I’ve been an enthusiastic, if only randomly successful, balcony gardener for about five years now. My first year - the one where I was most enthusiastic - was the most successful and I managed to harvest a few dozen tomatoes and three misshapen zucch…

Diane–I have a friend who is a gardener in northern CA–she is a gardener not just by avocation but by trade. She explained to me the method of growing delicious tomatoes in CA–it is called “dry gardening.” You plant your tomato starts very deeply, with much of the stem way underground. This allows roots to sprout from the stem, and create a deep root system. Then, you water it well during the rainy season, and mulch it very deeply, and after the root system is in place, you can restrict water to a degree that we Easterners would find to be most distressing.

However, she always gets a lovely harvest and has been doing it for years.

Different climates take different methods!

Hannah–I am glad to have inspired you! If you have a chance, let me know how it goes!

Steph–potted rosemary counts as a proper garden to me! Rosemary is one of the few herbs I continually do in for one reason or another. I can never get it last past one season, so I grow it, sadly as an annual. I thought I would die when I visited my gardener friend in CA and saw -hedges- of it growing three frigging feet high! All in bloom! Lovely! But I was so jealous!

Nerissa–you just have to work with what you have, all the while improving it. Find acid-loving plants, and add compost formulated to change the pH blanance closer to neutral.

And yes–Findhorn is a miracle, is it not? Though, I like to think that every garden is a bit of a miracle.

Meg–so long as you are working with edible plants, don’t fear your toddler being with you in a garden. You must watch him with some plants, it is true, for some are poisonous and they don’t taste bad enough for a wee one to notice, but other than that–there is much for a small one to gain in the garden.

Morganna tells me that she ever so barely remembers that garden in the last house her father and I shared. What she most remembers was the flavor of the basil leaves I gave her to chew on…but she is certain that part of her love of gardening comes from that early exposure.

There is so much for a little one to learn in any sort of garden, whether it is on a terrace or a huge farm.

Linda–warm tomatoes are straight from heaven. There is nothing better, not chocolate, not coffee, nor wine. Good luck!

Castiron–some do not have the gardening “knack” naturally. But that is allright–wild sunflowers sound okay by me! (You could always plant a stand of big cultivated ones, though–they are an awesome sight en masse–and they come up pretty much on their own, with little care from the one who plants the seeds.)

Give the trench idea a shot, Cindy. I have read of others using it with clay and turning out pretty nice gardens with it. You can always widen the trench year after year, replacing clay as you go.

Wow, Mel. Colorado lawns. That is not quite as bad as the golf courses in Arizona and New Mexico, but almost. Really crazy stuff. Wasting an aquafer on that.

Hey Tricia–native grasses and wildflowers are a great substitute for traditional lawn grasses. People forget that our weird ideas about lawns come from Victorian England, where a wide expanse of lawn was a sign of wealth and prestige–and the upkeep even then was amazingly expensive. But, Americans want to emulate that. I think there is also the ideal of the village green in there…the pastoral vision of a field with close cropped grass, all green and sweet looking–of course, without sheep or cattle to crop the grass….

Well, you know what I mean. Lawns are just bloody silly things, in my opinion.

Oh, and as for wanting to kill anything on their property–what is up with that? I remember buying different types of violets and the nursery for our old house in Pataskala, and one woman looking down at the lovely little plants in disgust. “I don’t know why anyone would pay money for those damned things–I spray Roundup on them in my yard!” Why? I love nothing more than yards carpeted in part with violets so that in the spring they are vivid blue with blossoms and smell incredible!

What kind of person is such a person who cannot see the beauty of that?

Argh!

Becke–I agree. It is sad that people do not exchange bags of produce over the back fence anymore in our modern “neighborhoods.”

That, in fact, is part of what my friend Juan, who is Spanish, said was so odd about the US–neighbors did not know each other. In Spain, all the kids play together and the neighborhoods are alive every evening with people outside, visiting. Sharing gossip, gardening tips, vegetables and fruits, and kid-rearing advice, while the kids ran rampant.

I explained to him that when I was a kid, there were parts of the US that were like that, but it isn’t the same anymore. People became fearful, or something–I don’t know, but I find it sad.

That is what I like about Athens–there is a real community feeling here, and people work hard to nurture it.

Renu–we are kin of the spirit, I think.

I have always wanted to visit India, and in my imagination when I was a child, it was a place of magical gardens. I am glad to hear that my dreams and visions of childhood were not incorrect!

But you are right–the most beautiful sight in the world is to look out and see green leaves against a clear blue sky…and luckily, I have been priviledged to see that most of the forty years of my life. (And when I haven’t been able to see it–I have been lucky enough to be able to -create- it.)