Vegetables Grow in the Ground?

Today I made the mistake of looking at the other plots in the garden. I could not help but be curious and then jealous of the deep red roots beginning to show their heads above the soil or the big bushy plants almost ready to be picked and eaten. Although I have no idea what any of the plants or vegetables are that our neighbors are growing, I do know that I wish they were mine! After my jealousy subsided, I realized that this was the first time that I had seen vegetables, or anything that can be found on my plate, growing in the ground.

I love the outdoors, hiking, eating organically, and attempting to live life minimally, and I have never seen a vegetable growing in the ground? This is so sad! I was in awe of the plants, looking at them as if I were seeing a phenomenon as glorious as a pink and orange sunset for the first time. In our modern world, our food is so manufactured that most people never get to see a garden. I realized today what a shame this is. When I eat a meal, I am so disconnected from the origins of what I am eating. The questions I should be asking myself when I eat a meal are ones like, where was this food grown? What ingredients are in it? What artificial flavors are used? Who labored in order for this food to arrive on my plate? Instead, I consume mindlessly. Before the industrial revolution, all food was taken directly from the earth. This is the food that is natural for humans to eat. This is the way we should be living. Looking at the vegetables in our neighbor’s garden, I realized that the earth does naturally provide us with what we need to survive. The vegetables just looked so hearty and beautiful. Going home, I was disgusted by all of my processed foods. Right now, they are not appealing. I want to know where the meal on my plate is coming from, and I want to eat directly from the land. As I admired the vegetables today, that is just what seemed to make sense. I know this is not realistic in our current world, but I do want to strive to eat more locally and organically in every way that I can.

This experience is really changing my everyday life and grounding me in the immediate world around me. It has forever changed the way that I think about my consumer decisions, and I wish that everyone could have this experience. I cannot wait to eat our vegetables this summer and see how different they taste from the preserved ones I buy in the supermarket. Until then, I guess I am stuck marveling at our neighbor’s red roots and frequenting the local farmer’s market.


Here are some pictures of our neighbor's garden:

 

Learning to Let Go and Let Nature Take Its Course

We decided to go ahead and plant seeds today so that everyone could be involved in this process. I hope that our lack of patience does not hurt our plants, but I really do think that it will work out. Almost everyone made it to the garden today for planting, which was really exciting. It was actually a fast process, but it was fun to all reconnect.

After planting the seeds today, I felt so unsure and nervous. I wanted to have some green button light up to tell me that I dug the hole to the proper depth, placed the seeds the perfect length apart, and successfully covered them. I kept looking to Sara and Will, our garden gurus, to reassure me that I was doing this simple process of placing the seeds in the soil correctly. I have grown accustomed to receiving instantaneous feedback because technology allows this in our contemporary world. Today, I had to accept that I would have to wait to see if the seeds would grow. No one was going to tell me on the spot that it would work because no one knows if it will. At first, this made me uncomfortable. I was convinced that gardening was magic. I just put a seed in the ground and then in a few weeks it will grow? Something seemed off. But then I realized that the risk in gardening is kind of exhilarating. If the seeds don’t take root, then we can try again. We have plenty of seeds! It was a liberating realization for me that I have no final control over the outcome of the plants.

Further, I learned today that there is no right or wrong way to garden. Accepting this truth was difficult for me because I love rules. In the kitchen, I rarely stray from the recipe. In school, I live by my syllabus. I like to follow directions and I like a blueprint for everything I do. Yet, in the garden there is only so much that we can plan in advance, and then the rest requires a general judgment call and patience. We laid the seeds out strategically so that, for example, the sunflowers would be on the end and shadow the least number of plants possible. Yet, beyond this we just dug holes and placed the seeds in. We were given certain depths to dig, but we did not have rulers. As Katie pointed out, seeds have been growing for a really long time so it must not be that hard or an exact science. And she is right. Getting the perfect soil depth is not as important as simply getting the seeds in the soil. Moreover, gardening is a natural process, and at some point we have to let go and just let nature take its course. The next few days will be hard for me, waiting to see if any plants start to poke through the soil. I will be desperately waiting for the few days of rain to pass so that the seeds can then get the sun that they need to start sprouting (or germinating, as I learned today). We have done all that we can, and now it is time to wait and put fate in Mother Nature’s hands…

Community Gardening: Saturday

Saturday started out rough for me. We buried a longtime friend at the age of 47 in the morning, so all I wanted to do was stay in bed. Instead, I ran ten miles and spent an hour in the garden with Sachee and Emily, who wanted to garden but also wanted moral support. Moral support is what I do best (and you thought it was eat random plants) so there I was, crusted over with dried sweat, hungry, low on blood sugar and patience, heartsore, and cranky as hell.

