The First Day I Shouldn’t Have Been Doing Something Else.

Yesterday, my final paper of the semester was due at 5 pm. Around 11 am, I decided that I was done. 18ish pages of service learning and writing centers and justice and empowerment. 6 hours early.

I went to the garden. (OMGyouknewiwenttothegardenwhydidieventellyouthat?)

Since this was the first day I shouldn’t have been doing something else, I stayed for awhile. I’ve been in the garden a lot lately, but it’s mostly been trying to keep up with with the spinach/lettuce/herb/chard/kale picking (a blog about what I’ve been doing with that soon, I promise).

My main order of business was weeding. Things from last summer are popping up everywhere. We found a lot of carrots in random places when we planted the spring stuff. We decided to give them a shot; yesterday I dug a few of them up because the stems were getting really big. Though they were larger than any other carrot I’ve tried to grow, they were yellow and gross looking. I’m not sure I understand carrots. There is corn coming up in random places. And I even found red lettuce outside of the plot.

The biggest problem weed-wise is the grass that sneaks in around the edges of the plot. We have mulch-covered pathways around the different plots, but if these aren’t re-covered multiple times a year, the weeds come back. Here’s the process for re-covering the pathway: 1) wait until someone has unloaded free mulch near the entrance of the community garden 2) walk to the edge of the liquor store (Cork & Barrel, from now on out C&B) parking lot where their cardboard dumpsters are 3) open dumpster lid 4) find cardboard for only the coolest brands of liquor 5) look cool and confident as you walk across the parking lot 6) don’t make eye contact with the C&B employees if they are on a smoke break.

It really is unfortunate that our community garden is located next to C&B. It used to be the Merc (for you out of towners, the Merc is a hip organic grocery store). It is mostly unfortunate because: A hip, bike-riding, local food-buying young man would probably be more impressed by a cool girl planting spinach and wielding an awesome water hose than a Vineyard Vines-clad Fratty McFratterson buying a keg at noon on a Monday.  I also think said hip, bike-riding, local food-buying young man would probably think it was endearing when said cool girl turned the water spicket on at one end of the garden, dashed across the garden to her plot on the other end, watered it quickly, and then dashed back and turned it off to keep from wasting water. Seriously, though, look at that picture. It’s a pretty awesome hose. It basically makes rain.

I also took some time to admire everything. Though some of the peas are having trouble catching onto the trellis, as a whole, they look healthy, not that I know what peas are supposed to do. The kale is doing great and one row of spinach is coming in nicely, though the second row never showed up. What we marked as swiss chard also looks good, but it looks more like spinach, not swiss chard. I don’t really know what to do with that. Probably the prettiest thing in the garden right now (second only to the peas) is the purslane, something Amelia wanted to plant. It’s so tiny and intricate and lovely right now.

After I finished, I went home and made myself a completely home/locallygrown & homemade meal: homemade flatbread, homemade quiche with garden greens, and sauteed chard from the garden, sweet potatoes from Grandma P, mushrooms from Farmer’s Market (okay, I didn’t grind the flour, raise the hens, or make the cheese. Give me time).