Community gardener check-in: Daniela

This season I've been trying to make good on my original mission to highlight the efforts of my fellow gardeners.  Like some bloggers, I have been shy about revealing my body of work and even more hesitant to shine the Internet spotlight on others.  Yet as I was thinning my lettuce and spinach yesterday and realizing that dull and un-postworthy those activities were, some new material walked through the gate: Daniela and three of her four children, including her newest, born last November and snuggling comfortably in her mother's sling.

Although I run into Daniela from time to time and my daughter and one of her sons once participated in JP Children's Soccer together, this was the first time in about two years I had actually caught her tending her plot.  "So are you going to write about me?" she immediately asked after I told her about the blog.  She is no stranger to the medium, maintaining her own blog read by family members, including those in her native Switzerland, so she had no issue with being the subject of today's post.

Her main tasks yesterday included thinning out her garlic (shown above), which has been growing in her plot for the past three years, and her strawberries.  She also planted carrot seeds and prepared an area for salad greens.  The radishes she started two and a half weeks ago (below) are progressing nicely (by the way, if you are curious about what that generally looks like, check this out).  When I first glanced at the shape of the leaves, my immediate reaction was: bindweed?  Since the warnings about the spread of this unwanted invasive, I've become a little obsessed.  With the exception of the radishes and garlic, her plans resemble mine, with zinnias, tomatoes, and broccoli or brussel sprouts on the way.  

I have known Daniela since she started gardening at the old stable garden in 2002, and she has always been one of those women about which I wonder, "How does she do it?"  Not only has she been able to forge a multilingual existence in a new country, but raise and homeschool her kids.  And make it look so easy.  I had forgotten to ask if the garden had a role in her curriculum.  After seeing Elias, her oldest, pull wayward strawberry runners without being prompted, I wouldn't be surprised if some of her instruction took place here.

Although she misses having a much larger plot in the old garden, Daniela believes that the reconstructed Minton Stable Garden is an improvement, because more gardeners can participate.  The location of her plot--it's the one on the corner closest to the shed--is also ideal.  Her baby can lie in the grass across the path and her other kids have a safe common area nearby where they can run around.

The costs of gardening and other updates

Friday afternoon around 4:30, my daughter and I took advantage of the 70-degree heat and headed over to the Minton Stable Garden. The children outnumbered the adults; at one point I counted eight, and those were only the ones that were ex utero. The oldest, my eight-year-old, helped water the plants in our plot. The spinach is now about an inch high, but the lettuce has yet to take off, with a leaf span of not quite a centimeter across.

Also coming up are tulips and a few perennials, including echinacea and black-eyed susans. California poppies, an annual, have self-seeded from last year, their thin, light green tendrils peeking out of the soil. Asa, my plot neighbor, alerted me that her raspberry plants, located about a foot away from the border of my strawberry bed, were starting to send runners underground, and wanted to know if it was okay if she could pull any she found invading my plot. I told her not to worry about it; if she was able to take care of it that was fine, but I didn't mind pulling them out as I handled my regular weeding. The only real issue I had last year with her raspberries involved trying to keep my daughter from eating them.

I took a few photos, including this wide shot above. I try to avoid close-ups of children out of respect for families' privacy. My friend Terry suggested the shot below of this row of plots, starting with mine in the foreground. Next is Asa's and you can see that she has laid down some salt marsh hay to keep down the weeds.

Last year this much was scarce, but nearby Allandale Farm has managed to get a shipment already, so last week we bought a bale of it for the home and community garden plots. This leads me to the latest update of my ongoing calculation of my food growing costs for the season:

Previous total: $120.92

MSG annual plot dues: $28.00

Bale of salt hay w/tax: $15.75

New total: $164.67

It'll take a few months to reap anything to offset these expenses, but it should be worth it.

And they're off...

Yesterday morning in the Minton Stable Garden I experienced the annual Running of the Kids.  For the past four years, two MSG families with six children between them have organized the Easter Egg Hunt, stuffing plastic eggs with jellybeans, M & Ms, and other goodies, and stashing them in around garden plots and common areas behind the garden gate in preparation.

