Our Garden Plot Comes Home

September 12, 2015October 10, 2015 ~ McArtor ~ 1 Comment

First year of new backyard garden gives our family veggies, flowers, joy, and humble pride. My 10 year old son announced a few days ago, “We have the biggest and most beautiful garden in our neighborhood!” Next he said, “I want to sweep the stones and weed.” Really. My “working in the garden is boring,” son volunteers to work in our garden?

When our garden plot was in Howard County Conservancy Community garden, we produced more veggies. Now that our garden plot is at home, more inspiration grows. A salad or veggie stir fry for dinner – pick some grape tomatoes, kale, zucchini and peppers. Science project ideas – check on those kitchen scraps added to compost yesterday. A break from stress and high tech stuff – pull some weeds, empty rain barrel water into a watering can and sprinkle the dry ground. Stillness – watch the rain soak the garden and revive its thirsty roots. Welcome home our garden plot!

Fall plantings include: beets, spinach, lettuce, an assortment of kale and two blueberry bushes in pots on our deck.

Another Gardening Season Begins

May 2, 2013May 3, 2013 ~ McArtor ~ Leave a comment

The first week in April, we started our fourth season in our community garden plot. My son helped me break up the soil with a rake and hammer. He likes to pound things, so he was content to whack and crush clods of dirt with a hammer. Despite his destructive fun, this was the first year he carefully planted seedlings almost completely on his own. He planted seedlings of kale, lettuce and brussel sprouts.

The worms and microbes were busy working in our garden plot already because the soil looks very healthy. It is a deep rich brown and feels light and loose. Almost every shovel full of dirt we turned had at least one fat worm. We were careful not to over work the soil and disturb the worms. We planted seeds of carrots, parsnip, turnips, beets and lettuce and seedlings of kale, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage (at least 12 plants of differing varieties), brussel sprouts, cauliflower and sugar snap peas.

Gardening is a labor of love to produce fresh organic food for our family, friends and community and to spend time together as a family working on a common goal with others in a community. May all our gardens thrive this season not only with food, but with joy and hope!

My son took this photo of the clouds above our garden plot on opening day of the 2013 growing season. Use your imagination. Can you see the word “LOVE” ?

Holding On

April 22, 2012 ~ McArtor ~ 1 Comment

It has been difficult to get to our community garden plot this spring. More responsibilities at work, school, and home pull us away. But we are determined to hold on to our garden plot and our family gardening hobby.

Yesterday, we arrived at our community garden plot in the late afternoon, just before the heavy rains came. The dark rain clouds moved closer as we rushed to plant beet seeds and broccoli, eggplant and nasturtium seedings. The wind blew strong, the rain fell fast and the row covers fluttered and flapped. My son ran for the van, then on his own initiative returned to help me carry supplies back to the van. I gathered rocks to help my husband secure our row covers over the broccoli and eggplants and anchor our neighbor’s row cover that almost flew away.

It didn’t matter that we got wet. We felt the simplicity in physical work and nature. My husband and son pounded the hard clods of dirt to aerate the soil for the plants. I gently unraveled tendrils on the sugar snap peas and led them toward the trellis. We felt a storm unfold around us. We worked together with our hands and helped protect our garden neighbor’s plants. We completed our garden work and picked a bunch of lettuce. We slowed down.

Our garden plot holds us so we are not blown away by the frenetic life in Howard Co. Maryland.

Our Little Garden Helper

October 14, 2010October 15, 2010 ~ McArtor ~ Leave a comment

helper2 — Cutting String and Tomato Vines

My five year old son surprised us this past sunny Saturday when he eagerly followed our instructions and helped us cut up and compost our tomato plants. Often our son does not want to do the garden jobs we ask him to do. He prefers to create his own jobs. Here is a list of my son’s top 10 favorite garden jobs:

1. Hold the hose and water the plants, dirt, fence and sky.

2. Dig holes in the dirt and bury treasures or plant cut flowers.

3. Throw the inedible fruit into the compost bin and stir it.

4. Place or slam rocks around the garden beds.

5. Plant sunflower seeds and sit under his tall sunflower umbrellas.

6. Hit the sunflower heads with sticks and watch the seeds fall.

7. Create a web fence for the garden beds by twisting and weaving string through sticks he staked around the bed.

8. Find bugs, worms and butterflies.

9. Cut something!

10. Throw something!

What are your little helpers’ favorite garden jobs?