Patchwork Quilt

Planting season is now done, and we can start to see the evidence of all our hard work. The gardens at 26th and Maryland make a patchwork quilt of different styles of planting, each garden different from the one next to it.

Some plots are closely planted, with short rows of many different vegetables. These shelter a little of everything to keep the fridge full, and not one inch of soil is wasted. Others take a different approach, with widely spaced rows, concentrating on a few favourites. Some are planted in blocks, others in rows running east-west or north-south. A few plots are dedicated to potatoes as these need a large area to grow well.

Flowers have appeared in a few plots, dressing the edges of the plots and brightening the landscape. Some flowers merely add decoration, others are edible (did you know you can eat pansy blossoms?) and still others are there to keep the vegetables company. I'm told that slugs and other bugs are drawn to marigolds and will leave the crops alone if they have some of these aromatic plants to chew.

The raised beds are now complete, one foot high, and four feet by twelve feet long. They are made of interlocking 2 by 4s, so they will be durable. We ran out of labour to fill the beds, so each gardener hauled their own dirt from the piles next to the rows of beds. Some were able to do it before the heavy rains, and had a relatively easy time, but after a week of solid rain, the soil turned into mud and some gardeners had quite a chore to haul the heavy soil.

Now they are all set up and all have seeds, sprouts, or whole plants reaching skywards. The small raised beds are a microcosm of the plots - each is different. Some gardeners trusted to seeds, and have tiny rows of new sprouts emerging. Others put in plants from the green house to get a jump on the season, and some have done a little of both to hedge their bets. Tomato plants in particular vary from tiny little transplants, to large potted plants that already had fruit setting.

Now that the first round of hard work is taken care of, the next task will be weeding - a couple of weeks of heavy rain alternating with hot sun have brought along the wild oats and lambs quarters that want to take advantage of our freshly tilled soil.