Let me share the story of my urban garden. I have two one year old dogs who call our backyard home: Santino, my Napoleon Mastiff, and Shoog a Shepard mix we rescued. Last summer I decided I wanted a vegetable garden, so I built two large planter boxes on the ground, and filled them with all kinds of veggie plants—tomatoes, onions, lettuce, you name it. Well, it turned out that Santino and Shoog love veggies as much as I do, because one day I came home to check out my crop and found they had ripped all the plants out and eaten them. Plan B: I decided to build the planter box out of dog-reach, on top of an old table. Apparently the tomatoes were still too much of a temptation, because I came home from work to again find that every last one of the tomatoes had been eaten.
So this year I came with a new plan to thwart my not-so-little canine thieves. The planters now reside in my driveway, along the side of my house. In the first planter box I have four kinds of lettuce, purple onions and chard. In the second box I have romaine lettuce, kale, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, dill, cilantro, Italian parsley, and pole beans. In pots around the garden, far out of Santino and Shoog's reach, I have four different varieties of tomatoes. You'd be surprised at how much food you can grow in such a small space, and it's always fresh. And the best part is that you never have to worry about where it came from, or what was used to grow it. Now as for dogs, that's a whole 'nother story.
Check back for regular updates on how my plants are coming along, tips on how to make your own urban garden and for tasty way to enjoy your hard work.
Santino, on the left, and Shoog eating something other than my garden.
Photo: Damien Miller
