The tub hath made me proud

[view from the edge of the bathtub]


The garlic has sprouted, my friends. For some reason, this has been my most emotional moment to date. I haven't been this touched since that guy at The Wood told me he enjoyed my "womanly" ass. Planting garlic in November and then having to survive five months of brutal winter can give you plenty of time to worry... The compost I used wasn't fully broken down, it was more like a coarse mulch. Maybe the tub froze. Fat Cat (a.k.a. "The King", our ruling neighborhood stray) likes to dig in it. It won't work. But it did. [Sigh.] It did. Which means you can do it. Remember to buy organic garlic this season from your favorite farm (in late July or August) and plant the individual cloves in November. Mulch. Done. All you have to do is give them lots of water in the spring, and soon you'll have one of these:



[a dream come true]


Ok, I am not serious. What the hell is that? Your very own upside down horseshoe made of garlic. Maybe more like this:



[better]


Do you know how much this would go for at Hole Foods? Can you imagine how many cheap gifts you could give from your garden? I gave my boss a sleek bottle filled with nice olive oil and filled it with herbs I grew. Pretty and cheap and useful. It's an old standby, and the good-cook-non-growers will actually use them instead of keeping them as dumb showpieces on their countertops.

Know nothing about plants? It's time for Babs

[start with Barbara]


I knew that Barbara Damrosch and I would be close the moment I read the first line of her book The Garden Primer. It reads: "I firmly believe that in order to learn anything you have to be willing to ask dumb questions."

After working for five years in documentary film production, I felt the reality of this statement. I hit a plateau. When you major in a field, work in a field for multiple years and hold multiple titles in that field, people expect you to know certain things. I knew a solid amount, but all of a sudden I felt serious apprehension when forced to admit that I didn't know something. Luckily I looked that work horse in the mouth, realized that my future in the film world would include more sleepless nights and backne than joy, and now no one cares about my knowledge of stock formats, most of all ME!

If you want to learn more about growing your own food or how to start a perennial bed, or better yet don't know what a perennial is (it's a plant that grows season after season, as opposed to an annual which you have to plant anew each year), then start here. She answers every question, every one. What is mulch? When do you plant which vegetable? How do I start seeds indoors? Everything. Oh, and did I mention she's Mrs. Eliot Coleman?

I want to kiss Michelle Obama on the mouth

[seedlings for the First Family's garden]


I was watching 'City of Angels' starring Nicholas Cage (I don't want to talk about it) when I decided to check the New York Times homepage. After reading about more bloodsuckers laundering money, there it was! An article making it official: the Obamas are starting a garden on the south lawn! Not since our beloved, horsey Eleanor Roosevelt has anyone planted on white house property. Read the article here. Love.

Spring creep

[spring greens for baby bad]


I'm back again! I haven't written in awhile, blah blah, let's not get into it. It's almost spring! Is anyone else planting yet? My friend Annie was going to start herbs, but she was knocked up and had her baby last week. My mom was thinking about it but said she's "not allowed" in her housing development. Put down the crack and plant SOMETHING, all of you! Yes, I will boss you around via my blog. I bought a pack of arugula seeds (500 in a pack) for the price of ONE bunch of arugula at the grocery store. Take that.

You can get a fair amount of things going right now to start the season - pepper seedlings and tomato seedlings at your house. Onions, leeks, peas peas peas, greens of all kinds in the ground. You can start seedlings for those guys too and then transplant them, but I don't have the room or a super sweet greenhouse.



[pepper seedlings]


Peppers hate to be fondled and transplanted, so I planted them in these peat pots you can put directly in the ground (get them from FedCo). Trouble is, these suckers dry the soil out, and peppers like to stay moist. Only today (over a week after I started them), did I take the individual squares of plastic wrap off the tops. I had secured them with rubber bands, and this approach made me not want to water them because it was a huge pain in the ass. My peppers are going to be exposed to open air because I'm practical and lazy. The heat mat should warm them enough without the homemade sauna of saran wrap.



[old basil]


And check out these two pots of basil I planted a month apart. The top pot is a month older, and look at it! It goes to show that soil. quality. is. everything. I used Fort Vee on the bottom pot, and the basil is beyond bountiful. No droopy leaves, no weird spotting.



[basil in Fort Vee Vermont Compost]


We also cleaned out and planted our community garden plot. Photos to come this weekend. (Did I mention I got a job?)

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

[sad basil]


Hi, remember me? Uh yeah. This "blog" thing suddenly fell by the wayside, but I'm here to tell you I'm back. [Roar of the crowds... crickets?] If the lone person out there, I mean millions, is/are still reading then God love you. It's hard in the winter to write about spring. It's depressing. Plus, I was busy with things like the Obama Inauguration, hair dye catastrophies, watching my roommates watch 'The Wire', and looking for a stupid job. No more excuses! Sunday is the day. I'm in my favorite but cat hair-covered chair, and I have coffee and it's 50 degrees outside today. Zing.

