Posts under ‘Oakland’

Remember those wine half-barrels I picked up in February? I happen to know that my source has them available again at the low, low price of $20 per half-barrel and $40 per full barrel. Interested? Send me an email to genie <at> theinadvertentgardener <dot> com and I’ll pass along your information to the barrel dealer.

On a blustery Thanksgiving morning, six months after I moved to Oakland, I took my parents to celebrate Mass. They were visiting me for the first time in this new city I called home, and I wanted to show them the newly-dedicated Cathedral of Christ the Light, which I’d been attending since its dedication Mass [...]

During the height of my move to the new apartment, I made a last-minute run for more packing paper. The place I’d plan to buy the paper was closed, which sent me hightailing to Home Depot, the only place I could think of on short notice between where I was at the time and my [...]

I’m still deciding exactly what needs to go in the wine barrels on the patio, and Bill Thorness, author of Edible Heirlooms: Heritage Vegetables for the Maritime Garden has been kind enough to provide me with some terrific ideas, and the following guest post: Growing heirloom vegetables in large pots can be a great way [...]

Here’s the thing about wine barrels. Even when they’re empty (and oh, how sad that they were empty…), they are quite awkward and heavy. The photo you see here may indicate that one person can hold these, and they can, but you may notice the photo is a bit more blurry than I might have [...]

It should be noted that the wine barrels came with instructions. “Have you ever planted in these before?” asked the guy who sold them to me. I admitted I had not. I did not tell him the kind of jackass arrangements in which I had planted before. “Well, you’re definitely going to want to drill [...]

Here’s the thing about container gardening: You have to have containers. Luckily, when I least expected it, an opportunity arose to drive to East Oakland and acquire a pair of half wine barrels. I pulled into a dead-end street just after dark next to two stacks of the barrels and, as a BART train roared [...]

Before I was able to add myself to the lease for the new apartment, I had to meet with the property manager, a wonderful woman from Alabama who met me for coffee. “What is it that you do?” she asked, and I told her all about the job that brings in the money. Later, I [...]

Just before Christmas, I was having a conversation with a guy who flitted in—then out—of my life like a strange and beautiful moth. “I am done with roommates,” I said. “Never again.” “Absolutely,” he said. “The only roommate I’ll ever have again will be the one that’s sharing my bed.” It was in the same [...]

Yesterday afternoon, I got an email from Seed Savers Exchange announcing it’s time to put in transplant orders. Since I moved to Oakland, I’ve been deleting most messages from SSE, although, it should be noted, not actually getting off the mailing list. Just deleting, and ignoring. Until yesterday afternoon. Though it’s not yet time for [...]