2009 “Get It Garden” Challenge – Readers Get Started – WOOT!
Welcome to the 2009 Casual Gardener “Get It Garden” Challenge!! The challenge: create a garden that makes a difference in your life and your community, then share it with The Casual Gardener readers.
As you can see by the above photo it is almost time to plant my veggie garden! My front lawn has had most of the sod removed and leaves and amendments added so we can dig it all in. Digging will hopefully commence tomorrow if the rain holds off.
Already I have been hearing from lots of readers on their gardens. Deb Brown from Geneva, Iowa publishes “Deb Works” – a fantastic blog – and is also an avid gardener. A photo of her freshly laid out garden is to the right. Here’s what she told me about it, “My parents have been planting living gardens for over 70 years. A living garden is one that has food in it that you use to live. We worked the ground really well this year — had a guy come in and till it deep. Then we waited a couple of weeks. Then we hand tilled and raked (many times I might add).
Susan Photo credit Susan Landau-Van Dyke lives in Woodridge, Illinois and sent me fantastic photos of her garden bed transformation. Here’s Susan’s garden BEFORE –
And a wonderful shot of the transformation in process –
And here it is – the AFTER shot – all ready for planting. GREAT JOB SUSAN! WOOT!
Keep those photos and stories coming. Next step for me will be to till under the garden and start planting. Can’t wait to show you progress.
Remember, as you build your garden, please send photos and details to me, Shawna Coronado and I will post your successes – and your failures – so we can all learn how to make a difference with a garden. Please send anything you can – what do you do with all the vegetables you harvest for instance? Will you sell them for additional family income? Will you give them away to local food banks? My readers want to know ALL the details.
Let’s build a garden together! Please join the 2009 Casual Gardener “Get It Garden” Challenge today and help make a difference for yourself and your community.
Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community!
I expand my beds every year. This year I’m adding space for veggies. W00t indeed!
Yes, I “gave” Susan my neglected veggie plot for her to tend this year.
She put down her carrots and lettuce yesterday. Added a mesh fence to keep out hungry rabbits. And, then put down straw mulch.
In the meantime, I’ve been pulling crab grass out of my flower beds. Once the grass is out, I break up the dirt and am amazed at all the wonderful worms! Then the areas get covered with old newspaper and finally a layer of mulch. I’m using a cheap steak knife for much of my work. I’ve put several windings of duct tape around the handle. And, I have to find the colored 3M tape in
bright yellow…so that I won’t loose my knife!
I just threw my lettuce in a shady spot. It’s growing nicely. We’ll see if the bunnies find it.