Discovering My Inner Early Bird

Work early! The past 2 Saturdays the garden had emptied by the time I arrived at my "early" of 10:45, so I got there at 9:15 this morning. Working today were about 15 neighbors--children, men and women from ages "seedling" to "going-to-seed." I think they'd worked an hour or more already.
Since grade school my grand plans to wake up early in the summer have always fizzled into sleeping until hot mid-morning (never had AC). As a stay-at-home mom I've discovered that I get the most done if I'm ready for the day by 8am. But oh how I love sleep, especially when I've been up with a baby or sick child. When I do get to my garden earlier, we're both better cared for.
Today, dill seeds were collected for next year's planting. They harvested spaghetti squash, pattypan squash, striped green zucchini, yellow zucchini, cucumbers, kohlrabi, broccoli, carrots, rainbow chard, etc. My 6-year old helped the tasseled corn spread their pollen. He also weeded the celery and tomatoes and harvested chard. We let a lady bug crawl on our fingers too.
I met Meg, who has a facebook page for the Garden (I can't figure out how to link them). She snapped a picture of me and Collin--he's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I'm bleary-eyed and bed-rumpled. I didn't bring a camera because I lost mine last week, so I rented my 8-year old son's camera last time for 35 cents. I'd have borrowed it again, but he left at 7:45 for Cub Scout Day Camp, and I wasn't awake that early to ask him. Alas, my early bird woke up too many times to a baby "birdie" last night.
PS-I found "Rightie"-she'd never left my work bench.

Beloved Gloves & Shoe Canoes

Tonight, while trying to snap pictures of my kids holding enormous turnips at the Garden, I dropped my gloves. Since age 18, I've had a special adoration for gardening gloves--they give me courage to combat thorns, spiders, and stinging insects. This latest pair I've had for 2 years. Three years ago I bought "ladies gardening" gloves from the dollar-section of a hardware store. Well, I got what I paid for--two left hands, so then I splurged and moved up to "ladies leather gardening" gloves. Good-bye blisters, hello Invincible Garden Lady! And they fit, well, like a glove. Until tonight.

While the boys helped "fix" a sprinkler, I sought the lost pair, finding only Leftie. He gave it his best, but got tired after attacking a pile of bind weed and "cheese wheels." The search for Rightie was fruitless, though I did come up with some dill and find out why on ly 10 percent of my 300 carrot and herb seeds germinated (they got dry--keep moist by covering with burlap, old carpet or fine 1-inch layer of mulch for 9-10 days and uncover when the first wispy leaves reach out of the earth). About the time my husband and the baby had finished weeding, and showed us a praying mantis, I noticed my two boys enjoying a gushing hose. In no time, they'd built the Nile on which two pink crocs glided silently along. Then the sprinklers soaked my daughter and while I rescued her, I lost Leftie. Wet and laughing, we evaded the sprinklers and made a quick exit to our bikes. The pink crocs made it (still muddy on the back porch) but the gloves will have to fend for themselves against the bugs and thorns until Saturday...

Where Credit's Due

I can't take credit for the Rose Park Community Garden. Several people, mainly Scott Steenblik (801-359-0354) and Ralph Steenblik (801-363-8048), have been the backbone and muscle from the ground up.

The Garden's primary purpose is to teach self-reliance. In time individual plots may be assigned out to families.

My children and I have worked several times at the garden: moving compost, planting seeds, weeding, and best of all, picking vegetables. We've learned about gopher solutions, saving seeds, and how to peel a kohlrabi, just to name a couple things.

If you can supplement your diet with local, fresh produce, great. If it's free, even better! With so many threats to the mega-agricultural food-chain, why not learn how to feed yourself and your family without the middle man? I have a lot to learn as I'm sure most of us do.

So why not take advantage of the Little Red Hen Garden of Rose Park?