Community Garden - Weekly Update

My plot in the Overland Park Community Garden is planted!  Now we need a little help from God, a little tending from me, and we'll have a nice harvest come August or September.

The garden didn't work out quite as I had planned. It's late in the season here for planting and it was hard to find transplants for the veggies I wanted to grow.  So, I ended up planting:

• 2 green bell peppers
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 4 sweet banana peppers
• 4 Italian parsley
• 4 green beans (blue lake, bush variety)
• 2 rows of mustard greens
• 4 green summer squash, called Cocozelle (very similar to zucchini)

I put in seeds for the mustard greens and squash. Hopefully they will grow fast and vigorously enough to make up for the lack of starter plants.

Everything went in on June 4, yesterday.

The mustard greens were a last minute substitution for a row of green beans. I could only find 2 pots with nice looking bush bean plants and each of those pots had 2 plants in them. I separated the two plants to make a row.  The greens are from seeds given to me by a friend who is Hmong. She called them "Hmong Mustard Greens." I don't know exactly what variety they are, but I planted some last year and they were very good.

I chose a variety of peppers because I could not find many green bell peppers. It'll be fun to see if I get some banana peppers. I haven't tried them yet.

Additionally, the plot turned out to be slightly larger than 10 feet long. I could fit in six rows, altogether.

The cocozelle squash was a substitution for official zucchini, mainly because it takes only 45 days to harvest, compared to the black beauty zucchini seeds I found at 50 days (or so). Every day counts when you are starting so late!! 

(By the way, I included the links so you could see what the plants look like. I don't have any relationship with these seed/plant vendors - I neither endorse or denounce them and I do not receive any compensation for linking to them.)

Community Garden

Pea Sprout

In my humble blog, I will post a plug for a new community garden.  It may not make any difference, but then again, it might.

Overland Park, KS, where I live, is getting a community garden. For such a progressive community, it is surprising that there isn't one already. However we are a wealthy city, and we tend to think that everyone has a yard and can plant anything they want in their own little slice of heaven. Those that don't have a yard probably don't want to plant a garden - they can just go to our Farmer's Market to buy locally grown produce.

That's a rather shortsighted view, don't you think?

• You mean not everyone's yard is suited to vegetable gardening? 
• You mean some people don't have a yard?
• You mean people in retirement communities or those without enough money to buy a house with a yard all don't want to garden?
• You mean we don't have poverty here? We don't have people who could improve their food security by growing their own?

One of my friends has been working on this project for at least three years. The city council meeting which will approve it will be in about 1 week. They better approve it....

I have rented a space. As my readers (or, should I say, "reader," heh heh) know, I have my own Square Foot Garden in the backyard for my personal use. 

I am renting the community garden plot entirely for charity - my 4'x10' plot will be a project to grow fresh produce for donation. Our local community food bank, Harvesters, participates in the national movement called Plant a Row for the Hungry, and it accepts home grown produce. I am hoping to involve similarly-interested people from my church, but if no one signs up, I'll do it anyway.

I'm not sure what I will grow yet. Harvesters has a web page with suggestions. Because of the timeline of approval and access, it will be a short growing season, so I'm thinking quick growers:

• Green beans
• Peppers
• Zucchini
• Herbs - basil, parsley

The other reason I want to rent a plot is to help the garden succeed. In these initial years, it is important to demonstrate community interest and garden success.

So, here's my shout out to the Overland Park Community Garden. May it become a cornerstone of the community.