What's good about Luther? The community garden.
by brian
Having been gone for a couple weeks to a more temperate climate I forgot about Minnesota's pleasurable, summer-time-friend, the mosquito. We've had a bunch of rain of late and the wonderful hatchlings have come forth in force, filling my legs with delightful bites that enable me to explore parts of my body that rarely receive the kind of attention that they now are given.
It doesn't hurt that I've been in the garden, watering and harvesting. One of the things my family and I have enjoyed here is the community garden located near the Sandgren/Burntvedt parking lot. Natalie, my wife, and I had a combined gardening experience of very little but we were keen to have a go at it this summer. We signed up to have one of the 20-something plots and trusted we could lean on the expertise of our gardening neighbors when we weren't sure what we were doing. We planted tomatoes, lettuce, kale, cukes, beans, peas and a bunch of herbs like basil, cilantro, and dill. We've had a great harvest and learned quite a few lessons for next summer, one being the importance of mulch in keeping moisture in the soil. It's also been fun to meet more of our neighbors as we toiled weeding, watering, pruning. Together we lamented the intrusion of pests and admired each other's crops. We can no longer pass any sort of flower or vegetation without my 20 month old son, Toby, proclaiming, "Wawa!" He loves carting water to the garden and digging in the soil with his toy tools. I'm grateful for the foresight of those students who pioneered this community project from the ground up and those before us who have stewarded the land so well.
And if you need any basil, let me know cause there's no way we can make enough pesto to use it up.
It doesn't hurt that I've been in the garden, watering and harvesting. One of the things my family and I have enjoyed here is the community garden located near the Sandgren/Burntvedt parking lot. Natalie, my wife, and I had a combined gardening experience of very little but we were keen to have a go at it this summer. We signed up to have one of the 20-something plots and trusted we could lean on the expertise of our gardening neighbors when we weren't sure what we were doing. We planted tomatoes, lettuce, kale, cukes, beans, peas and a bunch of herbs like basil, cilantro, and dill. We've had a great harvest and learned quite a few lessons for next summer, one being the importance of mulch in keeping moisture in the soil. It's also been fun to meet more of our neighbors as we toiled weeding, watering, pruning. Together we lamented the intrusion of pests and admired each other's crops. We can no longer pass any sort of flower or vegetation without my 20 month old son, Toby, proclaiming, "Wawa!" He loves carting water to the garden and digging in the soil with his toy tools. I'm grateful for the foresight of those students who pioneered this community project from the ground up and those before us who have stewarded the land so well.
And if you need any basil, let me know cause there's no way we can make enough pesto to use it up.
posted by brian at 7:53 AM
2 Comments:
I thought your tomatoes were really yummy, round and juicy. Thanks for letting us have some while you were in the UK. Great to have ya'll back.
Is this the Brian McCleary from Iowa who was on Youth Encounter? If so, you like stayed at my house,slept on my sofa and ate all of my Dad's Corn Nuts. Hope to see you around campus old friend.
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