our Victory Garden
Aug. 13th, 2003 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerNor will I mention that he’s been sneezing kitty snot all over us (amazing how living in a cage surrounded by other cats will give you a cold), or that he’s going for his first vet visit today (first for us, that is; he’s already been tutored).
I won’t mention that he learned how to jump into the tub this morning after my shower, but that he can’t get out of it. ("Hey! My paws are wet in here! Lemme out!")
And I will say nothing about the kitten continuing to relax, so that he’s now eating and drinking. Ah, the joys of tuna breath. (The SPCA says it’s not unusual for cats to not eat/drink the first day or two as they adjust to the new surroundings.) But he’s still very needy, and knead-y.
Where was I? Oh, right – the Victory Garden.
We’re in the section of San Francisco known as Potrero Hill. More specifically, we’re on the hill – our backyard is fairly deep and goes straight up. Fortunately, it’s terraced so we have a fair amount of usable space. And there are planting beds which only need to be chopped up and manured for growing things.
Our upstairs neighbors haven’t had a yard in a fair amount of time. So they were excited to plant crops. Dawn and I are fine with this, and all four of us (Dawn especially) have been taking care of them, watering, weeding, and so forth.
But since the neighbors are not used to planting, they chose what I think are somewhat excessive numbers:
Where was I? Oh, right – the Victory Garden.<LJ-cut><P>We’re in the section of San Francisco known as Potrero Hill. More specifically, we’re <I>on</I> the hill – our backyard is fairly deep and goes straight up. Fortunately, it’s terraced so we have a fair amount of usable space. And there are planting beds which only need to be chopped up and manured for growing things.
Our upstairs neighbors haven’t had a yard in a fair amount of time. So they were excited to plant crops. Dawn and I are fine with this, and all four of us (Dawn especially) have been taking care of them, watering, weeding, and so forth.<P>
But since the neighbors are not used to planting, they chose what I think are somewhat excessive numbers:
<NBSP;><STRONG>12</STRONG> corn plants
<NBSP;><STRONG>12</STRONG> tomatoes
<NBSP;><STRONG>12</STRONG> basil plants
<NBSP;><STRONG>12</STRONG> lettuces (plus more from seed)
Our first thought when they came home with these: <EM>Are you <STRONG>insane?</STRONG></EM>
Don’t get me wrong - we <I>like</I> all these. But tomatoes are nearly as productive as zucchini! <user site="livejournal.com" user="punkmom"> has eight or nine tomato plants, I think, and they’re generating 20-30 pounds a week!
The tomatoes are fruiting up, the lettuce is growing hugely, and threatening to go to seed; since we’re also getting tomatoes and lettuce in a <A HREF=http://www.mariquita.com/csa/csa.html>CSA</A>, making a dent in our personal crops has and will be difficult. When cow-orkers and friends get tired of taking gifts, we may resort to leaving baskets of tomatoes on the neighbors’ doorsteps.
(sigh) I’m not really complaining here, just whinging. We like our upstairs neighbors and we’re glad we moved.
Maybe next year we’ll have, er, a less bountiful harvest.
</LJ-cut><P>
