mary, mary quite contrary...

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
-English nursery rhyme

where do people who live in city apartments plant their gardens? they don't. well this year i'm determined to start one despite that one minor detail, it's the first summer in a long time when i'll actually have time to tend to look after a little garden, and i may even have a small patch of land to do so (fingers crossed!). my parents have a nice sunny spot right up from their house in Tennessee where they grow their vegetables, a little gravel path leading to the pool where my mom keeps her perennial garden, and just outside the kitchen window is an absolute adorable herb garden with a bird bath in the center of it. now, in Tennessee things "grow like weeds" according to mom. here in Boston we are in zone 6a, i believe mom is somewhere between zone 6b-7a...be we also have some serious salt in the air from our close proximity to the ocean and some pretty intense winds from time to time...not to mention this endless winter!

image courtesy of USNA

being the amateur gardener that i am, i thought i'd start small. ideally i'd like to plant a few vegetables and herbs that i use often in my simple summer cooking...

tomatoes


cucumbers


hot peppers


herbs (sage, parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil)

i think i'd like to plant the herbs separate from the small garden in a nice container, like one of these....

alpine wooden planters found on Amazon


BNP Discount's shallow round cedar wood barrels

galvanized bucket, image courtesy of Penick.net

Landers Antique's & Toys tubs

headed to the garden centers around town this weekend to see what i can find to get started...april/may, so i read, is when i should start to get things planted, wish me luck!