27th Street

Back before the epic relocation of Anchovy World Headquarters, I worked a modest vegetable patch each season for several years. The new location is on a fabulous lot, with numerous mature trees. While beautiful and great for shade, the prospects of a veggie patch here looked grim. Perhaps there was enough sun smack in the middle of the back yard, and perhaps not.

Among the trees on the property was a tall diseased and dying apple tree which we took down last fall. This opened up the canopy and my first thought was that maybe just maybe this spot could grow me some vegetables. The biggest obstacle was the ground, which was full of apple tree roots. My project this weekend has been to create a raised garden that could simply sit on top of all the old roots underneath. I made it from wood, lined it with landscape cloth, and filled it with some excellent soil. It sits about 16 inches above the ground.

This garden, while not huge, will hopefully give us lots of veggies this year. I hurried to finish up this morning because several days of rain were in the forecast, and there are some things that can be planted this early – spinach, radishes, onions, shallots. Time will tell if I indeed do have enough sun for veggies. I’m confident some things will do quite well.

I don’t know if I have enough sun for tomatoes but I’m going to find out. My neighbour S. across the street gave me several plants the other day which were started by her mom. The seedlings are doing quite well, and by this time next month when it’s time to plant them, they should be quite robust. There are three varieties. One is simply labeled “big tomatoes”. Another is labeled golf balls because the fruit is golf ball sized. The third is “little yellow” because, you guessed it, the fruit is small and yellow. I expect they’re all delicious.