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It was exactly the kind of day that makes Bostonist not want to be outdoors: rainy, 40's, gray, Boston's March specialty. Yet, last Sunday we found ourselves walking up to the Arnold Arboretum's Hunnewell Visitor Center in Jamaica Plain to join a small crowd of would-be green thumbs in the name of gardening. We were there for Slow Food Boston's Seed Exchange & Container Gardening Workshop, an introduction for aspiring urban gardeners to the art of growing things you can eat with minimal square footage.
A little after 1p.m., Gabriel Erde-Cohen, the first of two speakers, took the floor and quickly shook us out of our nasty weather funk. Tall, bearded, and wearing vocation-appropriate overalls, the gregarious Erde-Cohen introduced us to his work as one half of Green City Growers, a budding Somerville-based business—gardening, we soon learned, is an arena where puns and nibbling baby rabbits are equally hard to avoid—that builds, tends, and harvests food from residential backyard and rooftop gardens in the Boston area. Although Erde-Cohen has years of experience in urban gardening, he argued that even we newbies could learn to grow our own delicious food. “Urban farming can be done by a hairy hippie in a schoolyard in Roxbury or by fancy people in Europe,” he said, with photos illustrating each at work.
The basics? Site design (near sun and water, away from toxic substances and exhaust), planting at the right time, and regular care. (In case that's too vague for you, Green City Growers will be offering a one-day intensive, hands-on workshop on urban gardening April 26.) Erde-Cohen advocated for container gardening as an excellent solution for beginner urban farmers, as they can be put almost anywhere and be made out of almost anything: buckets (food grade only, as you'll be eating what grows out of it), plastic kiddie pools, baskets, even old boots.
Bill McKay of Seeds from Italy continued the discussion, presenting his take on gardening gleaned from decades of growing. McKay grew up on a farm in Lexington, MA (“before it was a chichi suburb”) started by his grandparents when they immigrated from Italy. His taste for Italian vegetables has led him to his business selling imported Italian heirloom seeds from his website. McKay told it to us straight: Don't buy 10 cent seed packets from the drug store, cull plants that aren't producing, use space intensively, and accept that a woodchuck might eat your entire crop of romaine. His deadpan enthusiasm was infectious. “Savoy cabbage is one of God's gifts to man,” he proclaimed, and we suspect a few converts, to cabbage at least, were made.
After a brief Q&A, McKay brought out dozens of seed packets for sale. At $3 per, the packets are a deal considering there's enough seeds inside for the average hobbyist and a friend to share. Bostonist was sadly bereft of cash, but we plan on ordering some Red Pear Tomato seeds, which McKay suggest as a favorite slice 'n' eat, and some zucchini, which grows well on a trellis and makes use of oft-overlooked vertical space. Erde-Cohen opened a bag of growing medium (that's dirt to you grocery store lubbers) and we planted basil seeds in biodegradable cups. We may have been hoping to get a little dirtier, but there will be plenty of time for that when the rain stops.
Post contributed by Courtney Lockemer.
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