Pink Trigangle Gardening

One of the best books I ever read is "Square Foot Gardening", written by Mel Bartholomew.

Years ago, before white people populated Brooklyn like an infestation of salt marsh caterpillars in a cotton field, my lover and I rented a duplex with a back yard in Sunset Park.

There wasn’t too much to our back yard. It was filled with spare tires, soiled children’s diapers and rusty tin cans. There wasn’t much room to plant things, until I came across the book.

The author had an interesting theory. He asked his readers "If a packet of seeds instructs growers to plant the seeds four inches apart in rows spaced two feet apart, why bother with measuring out the distance of rows? In other words—plant the seeds four inches apart in all directions, in little square foot sections of soil.

My Latin neighbors watched from their fire escapes while I cha-chaed in the abandoned lot, measuring out square foot blocks of land and popping in a host of seeds, not bothering to plant them in rows.

I started my garden with only three different squares and planted everything within minutes.

The author wanted to prove to city folks that they too can raise their own produce, with just a little bit of land. Bartholomew wrote the truth and I had a very fruitful garden in only three square feet.

I haven’t planted in rows since reading his how-to manual.

My new garden at my new place is just as mouthwatering as the one I had in Sunset Park.

My new neighbors are Black, and I must admit that I thought I may have problems with locals stealing my beloved crops, but they didn’t.

This year, I decided to give square foot gardening another shot in the hood, but I’m not going to spend sleepless nights guarding my garden again.

This year, I only bought flower seeds from the hardware store.

My lover told me not to plant too many flowers or the neighbors will think we are gay.

"I plant in squares, not triangles-- they’ll never suspect a thing!" I insisted.