urban egg: First Time Gardener

I grew up where the surfaces under my feet were made of cement and asphalt, so terms like "tilling" and "seedling" were foreign to my vocabulary--until last weekend. I've often romanticized the idea of reaping the fruits of my labor, of growing healthy organic vegetables, of being rewarded for self-sufficiency with food from my own backyard rather than from a supermarket. Yet, it was not feasible to do so in a city.

This year, Andy and I traveled to Connecticut in time to plant the summer vegetable garden that has been sown by three generations of his family.

We woke up to a still Sunday morning with only the early activity of yellow finch at the bird feeder outside the kitchen window.

Adrienne had already tilled the garden in the previous week, so she shoveled and Andy raked the garden to loosen the soil and level the planting surface.

Because the winters are long in New England, the vegetable seeds had been potted indoors first, and once they sprouted into small seedlings, they were ready to be transferred into the ground.

Adrienne, who creates tasty vegetable dishes, selected this year's crop list. The vegetable lineup included: eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, beets, fennel, celery, rainbow chard, cucumbers, bell peppers and tomatoes. The herb garden comprised: basil, chives, rosemary, lemon-basil and dill.

We started by laying out the seedlings on the empty field, spacing them appropriately according to their anticipated size and relationship to each other.

Ma Cathy gave us our first planting lesson of the day (watch video below), and we all dug our hands into the rich earth. I had not played in dirt since the age of six or seven, so I was very surprised by the coolness and therapeutic experience of using my bare hands in the soil.

Watch how Ma Cathy plants a tomato seedling:

For the tomato plant, we dug a hole (using a trowel where the earth seemed firmly packed) and mixed Epsom salt into the soil around the base, to supplement it with sulfur and magnesium.

The roots of the rainbow chard seedlings (above) had begun to grow together into an entangled web, but were easily separated with the aid of a pair of scissors.

Once all of the seedlings found their home, we built a fence of chicken wire around the garden, and poured an organic "liquid fence" around the perimeter to keep the deer, rabbits and other critters safely away.

By the time Andy finished watering the garden, the sun was over our heads, and we were ready for some serious beach time! And I'm happy to report that I absolutely loved gardening.