Community Garden Pt. 3

Crisp, sweet radishes for a salad. Tender, leafy spinach and flavorful green onions for a stir-fry. Earthy, chewy red lettuce to add to a sandwich.

MUST BE NICE.

Yes, truth be told, the freshly harvested produce shown above are not from our plot. (Sigh. Unhappy face.) But rather, generously given to us to sample from neighboring gardeners who have have just begun to harvest the first crops that were planted in our community garden 2 months ago (we blogged about it here and here.)

I watered just about every day, I swear! But for some reason, our medley of tomatoes, beans, peppers, squash, and artichokes are just kind of hanging in there, much less bearing any fruit. It is a little disheartening, especially when the plot tended by pre-schoolers produced so much lettuce they didn't know what to do with it (see picture #3 above).

As I wrote before, this whole undertaking has been like one big science experiment. And despite our unsuccess, I've actually enjoyed every minute so far. There's something really therapeutic and wholesome about getting your hands dirty. And putting your trust in simple elements like soil, water and the sun.

It's also given me a good chance to get to know some of my neighbors. They are a group of nice folks with some creative ideas that I hope come to life, including a rock garden, picnic area, and believe it or not, a chicken coop.

And I'm not giving up! Despite the fact that we have yet to harvest anything, our plot has come a long, long way. (Pic #8 above is our plot now compared with Pic #1 here a few weeks ago). In fact, I just noticed an actual strawberry forming (see picture #9) among a cluster of leaves in our plot. And when it's red, ripe and ready, I bet it's going to be the best strawberry EVER.