Monday, April 20, 2009

Community Garden

I'm so excited about my community garden plot! I spent about an hour today trying to get it cleaned up. Here's a picture before I started:



What, you say? It looks like a giant field of weeds, you say? Totally overgrown? Nah..... it's nothing a whole ton of paper mulch and compost won't fix! Oh, and a few raised beds.... I guess I have my work cut out for me.



On the plus side, it's a nice large garden! With very fertile soil! And cute baby bunnies that I scared the bejeesus out of. Of course, they also scared the bejeesus out of me, too! But I got better once I realized they weren't giant furry spiders coming to kill me. I swear, I have become such a city girl!



It will be an adventure to have a garden in the almost-wilderness like this. I've been living in densely populated areas for so long, I've gotten quite paranoid about bugs and things in the brush! Time to get back to nature!!!


On the home front, the onions are all planted out, as well as the rest of the leeks and scallions. The first batch of leeks did not fare so well. I had a hard time today getting the onions out of the celpacks. I hate those stupid plastic things. Next year I'm buying a soil blocker! I think part of the problem was the coir peat. It doesn't stick together on its own at all.


My garlic is up, and apparently I planted it EVERYWHERE. I shall have much garlic this year. Also up is my rudbeckia, rhubarb, asters, columbines, phlox, monarda, astillbe, scilla, just about all the perennials! I even have one clump of tulips blooming! The rest are up but not yet in bloom.




Also, I think my mason bees have started to come out! I think I saw them today - small and black with a cute little white patch on the face. They were soooo interested in my mason bee house from last year, which gets more sun in the afternoon than the new one. Although, on closer inspection of the photograph, it looks more like the leaf-cutter bees. It's hard to tell because they move so fast! I guess I'll find out when the nests are built. I did notice the tubes that didn't get in the deep freeze had been opened. I hope all the bees make it out!



I hope there are more days like this! I enjoyed it so much!

7 comments:

Daphne Gould said...

It looks like you really do have your work cut out for you. I hope you read a lot of newspapers. Do you need me to save mine?

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

It is going to be an interesting adventure waiting... Is the plot for you or to be shared by many?... cheers! ~ bangchik

Pam said...

Daphne - I've been saving all winter in anticipation of a garden, but mid-summer I might need a refresh!

Bangchik - That particular plot is all mine! The plots in Lexington are just huge...

Sally said...

Congratulations on getting a large plot out in Lexington! Is this a brand-new garden? Where it it?

I have a lot of the same perennials that you have, at home. And most are coming to life now. My pulmonaria is already in bloom!

We'll have more days like this, soon. The rain right now is a big help, though

Pam said...

Sally - It's not new, it's just somewhat neglected and the soil has tons of weed seeds in it. It's in Dunbrook Meadows, which should really be more like Dunbrook Bogs. We're going to make raised beds!

Gill Edwards said...

Hi Pam,
Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier. I think you are very brave keeping bees, i am petrified of bees and wasps but love honey. Strange eh

best wishes
Gill (Being Maisie)

Pam said...

Thanks, Gill! The Mason bees aren't like honeybees - they don't require any work during the summer, but also don't produce honey. They're mostly for pollinating fruit trees. Also they're very docile and won't sting unless they are trapped physically. So not quite so worrisome as honey bees!