Posted in container farming, Farming, Urban Farming, tagged cauliflower, idiot, overgrown, urban gardening on April 1, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Boy was I proud of my cauliflower. I probably grinned extra wide for a good three days because I grew actual cauliflower, despite the lack of good sun conditions here at My Patio Farm.
So why didn’t I harvest it? I don’t know. I just didn’t. Maybe I thought it would get bigger. Maybe I got busy. Maybe I just forgot about it. And then, before I knew it, my gorgeous cauliflower turned into this spindly nonsense:
So much for that. But at least I’ll know better next year. Learning!
Posted in container farming, Farming, Urban Farming, tagged blue on blue, Broccoli in container, cauliflower, earthbox on February 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Look at what happened!
And look at what else happened!
And so this patio farmer has learned a valuable lesson: Patience. I was convinced that the lack of sun on my deck was going to keep my tall leafy plants from ever producing something edible. (Can you eat broccoli leaves? Cauliflower leaves?) But then I went out there to harvest some arugula (a weed apparently, but what makes a plant a weed?) and I saw this little broccoli growing and I felt this feeling of pride/excitement/something shining in my chest. We did it–the Earthbox, the potting soil (not mix), the seedlings and I! We made a vegetable! And then I went away for a weekend and when I got back, there was the cauliflower. Three cauliflowers actually. We did it again!
All this is making me more daring as I start planning for the summer. I think I’m going to give tomatoes a shot in the Earthboxes. What the heck?
Also, I’d like to find other container vegetable gardeners. If you are growing cool stuff in a container let me know.
And finally, here is a recent story I wrote about a young restaurant manager at Blue on Blue in Beverly Hills and his decision to start growing food on the roof. I had imagined a rooftop vegetable growing wonderland, but when I went to check it out, there were just 6 Earthboxes. Not too impressive. But here is the thing: give that guy 5 years, and I bet that rooftop will be insane. He was motivated.
Patience.
