Neighborhood Garden Project: What we've done right
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I'm pretty sure my cohorts and I can call the Neighborhood Garden Project a success. Especially considering we're three novices in our first season. Here's what I think we did right:- Watering worked: We set up a good watering system with soaker hoses that allowed us to water deeply and effectively without wasting the precious resource. We were also lucky to have plentiful rain in our region for most of the season.
- Marigolds were magic: We planted marigolds along the path throughout the whole garden. We never did anything else for pest control other than harvest before anything had a chance to chomp and we never had a pest problem.
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Sorry it's been a while since my initial posts on our project. But we've certainly been busy. The lasagna is laid out, most of the seedlings have sprouted and are enjoying a few hours a day in the outdoors and we'll soon have the last frost safely behind us so we can plant the garden.
I've done my share of gardening. But other than a few radishes that I grew in the first grade, it's been of the inedible sort. I'm able to identify many common flora and fauna in suburban landscapes. I'm able to help customers in the garden section of those big box stores when they can't find a warm body, let alone one with a brain, to answer a question. But food gardening was never my thing until the Neighborhood Garden Project.
It was never really a question that the garden my neighbors and I created and will maintain together would be in my back yard. I have a fence and a perfect spacious sunny site on the far end of our quarter-acre property out of the way of kids and dogs.
Jennifer, Lauren and I brainstormed about what we'd like to grow in our food garden while our kids were playing one afternoon. I scribbled down the names of fruits and vegetables as they flowed freely from our lips. Lettuce, tomatoes, beets, squash, pumpkins, corn, onions, spinach, chard, herbs, potatoes, berries, melon, grapes. Whew! We were definitely imagining eating more than all the work it would take to grow these things.
Ask any gardener or read any gardening forum on the Web and you know 
Our neighborhood enjoys regular play dates with our children, both planned and spontaneous, and impromptu dinner parties, including backyard barbecues in warm weather. We lend tools, provide child care, and share tips about home life. Among the women, the conversation often turns to grocery shopping. Yes, I guess we're a bit old fashioned.