So one of the most important thing I've learned to date is to tinker. around. Because things may not look like the illustrations in the gardening books as you begin. My first blunder? Using crappy soil. We had two bags of Miracle Gro "organic" potting soil safe for vegetables (puuuuuuttttt) that sat outside through last year's winter and summer. I was being cheap, and I got what I paid for. The crap is like a bug brothel. Tiny, tiny gnats took over everything! I hate these little guys, and it's so pleasurable to smash them between my thumb and pointer finger. The bastards ate holes in the arugula, attacked the parsley so hard it never got going, and now my basil has these terrible brown spots on them. I also committed a cardinal sin: overwatering. Seedlings don't need to be watered every single day. Let them dry out between waterings and then soak them real nice. I was keeping them in a shallow wading pool and I think they never bounced back. And put a fan on them! Circulation is key. Oh, and I caught my cat Potato eating the arugula. What used to be the beautiful beginnings now looks like the ugly cousin.


[what used to be arugula]



[according to the label, this is "parsley"]


Luckily, if your calendar reads February like mine does, it's time to start the real ballgame of preparing for the spring. None of this herbs in pots shit. This last week I started seedlings for broccoli and leeks. I suggest you do the same if you're trying your hand. Broccoli and leeks don't need warm soil when germinating (about 60 degrees is good) so you don't need a warming mat. You will need good seedling soil. I cannot recommend this product enough. If you want to start a garden via seedlings, this is the one thing you need: Fort Vee Potting Mix from Vermont Compost. You can order it from Johnny's or even better find a retailer near you (click here) so you can buy it sans shipping. Nothing feels more pathetic than paying $30 in shipping for dirt. (Yes, I did it.) They're only catering to New England kids, so if you're far away I recommend moving here, paying the shipping, or researching other good soil. I recommend moving here.

Another good seedling tip? Saran wrap! It's cheap, it's kinky, and it keeps the moisture in the little cell blocks so nicely that you won't have to water until after they sprout. If you have a fancy seed kit with a lid, then you don't need it. Show off.

And if you are daunted by starting your own seedlings, you can actually plant broccoli and leeks directly in the ground. You'll want to do this as soon as the soil can be worked, broccoli in late February and leeks around mid-March. They are hearty to a little frost and even snow. Others you want to plant directly in the ground around mid-March are: onions, peas, carrots, lettuce, kale, collards, radishes, shallots, scallions, and arugula. They've all got some hair on their chests and can handle the frosts.

The best reason to start your leeks inside is to avoid nubbin leeks like these.


[not that great]


See how the yummy white part (technical name) is about 4" long? Well, my boyfriend Eliot Coleman taught me how to grow leeks with 10" white parts (ok, or bulb or sheath) to impress all the ladies. I learned this at his all-day conference. Ten glorious hours together, and I know he felt something too. He came up with a homemade tool that does all the magic. Basically, you start the leeks inside. Once they look like scallions, you take them outside and use a wooden rod that measures 10-11" long with the thickness of a paper towel tube and punch it into the ground. You pop the baby leeks in one at a time, the holes 6" apart, and don't fill the sides up with soil. They will have a little give room around the sides and eventually expand to fit the space, giving you thick, long leeks. After you put the seedlings in, give them a good, hard watering. (Never have I written such a suggestive leek paragraph. This is still about gardening, people.) And keep watering! They love water. That's what gives them bulging bulbs, the water. Onions in general are always thirsty.

I hope you're buying seeds and imagining a garden of your own. Maybe I should instill a little fear in you, my very own "War on Terror" to counteract the sunny skies of the Obama administration. $20 says that the next potential attack on the U.S. will be via our food sources and distribution. Hello! Peanuts from Georgia sickening (or killing) people all across the country? One trip to Kellogg's, and it's a go. [Insert serious, movie trailer voice.] Plant your own garden. It may be the only thing keeping you alive.

All hail Fedco

[get yourself one of these]


Happy 2009! I hope you had a good, warm holiday full of good, warm food. God knows I did. My friend Jin kept pinching my muffin top at work the other night. I have managed to spill over my pants in a mere two weeks. This always happens to me in the winter, time for the elastic waist!

I have a new true love in this new year, and his name is Fedco. If this catalog could embody the human form, we would be living together in Iowa having paper babies by now. I'll calm down but honestly, this company is the best. Seeds from The Cook's Garden will be $1.75 where at Fedco they'll be 80 cents. They even sell basic tools, fertilizers (I got my pack of alfalfa meal - the one thing my soil needs is more nitrogen according to the UMass soil test), and the wooden sticks to write seedling names on.


[tools]


I also ordered a soil thermometer, a pH test kit, and a super sweet folding Victorinox knife, all under $70. The pages are black-and-white, no colorful glossy shots, but the illustrations are impressive, and it will give you hours and hours of hunting material.

And as evidence of this (hopefully) prosperous new year, check out the seedlings!


[the basil was only planted yesterday, but there's parsley and arugula in the back]



[beautiful little basils in the back left, collards in the egg crate, and my favorite - little thyme. forgive the quality as I can't find the connector cord for the camera, I had to use T's iPhone]

As you can see, I transplanted the mixed trays into new pots by type. The arugula scared me as it looked really pissed and wilty at first, but it appears to be bouncing back. The collards were more experimental, let's see if they'll grow huge indoors in a pot.

I take it all back

[all ye sprout]


I planted this arugula a mere two days ago, and check this! Every little guy sprouted. I don't suck! I am the garden master!

A very Merry Christmas.



[from the side]