my plot

Just photos. They tell the story themselves....

summer at the community garden

The gardens are so beautiful and full of produce. Skippy and I walked around the paths and I took photos. Here's a slideshow.

community garden pot-luck lunch

We had a fun community garden event last Saturday. Judy arranged it. A pot luck lunch to celebrate the summer solstice. Gardeners brought salads from their gardens. Dianne and Glenn brought a fantastic cauliflower and dill salad, I brought garlic scape pesto, Judy made harvest bread, there was also a big bowl of fresh picked lettuce a gardener brought. I will post my scape recipe soon and hopefully Diane's cauliflower recipe too.

We also did am impromptu seedling share. Katherine had strawberry and magenta silene divisions. I was very happy to take some of each. I had lots of little tomato, pepper, squash and melon seedlings to share. They disappeared fast.

We had a "meeting" after the eating and swapping and did a bit of "community garden work". Identify what gardeners think is lacking and what we can do. Among items identified were better water pressure and trash cans. We outlined ideas and solutions - just as lightning and a spring down pour broke up the gathering.

google earth image of the belmont community gardens

Isn't Google Earth amazing! It looks like this image is from mid-July of last year. I can see my squash plants are still looking like well-behaved separate hills. By August they were a tangled mess and spilling into adjacent beds. You can see the 16 new plots we added at the upper right.

Work Day

We had a fantastic spring Work Day at the Belmont Victory Gardens yesterday!

We must have have well over 100 gardeners shown up. All of us ready for garden work after a long winter. Ready to rake, dig and join with our old friends in the beautiful start of another season.

Once again, Bob kept my camera in action and took photos of the event. I love how good he is at photographing smiles.

Things we accomplished:

- The area in front of the new plats was cleared of rocks and debris and leveled so it can be mowed this summer.
- We designed, purchased supplies, and installed corner posts for a new set of staged compost bins.
- Two areas where garden debris has been piled in previous years were cleared to expose the layer of rich compost so gardeners can take it to their gardens.
- Two new plots were added and cleared, one by the meadow, one at the back.
- A big area of debris and dense raspberries was cleared between the plots and the meadow.
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Thanks to all who helped!!

(PS. Here is a slide show of the photos : link)

plot costs

Our community garden is reviewing the rates we charge for annual plot rental. This year our fee was $25, but with water costs going up very fast, this rate does not cover much. What do you pay for your plot rental?





Please leave a message if you have more information about what your fees cover and where you are located.

Does anyone know the fees for Cambridge and Waltham Fields plots (MA, USA)?

Swiss community gardens

While I was in Switzerland last week on vacation, I took a bunch of photos of vegetable gardens. We traveled by train, so I had to pull up the camera quick and hope to get a shot before we went into a tunnel or behind a tree. It was a challenge!

The gardens are full to the top at this time of year with all sorts of crops. They look beautiful!

The community gardens look a lot like ours here in the US, but I was surprised at all the little huts in the plots. I wonder why this is? Are there that many tools to store that its worth using garden space for a shed? Or are they used for growing something? There are also many high hoop houses and shelters over plants.






And here are a couple links to photos by eamesd on Flickr of an enormous community garden area in Basel, Switzerland. I missed seeing this and would have loved to have walked through here! Next time...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eamesd/1804275000/sizes/o/in/set-72157602797493837/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eamesd/1803441757/sizes/o/in/set-72157602797493837/