The plan was to finish raising the soil in bed five, and if we got around to it, plant some of these babies, newly arrived by mail this morning:

That's right, the rest of our seeds have arrived! We can plant Monday or Tuesday, whichever's better for us. Tuesday would be better for the seeds but frankly Monday is better for me.

Speaking of cool evenings, the kids seem to have survived the chilly evenings, and the basil is recovering a little bit--looks like everybody's going to make it for now. Come say hi to our plants. They'll love you for it. Really.

Emily and Sachee arrived and I put them to work doing this:

Bed five needed more compost added to it, and being the...ahem, creaky elder of the group (who had also just run ten creaky miles) I was not about to go lifting a lot of buckets of dirt.

Shortly afterward, the garden got a visit from Breena Holland, which was fantastic. She was a little concerned that we didn't turn the cereal rye under into the beds--the point of that is to fix nitrogen levels in the soil--but I explained that when Will and I were there we didn't have the right tools, and we'd been hoping to add it when said tools arrived (I'm hoping to have them by Tuesday). Soooo, since we're planning on planting this week, we have a couple of options:

Option 1: Providing we have at least one shovel--preferably two or three, or a shovel and a hoe--by Tuesday, we can hold off planting for a few weeks in bed five and put the rye back in. This would involve spreading the rye on the existing compost and turning it under so the soil is back on top. We'd then wait a week or two until the grass has had a chance to start to break down, and plant then (probably around the time finals are over? but that's a guess).

Option 2: Plant as scheduled Tuesday without the extra work, but also without the extra nutrients. We have added quite a bit of compost to the bed, so it might be ok. And presumably the rye will be added to existing compost and enrich whatever soil it ends up in. This is the quicker and easier method, but not as healthy. I do feel like we're rushing sometimes, to get things into the ground. In part because of the school calendar, which I understand, and in part because we're just anxious for results--which I also understand, but know in my heart we just can't rush no matter how much we want to. Lessons in patience: grr.

Anyway, I got caught up talking to Breena about this, about the rain barrel she was trying to install, about Martha Nussbaum's articles on the meta-capabilities approach (what? we're nerds. We talk about nerdy things.) and when I turned around Sachee informed me that "We have helpers!" I was kind of worried because we didn't have a whole lot for them to do. And also, frankly, my heart was not about to open again so soon after getting the crap beat out of it that morning. But there they were, four neighbourhood kids, tearing through the gate to help Sachee with a leaf-bag full of compost.

Clearly I didn't have a choice in the matter. (Do we ever?) These kids wanted to know everything: what our names were, what we were doing, where we were from, how come someone as old as me still had homework, did tomato plants always look like that, and why couldn't we grow apples and watermelons instead of carrots? They also expressed a deep distrust that carrots could possibly ever be cool, and no way could they be purple. I told them to hang around all summer and see, that they really did make purple carrots.

We crouched around the bed and went through the top couple of layers of soil looking for big rocks and random bits of plastic sheeting--of which there were quite a few, alarmingly enough. Breena's right, the compost situation is less than ideal. But still, free compost is free compost, and we had four willing helpers not afraid to get their hands dirty. Jeremiah especially was fond of holding things up to us and asking, "What's this?" Usually he was right when I asked him what he thought it was, "It looks like a stick." Yup, it's a stick, and a stick that small is totally ok to put back in the dirt. Anything that's part of a plant or a tree or a leaf is ok right now. It'll break down into the dirt. But that rock? Totally not cool. Throw that over the fence as far as you can--just try not to hit the honors house kids partying in the backyard.

