Working in the Garden (Part 2)

Remember the garden I told you about?

I have a little secret: It's not the only garden I'm in charge of this summer. I'm also taking care of a little raised-bed garden at an elementary school, which is part of a grant-funded school garden project I started last fall.

The problem is, school isn't in session over the summer. So I don't have any elementary students to help me keep things going. Instead, I just bop on over to the elementary school once or twice a week to weed and water and (hopefully soon) to harvest, too.Things are going along pretty well so far.


As long as I remember to bring my gardening clothes to work, that is. I learned the hard way gardening in dress clothes in the heat of the summer is not fun. Just sayin'.

Working in the Garden (Part 1)

You're probably thinking that I must not be gardening at all this summer.

You're probably wondering if pregnancy has slowed me down so much that I haven't even done any planting, and that's why you haven't seen the frequent garden updates that undoubtedly sustained you through the past couple of summers. (You did spend every waking minute waiting for my next post about plants, didn't you?)

But if you're thinking this sort of thing, I must correct you.

The truth of the matter is, I'm gardening more than I ever have before. It's just that most of my gardening isn't happening in L-Town and it isn't happening on evenings and weekends.

Yep, now it's part of my job.

The giant garden you're seeing here is 20-plus plots that are roughly 2ox20 feet. (They're roughly that because guess who divided them up? Yep, me. So they're rough.)

No, I'm not gardening this entire giant garden. It's our LLCC community garden, which is located right behind the Workforce Development building I work in (that's the building with blue you see here).

But I do have a plot in the garden and am in charge of overseeing the whole darn thing. So the person who divided up all the plots and assigned them to willing gardeners and purchased all the plants? That's me. And the person who sets up the sprinklers and keeps the walkways relatively weed-free and sprays the (nontoxic but frightfully smelly) Liquid Fence that keeps the deer and rabbits away? That's me, too.

And when I have a bit of time, I try to keep an eye on my own plot, which you see here. That's been a bit tough lately, with the rain and the other garden to-dos. But I did manage to put down a layer of wet cardboard and some straw in my plot recently in the hopes it might keep the insane weeds and grass that have overtaken our garden at bay.

And though things are progressing much more slowly than in my fertile little front-yard garden at home has in past summers, there are finally some tomatoes making an appearance. There are flowers on the (tiny) zucchini and cucumber plants.

Things are growing. Yahoo!

Building a Hoop House

On Sunday, I participated in a 10/10/10 Global Work Party at Jubilee Farm in Springfield. My task for the day: helping to build a hoop house, which will extend the growing season on the farm.

You can get a peek at the hoop house here.

It was a bit of work but beautiful weather. Unfortunately, things progressed slowly because there were only a few of us working at one time, so I never got to see the finished product. But that just gives me an excuse to go back.

On a side note, Jubilee Farm is an awesome place to visit. It's a small working farm run by a group of Domenican sisters. They have a CSA and grow lovely produce sans pesticides (basically, what they do is organic farming without officially being able to call it organic). They're always looking for help, so if you get the urge to pull some weeds or pick some produce, go visit! While you're there, be sure to check out all the cool stuff they have on their land, including a pottery studio and a labyrinth. For real.

Quest Magazine

I'm incredibly excited to share a special magazine with you today. It's not a publication you can find in stores or that you can subscribe to. But it is hot of the presses, so to speak, and I'm going to show you where you can find it online.

The reason I'm encouraging you to take a look at it? Because it has consumed much of my time for the past couple of months. You see, I served as editor for the 2009 issue that just launched online today.

It's called Quest, and you can view the entire online version here (you'll be downloading a PDF, just to warn you).

It's loaded with profiles of people who are making a difference around the world—people who are working to help North Koreans escape oppression and build better lives in the United States, serving in the Peace Corps in remote African villages, fighting a global HIV/AIDS epidemic, assisting with research missions in Antarctica, and so much more.

The thing that makes all of these people unique is that they were named Coca-Cola Scholars prior to graduating from high school. It's a prestigious honor from the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, which awards generous college scholarships to students who demonstrate academic abilities and a dedication to service in their lives. Even after Scholars graduate, the Foundation works to stay connected with them—and this magazine is one way they do that.

I was chosen to be editor of the magazine this year not only because that's what I do when I'm not playing graduate student, but because I'm a Coca-Cola Scholar too. (One who is incredibly humbled by all the amazing things my fellow Scholars are doing around the world, by the way.)

This is the first issue of Quest that is edited by a Coke Scholar, plus for the first time ever all of the stories in this issue were written by Coke Scholars about Coke Scholars (some of those writers, by the way, are editors for magazines, The Washington Post, and more, so it's an impressive group).

But enough Quest horn-tooting. I just wanted to share with you the link in case you're curious about what I've been up to recently. Enjoy!