The Urban Garden

Growing greens in a gray landscape

- Christopher Nyerges

 

When I was still living with my parents, we had no space at all to garden. We lived in the city. It was unthinkable then to tear up a front lawn and use it for a garden—something I wouldn’t hesitate to do today.

However, the next-door neighbor offered us the use of an empty yard between our houses. My mother, who grew up on a farm, sat up at night with me at the kitchen table, planning how to use that little space for gardening. Most of what I learned about what to plant (and not to plant) was the result of making mistakes.

I began by planting herbs, tomatoes and corn, all neatly arranged in north-south lines with some pathways in between. I knew nothing about fertilizer, mulch or pest control and just planted what I believed would make the best garden, and I watched the results. Herbs—mints, fennel, oregano, lavender and rosemary, among others—took care of themselves. They tended to be drought tolerant, insect repelling and required very little time and effort. (They are good choices just about everywhere, assuming they are herbs you would normally use.)

Tomatoes grew well, too, but I learned that they just grew and grew—longer and longer—and only began to produce lots of tomatoes when I pinched back the stems so the branches would not grow as long. And, of course, these plants got tomato worms, which I just picked off and tossed to the birds.

Corn was quite an education. It grew tall, and the ears formed. As they got bigger, they became infested with lots of ants, aphids and earwigs. In horror, I would take the hose and wash all the bugs off. This worked to some extent, because it was a small garden.