I've had this dream to start a community garden... Even though I know diddly squat about gardening, I started putting out feelers to my neighbors to see if there might be any interest.  I was so encouraged by their response that I talked to my landlord and not only got permission to build it in the vacant lot next to our building (which he owns), but he's donating the 6 foot fence we need to keep the deer out and bought us a composter too!

As I said, I know ZERO about gardening and the clock is ticking, so I asked a guy I know in town who has a huge beautiful garden and greenhouse if he would attend our first meeting to plan what seeds we need to start, how to prepare the soil, etc... and he said he would not only come to the meeting, but would help in any way he possibly can!

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!  I just had to share... and if any of you experienced gardeners want to contribute any advice- I'm wide open! ;-)

Wow Carrie that rocks on toast!!

So awesome!!!!  Congrats on starting a meaningful, wonderful project!

I've never worked in a group sort of garden before, but thinking about it I guess my advice would be to try and work out some idea of what will need to be done throughout the season and try to agree on individual people taking responsibility for specific things.  That way you avoid the mess of everybody knowing something needs to be done but nobody actually doing it.

Wishing you great success, and I hope you'll keep us posted!

@Shannon - Thanks- I think it's gonna be awesome and FUN!

@Korellyn - That's exactly what we're going to be talking about at the meeting.  We want the workload to be fair so it makes it easier for everyone and that we're all 'invested'.  Figuring out just how to do that with 11 people (so far) is gonna be the tricky part.

That is freaking AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So excited for you.

@Shannon- You also have been on my mind, because as little as I know about gardening... it's more than I know about canning!  ;-)

I was gonna ask if you needed some jars come May ;)

@Shannon- Awe... You're awesome!  I wouldn't want to take any of your precious jars, but advice... I'll take all of that I can get when the time comes!

in seattle you can get a lot of free coffee bean burlap bags - they're great for mulching or growing potatoes inside.

I put in my master food preserver app tonight.  And I will totally come up there and teach you what I know, be glad to.

First basic thing about any type of gardening.  If you have $100 to spend, spend at least $90 of it on soil amendments.  What you put into the soil is what you will get out of the garden. 

I don't know what the soil there is like, you might be best off putting in raised beds.   The person who has the great garden will have some idea of  how the soil is in the area.  All I'm saying is, don't skimp on spending on amendments.

Good Luck CArRiE

ok, THAT is incredibly cool :)

@Shannon- I am totally gonna take you up on that!  I'll pick your brain and show you a good time!  Have you ever been to the PNW?  You would totally love my town and guess what?  You wouldn't be the only one here with purple hair! ;-)

@Jilly- That's an excellent idea and I know at least a few good sources right off the top of my head for burlap coffee bean bags!

@Ruth- Our plan is to do raised beds.  My landlord is gonna bring his rototiller next week and we're gonna cover the whole lot with cardboard to try and kill as much of the weeds as we can before setting up the beds.

@McKenna - That picture is awesome!

So, here's an idea I've been playing with...  This lot is in a pretty high traffic area.  Especially during the Summer because it's just a block from our huge farmer's market and there's lots of foot traffic.

So, I'm thinking of selling advertising to help pay for the dirt and stuff we're gonna need.  Maybe I can offer to hang a big banner on the fence advertising the local nursery if they're willing to donate some dirt?

Doesn't that sound like a good idea??

Absolutely, it does.  Worst they can say is no thanks and they can't be the only nursery around, can they?  All of this sounds like so much fun :)  Very happy for you CArRiE :)Angie

Awesome sauce!!! Kermit flails are in order!

OK... So, we just had our first meeting with the nearby expert guy I asked to join us and there's good news!  He checked our plot of land and he determined that it's in great shape and that he didn't think we needed to build raised beds!  WooHoo!  That saves us a lot of money.  It also means we're going to have to do a lot of manual labor to prepare it for planting, but labor is just time and energy, so I'm thrilled.  He also thinks that we should be able to grow enough for at least 7-10 people!

He also gave us some great direction on how to do our rows, how to create fencing that will reflect light and protect our little babies from the wind that is a constant here.

So, this week-end we're starting our seeds, shoveling the turf and ordering some top soil.

I also found out that there are over 25 community gardens in our County!  I'm now searching for their locations so we can go on a road trip and see how they've set up theirs so we can get off on the right foot.

It's really happening!! ;-)

:D

CArRiE our county extention office gives out free seeds, that might save you money.  Or county co-ops sometimes offer 'seed swaps' where you can exchange with others.  This works great if you plant heirlooms and you save your seeds for the next year.  Also if you go check out the other community gardens you can see if they grow special varieties, etc. 

