City Gardening for Amateurs

You can take a girl from the country, but you can't take the country from the girl. I wonder who wrote that little bit of pure genius? It's true, you know. Take the proof of the woman who has lived in the suburbs for almost seven years, but still nurtures in the back of her mind the distinct possibility of keeping two hens in the backyard for fresh eggs. Technically, the city only limits the number per species of animal that you own and if they are really obnoxiously loud. Since everyone else around us has obnoxiously loud dogs, my hillbilly wheels are turning...calculating... calculating...calculating.

But I'm pretty sure David would stage a husband revolt, which could lead to the wrong kind of chicken coup, so I'm gonna keep that one on the back burner, simmering on extra low for now.

Country girls thus have to look to other ways to get in touch with their roots. More socially acceptable than mattress springs on the roof to improve TV reception is gardening. By using raised beds instead of just tilling up my entire backyard (or front--don't dare me, please. I'm right on the edge here), David gets to use power tools and manly carpentry skills, thereby adding an element of danger to gardening and sweetening the pot so he'll buy in. Well, there is a scary-sounding circular saw and always the possibility of decimating your thumb with a hammer.

We decided on treated lumber which we could paint so that the beds will be nice to look at for years to come instead of falling apart. David drew up some plans, we negotiated, I requested a wide ledge on the top for sitting, we negotiated some more, and agreed on a final version. It took most of a Sunday to build the first one, and completed the second a day or two later. It took another couple of days to fill the suckers with dirt, and about 5 trips or so total for lumber, paint, soil, amendments, and finally the plants!

Side note: it is a point of pride to us to see just how much stuff we can get to fit in our Subaru WRX sport wagon. They usually look either confused, amused, or alarmed when we haul out a big cart of lumber and load 'er up. Lowe's is only a block away, but it still feels good to roll out of there with the Subie packed to the gills. A separate post will be "Haulin' With Subie" to highlight her willingness to put up with whatever we dish out.

Back to gardening: total costs for the structures, including nails, screws, paint, and liner was about $100. The dirt, organic compost, and organic fertilizer used totaled about $65. The layers of skin lost due to sunburn: 1 or 2.

Since my picture storage is pretty limited on Blogger ("Boooo..."), here's a link to a web album of the process and completed project. Enjoy! I know I will.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rjwhitlark/CityGardening