My future garden

I think the reason I most want to move is because of how badly I want a garden. No, I've never gardened before, not really, not beyond flowers and all the times I would help my grandma plant roses and dig irrigation ditches for her rose garden; not beyond the gardening class I took my junior year at UC Berkeley, where I learned what loam was, and what chard was, and how it felt to eat a freshly picked carrot; not beyond my Aerogarden, which has been limited to herb duty (and who can't grow herbs?).

I've spent much of the last few years reading about gardening, and looking at gardens, and planning out how my future garden is going to look, but I haven't actually gotten to the part where I really garden yet. I'm getting (unsurprisingly so) a bit impatient.

Artichoke growing in my boss's backyard, Oakland

I know that gardening won't be easy. I have dreams of growing all my own food, but I fully expect gardening in actuality to be much more difficult than I anticipate, and that I will fail, and probably fail badly, the first year. I want to keep at it. I want my garden to be like the Quarter-Acre Farm, the book about (sub)urban farming that has impacted me by far the most. The other book that has impacted my homesteading desires nearly as much is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and if you haven't read one or either of these books (and have an interest in gardening), you really should. These books make me feel like I did when I read books as a kid: like anything was possible for me, even gardening. I too can be a superhero; a superhero of squash. 

I want this so badly. I am so tired of sitting around and waiting for this, when what really needs to happen is figuring out how to make it happen. I have grown somewhat tired of urban living over the last year or so. As in, I've done it. Its convenient, and vibrant, and diverse, but I also want to get my hands dirty, and have something tangible to call my own, and I can't do that in my swanky, gorgeous 5th floor loft. You see? The grass is always greener on the other side, they say, and I know so many people who will probably think I'm a jerk for saying I want to forsake the gorgeous loft I live in for a place where I have to put in so much effort.  I love the loft. It's been my wonderful, incredible, too-good-for-me home for eight years. But the clamor in my head for a space to grow food is getting louder & louder with each passing year.

Do you have a garden?
Do you blog about your garden?
Do you feel similar desires, while living an urban existence?
Tell me! Lets talk! That's what the internet is for.

In other news, while I've been writing this post I've decided to get my Aerogarden back into working order, and will be growing yellow cherry tomatoes this time. I've wanted to do this for a long time, and I hope that our plans to cover the garden in insect mesh keep not only the bugs, but the cats away as well. I may dream of "real" gardening, but for now, this will do just fine. ★