Thursday, June 9, 2011

Plant-A-Row Challenge: May and June

The brown spaces in the garden are quickly being filled in. In my old garden there was always this spot that was troublesome. We had used the garden that was started before we moved in to the house. By the time we moved in; however, the garden had overgrown with witch grass. witch grass that had gone to seed. This part of the garden was hard to keep the weeds down. Lotsa seed in the soil. I had tried mulching, green crops, growing a big crop of vining squash to keep the weeds down. But each year this part of the garden always grew a really good crop of witch grass. Eventually I remedied the situation by growing plants that really like to spread around;like comfrey, horseradish, mints and jerusalem artichokes. This worked well. Most of the plants I planted crowded out the witch grass. I also ended up with a lot of these plants to share as I tried to keep them from invading the rest of the garden.

Last month's challenge for the Plant-A-Row challenge was to share some seeds or seedlings. You could share with a neighbor or friend. You could contribute to a community garden. the idea was to share our abundance and sow community in the process.

I had several opportunities to share this past month. My sister-in-law had passed on some seed to me. I took some of the seed to plant and freecycled the remainder of the seed. The woman who claimed the seed was surprised that no one else had jumped at the chance. I had some extra seed potato and shared them with a neighbor. Finally, a woman who blacksmiths with Tristan wanted to know if I had 4 zucchini seeds. I drop those off at her house tomorrow. In return she is giving me some more horseradish root.

For Junes challenge I think we should keep it pretty low key. We've worked hard to get our gardens in. Weeding and watching things grow is a nice pass time. So for the month of June I think that we should maybe share stories from our communities of good works. How are your community gardens growing? How are organizations in your community adapting to the challenges of higher fuel prices? Farmer's markets are busy. Is there a new one in your community?

So how did you do this past month?









1 comment:

LindaM said...

Well, I got the garden in, came back to the city and forgot to keep the water on at the farm. Of course, we got a heatwave instead of the predicted rain. I'll be heading up on Saturday to access the damage if any.
I gave away seeds to city teenagers who want to start their first gardens. These are kids that I know personally. Not seeds but I did buy some endangered herbs and gave one to a friend in exchange for other herbs. I will be giving her one more once its established as well and she is babying a St. Johns Wort for me. I am in the midst of a move so general community is on hold. Doing my best though.