Last year when I worked the first half of a season at Wealden Farm in Freeport, I fell in love with growing seeds. The attachment I had was amazing, and was only realized late in the summer when the harvest came and the little seeds I once planted in a tiny hole were bigger than me and could feed me many times over.
Living in Portland and not farming this year, things have changed for this year’s season. Thanks to my also-former-farmer partner Kate, we’ve taken on the city version of farming… container gardening. Our challenge? To feed ourselves with lettuce for the summer, and maybe the whole year. This means feeding 4 people who live at our two residences.
I admit, I did not give this much thought at first and nay-sayed it all. But after thinking it through, it was the only way I could do anything with no land and living in an apartment. And since lettuce likes colder weather and needs less sun, it was perfect for the low-sun backyard and apartment windows that will be our sun here in Portland. So we’ll use my apartment as the greenhouse, and her backyard for when it is warmer. I’ve always joked about farming my apartment and how my downstairs neighbor would be mad when I watered, and now it’s a reality. Not quite, but I’m still using a shovel and dirt in my apartment, and that’s all I need to be able to say “I farm my apartment now”. (ha ha)
I’ve also ended up growing a beard the last couple of months. Somehow, I’ve ended up saying that I’m not shaving until I eat some of this lettuce. It will be good to eat my own greens, and be cleanly shaven. Still a few weeks away though. Mid-May is about when we can start eating.
Until my next post, here are some of the first photos of our home-grown-apartment-greens. We are growing flowers too, but I’m all about the food. All of this was planted on 3/21, and we will plant new lettuce every two weeks to stay stocked with greens for four.
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