I've really treasured having a big garden and chickens here in the city. I recognize that it is a rare gift that has helped me to live in my values and it is one that I will miss if we move. I love composting, I love picking food right from the yard, I love feeling like these are little bits of activism and change. The garden got in early this year and has looked very promising, but the lack of sun and heat has it not yielding much more than greens. We have so many things that are small and that want to grow into harvest - but fall seems to be coming in already and I just don't know if there will be time for it all. I am looking forward to fall but am mourning the potential green babies that don't make it.

It seems I'm in the mood to post a lot of pictures! If you'd like an updated visit to our garden click on the link below (click on pics to enlarge). Chicken pictures to be posted some time soon.

Shots of the garden ( are behind this cut: )

One thing I've loved about FB and LJ is that folks are posting lots of pictures of their gardens. Perhaps it is not exciting for everyone to take in shot after shot of brazen tomato plants, coy carrots and slinky bean vines...but I love it.

GARDEN PORN! YAY!

Visit my little green peep show ( just behind this curtain )

Well I've been meaning to post about the garden for a while now but early spring has been delightfully busy. There's not all that much to tell (unless you're a gardener and like the dirty details but I won't assume that is the case for all of you). Suffice to say that we've learned quite a bit from last year. We've started things much earlier, paid more attention to companion planting and have much better soil amendments (we have compost and worm bins but we also bought supplemental amendments). There are now structures around the keyhole beds to keep out the squirrel gangs and we've had fun greeting all the perennials that came back (hello sweet raspberry patch!).

We also have chickens. I named mine Tallulah, which is an Irish girl's name meaning "abundance"...it seemed fitting and I thought it went well with "Virgina" (which is what Pam named her chicken, though she's being called Ginny). You can see pics of the chicks and their cute coop here. I want to paint the coop red, but appear to be the only person who finds this desirable (some folks just don't know what's good for them). ;>)

I've included some pics that I took of the garden about a month ago. This was before things were getting nice and green but it is interesting to see them in comparison to the back yard last year.

To keep things neat I have put the pics ( behind the cut. )

I'll try to better shots when things get more established later in the season...it's so much prettier then. In the mean time I am dreaming of basil and other herbs, tomatoes, berries, root veggies, Brussels sprouts, greens, peppers, melons and so much more.

May our summers be blessed and full of joy.

Some of you may remember an earlier post where I babbled on excitedly about our gardening plans this year. I thought I'd give a much overdue report on our season, though I've waffled on what to share.

While it has been exciting to have more gardening space, the food growing efforts have been severely disappointing. Our back yard does not get enough sunlight and although we discussed this early on with our landlords, the limb-trimming that I was hoping for never happened. That, combined with a very wet/cool/buggy season, the various critters who like to come a-nibbling and a bit of a late start all have had me eating much less self-grown produce than I am used to.

Now don't get me wrong, the garden is lovely. I'll try to post pictures soon so you can see how the owners have packed in a lot of lush landscaping (complete with pergola). Sadly, none of that landscaping is edible - and what is edible has been slow, so we've only had herbs to bring up to the kitchen. While I've been grateful for the basil, I've also felt very discouraged by what I perceived to be a big gap between our food values and that of our building owners.

I finally had a discussion with one of them yesterday (as I was harvesting what few things I could) and expressed how vital growing food is to me. It is the main reason that I wanted to be in this apartment and is a huge part of my activism and spirituality. I am hoping that I was heard and that promises to trim branches next year and/or to discover more sun-kissed gardening options will manifest. Somethings got to change. I'm not willing to have a repeat of this year.

To try to get over our disappointment, the roomie and I did eat from the garden as much as we could yesterday. While the veggies had to be procured from the Farmers' market, we had basil on our tomato/yellow zucchini sandwiches and added nasturtiums, parsley, basil and wood sorrel to our salads. The result was so colorful I had to snap a pic.



I also whipped up a good sized batch of pesto...so all hope is not lost ;>)

As I've spent more time in our back yard, I have been impressed by the abundant wildlife. We have lots and lots of birds about; a veritable chorus in every daylight hour. Our soil seems to be an all-you-can-eat-worm-buffet for voluptuously round, red-breasted robins galore (which bodes well for our soil quality).

Beyond winged visitors, we've got squirrel-a-palooza back there (which is particularly thrilling to me given my aspirations of becoming a squirrel whisperer), mysteriously masked raccoons, and even the ever-pink-n-creepy possums (sorry, they're more than welcome, but they do freak me out).

Last night as I was sitting and taking in the moon, I heard the tell-tale sounds of claws on bark, and realized that a critter was crawling up the backside of a tree that borders our yard.

"Ahhhh..." I thought "here comes another possum".

Imagine my surprise when a gorgeous, fluffy skunk dropped out of the limbs above and proceeded to explore the yard in full, choosing to settle in a bed of tiger lilies not ten feet away from me.

