Planting a community garden

Today was my second work day at our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, where I have a working share (four hours of work per week in exchange for a single share of vegetables).

The job at hand was planting flower seedlings in the beds that will become the cutting garden for our CSA, and in which I will work to help keep the weeds at bay throughout the growing season.

There were about a dozen people (and one farm dog) there to help with the process of popping seedlings out of trays, dropping them a foot a part and tucking them into the freshly-tilled soil.

Rae, the assistant farm manager laid the seedlings out at the top of each row before we got there. She also ran a seeder up and down the beds to create nice tracks in the soil for us to plant in.

It was a lot of fun to work with so many people, most of whom I had never met but happily chatted with as we planted.

Things got a little dicey when thunderstorms and driving rain barrelled through an hour into our planting.

I was not at all dressed for rain (nor was anyone else) and I expected us to all retreat into the barn or at least huddle under one of the tents set up for the Farmer's Market that happens every Saturday morning.

But everyone kept working. And I certainly didn't want to be the only wimp who left, so I kept working too.

It was cold and wet but actually still really fun. We started working faster. My digging partner decided to forgo his spade and dig with his hands and even in the driving rain we found a nice rhythm -- he would pull back the soil, I would drop the plant, and he would pat the soil down around the plant.

Everyone was so enthusiastic and happy to work. When we finished one row, we just made our way (carefully...in the tractor tire tracks -- not the planting rows, as we all had to be reminded a few times!) back to the top of the field and started another row.

Some people preferred planting. Others preferred dropping. Others liked to alternate so as not to stress one body part too much.

Occasionally we got a little over-zealous and simultaneously planted more rows than we had plants to fill.

Rae rolled with these little snafus very smoothly. Sometimes she asked us to pull the plants out and move them but mostly she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Oh well. It's the cutting garden. It's fine."

In the end, after about two and half hours of planting, and several downpours, the gardens were full!

I'm so excited that I got to be part of the beginning of these gardens, which I know from past years will be absolutely splendid in the coming weeks!