In The Garden
"Garden" is such a great word. It is really a picture of nurturing, whether it is about a vegetable garden where nurturing plants contributes to the nurture of the planter, or in a flower garden where the nurturing is mostly spiritual. I have often thought that Jesus missed a good bet by not saying, "I will make you gardeners of men," but I guess you work with the material at hand.
MFC Community garden has two aspects, 1. shared gardening where the three rows of beds nearest the street are for anyone to plant, water, weed and/or harvest, along with any other beds designated "MFC Share." and 2. personal beds where members of the community can raise crops for their own purposes. These will be marked with the initials of the gardener and "Personal."
So far we have 4'x10' and 4'x4' raised beds as well as 10'x10' ground level beds for use. I would like to offer raise beds for wheelchair access in the future, and if anyone has a line on good materials for the purpose, let me know. I can use the railroad ties Jack Hamilton donated for corner posts.
An automatic watering system is installed and during the appropriate season will provide minimal watering in case gardeners have to leave their space for a few days, but watering should be done by the gardener with the hose, a 10" wand with spaced holes that will go on the hose or by attaching the hose to the automatic system for the bed (making sure to turn off the valve to keep backflow from watering the rest of the garden.)
So far in the garden you will see garlic growing that was put in last Fall (as well as some recently transplanted), holdover Brussels sprouts that I think will produce again, chard that has wintered over (as well as one lonely kale), and celery. Planted this year are snap peas (sharing a front bed with a volunteer asparagus crown), which are coming along nicely, and I just planted carrots, a few leftover parsnips, spinach and radishes. Chuck Taylor tells me I should also have planted turnips and beets, so those will be in posthaste.
I'm getting done what should have been done last Fall and I hope to be ready for May before the ends of June this year.
In His Love,
Nate