It was an interesting moment; realizing that getting in the house would bring me within two feet of said skunk. "Please don't let me get sprayed" I thought...I could just imagine how much fun that would make today's 2-hour drive with muddyslush and yezida as we make our way up for our final Feri gathering in East Troy, WI.

So I stood (slowly) and said to the tiger lilly clump "Hello skunk and welcome. I live here, and I mean you no harm. I am going to move to that door over there (indicating gently), but I am not actually moving towards you at all so please do not spray me."

I don't know if skunks speak Jennifer, or if that skunk's desire for avoidance matched my own - but I made it past him/her without getting blasted.

So how stupid would I be if I tried to become a skunk whisperer? They're so pretty. Hmmm....

Today was the first day of the Farmers' Market in Daley Plaza so I had to stop by...



Not much is out in the way of produce, though there was some HUGE, purple-tipped asparagus lying about that was positively pornographic!

While I went with the intention of not giving over to gross consumerism...I was beguiled by several greenlings, whose seductive siren calls easily slipped past my will.

And so, sitting on my desk and smiling smugly are:

~ Basil (one small, one giantess)
~ Beefsteak tomato
~ Moonflower
~ Mint
~ Purple sage
~ Flat-leaf parsley
~ Lavender
~ Rosemary
~ Gerber daisy (pinky/orange/yellow)

While we have seeds sprouting...my desire for hearty, established beauties was simply too great to resist (particularly given Chicago's brief and fleeting growing season).

The perfume of basil is filling up my cubicle and wafting out beyond it. Ahhh, these Genovese hussies are obviously sending erotic promises to my neighbors. They are gorgeous, delightful, and clearly...quite slutty.

PERFECT!

As May unfolds I turn forward and begin looking at the challenges ahead. High on my "to do" list is getting unpacked and settled into a new apartment...

I recently moved to the northeast side of Chicago, into what was marketed as a "green" apartment. The owners, two amazing folks who are the life force behind the Eco-Justice Collaborative, purchased the building (which had been gutted I believe) and worked to create a space that was in line with their values.

To do this, they avoided buying things new and did a lot of searching for reclaimed hardwood flooring, fixtures and appliances. They also installed energy efficient windows and dual-flush toilets. They've used CFL's in every light source and have painted solely with no-VOC paints.

While our space is small (I'm in a two-bedroom with stellar roommate, tarirocks), and while I don't love that part of it is garden level...the eco aspects were simply too alluring, particularly building-wide recycling and composting and...wait for it...here it comes...oh yes....GARDENS!

Working together, we are creating a food garden behind the house, and a rain garden in front (speaking of rain gardens, I attended an amazing presentation on a local sustainable water project: 168 Elm Ave. Great web site...I hope you'll check it out.)

We're doing a jig with time, and have (perhaps) larger dreams than can be manifested in the first year, but it is terribly exciting to be working in a small community to make this happen at any level.

Embracing permaculture, we're planning and planting the garden holistically (rather than splitting into plots based on apartment units), using stacking and companion planting. There are three units in the building, but one tenant says she's not a gardener (just wait until we seduce her with homegrown tomatoes!). Therefore there will be four of us working the land (a vast improvement to my former solo gardening efforts), and we plan to invite some friends to share the space/work/harvest, thus feeding that vital connection between food and community. We've got plans for raised and vertical beds...though again, time is a determining factor.

To begin, we're going to employ lasagna gardening to create two spheres which contain clusters of key hole beds. Since we all just moved in, we have lots of saved newspaper and cardboard, and we're jazzed about folding all of our resources back into the homestead. These beds will flow with the shape of the yard and will compliment a gathering area (with a pergola, fire pit and water feature). We'll be supplementing with lots of container gardening (especially in this first year where we may not have time to build a lot structures), and are following the "house-shoe rule" of permaculture, planting our favorite edibles close to the porch so that they can be gathered quickly, easily and often. T and I are even working out wacky ways to capture some of our gray water (if you shower at our place, be ready to share your splash with some pitchers and bowls!).

Because we are who we are, we've begun to recognize the potential of this project and are thinking of ways to use it as a learning tool. We are planting extra seeds, and hope to have abundant seedlings which we can share with the neighbors. We're thinking of offering open houses to the neighborhood; inviting folks in to see what we're doing and sending them home with a free seedling, informational materials - and hopefully, inspiration.

With that in mind - I snapped some photos of the back yard as it is so that we can look back at summer's end to see how far we've come. Nothing had been done when I took these, so things aren't very lovely or exciting yet...but this will give you an idea of what we're working with. I took these in the evening (around 5:00 PM CST), so the light is a bit low. If you're interested...( photos are behind the cut )

Even if you don't check out the other photos, I wanted you to see our baby brussels sprouts.



Won't you tell them that they're beautiful; that you love them and want them to grow, grow, grow!