Sarah called me last week and asked if I was interested in helping her start a garden at her house in Dogtown. I said of course!! Our plan was to dive in on Saturday, even though we had no idea what we were doing. I got an early birthday present from Mike (The City Homesteader) and a book called The Urban Homestead at the library (good old slpl.org), and I had read bits and pieces, but we figured we would just learn on the job. However, St. Louis received the biggest tornado/storm in over 40 years on Friday night, and Sarah woke up to a "mudbath" Saturday morning! We decided to brainstorm and plan our garden instead. Seamus, Sarah, and I went to the wonderful Kayak's coffee by Wash U and spent a few hours sipping iced coffee, sketching out plans, creating our veggie wish list, and watching instructional youtube videos. Our favorite by far was "Diva Dan." Pretty sure he's canadian. We read in a few different places that beginner gardeners should start small, like a 2-4' by 8-10' garden, so we don't become overwhelmed. We'll see how big it is after we start the dirty work. Here's my original wish list of veggies to plant:
cherry & heirloom tomatoes, lettuce (arugula especially, yum), brussel sprouts, carrots, chives, garlic, onion, peas, and spinach. Herbs: basil, dill, cilantro, parseley, rosemary, and thyme. We plan to get compost from my sister, Lynn Fingerhut, which she has accumulated over the past few years, and to get free soil from Carondelet Park (thank you Gateway Greening for the info!). My brother, Mark Fingerhut, offered some fencing to put around the garden to keep out critters. In our internet search, we discovered that certain veggies/herbs grow well together ("companion planting"), so after a little research, we came up with a rough blueprint for our garden. Here it is:
The plan is to start digging and planting next Sunday, May 1!
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