Saturday, February 21, 2009

The community garden experiment












I may be a bit premature in blogging about this subject, but I am too excited to wait! I got an email from Mitch yesterday and he asked me what sized plot I would like in the Sunnyside Community Garden!

I'd called to get more info on the garden after seeing it advertised by a local church. Mitch said he'd put me on the list, that the ground was being tilled this week, and we'd go from there.

Mitch, of course, has no idea that I have no idea where to go from here. I've never grown anything edible, never canned, can just barely keep all my lovely flowers and lawn alive. But I have lots of friends with green thumbs--and I am volunteering weekly at an organic farm--so I should be able to figure this out.

So, about that plot size--I have no clue! So I called my good friend and neighbor, Val, and enlisted her as my somewhat reluctant gardening partner.

"Val, from looking at the other email addresses in this post from Mitch, it appears that about 12 other parties are interested in this community garden. The email says the area we can use is about 4500 square feet. So how much would you and I need for our little plot?"

Val, who can build/fix/figure out most anything, thought for a minute and then said, "20' x 20'?
See what Mitch thinks of that."

Then we chatted for a bit about what we'd like to plant. I get to bring starts from the farm where I'm working, greens, peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, onions. We both like green beans and carrots and Greg loves fresh peas. I wonder if there's room for corn? We might go walk around the plot today and pray over it this week.

I'm stupidly excited over this--my daughters think it's great and Nich, Lindsay's finacee, says his mom will drive over from Prineville when it's time to put up our bountiful havest. Apparently, she's the canning queen!

And I'm not sure now this would work, but I keep thinking it would be so fun to take some of our plant starts with us to Nulato, to share with our missionary friends--and also to contribute to Brother Bob's community garden. That would be a gift that would keep on giving!

3 comments:

Rod and Lynda said...

Sounds great! I planted sugar snap peas this week and some lettuce. Hopefully you'll get to plant some "early" stuff in March.
(peas, spinach, swiss chard, radishes, lettuce, etc)
Lynda

Kathryn said...

I'm so jealous! Imagine planting something outside in March! I remember those days. Maybe we'll thaw out by June this year.

This is going to be so great, Shawn. I'm excited for you.

PS You must get a straw hat - then you'll look the part and no one will know different.

Homework for Esther said...

Well, up here in AK my little plot is an AeroGarden. But boy is my basil going to town! :O) This sounds fun Shawn, but I am no gardener so I would be recruiting too. Good job! Hugs, Jax

Who links to my website?