{"id":12289,"date":"2012-01-11T10:11:30","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T15:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uncommongoods.com\/?p=12289"},"modified":"2018-01-04T12:22:13","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T17:22:13","slug":"urban-gardening-fire-escape-flora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/2012\/urban-gardening-fire-escape-flora\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Gardening & Fire Escape Flora"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. Especially not self-improving ones. What I believe in is hobbies. Hobbies take you out of yourself. That’s an improvement right there.<\/p>\n

One of my hobbies is gardening. Helping seeds burst into life and transform into flowers or food gives me thrills. I live in a 4th floor tenement building in Brooklyn, NY. But the lack of an actual garden has never gotten in my way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I started out knowing, truly, nothing. In fact, I’d always had a black thumb. The few plants I’d ever owned had died from neglect. Yet I developed a yen for pretty, blossom-filled window boxes. <\/p>\n

The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture<\/a>) farmer<\/a> I bought vegetables from one summer said, “Seeds want to grow, you know.” I couldn’t believe mine would. But they did! The very first year I tried, I had adorable flowers in every window, all summer long.<\/p>\n

This created happiness. Which made me want to continue. That\u2019s what hobbies are all about. You want to do them. They’re not “shoulds.” Unlike New Year’s resolutions.<\/p>\n

I had an actual garden plot, in the ground, at a local community garden<\/a> for a year. There, I took my first shot at tomato-growing. Holy mother, were those things delicious. And gorgeous. And basically, free. A packet of seeds<\/a> costs about the same as a couple of New York City farmer’s market tomatoes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But the community garden wasn’t quite local enough for me. My fire escape – that was local. <\/p>\n

I’d heard about the Topsy Turvy Upside Down Tomato Planter (“As Seen on TV! World’s easiest way to grow tomatoes!”). <\/p>\n