Our community garden

My garden plot is in the middle

As you might remember from last year, the tenants in my apartment complex got the owners to agree to let us have a community garden in the sunny unused area to the west. The acreage gets mowed a couple of times every season, and the grass and buttercups grow waist high at times. We got a nice-sized area with ten plots and a community area in the middle that is about twice as large as each individual area. Last year I thought my plot was small, but after a season of working to discourage weeds, slugs and aphids, I decided it is plenty big after all! I have been working to get my area ready for planting, and once we find a truck to use, we'll haul in some more dirt to mix with the clay soil.

The plots of Carol, Amy, and Beth, left to right

I spent over an hour out there this morning, when I woke to sunshine instead of the constant rain we had yesterday. Now it's overcast again, but at least it's not raining right now. Clint came out and helped me beat back most of the grass and buttercup invasion in my area. The soil is so deep and dark, with lots of worm activity, and it reminded me of how nice it is to get my hands in the dirt and feel the sun on my face. See that yellow flowering thing on the left?

Flowering kale

Carol left some of her kale in the earth over the winter, and now I see what happens when kale is not harvested. It's kind of pretty but probably not good to eat any more. Kale is my very favorite vegetable. I planted some black kale last year, and it got overtaken by aphids. All of my cruciferous vegetables had pest problems, I guess because pests know a good thing when they see it.

I'm not sure what I'm going to plant this year, but it will be a different group of vegetables and not so many. I have already put some sugar snap peas into the ground and this morning I see they have begun to come up! It's very exciting to put a pea in the ground and watch it turn into a plant filled with them. I know I want to plant more flowers in my garden, like sweet peas and nasturtiums, because I love the color. Carol had half of her garden filled with nasturtiums last year, and I would munch a couple of them when I passed by.

The illness of the past couple of weeks is almost gone. Only a residual cough remains, and I am now beginning to feel like myself again. I'm smiling as I drink my tea and rest after gardening. Ahhh!
:-)