The hunting ground was off-limits until around 9:30 when Hannah, one of the organizers, called all families to the entrance near Dungarven Road to explain the rules, mainly 1) The plot areas are for children under five, while older kids should confine their search to the more challenging wildflower and native plantings area in the corner of the property by Williams Street, and 2) when the hunt is over, everyone should be willing to share their surplus so all end up with the same amount of eggs.

Then the gate was opened, and kids fanned out in all directions, scooping up eggs tucked away in garden plots, hidden next to rocks, and nestled in tree branches and other odd places.  The limited flora at this stage of the growing season worked in everyone's favor.  Some older kids learned the hard way that the stinging nettles were already claiming the edges of the property, an unintentional consequence.  A few who had already amassed a full basket re-hid a few eggs so the younger could gain more satisfaction.

Within about fifteen minutes, all of the 300+ eggs had been found, and Hannah reconvened the crowd to count and share, so each child could leave with a basket of a dozen eggs.  Then we adults lingered, drinking coffee, chatting, and meeting new neighbors while our kids went to work maintaining their sugar highs.  As we headed out, many of us made sure to track down Allison and Hannah to thank them for taking time from their busy schedules to maintain this community-building tradition.

Mixed signals

Earlier this evening on my way to the hose, I came across this odd sign.

Excuse me for coming off as an Anglocentric knucklehead, but is this the international symbol for "no children allowed?"  Traditionally that message has been depicted by a bar across two children running. What's up with the circle around the kid's head?  If this child is an angel who lets a parent hold his/her hand, then what is the problem?

Perhaps these gardeners have had issues with toddlers not respecting plot boundaries while their parents have their backs turned.  I have seen that happen but not too often.  I'm just curious to know if any youngsters who are too young to read have encountered this sign and successfully interpreted it.

Is there something in the water?

I'm often in the garden during off-peak times, when most people are at work.  But when I do find others watering, weeding, or just hanging out on one of the stone benches along the main path, not everyone is bipedal or can speak for themselves.

"Can you believe how many babies there are?" my long-time neighborhood friends and I often muse to each other.  "Is there something in the water?" Compared to, say, 5-10 years ago, we're seeing many more of them, in strollers, slings, and backpacks, rolling on blankets spread out on the grass, and splashing in one of the wading pools near the shed.  Surveying the crowd at a barbecue, I always seem to find a swollen belly or two in my field of vision.

It appears to me that compared to other neighborhoods, Jamaica Plain is experiencing its own baby boom (Not that I've performed any census).  More and more triple-deckers have gone condo; there seems to be an increase in couples who are making a financial commitment to the neighborhood, and chances are, they are making other commitments as well.  

To all of those busy parents of newborns and toddlers who manage to squeeze a little gardening time into their busy schedules: keep it up!  As little ones develop, tending a plot is a wonderful way to help them develop an awareness of nature.  There are many plants that they can grow, or help water or harvest.  They can learn to identify the different species of butterflies or other garden creatures.  It can be a little nerve-wracking when they help themselves to a neighbor's strawberries, get stung by nettles, or confuse a basil seedling with a weed, but gardening can help children in making many connections that can enhance their education and development, and lead to a healthier diet.

I remember how productive I was when my daughter could sleep in her stroller, shaded by a blanket.  Then the napping ceased and mobility increased, and there was the season that my plot was so neglected that, had this occurred after the community garden became official, it would have been reassigned.  Luckily that era was short lived, as my daughter developed a love for carrots and snapdragons, among the first plants we tended in our new plot when the community garden was redesigned, around 2004 if I remember correctly.

Now she's 7, and a little more ambivalent when it comes to helping out.  She's more likely to help harvest or turn on the hose only if I ask her, and if she's reached a point in the book she's reading where she can put it down (I guess I shouldn't really complain if one healthy activity replaces another).  

I wonder if having more kids her age around in the garden would revitalize her interest.  But that's an issue to ponder for another time.  (It's time to relinquish the non-wireless cable connection in our vacation house to another user.)