That's so AWESOME that it's working out :)  Keep us posted,
Angie

Hi, Carrie.

What a great opportunity!

I encourage you to garden with the Moon.  Easy as pie and an age-old way to reap the benefits of lunar cycles. Make it an organic garden and Mother Nature and Lady Luna will be ecstatic. Plus, moon gardening is a natural for astrologers. 

There's tons of information availabe online on this topic, not to mention my new site www.lunarhomeandgarden.com.

cj

Gardening would be fun if it were not for all the veggies.............

@CJ- WoW- Thanks for the link and the suggestion!

@VA- That's exactly how my husband feels too! ;-)  He's still gonna work the garden though... I'll just have to bribe him with something other than veggies!

Yesterday I started researching what all we're gonna need and was a little shocked at the cost of the dirt.  We're getting this premium stuff called Magic Dirt from a local organic farm, so I knew it was going to be spendy... but still was momentarily discouraged.

I really don't want to charge people to be a member of our garden like most of the community gardens do around here.

I woke up this morning though with a solution... Ever get the feeling that nothing is going to stand in your way?  That's how I'm feeling right now! ;-)

This is so cool!!

I don't garden, except for the occasional tomato plant.

However, my composted horse manure has gone places: to an organic farm, to my mother-in-law's raised bed garden, and to my few roses. 

Is there a stable near-by??  The manure is best if it's old enough to no longer "be hot".  My granddad started his seedings in a cold frame with a "hot manure" layer below the soil. The still composting manure warmed the seeds.

@Sue Ellen- as a matter of fact one of the gals in our building mentioned yesterday that she drives by a horse ranch to/from work and they always have a big box at the end of the property with FREE manure!  She's appointed herself as the Poop Picker-Upper! ;-)

I've been figuring out a way to have all these seeds in my livingroom and keep my cats from playing/destroying them.  I'm blocking out the kitchen window that peaks out to the livingroom with cardboard because the cats often use that to go back and forth and gonna keep the door from the livingroom to the rest of the apartment closed at all times.  That will allow the cats more than half of the apartment still to live in and keep our little seedlings safe.

Yup, good dirt is -expensive-.  Make sure to set up a good compost pile right away so you can cut down on that a bit in the future.

@Korellyn- My landlord bought us a big composter a few weeks ago that we've already started and as we shovel off the sod this weekend we'll be starting another compost pile (for next year's use) with that over the patch of blackberry bushes we are trying to smother. ;-)

Sounds like you've got this under control!

:)

Blackberry bushes are tough little rascals. Here's a tip. Skip trying to dig them out during Scorpio. They'll come back tough as nails. Opt for a fire sign in the waning phase.

@CJ- The landlord has been working to cut back the blackberries as long as I've lived here and it's reduced it's size quite a bit.  Most of what is left is actually on the bordering neighbors property.  I'm sure he won't mind if I dig the rest of it out and will be sure to avoid Scorpio season!  Thanks again!

Here's the BEFORE pic.  That's my apartment on the top floor with the wall of windows.

Here's our community composter!

You'll need a lot more composter than that.  My suggestion is to build a series of "holding pens" is probably the best way to describe it.  Just stakes in the ground, chicken wire on 3 sides.  This way you can have one that is the new stuff, one that is in progress, and one that is just about ready.  Get a pitchfork or something, and turn it every couple of days.  Composting correctly is all about having "green" and "brown" in a mixture, about half and half. 

It's been ages since I did any gardening , except for the 4-potato plants I tried to grow last Summer. They grew quite nicely.... but the darn Bird-of-Paradise plants sent roots over and "stole" all the water and fertilizer mixture I was giving them. So all I wound up with was nice big plants , but no potatoes.

I hope your plants do better than mime. At least we are in a new house , so maybe I can build some planting boxes (the whole back yard is a big concrete pad. ouch) and start a few plants this year.

@Ruth- Great thinking!  Apparently the 'Magic Dirt' we're getting already is composted, so all the compost we're creating now is for next year.  I like your holding pens idea!

Magical Dirt has arrived!!  Now the really fun part begins!

w00t!

Can't wait for pics!

<--- cheering squad

I'm jealous.  I wish I could get a delivery of dirt like that.  I'm on a steep, probably 60% incline hill.  I have to buy my dirt/compost in bags--easier to lug it up the hill that way.

It looks beautiful

So, this is the ghetto fence that my landlord put up to protect the garden from deer.  The only thing it's missing is some crime tape.  grrrrr

The first seeds are going in today regardless, and I'm on the hunt for chicken wire.  Since this expense wasn't in the budget I'm hoping that I can salvage most of it!  Wish me luck.