My Day At the Garden

First off let me say, I don’t know what I’m doing.

Back in May, I volunteered for a community service event that my church conducted throughout the city. Luckily, I ended up volunteering for a hidden peace of heaven right in the heart of downtown Cincinnati, OH and in the middle of the “hood”, aka the projects. I ended up volunteering for the West Civic Community Garden Center. When we got there the place was very heavily weeded and there was so much dirt build up in the walk ways we had to use shovel and a wheel barrel to remove the excess soil. I loved it! I immediately signed up to have my garden bed and later on that week I went to work on creating my very first garden. I bought all types of seeds. Cucumbers, onions, carrots, beets, peppers, watermelon, and the list goes on. No one told me that there was more to gardening than planting a seed in dirt and watering it a few times a week. Boy am I learning my lesson!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my garden bed people. Full of vegetables, sunflowers, and a whole bunch of weeds. I was excited about the opportunity to have a garden. I went out and bought a bunch of seeds from watermelon, cantaloupe, onions, green peppers, Habanero peppers, sunflower, lavender, broccoli, and cucumber. If you have gardened for a while, don’t judge me. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I didn’t want to take the time to read a book or do research. I just wanted to plant seeds and learn as I go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a small section of my garden bed after I and the garden manager thinned out my garden. She also educated me on what a weed looks like and what my plants were. When I would go check on my garden, I would water my plants and look at what was growing but that was about it. I was too afraid of pulling anything because I didn’t know what was what. You can only imagine the amount of weeds that were in the garden and around it. Now I know!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were all types of pleasant surprises in my garden. These, lovely greens, are collard greens. I didn’t even plant a seed for them! I was so happy for them. I love collard greens! Also, I am growing tomatoes. Totally unexpected. The little buggie at the bottom was a pleasant surprise as well. It was so harmless and precious, to bad it had to die. Hey, I didn’t kill it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I look forward to the day where I can harvest some of my plants and take them home. I’m not quite there yet. I can tell you that I am going to have plenty of green beans, melons, and cucumber. Oh yea! I didn’t know that those things grew on a vine so I had vines spilling out of the garden bed. I had to thin some of them out as well, which I didn’t want to do, but there was too much going on. Some of the stuff didn’t make the cut. Get it! I made a funny! No? Okay, moving on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was really excited to see these bad boys! My beets are growing. Oh! I have carrots growing next to them. I’m going to be juicing the heck out of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never seen a pink bug before. All it needed was some little bug-like pink polka dot stilettos and it would have been a cute outfit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was way to scared to take this picture. I didn’t want this black jack to sting my face. But it was surprisingly cooperative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually, these will be sunflowers. I can’t wait. The garden manager wasn’t sure what they were and she was almost convinced it was a huge weed. Thank goodness for Norm. Norm also has a garden bed at the community garden and he has gardened for over 50 years. He knew they were sunflowers as soon as he looked at them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is someone’s bucket of fresh produce! Ready to be cleaned, washed, and eaten. Some day that will be me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful Swiss Chard! Gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the garden, there is this huge apple tree that is open for everyone to pick from when the apples are ready to be harvested. They are getting bigger! I’m going to make so much apple stuff!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to be a kid with this picture. Gardening is tough work but is very rewarding. I am so glad I came across this community garden. I can’t wait until all of my veggies and flowers are ready to be taken home. Gardening is such a rewarding experience and very therapeutic. There is something about being connected to Mother Earth that gives freedom and the feeling of tranquility. It relaxes my soul.  I love the smell of dirt, especially after the rain. Find some dirt, plant a seed, and watch it come to life. You will be happy you did!

What are some basic rules of gardening and secrets I should know about?