Tuesday morning is when I usually pick up compost from a few neighbors and haul it over to St Joseph's Villa. Tuesday morning is also when the garden crew turns out in force so, after I unload the compost and turn the pile a few times, I like to help out in the garden for a while.
This was a busy week, amending the soil, transplanting trays of seedlings from the greenhouse, building a trellis for the cucumber beds. Fortunately we've had a great group of volunteers on hand this spring. Last week Maribeth says we had ten people show up, and there were around the same number this week, plus a few younger kids. There's no better way to spend an hour or two on a fine spring morning than in the garden with the rest of the crew. Charlie knocking in fence posts with a mallet, Daphne transplanting peas, Maribeth laying out a few rows of carrots, Dave and Ed stringing wire for the trellis.
Each with a separate task but everyone seems invigorated by a shared sense of purpose. After all, along with the lettuce, peas and carrots and more than a thousand pounds of other vegetables we'll be growing this year, perhaps the most important product of a community garden is the sense of community itself, which seems to spring from the soil, in greater abundance every year.
