End of the School Year

It has been a very productive year for the members of Corona Grows. They have helped spruce up the garden and have managed to make our garden even better than before. There are so many great memories this year: planting new vegetables,

 harvesting them, meeting new community members, 

 seeing the blossoming flowers, 

and watching the members and community smile as their efforts are rewarded.

However, the school year ended this week and the members are off to a well-deserved summer break! Good luck to those who are graduating this year!

Of course, there will be summer projects as gardens cannot thrive without a little help. 

Transplanting Plants

This past week, the club members transferred the plants they grew in the trays back in November to the garden. Here, Anuja is transplanting the peas that she grew.

With lots of people to help out, transplanting was fast not to mention also fun.

Now we will watch them grow.

A Thriving Garden

Even in winter, the vegetables seem to have the determination to grow and flourish. 

 It makes us thrive as well.

Vegetable row

Watering these a few times a week and watching the seedlings sprout and grow to viable plants is the part of gardening that requires patience.   

But alas, they grow and look promising.  Now, if only the grass would go away.

Quietly

I have always been amazed at people who sit for hours and observe nature.  And I don't mean just scientists.  The bird watchers, and the fishermen count too.  It requires a stillness of the mind and body not characteristic of me.  

I can manage a few minutes of watching in the morning.  It never ceases to amaze me that all this comes from a small seed placed in the ground.

Reaching for the sun

I have come to believe that much of what a gardeners knows comes from watching things grow.  Plants reach for the sun, the light source that makes growth possible.  

Can you see it grow?

What's Growing?

There is a lot of green happening in the garden.

Mixed greens.

Radishes.

Broccoli and cauliflower.

The farm

Naming things has always been fun and naming the zones, or sections of this garden would be something one would expect of me.

The farm.  It has 5 or 6 rows of produce planted.  We are all excited about this endeavor.  It included a trip to a horse stable in Tempe and driving back to the school with horse manure in bags in the back of the minivan.  And now daily watering is in order.

Ready for plot preparation

Francisco, one of the men that works the Corona grounds, stops by and after a few Holas we resume the conversation in English and discuss the progress in the garden.

He brought the tractor and cleared 

this area of grass

into this beautiful and full of possibilities vegetable planting area.

Now I start the planning for Fall growing.