of being humans, we have managed to procure our seeds, a flat, compost and potting soil.

The seed list is massive, courageous, wonderful and a sign of our naivety - there's no chance in hell that we'll be able to fit all these plants. Looking through the catalog of our seed source of choice, The Seed Trust (http://www.seedstrust.com/), we were like kids in a candy shop. We picked the Seed Trust on the recommendation of our friend and fellow gardener, Charlie. Thanks, Charlie!

Charlie's beautiful, diverse garden served as sufficient reference for his advice. The Trust specializes in seeds intended for high elevation - an important factor considering our 5,400 foot high elevation here in Boulder, Colorado. It also features organic, heirloom varieties (although, I must confess, we allowed a small number of non-organic seeds to enter our virtual shopping cart). We're also hoping to add a few more seeds to our collection from a local farm and CSA, Abbondanza (http://www.eatabbo.org/). One of Charlie's tomatoes last season was an heirloom variety from Abbo - it was the most delicious tomato I could ever hope to eat.

The winners include:
-3 different tomatoes - a beefsteak slicer, a cherry tomato variety and romas for tomatoes sauce
-Herbs: mint (to help protect our cabbage-family plants), cilantro, Italian basil, garlic chives and dill
-Broccoli
-Kale
-Arugula
-Swiss Chard
-Carrots
-Beets
-Zucchini
-Winter Squash
-Green and Red Leaf Lettuce
-Spinach
-Romaine
-Mesclun Mix
-Mache
-Jalapeños
-A beautiful chocolate-colored Bell Pepper
-Fava beans
-Two types of peas: snow peas and regular peas

Last Saturday night - totally to Brian's credit and basically against my will (I was being lazy) - we started seeds, filling 60 slots of our flat with 3 or 4 seeds per slot (expecting some seeds not to germinate). After some research, we concluded that the flat should be covered by the plastic greenhouse top that came with it untill each seed sprouts. The flat should not be exposed to direct sunlight until some of the seeds start to sprout. We put the flat up in our loft, the highest and thus warmest spot in the house.

We started the tomatoes, basil, broccoli, kale, cilantro, dill and arugula. We expected even the quicker little guys to take a week to sprout - but tiny little leaves of our newborn arugula emerged just 2 days later! The broccoli and kale followed within the next two days. Hardly five days after starting the seeds, the arugula, broccoli and kale plants are nearly two inches high. Each slot with any sign of growth, furthermore, holds 3 or 4 baby stocks which means we've had 100% success with our seeds - so far.

Though this might sound silly to most, I can't overstate the excitement of climbing up to our loft to check out the progress our plants are making. It's magical. Except that, apparently, it's not. In the next few months, I hope to unlock the science behind this magic.