6 months ago, I had grown a tomato plant on my deck and made a few seeds flower in pots. This year, I decided I wanted more, and I've already shown that I think there will be anything but defeat. Let's see what happens!
Introduction
The first few entries here are going to be a combination of my journal notes and reflections on those notes and experiences to quickly get everything down and up to date.
I want to start off by expressing a deep appreciation for the space and chance to do this. I can’t believe how this landed in my lap. Weeks after wishing there was a space in a local community garden, here I was faxing in my letter begging for one in a new project. The Santa Cruz Sentinel had run an article on the opening of the Aptos Community Garden, and I knew it was a perfect fit. I had a lot of fun with my out of control tomato and flower seedling experiments, but I was definitely ready to step up to something new, but even after exploring many options, still hadn’t found a suitable one.
I was accepted into the garden and received a few calls where I asked some short questions, but overall showed up on opening day pretty clueless.
Grand Opening
I’m not the most social person, and I was nervous about what to bring to the potluck and how many people might be there. It’s also part of a church community giveback project, and I am not a member of the church, so I was worried if I would fit in. I also hadn’t picked out my plot yet, and wasn’t sure how that was going to go. There was a ton of initial anxiety! That was gone when I walked through the fence. My fear turned into pure excitement right after I handed over my check, and walked into the crowds buzzing about.
Still just a dusty, dirty field of sub-divided sections, some people ate snacks, while others jumped into planting or looked for advice from the Master Gardener’s there for the day. I elected to do all of the above! There were young couples and families starting their first gardens, and super friendly pros willing to answer questions with smiles, and I knew I wasn’t in this alone. I put my homemade lemonade on the table, mingled my way around, and eventually found myself the proud tender of plot #33. On my application, I had originally said that I only wanted about 50 square feet of space, because that seemed like so much. Plot #33 was about 72 sq. ft. and that seemed perfect, (though I realized how quickly I was going to fill it and need more!)
Gophers!
When the initial announcements were made, the largest red flag thrown up about GOPHERS with a general "ask someone" warning. I read the literature they had on the table, and asked a couple of people standing next to me, but was still feeling skeptical and scared about making any decisions before locking this down. I knew that there was no way I could kill anything, or dispose of a dead something, and I wasn’t sure about the weird devices to keep them away, or having to dig up my whole plot to put rolls of wire down. I did know that there were some gardeners on the other side of everything happily setting about doing something that looked knowledgeable. I shyly walked over and asked what they had decided on, and they pointed me in the direction of single plant gopher cages, and I observed how they assembled and planted them in the ground and that seemed cheap and easy enough to protect what was looking to be some hard work. I would be so sad to lose stuff, so I wanted to make sure I was starting off preventative.
Initial Planning & Planting
I had done a fair amount of reading before I arrived the day of the Grand Opening, but I certainly didn’t have any of that handy, or clear enough in my head to apply it. I really wanted to get planting though, and I didn’t want to just put in my few little starters, I wanted to dive in and to even plant those, I needed gopher deterrents. (The starters were generously donated by Surf City Growers.) So I decided that there was an Orchard Supply a few minutes down the freeway by my work, and set out to go get some basic supplies. While I’m going to document what I bought to prepare in another post, I’ll just share here that I came back with a garden in my trunk – including a ton of gopher cages to protect it all. I was definitely excited.
I spent the next several hours getting started digging holes, cutting my arms assembling wire contraptions and sticking things in the ground with a hope and a prayer. In some ways I’m regretful there wasn’t more planning that went into that first day, since I’ve learned so much in the last two months, but overall I’m pleased that I took the initiative and just dove in, and I think that is what has kept my momentum so high.
Top of Garden Day 1
Keeping track of things.
I decided immediately to keep all of the tags that came with my plants and keep the notes on things I learned and compiled from all of my books in one place so I could easily track the progress and issues on a plant by plant basis. Also in my journal, I drew a chart of my garden so I could remember what I planted where…but quickly found that either I was just so attached and paying a lot of attention, or things just grew quick enough, but didn’t really need the chart, though it is still nice to have.
I had to make some rules for myself and I have to revisit them frequently. It’s only a dirt square in a field. Things are going to go wrong. There are going to be casualties and possible sacrifices. This is my first time and there will be a learning curve. The worst case scenario was I tear the whole thing down, or tear everything up and start over. (There was a quick step up from worst case “I’m going to do so bad, I ruin it for everyone” because I realized the first day there were as many people who knew as little as me or less. There was no way I was going to mess up THAT bad, and the recurring theme was that I wasn’t in it alone.)
I realized quickly that learning was on a rolling cycle, and there would as be an ever growing list of “things I’ll do different next time.” My first example came the week before I got the garden. I planted Rosemary and Basil in the same herb pot at my boyfriend’s house, but weeks later when I went to plant my own garden, I knew that was a bad call and kept them separated. After reading this great wikipedia article about companion planting, I also ended up moving my Sage away from the Basil after going home after the first day. (Sadly, the Rosemary in the boyfriend's pots withered while the Basil thrived.)
This is going to be an adventure. I must have patience with myself and with the process. I think this is going to be a really amazing thing in my life. I hope that you enjoy reading along with my adventures, and I look forward to learning and passing on the information as I go.
Thanks for reading! Are you a gardener? Have you always wanted to garden? Do you have any hot gardening tips? Please feel free to comment and share. I'm a gardening information sponge right now, and I'm looking forward to soaking up all this experience has to offer. One of the most appealing things about all of this was the community aspect, and it's stayed the course as one of the driving forces to my frequent visits to the garden. Share your thoughts and experiences please!
Congrats on the new blog! It's making me want to do a lot of the same things!
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