Community Gardening is on the Rise in Phoenix

Community Gardening has  become a new-hip thing to do in Phoenix and surrounding cities. There are many reason for this ranging from people wanting to beautify vacant lots, neighbors getting together to do something outdoors, feeding the hungry, sending food grown to a foodbank and more.

 The problem is people are not sure how to navigate the process of starting a community garden. Creating a community garden is much more then knowing how to grow plants.  It is mainly about how to organize a group of people, secure the land and then figure out how to kept it going.  The growing part is easy after that!

There are several ways to get started on the journey.  The American Community Garden Association has many helpful tools on their website - http://www.communitygarden.org/  Here you can find step-by-step instruction as well as sample forms for leasing the land and renting out plots.  There is even a list serve where other members share their personal experiences and ask and answer questions.

On perhaps you prefer a more personal approach and want to be able to talk this through with an experienced person - well that is me!  On Thursday, November 18th I will be leading a 90 minute class entitled: So You Want to Start a Community Garden?  I will be sharing my personal experience as a garden manager, the results of my research and what I have learned as I have met with and helped other community gardens.  It is being hosted at the Maricopa County Extension Office and presented through the Phoenix Permaculture Guild.  You can see more about it here.

Then next April, there will be a conference for community and school gardens on April 1+2, 2011 here in Tempe, AZ.  Growing Communities, One Garden at a Time is the American Community Gardening Associations, Southwest Regional conference.  I am honored to be leading that effort.

I would like to know more about your ideas and questions about community gardens.  Do you participate in one now?  If so where and what is the name of the garden?  What is your experience?  Please drop me a line or leave a comment here!

Rain in the Desert - Finally!

Rain in the Desert - Finally!

The last time it rained at my home was August 13, 2009 and I got 1/2 an inch of rain. I remember well because I lost almost all the rain from my barrels - you can read all about it at Mourning the Loss of the Baby Rain Drops.

This time I was partially prepared for rain, at least I had the faucets closed! It rained for most of the day on Saturday, September 3, 2009, three weeks and 3 days after the last rain. I checked my rain gauge when I got home on Monday and there was .4 of an inch and two full rain barrels. They looked like they over flowed, but unfortunately I did not have the overflow diversion tubing hooked up!

I wasn't even home to witness this glorious event. I was out of town for the Labor Day weekend in Sedona hiking and visiting a friend. It rained about 30 minutes after I finished my morning hike and put a damper on my hot tub time to ward off sore muscles. Then it continued to rain all day long in Sedona so I at least got to spend a rainy day reveling in the coolness and wonderful smells of pine and creosote.

Even though I didn't have a chance to plant the rain where I wanted to with the overflow diversion, I am still happy it rained. The grass seemed to have grown an inch over the weekend so I know the plants were very happy for the rain.

And I am too - now if it would just rain again SOON! But not before I install the Barrel conversion kit for the third barrel!

Happy Rain Harvesting,

The Garden Goddess

Down 2 Earth Gardens, LLC

Eating from the Garden

Eating from the Garden

Finally I am eating the fruits of my labor - literally - I have been eating the apples from my trees I planted only five months ago! This is actually the FIRST apple I ate on May 1st. The branch was bending dut to the wieght of three little apples so I picked one and at it. Notice it is smaller then the tennis ball! The apples are much bigger now and much better tasting.

There is no button that pops out of your apples or other fruits or veggies when they are ready to eat like on the butterball turkey. You just have to be adventuresome and pick one and taste it! If it's really bad toss it in the compost bin!

Here's my latest pride and joy - a 15 inch long Armenian cucumber! and boy is it tasty! The vines are covered with blossoms and little cukes the size of my pinky finger. I was warned not to plant too many of these! It is interesting how the different garden beds are actually performing. The cukes I planted in the back bed are not doing much at all. But the ones in front have really taken off!

Tomatoes are doing just OK - mine are mostly either cherry or grape tomatoes and there are lots of green ones. I picked a few of what I thought were red ones and they were not quite ready yet. I am trying to beat the birds to the ripe tomoatoes as I keep finding some on the ground all broken open.

I am kind of worried about the eggplants - lots of blooms - no eggplants yet. I have lots of bees and butterflies for pollinating so I am not sure what's up!

Pepper plants all look great and are filled with small peppers. I have red, green, yellow and a chocolate pepper (kind of brownish - an heirloom) - all sweet peppers. I loved roasted peppers and stuffed peppers so I will be sure to enjoy these.

My watermelon seeds sprouted right away and are grown like crazy - I should have watermelon by August!

Now all I have to do is keep all the plants happy over the summer. We have been blessed with temps under 100 and partyly cloudy skies lately so that is good for the plants I stroll through the garden daily checking for new veggies and seeing if they need water. The joy I get from discovering a new veggie ready to pick and eat totally outweighs the sweet and time it took to get the bed planted.

How is your garden doing? I would love to hear from you!

Happy Digging

The Garden Goddess, Doreen

www.down2earthgardens.com