gardening and wondering what'll come next



early stages of planting

One emphasis of the YAV year is simple living. There are many aspects of simple living. The one I've seem to have latched onto is growing some of our own food in order to take a small step to lower our carbon footprint. Because of this, since the beginning of March, our windowsills have been covered with plants. Herbs and vegetables like coriander, oregano, basil, a variety of peppers, chives, mint, lettuce and tomatoes are what take up most of the space, but the occasional flower - nasturiums, pansies, petunias, sweet peas, and marigolds - makes its appearance as well.

early March

I've planted a lot of stuff in the past two months and grown everything from seed. The list above starts to show how much I've planted. I guess that seems to be the nature of me getting excited about something. I find some great project and go all gung-ho for it. With that said, I should give a thank you to my amazing wife (insert your gag here but this thanks IS appropriate) for putting up with the plants everywhere and the compost that we've started on our balcony.

late April

One thing I'm finding out with growing vegetables here is that the growing season is tricky. I guess it's like Wyoming in that you might have a nice sunny day and then wake up to clouds and the wind howling the next morning. That would've been Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Because of this, the flowers which have all been transplanted to a large window box that sits outside, are sometimes brought in from the wind that hits them being up on a second floor (third floor for those of you in the States) balcony.

using some cress at breakfast

All in all, I've really enjoyed getting into gardening this year. I'm excited to carry over what I've learned to wherever Kendra and I end up next (more on that in a second).  I hope to still expand the garden a little bit by planting some root crops like radishes and beets because they'll mature quick enough that we'll be able to use them before heading home. We've already used water cress, coriander (cilantro) and rocket (arugula) that I've grown. Chives and basil should be ready before too long. We may even have lettuce to use within a month. It's been a fun and tasty experiment.
 

jalepenos!

I mentioned earlier that what I've learned gardening so far this year will be fun to carry over to wherever Kendra and I are next year. For those of you who do not know, we will be doing a second YAV year. We are looking at serving in either New Orleans or Tucson, but while we thought we may have had our decision narrowed down, we're finding out that we're just not yet sure where we're being called to at this point. We're excited about possibilities at both sites but would ask that you keep us in your prayers as we discern our next call.






tomatoes in a homemade cage...we'll see how that works