All four kids were heartbroken when it was time to leave. Essence, especially, went around giving us all extended hugs: "Wait.......wait.....wait.....ok." I talked to their mom--somebody's mom, I think Essence and Jermiah's mom--on my way out, and made sure to tell her what a great group of kids they were. After a last round of hugs, they wanted to know what came next, and when we would be back.

This right here is why community gardening is so important, why like I said to Will last weekend I feel it's really important to have a presence here in downtown south side, not just being up at Goodman campus deep in Lehigh Land. What happened in the garden yesterday afternoon is the whole point of community gardening--more important than free vegetables or organic practices or sticking it to the oil companies in the vacuum of our academic, upper-middle-class lives. Opening our hearts, whether we want to resist or not, again and again, coming together with our own loves and our own blind spots and our own flowering hearts, wanting nothing more than to get to the root of things.

Ready, Set, Grow!

Today was the day I have been waiting for… we put some plants in the soil! We have life in our garden at last.

Today was a really special day. I felt as if the vegetables we were planting metaphorically mirrored the experience we have had in Prof. Lotto’s class this semester, as we as my college experience in general. It was not only our last Environmental Imagination class of the semester today, but also my final class as an undergraduate. I have learned so much about myself throughout the last four years of my life. I have grown intellectually, spiritually, and morally because of my experience as a student, a friend, a leader, and community member while at Lehigh.

As I planted our vegetables and spices, I couldn’t help but think about the symbolism in the moment. Just as I had weeded and prepared the soil for these plants over the last week, my teachers, mentors, and friends had prepared me for the future over the last four years. I put the plants in the ground, just hoping that they will be able to take root and grow on their own. Likewise, I am about to be completely on my own. I have been given all of the skills I need to succeed, but now it is up to me to either flourish or not. I have faith in our plants, and I honestly have faith in myself as well. With all the support and resources around, how could the plants not bloom? How could I not bloom?

I am so excited about the potential of this garden. I can’t believe that we will be eating out of it soon enough! Being in the garden today, alongside friends and mentors, I realized that I have not been focusing enough on how exciting graduation is. I have been caught up in the nerves. Just like I have the decision to either worry about the garden or enjoy the experience, I also have the choice to worry about everything that could go wrong in my future, or bask in the potential. I need to do less of the former and more of the latter. Why waste energy?

For this reason, I was able to just enjoy the garden experience today. I was completely consumed by growth, life, and potential. I was moved by thoughts of full-grown veggies in the future. I am so lucky to have the experience to start this garden. I am so lucky to have the friends and the role models I have. I am so lucky for my education. I am so lucky for family. What else does a person need? Today marks the start of life in our garden, and the start of a new chapter in life for me, and I think we both are ready. Bring it on, world!

I wanted to end with some pictures of everyone planting today. There were eight of us, and eight plants, so it worked out perfectly. See below for these pictures, as well as a video cataloguing each of our plants. I have to apologize in advance to Katie, because Willy was cut out of the video! The file was too big. This is a tragedy, but I'm sure he'll make it into the blog at other points since Katie will be singing and playing guitar to him every night. 

Emily S. and Prof. Lotto                            Sara                                       Me (Courtney)

                           

              Kim                                              Adrianna                                 Our plants!

 

 Meet the crew! (minus Willy)

Mission Accomplished.... Well, Weeding Accomplished. Bring on the Seeds!

Emily, Sara, Katie, Molly, and I went to the garden for about an hour today, and my experience with the garden this time around was much smoother than the last one. Weeding bed 7 was a cinch compared to weeding bed 5. The soil was still a little moist from the rain, so the weeds came right up and the soil left on the roots was really easy to shake off. In less than an hour, the five of us had all of bed 7 weeded as well as the weeds moved to the root pile. Below, you can see bed 7 finished:

The best additions to the gardening experience today were my kneeling pad and music! After complaining about my knees and my tush last week, my mom went out and bought me a gardening pad. Thank you Mom! This purchase comes highly recommended. Also, Katie played music at the garden this time, and it was really relaxing. I felt very at peace and very comfortable today. 

