My Vegetable Blog

Remember that awesome community garden plot I signed up for last month? Yeah ... about that ... 

See, I had a windowsill full of seedlings, ready to plant, but before I could get them in the ground, I found myself in the middle of what you might call a major life change. An exciting new job in PR and a move to a whole new city - Madison, Wisconsin. All of a sudden, I was packing my stuff, looking for apartments, buying a car and heading north.

Luckily, I'm Madison is only a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Chicago (on a good day), but that's not quite close enough for regular garden maintenance, so I had to give up my plot (and my beloved Lincoln Square apartment).

I brought some of the plants with me, and some of those survived the trip better than others. I have a bit of outdoor space in front of my new apartment, and I've quickly filled it up with planters. The peppers are doing much better than any of the other plants, and if you look closely at the photo, you can see a few tiny little peppers sprouting up. Hooray!

Another change is that I'm no longer writing for The Kitchn. I decided I needed to focus my energies on the new job, some of which is food-related. But I'm so proud to have worked with all the talented people there and incredibly grateful for the experience and everything I learned from it.

I will continue to write about vegetables, recipes and gardening here. Although, I'm really pulling for those three little baby peppers - they're pretty much the future of my garden! I'm also excited to explore and write about some of the great food resources Madison has to offer. So, stay tuned - lots more vegetable blogging to come!

Yesterday was opening day for the Daley Plaza Farmers' Market, and the morning rain stopped just in time for a lunchtime trip. I had dressed for cold, rainy weather, and it was suddenly hot, sunny and humid. (Welcome to Chicago!) So like a lot of other people on the street, I was peeling off layers as I walked over to the market.

As usual, I passed by the Nichols Farm & Orchard stand first – and, as usual, I strolled around the market and came right back to where I started to make my purchases. There are lots of great vendors at the market, but Nichols Farm always has great produce and the best variety.

For the first time, I was interested in picking up some plants for my new garden plot. They had a huge selection of herb, pepper and tomato plants. Pictured above is one of at least three kinds of sage plants they had on display. I didn't catch the exact variety (Bad gardener! Bad!). 

I ended up buying two pepper plants – one hot banana and one sweet yellow variety. Yum! I also bought a lovely bunch of rapini, which became last night's delicious dinner – Rapini with Orecchiette and White Beans. I'm hoping to pick up a few more plants this weekend at the Green City Market or the Manor Garden Club fundraiser plant sale. My windowsills are getting pretty crowded though – good thing it's almost time to plant!

Last Wednesday, I planted my first seeds. Not two days later, the cucumber plant poked its head out of the dirt. It's been a week now, and the tomatoes, onions, eggplant and savory herb have started working their way up as tiny little flecks of green. But the cucumber (pictured above) wants no part of that nonsense. It's got places to go and people to see. It's actually a little ridiculous how excited I am to watch it grow. 

After signing up for my garden plot, the first order of business was to decide what vegetables I want to grow. I looked through some suggested garden templates from Gardener's Supply Company and decided to do a variation of the "high-yield garden." Might as well make the most of those 24 square feet. 

 I quickly realized, however, that they recommend starting many of these seeds indoors as early as 8 or 12 weeks before the last frost. Um, April is almost over, so I was about 2 hours into my gardening adventure and already weeks behind. 

LaManda from the Peterson Garden Project suggested I just plant my seeds and they'd catch up. That seemed like a better idea than sitting around and fretting about a garden I haven't even started, so I got right on it. Luckily, Whole Foods had a nice selection and I got nearly all the seeds I was looking for in one quick trip. I picked up a few little containers at a thrift store on my way home and got right to starting my seeds. 

So far, I have cucumbers, eggplant, onions, beefsteak tomatoes and savory herb planted in containers and ready to germinate (fingers crossed!) I also have basil, kale, zucchini, beans and peas that will probably be planted directly into the garden. Still on my wish list are carrots, tomatillos and melon (is that one a little crazy?). Perhaps I'll hit up one of these upcoming plant sales.

When I started My Vegetable Blog, I had just signed up for a produce box delivery service (sort of like a CSA, but not exactly), and I wanted to document how I was using the items that appeared each week with my subscription. Over time, I stopped using the service in favor of picking out produce myself at the farmers' markets. I love going to lots of different markets, and with the produce box, it just became too much – too much produce that I was wasting, and too much strain on my wallet. 

But what I've really wanted all this time, is to grow a few vegetables myself. I love my apartment, but it doesn't offer any outdoor space conducive to vegetable growing. And every spring, when half the websites I read start filling up with garden news and photos, I get really jealous and a little bitter and spend a few hours looking at places on Craigslist before I give up and go to the market. 

This year, however, things are going to be a little different. I learned about a new community garden near my neighborhood yesterday and immediately signed up for a 4'x6' plot. That's 24 square feet where I can grow whatever vegetables I fancy. 

It's called the Peterson Garden Project and it's located on the site of an original World War II Victory Garden - how cool is that? 

So I'll be keeping track of the garden's progress here. I'm completely new to the whole gardening thing, so expect a few crazy stories (well, as crazy as gardening stories can be, anyway). Wish me luck!