Apartments = Tiny Garden(s)

I am a bit late planting this year. I debated and went back and forth on what to plant where and how much.  

Here's my teeny tiny garden plot in the back of our apartment building. This is the 3rd summer of my entire life handling a real garden (flowers not included). 

Last year I tilled the red-brick filled soil and plopped some found bricks around this area. I tried tomatoes for the first time! Learned some things about blite and storms that knock over your plants into the ground.  

These chives were given to me by a coworker. I didn't know they were an annual-but they popped back up this year! Goal is to use more chives this summer.  

After much debating, I decided to get over the tiny anxiousness of deciding what to plant and am going to grow things we use a lot. Makes total sense when you write that down. 

1st-more tomatoes. Having been given advice from older wiser gardners, I am going to give it another go. This time, prepped at the beginning of the season with stakes and cages.

I decided to do the urban patio 5 gallon bucket thing. To free up more space in tiny plot for K.A.L.E.

We make kale smoothies twice a week! I don't think my little heads of kale will keep up with our needs, but I'm willing to learn and mess up on a new produce this year (in hopes of success in future years). 

I should have started these inside a month and a half ago! But we will just have a late start to plucking these guys this year. 

For Christmas, Zach and his parents got me this ahhmmmamzzzzinnngggg garden tool set from Barebones!! 

The set comes in a little wooden box (can be used as a planter) and includes a spade, square hoe, and a cultivator.  

They also gifted me this crazy aggressive looking tool. (above). This wild tool cuts twine, chops weeds, digs tiny seed holes, and has 1" markings for seed depth. 

Best of allllllll! They have a lifetime warranty, and I want these things to be in my wrinkly old hands out in my Martha Stewart garden somewhere. 

Last summer about this time, I painted this entire room top to bottom pure white. It was so much work but I WILL NEVER LOOK BACK.

LASTLY. Our herbs. Last year, we gave the felt planter a go. We don't get enough sunshine where we hung it inside, and it was too much sun outside near the garden. So they died, I grew bitter about the time and money I had put into them (not a serious bitter, but yes. A little angsty).

This year, I decided to yes, buy herbs while they are out for sale, but no, do not plant them outside where we can only use them for 6 months out of the year. I hope that this tiny west facing window will give them enough sunlight year round. WE SHALL SEE.

Obviously, I am up for trying new things. What worked, what failed. I like working on projects in the evenings, so this has been a ton of fun to figure out and put together. 

I am sipping some of my homemade kombucha as we speak and I am riding my bike (half way) to work tomorrow and then we have a long great weekend. 

Life is in a pretty great spot right now. 

-Emily