Breaking news- We are planting on tomorrow, so I am very excited! I have so many questions going through my mind right now about it: when will we see growth above soil? When will I be able to eat my first vegetable? Do I need to water these babies? Do I need to worry about them being too shaded? What to plant first? Clearly, I am not the expert I hope to be by the end of this yet.

Even though I’m still a novice, today was really special for me because I was able to teach Molly and Emily how to work in the garden. I was able to pay forward everything Sara taught me last week. I felt like I was really starting to learn something. On Friday, I was not able to get the soil off of the roots without throwing them back in, and today I was able to teach other people how to do it. That was a really neat experience!

Moreover, I had my first run-in with bugs today. Fortunately, there were no worms since you all know I have a completely ridiculous fear of things with no legs like snakes, eels, and the worms that I know I will have to get over throughout this gardening experience. The bugs we saw today were the furthest things from creatures with no legs though….. they had about 100! I was originally a little grossed out, but I know that life in the soil means that the soil is healthy, so I got over it. My little, prehistoric-looking friends are a sign for the life that this garden will soon produce.

I have quickly learned that having a garden is dirty work. That’s okay though. I kinda like it! I don’t think people take their shoes off and just spend the afternoon outside enough. I’m so lucky I have the opportunity to do this. Screw nail polish, I want dirt under my fingernails. That’s a true sign that I’m enjoying life and grounding myself in this beautiful, physical world around us.

I wanted to end my post with a video of our favorite wakadoodle Sara. Of course she is already eating things she finds in the garden. Don’t worry, she is not stealing from anyone else. She is eating what grows around the beds. Friday it was parsley, and today it was a violet. See the picture and video below for proof! I cannot wait for planting tomorrow, and will post about that experience then :).

Oh Great, *Now* the Sun Comes Out

Will and I just spent an impromptu hour in the garden getting drizzled on, weeding, composting, and generally getting covered in mud. Bed 5 is more or less ready for planting, if it ever gets warm enough. (Maybe next weekend?) We've just begun weeding Bed 7, which looks like it will need a lot less prep--the soil level is pretty high, so I think we'll just be able to weed it and call it good. Overall the soil quality looks pretty good. It's not teeming with critters, but there have been worm, beetle, and other assorted creepy-crawly sightings, so that's hopeful.

Hope everybody gets a chance to go weed some during the week when studying gets crazy and you need a break. If you don't have time to do a lot of work or you're not confident about gardening and are afraid of messing up, first of all, don't worry--at this point it's impossible to mess up, just pull what's in there out, shake the dirt off, and put it on the pile--and second of all, just go over and say hi to the beds. Even just that will clear your head. Or it does mine, anyway. It's one of my kooky theories that the dirt (and later, the plants) will get to know us, and will enjoy the company. But then, I'm sort of a wackadoodle that way.
Just a reminder that when you leave, you should take your trash with you (there's a garbage can on the adjacent playground).

Where I come from, rain is a good thing?

The first thing that crossed my mind when I woke yesterday morning was, "oh no! It's raining!" I was not worried about getting soaked as I made the trek to Fairmart, nor was I concerned about the general cold and wetness of the outdoors. All I could think of was how was this going to affect our garden??? In my mind's eye I envisioned all our hard work from weeding on Friday going down the drain. I have convinced myself that the weeds have gremlin-like qualities and are going to return with a vengeance in the previously de-weeded area.  

It is strange how much having this garden has affected me.  I find myself wondering and worrying about this little piece of land; we haven't even planted seeds yet! I was not expecting this little project to become such a big part of my life but my mind keeps wondering back to Carlton Street.  I keep trying to find time slots in my day when I can wonder over. I have group projects, meetings, papers and studying to do all within the span of four days and yet I just want to be at the garden.  Like Kingsolver and Courtney both said, I feel a strange attachment to this garden and just want it to be successful!

HELLO FELLOW GARDENERS!

HELLO!  I have finally after consulting google for the past few days, gotten my email to coordinate and create a google account.  I did not receive an e-mail from anyone about the start date, so I apologize for not attending the first session.  I will bring money for Sarah and Will tomorrow!  I would like to go take a peak at our lot at some point today and begin my blogging.. where are we located?  Also, when are we meeting again?  See you guys tomorrow!
-Calyn

Money, Tools, and Other Stuff

Just a reminder to everyone to give Sara 3-5 dollars for the plants and seeds.

