THE GARDEN IS BACK, or, rather, making its first appearance...

That's right, folks. The garden is back. Short post for now, more coming later.

Seeds have arrived: They came in the mail the other day from Seeds of Change. All organic, all heirloom varieties. I ordered two types of tomatoes: Black Krims and some Red Pear cherry tomatoes. As well, I got Lettuce Leaf Basil, Cilantro, Italian Flat-Leaf Parsley, Snap Beans, and Summer Squash (Zucchini). We'll see how direct seeding into the garden goes. If I bollocks it up, maybe next year I'll try doing seedlings indoors and then transplanting into the garden.

I've also pulled weeds from the garden plot those college kids that rented the house last summer made, as well as turned over the soil nicely. See, look!











































Hopefully, I'll be heading to a local organic place to get some soil amendments, fertilizer, and a TON of advice, since I still have no idea what I'm doing.

Also need to get some nitrogen to bring along the compost. It doesn't seem to be composting at the moment, just sitting.

More to come!

I have neither abandoned the garden nor the blog

Well, I sort of abandoned both. But I want to keep this going, so here's a post: I turned my compost today. And you know what? Some of it actually looks hummus-y. I'm wondering if I should mix in some soil. I think that's supposed to help. Anyway, no garden, no plants (threw out the chia herbs because they kept attracting (growing?) fruit flies, no terraces, and no retaining walls.

HOWEVER! I am going this week to my friend's house to pick up a bunch of rocks. That means that, soon, I'll be digging terraces and building walls. I promise. And then there will be pictures.

Yeah. That's the ticket.

Seeds

So, I'm probably getting over-ambitious, but I've been looking through a gardening encyclopedia inherited from my mom and have been perusing the intarwebs and have decided that a fall crop may be possible. It's just so amazing to see things grow in my tiny Chia pots that I'm just too excited not to try planting things as soon as possible. To that end, I need some seeds (I think I'm going to try growing from seed, unless that turns out to be wildly impossible for a beginner). I want to grow organically, and from heirloom strains if possible (why? Read The Omnivore's Dilemma and you'll see why).

Hence, I've begun perusing Seeds of Change which I hope will do me well. They have lots of heirloom stuff and it's all organic. My dream crops for right now (i.e. this fall) would be potatoes, onions, garlic, snap beans, and lettuce (there's more, I just can't remember it right now). As to what's possible, we'll see.

The plan as of right now:

1) dig terraces, start walls
2) condition soil (whatever the hell that means...manure? pH test? compost? I gotta do some research...)
3) finish walls
4) plant?

We'll see if that plan goes all to hell (I'm sure it will). As for right now, however, I'm still crazy excited.

Also, my cilantro has sprouted. Bonus!

A Hesitant and Completely Uninformed Beginning

Thus begins my garden blog. Many thanks go to Patrick over at Tennegreen for inspiring me to embark on such a venture.

As for the name: Jean-Jacques Rousseau is likely still my favorite political philosopher and was, as is perhaps less well known, an avid botanist and sometime gardener. Rousseau's experimentation and curiousity I hope to make my own.

On this blog, I'll be updating my (many) travails as I begin my first garden. Right now, I have nothing but a yard. My plan, over the course of the next 9 months, is to get my garden ready (i.e. put in terraces, prepare the soil, build a compost box, start plants indoors, etc.) and come April, I'll be ready to plant. To that end, here's what I've got to work with:



As you can see, I have a hill in my back yard. There are some other places that I might put in a garden, but as the hill is fairly useless (and hard to mow), I've been thinking that I'll put in terraces. Hopefully I'm going to be able to procure some rocks from friends (and/or friendly Craigslist people). My original plan was to do two terraces (i.e. two stone retaining walls) on each side of the hill, with a strip of grass separating the two -- a "path" up to the top of the hill.

As of right now, my gardening tools are...limited.

I have some loppers (is there a more technical name?):

I also have one of these things (what the hell is this devilish murder weapon called?) for digging...uh...things up. Like weeds. Yeah. That's what it's for.



Finally, we have two lovely sets of
gardening gloves, one for me, one
for the missus:




I know I need a shovel and perhaps a hoe. Maybe a spade? I don't know. I need to do some research. After doing all my digging (don't worry, I'll be taking pictures), I think I might need to test the soil's pH or something. Who knows. Right now, I'm just focusing on digging and wall-building (at least I've read some about those things).

Some leafier news: I have Chia Herbs! Sara Beth's mom got them for me and, in a spate of kitchen passion, I "planted" them the other day (planting means only soaking the patented Chia sponge, sprinkling the seeds on top, covering with plastic, and keeping watered). I've planted basil, dill, parsley, and cilantro: all the herbs that I use constantly but always have to get more of since I only use some and the rest rots in the fridge. Anyway, some of the herbs are coming along nicely (it's only been a week), so I'm pretty excited.

Behold! The beginning of my garden: