Living Green

In our last blog Chris mentioned our recent acquisition of a plot in the community garden. Well... today was our first day out there. After reading many articles on the internet and books from the library I decided to use the "lasagna" method of gardening. The first layer consists of wet newspaper or corrugated cardboard. The second layer is "browns" (i.e. compost, leaves), followed by "greens" (i.e. grass clippings, lawn scraps, or vegetable scraps). The final layer is manure or peat. The "browns" and "greens" are repeated several times until the bed is roughly 2 feet tall. Our layers consisted of wet newspaper, wet and dry leaves, grass clippings, and manure.

First layer (wet newspaper):Second layer (leaves):Third layer (grass clippings):

Fourth layer (manure... ewww):

After completing the layering process we planted some baby spinach plants we bought from the local Farmer's Market. I have also been attempting to germinate and sow some tomato, sweet pepper, and swiss chard seeds. Those plants will not be mature enough to be planted outside until after the last frost; approximately April 27th.

Baby Spinach and Tomato Seedlings!

The experience was great! It was wonderful being outside with Chris attempting to grow something. I think sometimes we forget where our food comes from. We forget it usually is grown from a seed, cared for, and then transported hundreds sometimes thousands of miles to our dining rooms. There is often a disconnect of where our food comes from and how it ends up on our plates. I think the experience of growing our own few vegetables will be freeing and very rewarding.

In other news Chris and I are very excited to see Jenny and Brooks next Saturday followed by my family coming in for Easter weekend. Friends and family visiting is always a welcome thing.