It was just over 10 years ago when I walked into my first apartment on Overland Avenue. I remember it clearly. The dirty grey carpet all over, the old-school Nintendo console in the living room and a clear view of the Mormon temple from our tiny kitchen window. None of it made sense and little did I know that college wasn't the real world. It was the final play pen. I found myself living there with three girls that I had never met but all knew each other. It was college. It was fun, it was overwhelming, it was the vehicle for some of my favorite memories and it introduced me to one of my favorite people. It wasn't quite fall yet and my only contribution was a colander.
I shared a modest sized room, bathroom and disproportionately large walk-in closet with a nice girl from northern California. She played clarinet in the marching band, set up the internet for all the roommates, and was a science major which meant nothing more than we would never have a single class together. My liberal arts major sequestered me in North Campus, always. We could have gone our entire lives with sharing the requisite polite exchanges, that modest room and bathroom and nothing more as that's how things appeared to be going for the first three months. We were, in fact, ships passing in the night.
I noticed recently that I was still referring to her as "my old roommate" as if that was all there was to it. Like we walked away when our lease ended, awkwardly hugged and disingenuously mumbled, "Let's keep in touch, ok?" For the record, nice girl from northern California, you are relinquished from that title because, more accurately, you're one of my best friends. Turns out, we didn't just handle the pain-in-the-ass tandem parking situation together that year, we've also navigated the last 10 years of a bucket list checking friendship. Without you, nice girl from northern California, I would have walked significantly less miles in this world and I would never have played IM softball in college. I would never, ever have done the latter, especially not in a Hawaiian shirt.
So, what's this post about? Well, just like the friendship above I started my garden without ever daring to dream that it might become important to me. It was just a garden, barely a hobby (she was a roommate, barely an acquaintance) and I liked the idea of it because it seemed low maintenance. But like so many times before, nothing turned into something and the universe reminded me that it doesn't really want to unfriend me after all. The gift the blog garden gives me is that I get to see nothing turn into something all the time. Check out some before and after pictures below!
Also, I visited our nation's capital this past weekend to see the aforementioned nice girl from northern California (and to congratulate her on her engagement!) and took pictures of some tomatoes she saw growing on the sidewalk by the Smithsonian. Oh, I was a happy urban farm girl when I saw those.
Green Beans - Front Yard
Japanese Eggplant - Sidewalk
Backyard Mess... Sometimes progress isn't pretty
Yes, that's a laundry basket.
Urban gardening on the sidewalks of our capitol!
