Garden Away From Home

For the Master Gardener program we have to have 50 volunteer hours a year. Most MGs have a particular project that they focus their efforts on and use to get their annual hours. The project that I will most likely be focusing on is a school/community garden in my local area. It was begun a number of years ago and is really nicely set up. But with the cuts made to education, this garden is in danger. Another member of the MG class was one of the founders of the garden and she has recruited me to help. So today I was out there working on the compost heap! I should have brought my camera so that I could have posted some pictures. It is a really nice garden that is used for many different things, including preschoolers! While I was there to day there was a group of 4 year olds in the garden and they came over to see what I was doing. I got to explain the idea of compost to them--that I was cutting the pieces of plants into smaller bites for the bugs and that that I was stirring it to make sure the bugs had air and watering it so they would have water. They were very excited to see roly poly bugs and a big black beetle. They also liked the worms. Their teacher talked to them about the way compost smells when it is done so I held up a handful of finished compost for all of them to smell. Too cute! Then they got a big tray of stuff from the compost pile and went over to a table to look at it more closely. Later they all had a taste of a fennel plant that was growing in the garden and brought the remains of their fennel over to throw into the compost.

I am really going to like working at this vegetable garden. I will be able to provide my skill and labor and maybe gain some skill with vegetables. All without needing to plant my own veggie garden this summer. I have decided that I won't start any veggies in my own yard until late summer--a fall and winter garden only. I think that may be more my gardening style. At least for now. I am always tempted by a veggie patch and then I plant it, it gets eaten, I replant it, it gets weedy and neglected, and then I wonder why I have no luck with vegetables! So this garden away from home will be a perfect middle ground. I get to grow and eat vegetables from the garden (I brought home fresh lettuce today) and I get to do the gardening jobs I really love. Like working the compost pile, pulling weeds, and trimming trees and shrubs. Meanwhile I will be able to practice things like thinning carrot seedlings (yikes--it is not fun to pull out perfectly good carrot plants even though I know they are too close together!) and sowing seeds in the greenhouse. Yes! There is a greenhouse! Oh, I am going to like this volunteer project!