A good start

Last weekend was the official start of the new garden.

On Friday I got out of work early and went to Home Depot. I got:

• A lot of seeds
• Seed starting kit (Jiffy self watering 70-pod)
• 40 lbs of humus + manure
• Wood chips
• Gloves
• Hoe
• Some fancy hand digging tool
• Hound dog dirt-twisting tiller type thing

I went to the garden on Saturday, only to discover that the labeled plots didn't match the diagram, so I couldn't tell which plot was mine. I surveyed last year's garden to see if anything had survived. It looks like one, maybe two, straberries are going to be worth transplanting, and the lavender is doing pretty well, so that will definitely be moved to the new location.

For the herbs, I've decided to do an herb spiral. I dug up the bricks that we had used to keep the mint contained in the old plot, and I've been on the lookout for good rocks to build up the walls. Ideally, I won't have to buy anything for it other than the wood chips (used in place of gravel).

I got the seeds started Saturday night. In addition to the Jiffy starter, I also ordered an AeroGrow seed starter kit, which will be arriving today. And I found out that Kristen got me a bunch of seeds as a gift! Yay! I don't even know how many different kinds of plants I'm going to be trying to grow, but it will be a lot, all in a little 8' x 10' plot.

By Sunday, I had heard back from the garden coordinator and knew which plot was mine. I spent about 5 hours digging up last year's remains, mixing in the humus + manure (my car thanks me for finally removing that smelly bag), and building up two beds. There's room for two more, but the blister on my thumb made me stop. I'll go back and finish raising the beds and set up the herb spiral at some point this week. Depending on the weather, that may not happen until the weekend.

The first little seedling made an appearance yesterday! A tiny little yarrow is poking up. This morning all seven beet seedlings had sprouted. I don't know if I even like beets, but I'm planting them because I greatly enjoy both bears and Battlestar Galactica. Yes, I realize that a lot of things probably didn't have to be started indoors, but it seems a lot easier to check on them that way. Between the Jiffy starter, the AeroGarden, and just sticking seeds straight in the ground, I'm bound to have something that works. Once they're a bit bigger, I'll drop them off at the garden on my way to work in the mornings, and then pick them up at night for about a week, which should be enough to harden them off.

I can't wait to see what else has sprouted by the time I get home!

Plot 10

Last year we finally got a plot in the community garden after years on the waiting list. We were lucky enough to get Plot 16 in the Key Boulevard Community Garden. Plot 16 turned out to be a dank cave of a thing, entirely shaded by the giant tree growing overhead. The previous gardener had apparently either had an unnatural fondness for little walkways, or had attempted to plant a crop of hardy winter bricks, interspersed with stubs of crayons. We dutifully aerated that packed, dry dirt, and mixed in natural fertilizer and mulch. We went to the giant garden center and picked out the most vibrant, healthy little future vegetables we could find - everything from tomatoes to cauliflower.

We did not do the research.

As it turns out, some plants like getting sunlight. In fact, everything we planted demanded significantly more than an hour or two of sun each day. Also, in my desire to do a great job, I watered every single day. I drowned those poor little plants. All we got from the garden was a few sad peppers and three cherry tomatoes.

We swore off gardening for the time being, and looked to the future, dreaming of farms.

Luckily, someone else in the community garden decided to relinquish her plot. After much shuffling, we ended up with Plot 10.

Here's to a new beginning.