"Yard Work"

I finally got my balcony garden planted in early May (a whole month later than last year thanks to crappy weather), after several trips to the farmers market, laboriously twice carrying home a twenty pound bag of soil on my back, and gingerly ferrying home these baby herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, basil, and ginger mint ((perfect for cocktails and lemonade!)) and heirloom cherry tomatoes. I hope to pick up a hot pepper plant as well once the weather gets warmer.

My first foray into gardening last year was motivated by kitchen-supplementing herbs and vegetables - all business and no interest in flowers just for fun. But this May, the farmers market has been overtaken with flowers, flowers everywhere. Pacing back and forth through the stalls, I was overcome by a strange new desire for a real yard, not only to grow vegetables, but to fill with a wide array of landscaped flower beds offering wild-grown beauty and cheer. I guess I am turning into my mother.

Until that day when I finally live in the country again or some approximation of it, we are lucky to have even this much outdoor space in NYC. So I finally decided to bring home double impatiens, daisies, and dahlias. I have a yellow thumb, so I don't really know what I'm doing and just hope for the best. So far two of my basil plants are already dying, while the third is thriving - who knows?

Oh and for some reason it took us three years of living in this apartment to realize that we should replace the rusty chair no one wanted to sit on with our comfortable weather-proof camping chairs that previously spent most of their time in storage. We have already enjoyed many afternoons and evenings of sitting down on the balcony with a cold beer, admiring the sunset and my garden handiwork.