Community Garden!
I normally blog about my own garden. Recently, I have gotten a chance to work with one of our local cooperative organizations who provide food to the community. I knew they fed the community but I had no idea they enabled that community to feed themselves.
In this update, I show you a neat little corner of town I believe is a best kept secret.
The Community garden
If you look to the small-town water tower, you will find this mysterious place close to the bottom of it.
There is a nice wood chip path headed east from the water tower that walks you through a little in-town forest.
At the end of the path, you walk out to a nice little fence, shorter grass and the promise of something special.
Within this fence, there are approximately 25 raised beds, available for anyone who would claim theirs.
The local food center grows seedlings in their year-round green house. Many of those are distributed to growers from there. The rest of them are brought to the community garden and are available on the tables to anyone who would like to plant them in their garden. As you can see from the previous 2 pictures, there are plants needing a bed and raised beds in need of those who would care for them.
There is a watering station with a tank that is filled from a hose leading from a large flat roof over by the water tower. Some of the watering cans are a little worse for wear but there were plenty to fill with the collected rain water to irrigate the beds.
This was the plot that I was in search of on this visit. I was told this plot had been claimed in previous years but hadn't had an owner this year. The mint was growing unchecked and spilling out of the box as mint is wont to do. I was headed to my moonlighting gig as a bartender in a fancy restaurant and mint is the garnish for a couple of the fancier drinks. I thinned that mint out by about 12 snippings and they really made for some good moscow mules, mojitos and as garnishes for assorted fruit drinks.
This community garden is quite the place. There are not as many apartment dwellers as one might find in a big city but there are many who find themselves with not enough ground in which to plant. The fact that they run the green house in part to supply plants to those who may not otherwise have a chance to grow is fantastic. This would probably just be a little grassland or non-food growing real estate if the community garden was not here.
For all those who do not have the space to grow like I do, go find a community garden! Start one! throw a couple pots of soil on your balcony. Grow a tomato plant or some peppers. Some herbs! Just grow.
Then blog about it.
Mom started me along my path of growing stuff when I was a kid. Motivated by so many blockchain blogging gardeners, I figured I would plant and share and learn as I reclaim as much grass space as I can. It has turned out to be a fruitful experience and I hope to inspire others to sow and grow no matter what your location or experience level is.
Then, blog about it using #gardenjournal and the new #gardenhive tags as we network and curate the journals of other green thumbs, outdoor enthusiasts and fresh whole foodies.
