Planning For A Beautiful Urban Garden

Ethan with our friends fresh off the plane from living in Europe for 3 years have brunch in the backyard. August 2009.

I moved to Brooklyn last August (2009). We have a beautiful garden in the back of our Crown Heights apartment that we share with our next door neighbors. Last summer/early fall I spent most evenings after work weeding and cleaning up the existing garden, which consisted of herbs and a few flower plantings. The last tenant put up twine for the morning glories to climb and planted some daisies. I have been dreaming about starting my organic vegetable patch ever since. Right now I am researching my planting schedule and prices of seeds.

I am planning to have a container garden to avoid any dangerous leaching from the backyard ground. I began my own compost last September, but I am considering starting one that isn't in the ground for the vegetables that we will eat.

I want to have lots of kale and leafy greens as well as lots of root veggies that will take us into fall. Ethan and I have been really into the Macrobiotic diet, so I want to plant according to a healthy, well-rounded meal.

I'm reading Garden Anywhere by Alys Fowler for ideas on including nectar-rich flowers to encourage all the yummy bugs and bees to help my bounty grow big and strong. She suggests pot marigolds, california poppies, coneflowers, poached-egg flowers and nasturtiums.