This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy was my first dog and he thought the garden was his, even though I did all the work. Now Suzie and Charley follow in his footsteps. We're located near Boston (USDA zone 6A). I have a community plot, a backyard vegetable garden, fruit trees, berry bushes, chickens, and bees. I use sustainable organic methods and do my best to grow all of my family's vegetables myself.
Thursday, December 02, 2010
gray gardens
Our community gardens are looking like winter. Only a few greens left growing here and there. The haphazard fences and gates are bits of color on the drab background. A photo of my empty plot is below.
It's really starting to look and feel like winter out there. I am trying to get a plot at our community garden for next year..I won't find out until January.
Thanks so much for the link for the remote thermometer. My jusband ordered it for me and it is working really well!
Our community garden in Maine is not fenced. Everyone is assigned specific rows plus the Food Pantry rows we tend. Ours has all been plowed under for the winter and piles of manure are on the sidelines awaiting to be plowed under as well. I'm already planning my spring rows for next year.
It is a big chaos. We find bits an pieces of old random things that work for fencing and gates and we use them. Loose stuff hung on the fences helps stop the woodchucks from climbing over. We have about 130 gardeners from all sorts of different backgrounds, old young rich poor, many cultures and languages, etc etc.
But we have to look at our objectives and our resources. Objective is to provide some land so people can grow food or flowers for their families. Resources: not much. Only cash is the yearly plot rental fee ($25/garden, half goes to water costs). Very few gardeners have time or skills to coordinate projects. So we have ended up with a fantastic patchwork of plots. Its been like this for over 50 years now. We have one of the biggest and oldest community gardens in the area.
From a distance and at first glance it looks messy, maybe ugly even. But if you walk through the paths and see everything that's going on - its fantastic. There is every different style of gardening, efficient, high yield and naturalized and lost in weeds. There are birds and rodents and butterflies and toads .... There are gardeners chatting, working, relaxing. And if you watch how the character changes over the seasons, and even over the years, its still more fantastic.
Anyway, you can tell I like it the way it is. I'm not necessarily into homogeneity. Or rules and regulations.
Exactly! What is all this nonsense of regimen. Community or as we call it Allotment gardening is about personal and original ideas. Exploring traditional and new ideas of growing utilising old and new knowledge along with recycling; encouraging nature to enhance and reward the gardener; bees, forgs/toads;etc. Read, research and enjoy the complete joy that is yours to be found in a relatively small area of land. Veggie, flowers and friends of all shapes, ages, sizes and types, it's great, when you get home from working and passing the time of day, you feel better. Marian (London UK)
I always love these photos of all the fences from the community gardens, so interesting and unique. I love that everyone can do what they want so each one is different.
10 comments:
I was so puzzled when I saw all those fences! It's neat that they are different colors. HUGE community gardens!
It's really starting to look and feel like winter out there. I am trying to get a plot at our community garden for next year..I won't find out until January.
Thanks so much for the link for the remote thermometer. My jusband ordered it for me and it is working really well!
Our community garden in Maine is not fenced. Everyone is assigned specific rows plus the Food Pantry rows we tend.
Ours has all been plowed under for the winter and piles of manure are on the sidelines awaiting to be plowed under as well.
I'm already planning my spring rows for next year.
A great way to run a community garden!
But what happens if someone grows 15 ft sunflowers south of your carrots? And how can you grow garlic or perennials like asparagus?
Your community garden looks like a big chaos :( so many different fences, isn't it possible to arrange them a little bit more homogeneous?
greetings kathrin
It is a big chaos. We find bits an pieces of old random things that work for fencing and gates and we use them. Loose stuff hung on the fences helps stop the woodchucks from climbing over. We have about 130 gardeners from all sorts of different backgrounds, old young rich poor, many cultures and languages, etc etc.
But we have to look at our objectives and our resources. Objective is to provide some land so people can grow food or flowers for their families. Resources: not much. Only cash is the yearly plot rental fee ($25/garden, half goes to water costs). Very few gardeners have time or skills to coordinate projects. So we have ended up with a fantastic patchwork of plots. Its been like this for over 50 years now. We have one of the biggest and oldest community gardens in the area.
From a distance and at first glance it looks messy, maybe ugly even. But if you walk through the paths and see everything that's going on - its fantastic. There is every different style of gardening, efficient, high yield and naturalized and lost in weeds. There are birds and rodents and butterflies and toads .... There are gardeners chatting, working, relaxing. And if you watch how the character changes over the seasons, and even over the years, its still more fantastic.
Anyway, you can tell I like it the way it is. I'm not necessarily into homogeneity. Or rules and regulations.
Exactly! What is all this nonsense of regimen. Community or as we call it Allotment gardening is about personal and original ideas. Exploring traditional and new ideas of growing utilising old and new knowledge along with recycling; encouraging nature to enhance and reward the gardener; bees, forgs/toads;etc. Read, research and enjoy the complete joy that is yours to be found in a relatively small area of land. Veggie, flowers and friends of all shapes, ages, sizes and types, it's great, when you get home from working and passing the time of day, you feel better.
Marian (London UK)
You say it so well Marian! Me too.
I always love these photos of all the fences from the community gardens, so interesting and unique. I love that everyone can do what they want so each one is different.
Wow, I've never heard of a community garden before. There's nothing like that where I live in north Texas. How lucky you are! Thanks for sharing this.
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