Today I am longing to buy a house. I go back and forth on this. We have some money saved for a down payment, but what we could buy with that amount in the area we have chosen to live is pretty ridiculous. And buying just sounds so terrifying--permanent and reeking of responsibility. But from time to time we (well, I) get the urge to buy , so we (okay, I) look at listings and scoff at the prices and decide that our apartment is just fine, and also it comes with maintenance staff.
The other day I started pulling up listings again, and this time I limited my search to single-family homes. I didn't want to look at condos, because my house lust this time was actually yard lust. Or, really, garden lust, because it's not as though I just want a place to set up a swingset for Adriana--I rather like going to the park. It's sort of funny if you actually know me. I mean, Brian gave me a plant shortly after we started dating. I promptly forgot to water it, and in promptly keeled over and died. Nine years later, I'm sitting here thinking that it would be great to grow a vegetable garden. And all because I've kept some herbs alive on my balcony for a couple of months.
I would love to grow some of my own vegetables. I want to plant chard and asparagus, tomatoes and eggplant. We go to the farmers market nearly every weekend and I can get perfectly beautiful produce there.* In fact, I declined an offer to share a CSA box with a friend because I like going to the market every week.** But the entire process of growing things in post on my balcony has been so much fun, from picking out the plants at the farmers market and nursery, to getting my hands dirty while I planted them, to watering them and checking their growth, to finally being able to use them. It's incredibly rewarding to go outside to trim some basil for a pesto, some oregano for a vegetable stew, or mint for mojitos, and now I am getting greedy and wanting to grow even more.
Maybe a rental house?
*My friend Adam told me I was "such a housewife" last week because I mentioned something about the eggplants starting to show up at the market. So I informed him that corn was coming in, too, but cherries and blueberries are on their way out.
**Although I admit that I am not very adventurous, and maybe the CSA box would help me branch out a bit.
5 comments:
Or a community garden plot?
I am actually on the waiting list for a plot. But it still means going somewhere in order to do work. And I am a very lazy person.
My mom said to suggest you go mow a friends lawn for them and see how badly you want a yard afterwards =P
Personally I think you should be proud that you've kept your herbs alive so long. I tried to grow herbs and the only thing that survived was the rosemary.
Pretty much the only thing I can keep alive is a cactus D=
The thing is, I don't want a yard with a lawn. I want to fill it up with vegetables. And to have a patio with a little table and a grill so we can sit outside and sip mojitos.
I had a cactus once named Arlo. I didn't manage to keep him alive.
I know exactly what you mean. We're growing tomatoes and peppers on our tiny (north-facing) balcony, and it's given me a bad hankering for a real yard. We've been talking about our house timeline, but we're not there yet. So I will keep tending my few plastic pots.
Have you read the Container Garden? I haven't bought it yet, but it's supposed to be the best one for apartment-gardeners.
Post a Comment