My Want-to-be-green Thumb
One of my fond memories from my childhood is picking the tomatoes from the garden my grandfather grew. I can still remember how sweet they tasted. These days I’m really wanting to grow some own food, especially because…. Because of all the right reasons: the convenience; the joy of growing my own food; and to be “regenerative,” of course.
I had a box at the community garden several years ago for a couple of years. The first year was a big success. I grew all kinds of lettuce, chards, arugulas, zucchini, tomatoes, etc. It was indeed such a satisfying experience of harvesting what I nurtured and sharing with friends. The second year was a flop as I was too busy to tend my garden, and I ended up with a bunch of monster zucchini. I gave up my box at the garden after that.
Since then, I’ve attempted to grow basils on my balcony with mixed results. I’ve grown some microgreen on my kitchen window. Yet my latest attempt at growing thing has got me composting. We had been taking our food scrap to the compost bins at the community garden even though I no longer have a box. And we cannot keep outdoor composters around the house unless I can build some kind of fencing to protect from the wildlife. So I decided to try the indoor composting kit that comes with bags of bran called, Bokashi. These powders breaks down the food scrap and make compost in the bucket while sitting in the dark spot in the house, which is much easier than typical composting, or so I thought.
It turns out, I have to dig a hole on the ground to bury it after a few weeks of decomposing in the bucket, which led me to find out that our ground is literally full of rocks and not easy at all to dig. I’m not willing to excavate rocks out of the ground on my property deep enough to bury my compost every two weeks! If I can’t bury the compost, I don’t know what to do with it. I can always bring to my friends who are growing food in their backyard, but darn, I want my vegetable garden!
While I’m the one “educating” people to be conscious of their carbon footprint, to be more resourceful and regenerative; I’m barely keeping my indoor plants alive let alone making my own compost. I feel like I’m the typical urban dweller, who shops nice looking produce at big markets. At the same time, I’m always wondering if all the food we see at the markets (who keep their shelves fully stocked for the most part) get consumed. I am at least trying to do my part of not sending my food scrap into the waste stream where it ends up emitting methane into our atmosphere. Ugh!
I find myself spinning in this quagmire rather often lately. Fortunately, I have a few “regeneratively-minded” friends, who are quite successful at composting and growing food. I just need to hang out with them more so I can learn. Meanwhile, my journey to turn my thumb greener continues. Wish me luck.