Begin on the Balcony

I was born in Cheshire, England and spent the first ten years of my childhood there. I remember my grandmother's garden of veggies in the city,and my parents' veggie garden in a rural village. It was mostly potatoes, peas, and gooseberries. I recall one year the pigs from a local farm got loose and raided my parents' garden. It was an "all you can eat buffet".

I still find the time for a veggie garden but grow mostly tomatoes, squash, various types of peppers, herbs, fruit trees, and anything that takes the Summer heat of Southern California.

Lately, I've become interested in container gardening. I've been thinking of adding a couple of chickens. It's been said that you can take the boy (or girl) out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy. I suppose I'm an "urban farmer". Or perhaps I'm a "suburban farmer", after all it is Southern California.

Now, as to pigs, they're intelligent, stubborn, feisty, enjoy eating potatoes, and.......well, they're tasty when roasted. Try one you'll like it. The "Two Fat Ladies" cooking duo once said that when a vegetarian falls off the wagon it's usually because they smelled bacon cooking and couldn't resist. This might be true. I tried to be a vegetarian once but realized that the vegetarian lettuce and tomato sandwich is much better as a BLT.

We have moved from a small central KY town to the big city. In the past, we had quite a garden and I spent years canning (with my Mother's "victory canner" from WWII), pickling, and freezing. In fact, my husband gave me a rototiller for my birthday one year, a present he has never been allowed to forget... But now that we are in a patio home, we can't do all that. But this year we have decided to at least put out a couple of tubs on the patio with peppers. We have to do something.

With a name like Spinner, you can guess that I do fiber work. This includes natural dying, so marigolds are a must somewhere in the yard. I have taken to putting out a flat of plants under the small tree in our front yard. One year a young summer worker for the landscaping people pulled them all up thinking they were dandelions! So yes, eatable food is important, but other plants are good for the soul as well. A heavy bed of plain old marigolds are beautiful as well as practical, at least for me.

Container gardening is great. There is nothing like going out to your own patio and snipping a generous handful of Italian parsley or Greek oregano, to throw in your soup pot. Anybody can do it. I can't believe they charge 3 or 4 dollars for a little packet of herbs at the grocery store. You can grow it yourself with little effort! Everybody who cooks should have a little collection of herbs in pots out back somewhere.