There is a kind older woman who lives in our neighborhood who has a very beautiful garden. I asked her one day for some gardening advice, and one of the things she said was, "Gardening is hard work."
Yes it is.
The thing I love about gardening is that God made the dirt, the sun, the rain, and the plants, and I feel a little closer to Him when I'm interacting with all those things. He reveals His glory in what He's created, and taking part in gardening helps me see that.
But it's hard to see it when your busy, and it hardly rains, and your garden is sad and sparse. But we still want to see this garden thing happen. So while there's plenty of hard work ahead, we've decided to plan. Novel idea. Here it is.
Our goal is to create a successful garden that provides for the missionaries, that is both manageable and cost-effective. If we can't make it worthwhile to garden, why in the world would we expect anyone else to? So here are some more specific goals:
2012
- Plant some vegetables to harvest in the fall - Our plants have not been very productive, about a fourth of our garden is currently vacant, and we want to grow something! So we are going to try to grow kale, collards, chard, Brussel's sprouts, and leeks.
- Install exterior water access - We have no hose. Well, to be more accurate, we have no exterior faucet. So we've been watering with watering cans. It takes a lot.
- Mulch around the garden - There is a bit of grass around the side and back of our raised bed, so we're going to mow it super short and mulch over it. Less to mow, and it looks really nice. And mulch is free from Gateway Greening!
- Plant a cover crop - Might be a little tricky with a fall garden, but our soil is terrible. We're also thinking of planting some garlic in the fall to harvest in the spring.
- Become better gardeners - Amy and I are realizing we are not well equipped gardeners. So we are going to try to get a little more knowledgeable. Here's how:
- Read 2 gardening books (suggestions?)
- Watch 2 educational garden related movies (any more suggestions?)
- Continue writing gardening articles for our community newspaper, 3rd Ward STL
- Post at least 2 Urbz blogs per month. Writing articles and blogs involves research or at least engagement, so that kind of helps keep us focused and moving forward. Plus, it shares what we've learned.
For 2013
- Have our garden plan (plants, planting times, etc) done by the end of February
- Add healthy soil - Like I said, our soil is really bad. If anyone would like to donate quality soil, please contact us!!! jason@sunministries.org
- Till - Ideally, this would involve tilling in the cover crop. But either way, we need to mix up the soil. There's decent stuff at the bottom, then a layer of compost (which doesn't have much substance and drains almost too well), and topped with a layer of river dirt, which is bad (it's clayey; and that really is a word, I just looked it up). So maybe mixing it all together will make for some good stuff. Also, fulfilling this goal will require repairing the tiller which we were recently donated.
- Build a tool shed - We have some space in the back yard where all of our garden tools will go. Eventually.
- Build a trellis for the rose - We have a rose that was planted by the previous owners about a foot away from the path leading to the back gate. Not a wise location. So I'm going to build a trellis around it to control the growth, and add some more visual interest to the back yard.
- Install a two-bin compost bin
- Have indoor starts - We might use our balconies for this, and find some way to protect them from extreme temperatures. Starting the stuff inside and planting seedlings will increase our chances of having successful plants.
So there you go. Here's hoping.
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