Hello All,
I hope everyone's garden is doing well and you're enjoying this beautiful summer. The weather this year is way better than last year, for sure. It's definitely cooler.
I have to share some sad garden news. It happened this past week at my community garden. Mrs. 38th Street and I were going to tidy up the plot in preparation of a tour of the green spaces in the Mapleton Fall Creek area of the city. It was put on by IndyTilth and sponsored by Sun King Brewery (thanks for the free beer!) and Nicey Treet (thanks for the free Thai Coffee ice cream bar!).
Last Wednesday, we arrived at the garden after work. I told Mrs. 38th Street that our Corn was getting close to ripe, so we need to check it. We also had some Tomatoes and Peppers that were close to turning, plus some Cucumbers that were ready to pick now. As we walked up to the garden, I noticed something looked different. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that some of the corn was gone. Then I looked closer and noticed about 8 or so ears of Corn were pick and they broke 3 Corn stalks in the process. I also saw that they picked a portion of Tomatoes AND walked through the middle of the Tomato plants, breaking 3 of them! The Cucumbers that were ready were gone. They pulled up a third of the onions and just left them laying on the ground! Some of the jalapenos were gone, too.
The garden was raided. I don't know by who, but it had happened sometime during the previous two day. All this was very disheartening. I was felt deflated. Mrs. 38th Street told me this might happen. I didn't want to think about that so I hoped for the best. Unfortunately, she was right. I was hoping the people in the neighborhood would be cool and let all the gardens be, but they proved that wasn't the case.
I was feeling this combination of defeat, sadness, and anger all at the same time. We had put so much time and money into this labor of love, then to see it robbed by someone in the neighborhood. I didn't know what to do as I stood there with my head down.
Mrs. 38th Street came over, gave me a hug and gave me some encouraging words to try to cheer me up. She said she was going to take me out to dinner. Pick any place I want and she'd pay. So we went to the Aristocrat. I love my wife. She was there to pick me up when I was down and she again showed me how much she loves me. A little dinner, a couple beers; it did help.
We garden because we want fresh, organic, healthy food. We want to be as self sufficient as possible and have less chemicals in our bodies. We did the community garden because of our housing situation. We didn't put all of our time, money and sweat into the garden just to have people rummage through, destroy and ruin it because of WHATEVER reason they had. I don't mind giving away some of the harvest. I don't. I even told Mrs. 38th Street that one day, I wanted to have a garden big enough I can donate some of the harvest to food kitchens to help feed the less fortunate. I don't want to do it like this, though. This was wrong. It was inconsiderate and not a neighborly thing to do. Didn't their Mom's teach them the Golden Rule?
Mrs. 38th Street did have a good point though. She commented that maybe some of the people in the neighborhood are misunderstanding the name of the garden. The spot is called the "Broadway Community Garden." She says they may be thinking that this belongs to the "Community" and it's for the "Community" to harvest and take what they want. This could be true. I can see people not knowing what the community garden is all about.
So when I get home from work today, I will be putting a sign in the garden that says, "PLEASE DON'T PICK MY VEGETABLES." I hope that's easy to understand. We want to enjoy some of the harvest from this year.
I really try to see the good in people. I will give you respect until you show me you're not worthy of respect. I want people to treat people like they want to be treated. It's a simple thing to do. If people lived life this way, communities would be a little nicer in general. It's not hard. I do hope everyone learns this at some point in their lives. Karma's a bitch. That sh*t comes back around in one form or another.
Alright, I've said my two cents about all this garden raiding. I'm done. I hope everyone had a good weekend. I'm ready to go grill something, myself, with a beer.
38th Street Gardener is outta here!
Welcome to my garden blog! This is an online journal of our 2013 garden off 38th Street in Indianapolis. I still have my blog entries from my 2011 and 2012 gardens. I'll give you the run down of what I've done around our little plot of land in the city, as well as my new plot in the Broadway Community Garden. My successes, mistakes and craziness will be included. I am also hoping for some advice from the good people who hopefully read this. Thanks for visiting!
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
I'm So Excited! And I Just Can't Hide It!
YES!!!
I AM so excited, and I just can't hide it! It's not just a great Pointer Sisters' song, it's how I feel. Since my last visit to the community garden, which was on July 10th, the garden has made another big step. I visited yesterday, July 15th, and everything looks even better! More Tomatoes everywhere, Peppers of every variety are multiplying, Cucumbers keep coming, Onions bulging, and I now have ears of Corn!
