HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! It has been a few days since I have been able to visit with you and a busy few days it has been. I have been working on the Jackson Community Garden sites, both mine and helping another coordinator till over at his site over on Glendale St. here in Jackson, TN. It has been a HUGE, time consuming and daunting task to got from bare, raw land loaded with grass roots, brick, broken glass, even broken sewer pipes and small pieces of lumber long buried after the houses have been demolished and bulldozed down and covered.
My comrade I was assisting worked his site last year and it was in pretty good, easy shape to get tilled up and we now have it looking great and he has it marked off and ready for planting this weekend. Over at my bare ground site, having NEVER been tilled, I am working many-many hours in this unseasonable heat and humidity to get it ready to plant. Then this morning I find out that some of my gardeners have said it has taken too long and have lost interest and I am having trouble finding others to replace them. I can only say that between all the problems that have arisen here over at my site, with the issue of the City of Jackson deciding NOT to be involved on property that they, the City, do not own outright has set this particular project back to almost day one back last winter in the planning stages. I do not see any way to make this work unless I go FULL-TILT myself and just make it work and then just plant it and let the "community at large " and NOT the individual gardeners go in and just harvest what ever they want.
Here are some shots of what was done over at the other site at Glendale St. and what it looks like and ready for planting. Here is your Garden Daddy out running the tiller over there and then the outcome of almost 3-hours of tilling.
After finishing up at this site I went over around the corner and worked on my site, walking distance from here around the block a little. I have several small plots tilled up so far. I am not tilling the entire site but only plots I have or had gardeners for. I cannot do it all alone as the task is just too much for me. I realize that my 56-years of age does not allow me to keep running like I was still 30 y/o any longer. It just cannot be done by myself without some added gardeners. But I will do what I can and keep the positive outlook and try to make it into something and full fill my obligation I agreed to do and make it work for this summer anyway.
The garden here at the urban farm is coming in nicely, of course, with young yellow squash and zucchini already forming and most every thing else blooming, except the purple hull peas. I have harvested the last of the snow peas this week and have them strung, tipped and cleaned and washed and in the fridge, ready to blanch and freeze. It looks like a good, productive harvest here at the urban farm this summer.
I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"
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