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Today is the first official day of my greensteading endeavors. I define a greenstead as a home where the inhabitants try to minimize as much as possible their negative impact on the environment while also striving to cultivate their know-how and skills. For some time now I have been questioning the wisdom of a generation that has forgotten how to grow their own food. Barbara Kingsolver's call to action in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle did not go unheeded. More and more people every day are trying to re-learn the skills their ancestors had down pat, including me.
However, what's a girl to do with nowhere to plant, and hardly any sun to grow by? I say, put a pot on your fire escape. Now, its probably illegal and a fire hazard, but if you put it somewhere out of the way of the ladders, hopefully you won't get into too much trouble. Having avidly read the vegetable section of The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan I decided that I was going to try growing mostly herbs such as basil, parsley, and lavender (I'm dying to try making the lavender mint tea recipe Madigan mentions), and tomatoes. I know that the tomatoes pose a problem because they won't get much sun out on my fire escape, but I simply can't resist. The store bought variety rarely taste as delicious as the home-grown kind.
Unfortunately, the dollar store in my neighborhood had a limited seed selection, and I came home with only my planting pot (white for camouflage), two bags of organic sterilized soil, and a packet of radish seeds (an heirloom type named "Champion.") I sowed about 10 radish seeds in my pot which leaves me room for possibly one tomato plant, and a few herbs. Evidently radishes like cool weather so I'm glad its around 50 degrees tonight.
On a side note I finally worked up the courage to ask my super if I could put some vegetable pots on the roof. He said no. But I will not give up! I am going to pester ever higher circles of authority in order to make my vision of rooftop gardens all over nyc a reality.
