Karma rich, and all wet...

I'm starting to understand why it is raining so much, and more importantly at such an opportune time (yeah right, timed perfectly for construction day). No it's not bad karma, in fact it is the complete opposite; the community garden group are karma rich beyond our wildest dreams. Allow me to explain.

One of the largest hurdles to getting the garden started; aside from the legalities, logistics, and bureaucracy of the city (which they have been great about helping us navigate through), the uneasiness over whether or not we would find enough people interested in gardening (clearly not a problem, we have an abundance of northern hills green thumbs), the questions over funding for bed and planting materials (who ever has enough money?); was how are we going to get water? Well we are happy to say that yet again the city has stepped up and has provided us not only with water hookups but also free flow (we will do our best to be diligent in its conservative use). But because it was such a worry of ours, and because as I said we are a karma rich bunch, mother nature also heard our call for water and decided to pitch in. And when mother nature goes to work, she doesn't mess around!

Although we are definitely grateful for the rain in general, sometimes you have to wonder what kind of sense of humour mother nature has. Sitting here, ready for the weekend, with my working gloves on, drill in hand (all figuratively speaking, there are still 2 days till the shovel drops) and all I can see in my head is mother nature and karma kicking back and laughing. "They said they wanted water!!!!"

But I'm still hopeful and optimistic that karma and mother nature are just having a laugh, playing with our nerves; especially Joanne's, our fearless leader who has the dubious task of trying to organise the logistics of construction day while the deluge continues. I'm sure she is asking herself "Hmmm...Do we stick with the original box plans, or maybe switch over to building an ark?"

Like I said, or at least meant to say, I'm positive everything will work out fine; rain or shine. A little rain never hurt anyone.

So this is what it feels like to be a farmer...

Perhaps slight hyperbole. But the idea is the same; sitting, staring at the sky, having all your plans depend on the weather (thank goodness not my livelihood). With the 29th and construction day looming large, and the impending rain clouds even larger, my FSL is increasing dramatically (that's Farmer Stress Level). All I've been doing is checking the weather forecast; but with its infamous accuracy I might as well be reading tea leaves.


Instead of continuing to worry my pretty little head (sure it is), I thought I'd try an stay in the farmer mindset and check the only truly reliable source...the Farmer's Almanac. Much to my dismay it only confirmed my fears, "May 27-31: Rain, then sunny, cool". However, we shall prevail, the show must go on; and building some boxes and filling them with dirt might be nice with a little sprinkle of rain to cool off the hard workers. Until then crossing my fingers and thinking desert like thoughts.

First harvest...

It seems like only a few short weeks ago that the only colour on the ground was brown...or maybe even white. And yet today I'm proud to say that I am harvesting the first crop from my yard, or maybe more like a small grocery bag...OK very small. But nonetheless I've got fresh chives for the barbequed potatoes, and fresh rhubarb for ice cream.
The chives are nice, but nothing is better than stewed rhubarb over french vanilla ice cream; unless maybe you have some raspberries. Check out the pics below. I can't wait for the community garden to start, eating my own potatoes is going to be amazing.

A design to put the Eiffel tower to shame...

It's true, these boxes are a work of art. Thanks to Deanna and Shawn for their extra time and effort puting together the prototype. And also to Elizabeth for her artistic interpretation/photography. Perhaps the best part is how simple the construction is going to be for everyone. A few cuts, a few screws, and voila Garden Magic!

More vandalism in the neighborhood!!!!

In an apparent attempt to recreate the 90's craze of crop circles grafitti artists took to the field not far from the Harvest Hills pond. Of course this was just the apparent form, there was in fact method in the madness of the latest spray painting incident. Members of the community garden team were out on a chilly Thursday night to lay down a grid plan for garden box placement. Everything went very well, aside from a few setbacks caused by someone's (who could that be???) inability to distinguish between 2 and 3 feet measurements (whats a few extra lines between friends).

The city's parks and water departments have also marked our water lines out and helped us plan where we are going to get our blue gold from. If it wasn't for the city stepping forward I don't think alot would be growing in our near desert conditions, although I'm sure the planting boxes would still look lovely. Only one more week till construction, see you all May 29 weather permtting.

One step closer to planting...

Only one week until the garden plots are built and filled with dirt. It's got me eager for all things gardening. Unfortunately this cold weather has swept in I've been relegated to researching all things garden and agriculture on the web. In my marathon web surfing session I came across two websites that have amazing, if not interesting information.

Check out Food Politics if you are interested in the complexity and anxiety that our current food system can bring. Or for some information that's a little closer to home, or at least a little more immediate in its scope check out The Urban Farmer. Though be warned, the information is from Edmonton, so don't blame me if you start sprouting Edmontonians. It does have a great section on edible plants for the Alberta landscape, and a whole slew of other information. Of course there is always the fail safe perennial favourite Calgary Horticultural Society website, they have what seems to be an unlimited supply of information to meet any Calgary gardeners needs. And whats even better is if they don't have it on the site they have contact information for someone who is bound to know. If anyone else has some resources I would love to check them out, just post in the comments.