We will also need to pay Will for the plots. How much were they?

Also, as far as tools go, I have two small shovels (spades?), one pair of clippers, and a miniature rake. They are pretty cheap ones, but they should work. I can bring them whenever I go to the garden. I also have gloves and a little platform to kneel on.

Please comment on this post with what tools you have, and what tools you think we will need.

We have rain!

Since I have never been exposed to gardening prior to this project, I am not sure what to make of this aggressively rainy Sunday. In movies, farmers celebrate the rain after a long drought. Were we in a drought? Should I be happy about this downpour? Or should I be concerned.... Sara did write that her and Will were unable to prepare the beds for the rain. Part of me thinks that the rain will nourish the soil, and the other part feels like there is too much rain and the soil will come up since we do have raised-bed plots.

When I woke up this morning, I instantly thought of our garden and I knew that I was supposed to feel something about the rain, but I wasn't sure what it was. I am once again reminded of what a novice I am in this whole process and I don't like it! I am used to excelling, and I do not like to do something that I don't know everything about. I do not want to mess this up, but I am not sure how to do it right. Thank goodness for all of you pros!

I cannot help but look forward and wonder what our next steps will be after the rain clears. How should we fix up the plots? Will there be a lot of damage done? I can't help but worry about our beds.

I am constantly thinking of Barbara Kingsolver and her description of gardens as children. I already feel like I am concerned about those beds as if they are my children, and there aren't even seeds planted yet. Even though this journey has just begun, I already understand the metaphor of our garden awkwardly as our communal child that we need to protect, decide what is best for it, and worry over. This is so weird, and Kingsolver could not have been more right. Parenting is tough! ;)

Day 1: Weeding?

Like Katie, I was completely naive about this whole gardening process. I originally believed that I would be arriving at a plot just begging for some seeds to be planted. I soon learned that I was delusional! I grew grass is a cup in elementary school, and Mr. Harlan told me that with a little sun, water, and nurturing, anything could grow. What I didn't realize then was that the nurturing part entails a whole lot more than checking up on your seeds when you're working on anything besides grass in a cup.

When Sara, Katie, and I first arrived at the MLK garden, I was really happy about the location. It felt really important to me to be able to walk to the garden because I wanted easy access to the plants and I wanted to be truly environmentally cognizant with this project. I also love that the garden is located in town. Sara and Katie lectured me on how South Bethlehem is indeed an urban area, so having our garden here encourages me that even those living in big cities can grow their own food too.

When I first laid eyes on the garden plots, I was in shock. Each of the plots looks like a bigger version of my grass in a cup, except this time a full patch of grass did not mean that my work was done. Our work had just begun. All the grass had to go, but I was not initially overwhelmed because I thought all of those years weeding for my mom for a dollar a bag would have prepared me well for this task. I thought all I needed was ten minutes, and both plots would be weed-free. Once again, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Weeding is a process in itself. I was ready to just take both hands to the grass, throw the green villains over the fence, and plant some seeds. Yet, Sara quickly shattered this vision, and rightfully so. I had no clue what I had gotten myself into. I needed to protect our soil. I had to pull out small bunches at a time and shake off as much soil as I could without throwing any roots back into the plot. Sorry guys, I definitely messed this up more than once! I would then pass the weed over to Katie, who would separate the roots from the green for composting.

What surprised me the most about this day was two things -- your butt and knees want to kill you after ten minutes of squatting and weeding is not as fast as you would think it would be. The former I will have to get used to, and the latter is a lesson in patience I will keep with me forever. After an hour and a half of weeding, we only finished about 3/4ths of one plot. You can see the final product below...

I was shocked that we had not finished more weeding in the time that we were there, but I was also really happy with the gardening experience in general. Looking back, I had a great time even though the job is not finished, which is an important lesson for any perfectionist to learn. The whole time I was at the garden, my mind was completely clear and I was in the moment. The pleasure of manual labor nourished my soul. I enjoyed Sara and Katie's company, focused on the task at hand, and the Lehigh world of finals, papers, and tests just did not exist in this space. 

