When you can't garden, well garden anyway...

The garden here is about 6 weeks old and full of tomatoes and other good stuff. It's amazing to see what was planted in the 4-hour period we had to cultivate and plant the garden. Soozie is a wizard with a cultivator, she's a hard worker. The garden was carved out, dropped in and then off to the old place to pick up another load with the moving van--across two states.

With every other thing that needs to be done around here, we've not been able to carve out time to make the garden bigger. So after some discussion, it was decided to use containers. They are strewn about on the side deck and east lawn border. And the containers are of the "all sorts" category. Reused pots, buckets, tubs, baskets of all sizes.

What's in those containers--basil - lots of it, onions, lettuce, dill, cabbage, brussels sprouts, mints, lemon thyme, summer savory, rosemary, strawberries, cilantro, parsley. Lovely...

September gatherings

Don't these veggies look good enough to eat? Harvested from a local community garden.

Can you believe it? It's time for another gathering. What's your garden doing? Has it survived our dry spell? Is it producing? Are you ripping your hair out trying to keep up? What's your favorite recipe using all that fresh garden produce? Mine's posted to the right.

We'll be gathering on Wednesdays, September 3 and 17 at the Washington House. Detailed info also posted to the right.

Topic: Gardening, eating what's in the garden, preserving the garden's bounty.

Can't make the meeting? Leave a comment - share a recipe. We'd love to hear from you.

Here's what I've been up to: reading a most interesting book, Wild Fermentation authored by Sandor Ellix Katz. It's given me ideas of things to ferment. Right now I've got a crock of kraut going. And a crock of pickles. When I get another crock, I'll be choosing another recipe to try. There's so many, it's hard to choose.

I'll bring the book to the meeting. Do you have a favorite gardening or preserving book? Bring it along and show it off.

An Urban Garden

Here's a link to Dr. Soozee's urban garden - check it out! Everything's growing so fast, you can almost hear it. I've seen stuff in her garden double in size in one 24 hour period - how's that for growing.

Some pretty tasty stuff is coming out of that garden. I know - I'm tasting it! Sorrel, spinach, lambs quarters, a local variety of amaranth (aka "pig weed"), pea greens, onions, chives, mesclun (lettuce mix), mustard greens, radish greens, kale and cabbage greens, rhubarb, asparagus, chive blossoms, garlic tops.

Yes, pig weed and lambs quarters are quite edible. I know, I know, you've thought all along they are just weeds. As young leaves, they are great tossed into a green salad. As the leaves mature, try them sauteed or braised. Here's a recipe or two (and some new blogs and websites to check out).

On the Road

Hey there - the Urban Garden Seminar is heading north to Stumpjack Healthy Cafe in Green Bay. Awesome that David of Stumpjack Coffee Company in T'Rivers asked us to do the seminar thing in GB! How cool is that?

So, what ya got planted so far?

We've had a late spring - cool, cool, cool. Garden planting is in full swing, now that the weather has warmed up! Our urban garden friends are telling us they are working like busy little beavers to get tomatoes, cukes, pumpkins, cabbages, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, and squash plants into the garden. And beans, peas, corn, radishes, onions, mustard, collards, spinach and carrots from seed are now snuggled into the earth. Then there's all those varieties of potatoes being planted in-ground, under straw on top of the ground, and in potato towers.

I'd love to have my herb garden expanded with lemon balm, spearmint, cat mint, chocolate mint, apple mint, cilantro, parsley, yarrow, tansy, and garlic chives. What's in your herb garden?

We know of one urban garden that has 50+ varieties of fruits and veggies planted in French style raised beds in a 20 square foot area. What an incredible sight! All the interplantings are eye pleasing now and I'm sure will be palate pleasing shortly.

Have you ever eaten radish pods? One acquires a radish pod by letting the little radish bloom and "go to seed". The pod contains the seeds. Pluck the pod when it's plump, filled with seeds - at it's peek. Toss in to a stir fry or chop up and add to a salad or throw into a soup or scrambled eggs at the moment just before serving. Wonderful, mouth watering bit of a bite - I love the flavor!

When the seed pods dry out, they can be harvested and seeds saved. Or one could just let the seeds drop and watch for new radishes to form. This is a good way to get a fall crop of radishes - by letting the spring radishes seed themselves.

So, what ya got planted so far? Post a comment to let us know............... we'd love to hear from you. Have digital photos? Send them to us - the email address is in the footer.

Our next gathering

Urban Garden Gang* Update

We'll be gathering on Wednesdays, June 4 & June 18 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. at Stumpjack Coffee Co., 1606 Washington Street, Two Rivers. The format for these two gatherings will be a 15 minute presentation, followed by conversation, question and answers, sharing photos, etc. Come when you can, stay as long as you can.

We know you are busy with your gardens, but we want to stay in touch during the gardening season. Our goal is to support urban gardening in it's many forms. Besides, it's just fun to sit down with fellow gardeners, have a great coffee drink, and talk gardening! Bring your friends along - let people know about us.

Do you have photos of your urban garden? Do you have questions or comments about urban gardening? Post here or send us an email (see addy below).

We've taken vendor space at the Two Rivers Farmers' and Artisans Market on Saturdays. Stop down and see us - the market is open from 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. on Saturdays. You'll find us near the band stand - look for the Urban Garden Gang sign.

We are currently selling fresh produce and bedding plants from Soozee's urban garden, rain barrels, Maria's market bags and other items made from repurposed fabrics. We also carry other local items (more items added each week):

Maple syrup
Six-year old asparagus roots and sprouted garlic cloves from an organic garden
Rhubarb from an urban gardener

We're looking for other locally raised or produced items - especially those with a sustainable theme or feature. Do you have something that you might want to offer through our booth? We'd be happy to work with you to make that happen, just send us an email.


*Where did that name come from - Urban Garden Gang?
We were having a coffee at Stumpjack Coffee Company and tossing out names for the urban garden group. We didn't want to use the word "group" or "club", so we were coming up with some unique suggestions - mostly we were struggling with the name. David, primo barrista that he is, looked at us over the screen of his laptop and said, "Why don't you call yourselves the Urban Garden Gang?" - and there it is, our new name. David chuckled as he noted that our acronym would be UGG. Thank you, David.

Where you can find us this weekend

Well, we've taken the plunge. You can find us in a vendor stall at the farmers' market. Yep, we'll have urban gardening info and urban garden "stuff" for sale. And.........fresh, fresh, fresh plants and produce. So excited................

And you'll be able to find us hanging out at Stumpjack Coffee Company on some Wednesday evenings chatting about urban gardening with all our new garden friends - information exchange. We'll get more information posted as the plans are firmed up.

And one final plug for the Art & About Spring Gallery Tour on Friday and Saturday. Hope to see you there. Really cool art by really cool artisans.