Corner Garden

Chris and I spent part of the weekend helping build a community garden, "The Corner Garden", in Brookfield.  Our church, Compassion UMC, is organizing and overseeing the garden.  We're hoping the garden will bring people together, offer folks an organic space to grow vegetables, and help provide some food to our local food pantry (for those in our town who are hungry).
Friday night a group of about 12 of us got together and started on the project.  We built 20 raised beds out of cedar planks, I picked up two trash bags full of garbage off the lot (seriously people, stop littering!), and we picked up rocks to prepare the space for tilling.
Today my friend Karl is tilling the soil and tomorrow night we will lay out the beds and fill them with organic soil and compost.  Then it's time to plant!

I have taken on two of the twenty beds.  In one bed I want to plant butternut squash and in the second bed I want to  plant sugar baby watermelons.  I thought it best to grow these crops in the wide, open field of this community garden versus my back yard, because squash and watermelon like a lot of room to stretch their legs and I don't think Fred will take kindly to them stretching all over her lawn.

We will also have 2 large member beds where we will grow large yield crop.  Anyone who tends a small 4 x 4 bed, can pick any of the produce from the two larger member beds.  We plan to grow summer squash, cucumbers, basil, rosemary, tomatoes, and hot peppers. 

I'm really excited about this project.  It's a lot of work but this space is just an empty lot in Brookfield.  I feel good that we've picked up the trash and we're turning the space into something beautiful and useful.  :)