Today was a very fruitful day. For starters, two representatives from the Urban Gardener got back to me. One gave me free advice, essentially recommending that I continue my research, thinking, and planning, and to remember as I move forward that "gardening is a process, not an event." (I think that statement can be applied to living as well!) She also reassured me that indoor growing is not an arduous task fraught with insurmountable perils and pitfalls along the way. The other woman gave me another resource lead: Allegheny County Master Gardeners. The program is a part of the larger Penn State Extension, which is also home to another great program I was excited to discover awhile back: an urban, community apiary called Burgh Bees. But, I digress. As part of their status as Master Gardeners, all Master Gardeners provide community service, helping community members involved in gardening maximize their gardening experience. A gardening hotline service is available that anyone with any type of gardening experience can call to discuss gardening topics, get advice, and have questions answered. The UG rep also told me that she knows at least one person on the hotline team to be an expert in herbs. Sweet!
My library trip was equally rewarding. In addition to the two books I had picked out last night, I decided on 2 other books: one that is basically an encyclopedia of herbs (along with information on growing, harvesting, drying, etc.) and one that is specifically for people growing in their apartments. I am quite impressed that I was able to narrow the selection down, instead of leaving the library with 10 different books. But I had to be mindful of how many books I left with since I walked to the library, and it's a 2-mile walk back. The four I lugged back with me already made for quite the taxing hoof back to my apartment. Luckily I had the foresight to throw a protein bar in my backpack before I left for sustenance on the trek back.
A little more about the books I picked and how/why I picked them. The encyclopedia-type book is called The Big Book of Herbs, and it is indeed aptly named. It's about 3 inches thick, and densely packed with useful, brainy information on herbs. It is not as visually-pleasing as some of the other encyclopedia-type books: it has very few color pictures, hand-drawn sketches of the herbs instead of photographs, and small print; it reads more like a text book. It seemed the most comprehensive of all the other books I looked at, and I decided that if I really wanted to get serious about improving my knowledge of herbs, this book was the way to go. The second book is called The Apartment Farmer. I think it's probably pretty obvious why I chose this book. Total jackpot. It got me even more excited about the project and conjured visions of a more grandiose growing project further on down the line (think salad greens, beets, green onions, etc. and hanging baskets).
It looks like I will be busy reading for awhile, which suits me just fine. In the meantime, I plan on calling the Gardening Hotline either this week or next. I forgot to mention that one of the Urban Gardener representatives also told me that they don't get their seedlings (supplied by Grow Pittsburgh) in until early May, which means that I won't officially start growing until mid to late May. But I actually think that works out for the best since I will be in Europe for a week and a half starting the end of April. I was concerned about starting the project and then leaving the vulnerable seedlings unattended for such a long period of time. Now it looks like I can take that worry off my list. Phew!
Okay, I'm off to start my reading.
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