We can grow so many plants in our yard – and many of them are weeds – so when I found the hazelnut bushes were producing nuts, I was overjoyed and squealed like a little kid.  We can’t grow nuts in the city, right? I am beginning to believe that with a little work, anything can grow.

When I buried this sugar pumpkin in January or February, I really hoped that it would produce at least a couple of pumpkins for us in the summer season. If I planted these from seed, it would say to plant a certain distance from each other, in a certain kind of soil. But, I know a secret – pumpkins grow in this corner of our garden and many, many plants are growing. We are letting them fight it out and today they are starting to spread and, I expect, will start to vine out in all directions.

When we left spaces between plants – so many weeds would get into the beds and planters and we had some troubles with cats getting in between the plants. So this 4×4 bed has 48 cherry tomato plants and all of them are growing and all of them are flowering. Bonus? No cats using the bed as a litter box…

I’m not sure why Zucchini have not grown in our garden for the past few years, so I planted these in a planter on the driveway where they have much more heat and they are thriving.  Four zucchini plants are flowering and fruiting. It shouldn’t work like this, but it is. I believe that the struggle of having too many plants in this planter, is making them stronger.

Plum tomatos have been overly cared for and babied in the past couple of years – and this year we doubled them up and they are doing better than ever. No problems with the plants, no insects and the fruit is coming in beautifully.

In the corn bed – after only a few weeks – the corn is beautiful. I know for sure that when I wake up tomorrow, these plants will be taller – they grow at night. The onions are a first time experiment for us, and they seem to be protecting the corn somehow. I have heard that onions can be pest deterrents and I know that this is true now.

These experiments are interesting to me for a couple of reasons:  we are going against the usual way of planting and growing and having great success at this intensive planting.

The other thing that occurs to me, living in the city, is that WE are growing in this type of intensive situation. With so many people and situations around us – we have a greater opportunity to work in this situation to grow and thrive and produce more than what we would normally produce as human beings.

This is our time. Our chance to shine. Our chance to try things that shouldn’t work, and see that anything is possible. It’s not all perfect and sometimes things happen in a new an unexpected way – but it IS possible. What I learn, when I take off my shoes, and walk in the garden and look at the things that shouldn’t work – but are working better than ever – is that the time is right  to rethink everything…