I AM so excited, and I just can't hide it! It's not just a great Pointer Sisters' song, it's how I feel. Since my last visit to the community garden, which was on July 10th, the garden has made another big step. I visited yesterday, July 15th, and everything looks even better! More Tomatoes everywhere, Peppers of every variety are multiplying, Cucumbers keep coming, Onions bulging, and I now have ears of Corn!
LOOK AT THIS!!!
Every year that I've been gardening, their is one plant that I get really excited about and this year is most definitely CORN! I mean, come on, how cool is that?! I am a Hoosier, so I guess this is only natural. When I got the garden plot at Broadway Community Garden, I knew I wanted to try to grow corn. It's probably about 7ft tall now. Check it out:
This picture of myself cracks me up and the caption I want to put on this would be... inappropriate. Funny, but inappropriate.
Here are some more great picture updates from the community garden:
I got 10 Jalapenos from the garden yesterday. I put one and a half in some pico de gallo I made. It was so frickin hot! Wheeeoooow! I have a ton of tomatoes everywhere. I'm hoping they start turning soon. I'm ready for some fresh tomatoes. It puts me in a great mood when we pick veggies from OUR garden and cook with them. Amazing.
Now I'm not growing greens in the community garden, but in our garden box at home. We are almost done with all the greens. They were great. I love picking greens out of the ground, washing them and then eating them 30 minutes later. I hope everyone does this at some point in their lives. It feels great that you know what you're putting into your body. Well, at least you have a better chance to knowing what you put in your body, anyway.
Ok, back to work, everyone.
38th Street Gardener OUT-Y!
Friday, July 12, 2013
Post Wedding Garden Update!
[Cue wedding march]
Hey Everyone!
There is now a Mr. and Mrs. 38th Street Gardener! The wedding and all the preceding festivities were great. The honeymoon wasn't too bad either ;)
Sorry, no wedding photos here. You'll have to talk to us about those. What I do have are a bunch of community garden photos. Let's be honest, which would YOU rather see, huh? I know you want to see more gardening goodness, right? No? So... you'd rather see the wedding photos? Oh, ok, well...
Tough. I'm showing you a bunch of garden goobaleegook and it's going to be awesome!
Here is a shot of the corn the day before we left for the honeymoon on July 1st. Mrs. 38th Street is looking beautiful, of course. I don't know if you know this, but Mrs. 38th Street is 6' 9". So that corn in the picture is like over 7' tall!
But seriously, the corn is about 6' tall. Pretty awesome.
Then Mrs. 38th Street and I were off to Aruba for our honeymoon! After a lot of sun, sea and adult beverages (not necessarily in that order), we came back to ol' Indiana very happy and relaxed.
Maybe a little hung over, too, but who cares! It was freakin awesome!
Here's low down on the Broadway Community Garden as of July 10th. Everything looked great. I was happy to see we had some rain while we were away. No draught hit and killed everything. I did have a lot of weeds, but I expected that. Check this out:
I did remember to walk-off the garden length. It is 25' x 3' plot.
I can't wait to see some ears on these suckers.
The first veggies harvested from the community garden! I did have a small Cucumber before we left for the honeymoon, but I didn't pick it. I hope my Cucumber plant still produces even though I let this guy turn yellow. I read that that is a no-no.
I have Cayenne Peppers popping up everywhere. I love it! If all goes well, we'll have some fresh crushed red pepper for our meals.
Jalapenos are looking good. I like to let them start to turn red a bit before I pick them.
I am pleased the Marigolds are still doing well. They really make the garden look nice, I must say.
Tomatoes!!! I think these are the Black Krim.
Holy crap, we're going to have a ton of Blondekopfchen Tomatoes! Look at all those little flowers. Now, I didn't see any bees while I was there, but I'm hoping they make some regular visits.
Romas. You can never have too many of these. Well...
All in all, not a bad looking garden. I'm happy with everything.
I did discover that I have TWO Cucumber plants instead of one. I thought I had one Sugar Baby Watermelon in the mix, but I was wrong. Hey, it's OK. I'm down with more Cucumbers. After I did some weeding, I hit everything with some leftover Garden Tone fertilizer and some liquid fish fertilizer. I hope that gives everything a little boost. It just needs a good rain now.
There is a nice old man who lives next door, which would be the house behind me in the picture above. His name is Allen. Pretty nice guy. He sure doesn't like the gas company or the KKK. I can't blame him on either one. I told him I'd hook him up with some tomatoes if all goes well. Allen seemed pretty happy about this. I hope I can deliver!
Back to work!
Mr. & Mrs. 38th Street Gardener OUT!
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