I am so happy that I am learning to garden now because I definitely want my own garden when I move into my first home. I now understand that this garden be a long process, but I also know that it will be one that fuels both my body and mind. I want to see vegetables sprouting out of that soil, but I also know that the wait and the labor that will precede those vegetables will make them taste even better. This might not be like growing grass in a cup, but I think I like gardening anyway. 

Rainy Sunday Announcement

Neither Will nor I got ourselves over to the garden yesterday before it rained, so we were thinking that if it's not too wet out, we'd meet there around 3:45 today to do more work. I'll update this post around 3:00 to let you know what we decided.

Of course, you're welcome to go even if we don't. From where I sit on the hill right now, it doesn't seem to be actually raining too hard. Wear your oldest jeans and shoes, it's going to get interesting today! (also, if you've bought gardening gloves, this would be a good time to try them out. Mine are in New Jersey. Oops.)

Lessons Learned from a New Gardener

     

When I first signed on to this project I had a vision in my mind of what gardening would be like. I thought we would get a plot of land, throw some seeds into the ground and return the next day ready to harvest. I figured I would be eating salads with my own produce within a week’s time. After Friday's outing I now realize how naive I truly was. 

So many weeds

       Friday started off a bit on the hectic side. After much back and forth communication, a group of three (Sara Snyder, Courtney and myself) were set to venture to our future garden and get a feel for the situation. On Will's direction, we headed in the direction of Carlton Street to the Martin Luther King Community Garden. I put full trust into Sara seeing how I had never even heard of Carlton, let alone knew where it was. After a few confused moments, a chance meeting with a friendly, but unhelpful man on Montclair, and numerous debates whether the garden would be located down or up the road (one problem I feel only someone at Lehigh would understand, we did not want to have to hike up the street if unnecessary) we stumbled upon the community garden. Located in a lot beside a church, the garden is very pleasant. There is plenty of shade, raised beds and decoration contributed from Lehigh art students.

                All the beds contained tall, thin plants that needed to be pulled before the gardening even began.  Enter problem number two.  From talking to Will, we knew that our beds were numbers 5 and 7. However, it turned out the beds were not labeled. After much debate, and finally calling Will, we located our bed and got to weeding. Sara and Courtney took the actual weeding and left me to cutting the roots off of the weeds, something I did not know was necessary until Sara explained if the roots were to be left on the plant then the weeds would continue to grow.  I was surprised at how much fun I was having.  The sun was out but because we were in the shade we were not too hot. We estimated we started this project at around 2:50. 4:30 rolls around and we had not even finished one plot! Usually I am very impatient and want to get the job done as fast as possible. However, I found when I was at our plot I was not in any rush. What I learned that day is that gardening is not something that can be rushed. A true gardener just has to be patient and appreciate the now.  Looking forward to my next venture over to Carlton!

So many weeds...still 

Prepping the Beds, and a Few Surprises

It's a jungle in there

The first surprise is that we are NOT at the Maze Garden on the corner of Third and New, but rather the MLK Garden on Carlton, behind the church. Surprise!

We're assigned plots 5 and 7, which is nice because even though they're not next to each other, one's got some shade and the other one looks like it might be full sun, or at least close to it.

After getting the lowdown from Will, Courtney, KT, and I set off in search of our new digs. None of us were quite sure where on Carlton this place was, and one of us wasn't entirely paying attention (ahem, that would be me) so we took a detour down Montclair, where we discovered that the man sitting on his front porch pretty much within shouting distance of the garden didn't even know where it was. Which was sort of depressing. Once we realised we were on Montclair (and tried to pretend we hadn't lived here for four years already, which one of us actually hasn't!) things got much better. Located the garden, and I realise I've actually been past it before, I just wasn't ever really paying attention because I was always on my way somewhere else. (Note to self: pay attention, squirrel-brain! This is why you garden in the first place. To get out of your own head and onto the planet.)

"Why aren't there any numbers on these things?"

The garden is actually really cute, but then we met the next problem, which was, "Which of these unlabeled, unnumbered raised beds are numbers five and seven?" Some frantic telephony ensued, aka "Wait, let's call Will, he'll know!" because I couldn't use my usually phenomenal internet-fu to access any sort of garden layout map. Urgh.

