Okay, so this didn't happen out of the blue. It started much earlier this spring (or rather, last winter) when I thought to myself, "Hey self, I really want to garden, but I have no experience and I don't have the time to take care of one all by myself." My mother (an experienced gardener), when I asked her to teach me to garden, said, "You want to learn how to garden? You just have to go out and do it." Which was so helpful, of course. But, as per usual, she was right.
But I still had a dilemma. I couldn't do it by myself, but maybe if I got a couple interested people my age together, we could garden as a group!
It started with Pete, who I knew from college and who had already gardened in the Probstfield Organic Community Gardens last year. Then it grew to include the Nichole's Fine Pastry girls, Abby and Gayathri (sometimes called "G") and Pete's FM Bikeshop friends, Sara & Joe, and Casey. Abby and G brought Will and later Amanda on board.
I organized a few meetings, we figured out what veggies we wanted to buy, all chipped in money for four 20x30' plots, and got to know one another. Then, at our last meeting last Monday, since the garden was tilled, marked, and now open, that we'd start getting things planted today and tomorrow.
Today, Abby, G, Amanda, and my friend Jen and I went out to the garden to figure things out.
Well, first we went to Sheyenne Gardens (a nursery near Harwood) and bought lots of herbs and some seeds. But not before we got lost (Google directions were way off. Not even on the right side of the interstate!), got there at 11:30 am, discovered they weren't open on Sundays until noon, went looking for somewhere to eat in Harwood, found a bar that was closed, then asked at the Cenex and found out that there is no place to eat in Harwood, and so drove back to Sheyenne Gardens and hung out in their gazebo waiting for them to open.
Abby & G bought: cilantro, flat-leaf parsley, Italian basil, sweet basil, and some other stuff I don't remember. I bought three different kinds of tomato, two sets of this delicious-smelling and gorgeous-looking ruffled purple basil, as well as red Rubin basil, burpless cucumber, as well as Chanteray carrot, Cherry belle radish, and Sugar Baby watermelon seeds.
So, after Sheyenne Gardens, we broke for lunch (Abby, G, and Amanda went to Abby's, Jen & I went to Erbs & Gerbs and then Dairy Queen) and met up again around 3 pm, when I discovered that I had no idea which plots were ours. A quick call to Gretchen (POCG organizer) fixed that. But, the water spigot is not hooked up yet, so no water in the gardens. Which kind of prohibited us from planting. Plus, we had no gardening plan, which was kind of what I was supposed to have ready at the last meeting, but didn't.
We also discovered that 30x80' of tilled land is freaking ginormous.
So, since we had only garden tools, plants, and seeds, but no water and no plan, we decided that we needed stakes and twine to border our plot (so we knew which was ours) and ran to this place called Eden, which was an organic and hydroponic supply store just down the road from the community garden. Amanda swore that hydroponics meant that it was for pot-growers, which, once we were inside, looked like it could be. But they had bamboo stakes and twine and also more organic seeds (I bought golden honey yellow watermelon - yum!) so we grabbed our stuff and boogied back to our plot.
Once there we staked it out and after much deliberation, decided we needed a path down the middle and possibly some side paths. So we drew it out, also figuring what would go where (aka a rudimentary planting map), and started staking and hoeing.
There were lots of hoe/ho jokes, but it was really fun. Hoeing that much land is actually really fun with a lot of energetic people. Enough work to work up a sweat, but not so much that massive blisters form.
Then we put old hay mulch down on the main path (p.s. hauling old, wet haybales by the twine between two people with no gloves half the length of the whole garden is no fun. Much resting was necessary) and tamped it down with our feet. After that we hoed out the smaller footpaths between the marked plots within our plot.
By that time it was time to go home. So the verdict on the first day actually in the garden? Not too bad!
Tomorrow = planting with Will & Pete, and then Sara, Joe, and Casey! Should be a fun day. Except for the part where I haul water from home.
