Posts under ‘Gettin’ Dirty’

Gardeners, plant and nature lovers can join in Green Thumb Sunday every week. Visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

So…while I still don’t have a community garden plot, I got a question by email from one of my closest friends in New York City, who just got access to a 3’x3’ plot of her very own in a community garden not far from her apartment. The thing is…it gets approximately two hours of sunlight [...]

I had grand thoughts about doing some kind of “Welcome 2009” post. You know, the kind with resolutions and other weighty reflections on the year that has passed and the year that’s to come. But instead? Instead, I am compelled to start the year by drawing your attention to Deb On The Rocks, a very, [...]

Last weekend, Cameron and Anita were over at my house with some other people, and just after Cameron fixed me a very excellent Manhattan, I asked him about the raised beds they’d just installed in their back yard. They were ready to plant, he told me, and I suspect my eyes widened a bit. See, [...]

“Do you work in music?” asked the guy behind the glass at the main Oakland post office. I looked down at the workout gear I was wearing, looking for the clue that might have made him ask the question. “No,” I said. “I work right downtown.” Which, I might point out, comes only tangentially close [...]

Finally, FINALLY, someone has found my blog by searching for “tomato porn.” My work is done here.

I’m following a story happening in Clayton, a small town in the East Bay here in California: Two sisters (one 11, one 3) have been selling the excess vegetables from their family’s prodigious produce plot in their neighborhood, but a neighbor complained and the city shut them down, leading to a fight that has turned [...]

When I gave up the opportunity to plant a garden (even the balcony variety) at my own apartment, I did not forego all outdoor space. My Oakland apartment building boasts a rooftop deck and an interior courtyard, and although I-880 hugs the building on its opposite side, it is possible to sit outside on one [...]

Bed 10A. That’s the location, on the official Victory Garden Map, of the tomato plants. During my first morning as a volunteer, I kept wandering over there, checking out the tiny yellow blossoms, eyeing the green tomatoes weighing down the branches, and admiring the basil and Italian parsley companion-planted throughout the bed. Then I noticed [...]

When I looked for apartments near my work in Oakland, I wasn’t sure what I’d find. I knew I had some very simple, non-negotiable criteria: I wanted to be able to walk to and from work. I wanted a decent kitchen. I wanted something safe, and I wanted to try to avoid paying my entire [...]