Skippy and I visited the Belmont Community Gardens yesterday. What a beautiful place to walk through! All of the plots are so interesting. One of the first times I've been to a community garden and seen gardeners working. I learned several things:
1- My fava beans are WAY behind where they could be. There was one plot with tons of nearly ripe favas. Awesome! Two plots had favas; both were planted much closer together than mine. One had two foot tall flowering plants like mine, but the other's were 3-4 feet tall with nearly ripe beans. Maybe a different variety? I wonder if they started them indoors?
2- It seems like a good idea to focus on a few veggies that work well for a plot. I should try to be more selective next year.
3- Cabbages are beautiful!
4- There are very few honeybees around here this year. I saw many last year, but only ONE this year off in the choke cherry trees.
5- Beautiful patches of 6 foot tall peas. Like my 2 foot tall peas, they are just now ripening. I'll look for taller peas next year.
6- My tomatoes look as good as any, I think.
7- Several patches of very nicely hilled potatoes.
8- One plot used plastic around the cukes and squashes. They looked great.
9- I wonder if I could get a plot? I'd grow half potatoes, half carrots, and half squash. I'd grow the greens, peas, beans, tomatoes and herbs in my home plot. Just a thought..... These plots have a lot of sunlight. More than me. Hhhmmmm.
A slide show of all 22 photos I took at the Community Garden is here. (set it to fast in the lower left corner)
communitygardening
Belmont Victory Garden
4 comments:
We have no community gardens here in Miami. I visited one when I was on vacation in Colorado last month, it was the highlight of my trip. Everyone was so friendly and willing to share.
We are participating in a local commuity garden for the first time this year and love it. Although I do have to say those garden pictures are much prettier than our garden. It's all I can do to stay ahead of the weeds! Love your blog...
In Holland there is very little open space in the cities, and for most people a community garden is the only way to have one. I happen to be lucky enough to have a friend with a house in the country, and use his land.
Community gardens are very social, and I rarely hear any complaints from people who have a plot. At the same time, you have a lot of neighbors that you spend a lot of time in close contact with, and you have to make sure you have enough in common with them.
For example here there are community gardens that have mostly people who grow grass, bring a barbecue and a lounge chair, and spend the summer sunbathing. You have gardens that have mostly people who grow flowers, as well as ones with mostly vegetable growers. Some are mostly students and others mostly retired people. Some put a strong emphasis on being tidy, have strict rules about letting weeds or plant diseases getting out of control and expect you to volunteer many hours of work keeping common areas tidy. Others have a very informal atmosphere. Some are cheap and some expensive.
Before committing yourself, it's important to do a lot of research and talk with the people there to find out what the atmosphere is like.
My thoughts of getting a plot were just in the excitement of the moment, I think. I really can't beat gardening right next to my house. Maybe next year I'll take out another bush. And I'm working on making better use of my space, which is about the same size as a plot.
The plots need to be hand watered and the soil would take time to be amended. I hadn't even thought of neighbor issues and garden regulations.
For me, it is nice to be able to see other vegetable gardens and talk to the gardeners. There are many community gardens near my house and I look forward to walking through these regularly and seeing what's going on. Only problem is I very rarely see a gardener in the plot! I find this surprising.
PS. Patrick, the strawberry seeds are on the way.
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