Monday, April 28, 2008

compost, rain, violets...


We chiseled a bit of a pathway through the compost this weekend and somehow it doesn't look quite so overwhelming, though I haven't checked it since the downpour today--maybe it's slumped over again under its own enormous sodden weight. Generally though, the news from the garden is good. Everything is greening up rapidly and the rain today can only help.

I never realized how tough and weedy violets are. Every year I have to dig up clumps of them and they're wily at hiding among strawberries and other perennials. But this one cluster was so gorgeous I had to leave it.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

too much of a good thing?


So...the compost is here! We have enough compost to fill a Mini Cooper, or maybe an Escalade. Despite our best efforts, it was deposited in the middle of the walkway--we'll have it moved later this week, but in the meantime, feel free to dig in.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

The cruelest month...maybe.





April 6th, and the garden is still a chilly and slightly desolate place. Lots of dead brush, leaves, and other detritus from last year. Scattered logs from the big tree that was removed recently, a layering of shavings and sawdust, and not much green anywhere. But there are signs of hope--crocuses and scilla here and there, bright red buds of peonies starting next to last year's dead wood, and the crumpled red and chartreuse knobs of perennial rhubarb plants unfolding. Even in one corner garden a cluster of sprouting, dark red leaves (radicchio? red lettuce?) that look like roses.

First Post!

A couple of hours ago on this chilly April morning, Tracy, Suzanne and I met over coffee at Cafe Ula to start planning the 2008 season at the Brookside Community Garden. In between discussions of raspberry bushes, how to keep cats out of our freshly-dug plots, and tidying up our unwieldy compost heaps, we floated the idea of creating a garden blog. It might be, we thought, a great way to keep people involved, communicate with each other, share photos, ideas, or recipes, and generally keep track of our progress over the season.

So, here's a new blog to start off a new season. We're happy to have a convenient place to post "official" garden business and information but ideally it'll be a place where anyone can post with questions, answers, helpful links, and so on.