A week ago, I watched a film called: ‘Food Fight’, which included interviews with Michael Pollan, Alice Waters and others talking about the health, environmental and social benefits of growing and eating regionally produced foods. I have been an advocate for buying locally for years – of course, that is one of our top goals at spud!. Saying that, our house is surrounded by trees and I have not done any serious gardening in more than 20 years. After watching this film, I had an overpowering urge to see if I could make my thumb green by putting it into some dark, brown soil.
There is a gravel area at the side of our house that no one ever goes into except the family dog, and this seemed like a reasonable location. I did some research on the internet and found out that at least three and a half hours of direct sunlight hours are needed to grow vegetables (forget about fruit, which needs double that amount). I watched the sun pass over my planned garden patch for a few days and determined that most parts of the garden receive about 3.5 to 4 hours of direct sunlight. My garden planting project was a go.
It took me about 10 hours to build a raised garden bed and add the soil. Then I was ready to get down and dirty. I planted organic broccoli and cauliflower seedlings because Google told me that they will grow in minimal light. I also planted carrot, chive, cucumber, zucchini, bean, and pea seeds because I thought they would be easy to grow and even if the yields are low, it will still be wortwhile. I finished off the garden with a rhubarb plant and some herb seedlings.
I realize some people might think I am crazy to go to all the trouble of planting a garden when I have access to the freshest, tastiest organic produce through spud! but it just feels right when we are losing more than 2 million acres of topsoil each year to try to restore a small piece of land to grow healthy, chemical free food.
If I get a decent crop this year, I am going to create a second garden patch so I can increase the variety. If you have any ideas for crops that will grow well in low light, please let me know by commenting on this article.
[...] actually know how things are going. Inspired both by David (see his posts from last year about starting an organic garden and how the season went) and by countless tweets and blog posts that have caught my eye about urban [...]