But today's post is about what I did this weekend. It has more to do with top soil, organic cow manure, LOTS of digging, sore muscles, wood, nails and unexpected kindness than it does food. BUT... That is only because it is mid-April. By mid-June I am hoping it will have everything to do with all kinds of lovely fresh food!
A month or two ago, my friend Katie and I decided to participate in a community garden this summer. We are both utter beginners and decided to join up with a group called Pikes Peak Urban Gardens. This group facilitates community gardens where each family pays a small fee to lease the plot for the year. PPUG supplies quite a bit of the materials and seeds, we agree to donate a portion of what to grow to a charity/non-profit that helps the poor and then we have at it and get our hands dirty!
I won't go into all the gory details from this weekend, but Katie and I were grossly unprepared for the amount of planning and work that was going to go into turning what was a dirt parking lot into the framework for a garden. Within our space alone, Katie and I have 3, 8x4' beds, 3, 4x4'beds and 2, 6x3' beds. I am having serious misgivings about whether or not we will be able to maintain all this! But we are forging ahead anyway. After all the work from this weekend and all the work ahead of us, Katie and I were forcefully declaring that our children and their children WILL garden in this very spot and in these very beds! I gleefully mentioned that to one of the other gardeners and she very practically reminded me that pine boxes will rot from moisture and need to be replaced in 3-5 years. Darn!! My bubble was burst and I have not quite recovered yet.
Most of the work involved digging and building our beds. The building of the beds was an incredible puzzle. But in the space of 24 hours we were unexpectedly given several hundred dollars worth of wood and several hours of time from a handful of people who, I know very well, could have put their time to good use elsewhere! Their kindness and generosity was an incredible blessing! Below are a few pictures from our adventure. Nothing too exciting yet, but I have great hopes for all kinds of exciting things (ie: lettuce, spinach, broccoli, peppers, peas, beans, tomatoes, herbs, carrots, raspberries and alpine strawberries) soon! Stay tuned :)
Don't be fooled by these happy-looking faces. We were exhausted and a bit overwhelmed!
One bed built, seven more to go!!!
Katie's boyfriend, Nate, got a little trigger-happy with the nail gun!
7 additional beds finished and loaded into the truck... VICTORY!!!
My camera was a bit off center on this one. You can see my adorable friend plus my eye and cheek :)
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