Next I got to teach Courtney and KT how to weed. Yay! Dirt! Courtney had thought to buy a mini gardening kit (quite helpful, since all my gardening tools are in NJ or possibly deep in a stairwell closet here in town) so we were able to snip off roots so we could compost the rye grass. The problem with composting weeds, of course, is they'll grow in your compost if you throw them in roots and all when they're fresh. Which makes more weeding. Not how I want to spend my May.

Mmmmm, rooooooot cloooooouuuuud.....

Anyway, we cleared out most of bed 5. I think Will and I are going over there at some point tomorrow to prep the beds some more before it rains (the soil level isn't terribly low, but it's not spectacular, either, so we'll have to see how much stuff we need--also I dearly hope Will has a shovel because I've no desire to move compost with a soup ladle....). Planting Sunday, I think?

Pretty sure we've made a convert out of Courtney. Though she hasn't yet encountered her first worm, so we'll see.

Courtney digs in!

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have Tomatoes!

Also sweet peppers, basil, and possibly an eggplant. I accidentally got sucked into a nursery on my way home from my parents' house and came out with easily half a dozen seedlings for use here, which are currently happily ensconced on my front porch soaking up the evening and the happenings of downtown Fountain Hill (they might be in culture shock).

 Right now I also have the following seeds that were given to me:

• string beans (lots and lots of string beans!)
• marigolds (which are good to plant near the tomatoes, keeps the bugs away)
• cucumbers
• beets
• zinnias
• more basil seeds, because you can never have too much basil
• watermelon (yes, really)
• and two different kinds of pumpkins, one of which is ginormous. 

Frankly I'm not sure what to do with the pumpkins, I've never grown them. Ditto the watermelons, actually.

If anybody has any suggestions, let me know. I will still be ordering a few seeds from Seed Savers Exchange so if anybody has any preferences let me know on Tuesday. (Yes, Courtney, there will be sunflowers!) One thing I know I'll be getting is Swiss chard. Oh, and carrots. It would be stupid to have a garden without carrots.

Ok, off to do actual homework.

Speaking of Administrative Stuff, Please Read This!

So I'm sitting here in the sun on my front porch, drinking freshly juiced produce (containing leftover apples from Lake Lacawac, actually) and leafing through the Burpee catalogue. Not a bad way to be prepping for finals, eh? Anyway, if I could figure out how to create a poll here, I would, but the short version of it is this: I will be ordering seeds and plants this weekend! Please let me know if there is anything special you absolutely must have in this garden. Remember, space is limited--the plot is ten by fifteen, which isn't terribly big. In the spirit of our recent foray through Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I will be purchasing as many heirloom varieties as feasible. I probably won't get around to placing the order until Sunday, so you have some time to figure this out. If I haven't heard from anybody, I'm just going to guess. I hope you like brussels sprouts and okra! Oh, and lima beans. Heh.

Also, in order for you to be able to post to this blog, I need to make you an administrator. Not because I'm the Grand Garden Poobah, or anything, just because I'm the one who set up the blog. It's fairly easy--just let me know your email address and I'll set things up. Blah blah blah.

Final Project: Building a Garden

Purpose: Students will apply the knowledge they gained from the authors we read this semester to live sustainably, to live lightly off the land, and to promote eating both organically and locally. This application will come from creating a local garden.

 Requirements:

 • Between April 13th and May 7th, students must individually spend 10 hours total organizing the garden or tending it
 • Throughout the summer, the students must upkeep the garden, but it can be passed along to a friend or donated at the end of August if necessary
 • By May 7th, the students must post at least 8 blog entries of about 200 words in length each about starting and caring for a garden OR 5 blog entries and a 4-page reflection paper
 • The plot of land will NOT be called Lotto’s Lot
 • The blog name is up for discussion (you see what I did there?)
 • The costs to buy the plot, plant the garden, and upkeep it will be split among the students participating
 • Vegetables for all!
 • The garden will be maintained based upon organic practices

 This is what happened in Environmental Imagination this week, completely by accident (or else with malice aforethought; I can't comment on that because I'm just along for the ride).