From seedlings to full growth garden – ready for harvest

Returning to Michigan and visiting my plot at the Teusink Neighborhood Garden, Linda was busy watering and chatting, she mentioned how well the garden worked and how much it met the intent. Yes, indeed.

When I left at the end of May, there were just the beginnings of greens. Now it is one big green site with colors here and there and growing.

The watering device must be in full use these days – a terrific idea.

Watering Device

Community Gardens everywhere. Teusink Neighborhood Garden – just one of them and mentioned in the “Life is Fare” blog

“Life is Fare, ” http://lifeisfare.wordpress.com is one of the remarkable blogs that captures issues and informs.  The issue is food, its origin, quality, preparation. This is a topic of growing interest as well, closely related to gardening, growing and harvesting one’s own food. One of the recent postings covered gardening and the fact that it is becoming a real trend.

Teusink Neighborhood Garden, Holland, Michigan

Gardens have been popping up all over the country, partly due to the Great Recession, and partly due to the food revolution that’s occurring. From the White House to rooftops to local neighborhood garden plots, everyone seems to be getting their hands dirty these days.

If you live in New York City, there are several opportunities in the area for gardening, according to The New York Times. These farms are ”attracting locavores, green-minded students and urbanites suffering from nature-deficit disorder who yearn to raise produce and livestock for a day, a week or longer.”

Farms that welcome volunteers in the New York metro area include: Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island; Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett; and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills. In New Jersey, try Honey Brook Organic Farm. And if you want to venture farther afield, try Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont.

If you want to grow your own plot of produce but don’t have space where you live, see what’s available in your community. For example, in Holland, Michigan, members of the Teusink Neighborhood Garden invite residents who live within a two-mile radius to rent a 4′ x 10′ plot for $15 from April 17 through October 16, 2010.

To find a community garden in your community, check out the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA), whose mission is to build community by increasing and enhancing community gardening and greening across the United States and Canada. Explore the ACGA’s database of community gardens using their interactive map.

Do you still have a plot spot – free tomato plants

Tom Zoerner passed on the following information about free tomato plants

I have about 150 tomato plants they are brandywine, homestead, mortgage buster, early girl, 4th of july. They are sitting in my driveway. Feel free to stop by and take what you want but please leave the marker in the flats so they can be identified by someone else. Free if you want or donations will help with cost of growing. There is a coffee can sitting out there as well.

Address is 631 Harrington Ave., Holland,  MI 49423.

E-mail: tomzoerner@sirus.com