I know, I’m sure after my last post you thought that I had a terrible run-in with the raccoons and that was the end of Walnuts and Pears. You can relax, the raccoons have not gotten the best of me, yet.
A while back a friend and neighbor asked me to help her get a Community Garden started at her church and pre-school. How could I refuse?!?! So I took a little hiatus from blogging (perhaps you noticed) and dedicated my energy to drawing up a plan. The plan actually consists of more than the veggie beds for the Community Garden. Since this is for a church and pre-school, there are elements for the children and the young at heart. The church was built in the 1950s and an addition was added years later. Since then, there really hasn’t been much in the way of landscaping on the site and what once was there, is now gone. So, other than the new fence and some existing retaining walls it was pretty much a blank slate. There were also requests for flowers, minimizing maintenance around the fence and even addressing some water issues. The goal is to make a hands-on learning space that is both bountiful and beautiful. The plan includes 4 raised planting beds, including one seating-height bed, a number of pots and planters and tee-pees for the children to grow gourds and ornamental vines on as well as play in. There will also be a butterfly garden and edible landscaping incorporated throughout the rest of the site.
Even though our growing season in Minnesota is off to a bit of a slow start, they have a pretty aggressive schedule. The goal was to have everything installed by April 30th so cool crops could get planted. Unfortunately the weather didn’t exactly cooperate so the digging didn’t start until May 1st, but things are progressing nicely now. They should be able to start planting by the end of the week and since the weather is still pretty cool, the crops should do just fine. Check out the Bethany Gardens blog to see their progress and keep tabs on the gardens throughout the season: http://bethanygardens.wordpress.com/.
In the mean time, I’ve yet to get my cool crops in yet either, so hopefully this weekend I’ll be digging in too.
As a side note, the metal containers from my front steps have given themselves back to Mother Earth (rusted out) so I’m looking to buy or make some new planters/pots for my front steps. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know!
Kate
Walnuts n Pears 
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