Community Garden Day 1

My friend and I decided to join our community garden this year. We both have enough land to have our own gardens at our homes, but the community garden offered us a lot of benefits. First, it's already established. It has a fence to keep out animals and a shed for equipment - which includes a tiller, a lawnmower, shovels, hoes, rakes, etc. Everything is right there! It's also in an accessible location in the village.

Well, we found out another huge benefit yesterday afternoon. The community! It was our first scheduled work day and we really weren't sure what to expect. I came prepared with some hand tools and gloves ready to get to work.

Our garden was a mess - very overgrown. It had not been tended for over a year.

Our garden  - The Before photo! 

The well tended plots near ours. 

In need of LOTS of work.

The sky was clear when we arrived at 4 pm, but there had been a downpour within the hour. It made the ground easy to dig and we got to work right away. Soon other gardeners arrived and they all grabbed tools and headed over to our plot. We were the "newbies" and they were all there to help us get it in shape for the season!

Before we knew it there were 8 of us digging weeds and clearing the ground. Now that's community! 

It rained. It cleared. And it rained again. Wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow was filled and dumped.  By 5:30 pm we were weed-free and level! 

The Community Garden

That's us - Nancy and Nancy  - The after picture - In the rain. 

Almost ready for planting!

What a great experience! I've always hated weeding. It was one of my childhood chores and I actually paid other kids to help me get it done.

 This weeding project was actually FUN!  Next up for us - Garden planning and planting!

I'll keep you updated!