Last year on Earth Day, I put my name on the waiting list for the community garden down the street from my house.  I can walk there, it is a block away.  I can also ride my bike there.  I met with the community garden coordinator and all the other potential plotters on Saturday, and we got to pick our plots from what was available.  There were several really good ones, some with shade, some that hadn’t been worked well, and one really great one in full sunshine right in the middle of the garden and right next to a water spigot.

That’s the one I picked.  One of my new plot-neighbors has offered to bring his tiller and till up my plot when he does his, and I readily agreed!  Today Tater and I went down to the garden to pick out rocks (rocks are everywhere here, even in well-worked soils), and remove the treated wood walkways inside our plot.  We also pulled up some of the old plants and tossed them in the compost bin onsite.

The season starts now, although there isn’t a lot to do in Colorado in March.  We still are getting snow and freezing nights, and will until May at least, so it will be a while before I plant much.  But there’s plenty to be done to prep the area.  I can put in fertilizer (only organic), get the ground worked and ready, plot out what I’m going to plant and get some planting dates sketched out.  And like today, I can dig up weeds as they begin to appear above the soil.  I dug out three or four patches of weeds this morning.

We can only use organic fertilizers and pest control methods.  we get one bale of straw we can use for mulch, plus there is a mulch pile (wood chips) we can use for pathways.  We can water as often as we want, and grow what we want.  I’m in the preliminary stages of figuring this out, using a white board and a grid.  I’d like to grow squash, corn, turnips, beets, eggplant, tomatoes, cabbage, and maybe one pumpkin.  The plot is about 20 feet by 20 feet, which sounds big until you start plotting it out.  I’ll still grow the lettuce I want by the house, in the garden behind my patio.  It did well there, so I won’t have to do it down in the big garden.  I want to plant what we will eat, and not what we won’t.  The idea is to feed my family, not just play at a hobby.

Of course, the biggest problem is going to be finding the time to do it all.  Part of the process, besides just taking care of my own plot, is to serve at least 10 hours of community time, and also participate in Work Share hours, where we maintain common areas of the gardens, or do other tasks that need to be done that don’t involve our own plot.

I’m looking forward to the adventure.  This will be the first true test of whether or not I can garden in Colorado.  The lettuce and mutant 5-lb. cabbage I grew last year were only anomalies.  This year, it’s for real. Wish me luck!

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