We Get a (real) Garden!

The spot were the trailer now is will be built up with soil for our garden.

Our dietary department is starting to have problems getting some food items normally on the menu here at St. Anne's, particularly certain meats and vegetables.

Somehow, in the course of discussing matters, our administrator shocked me by offering us a part of the yard as a vegetable garden.  I didn't see that one coming!

Several years ago, I had suggested the idea of having a small garden for our residents, allowing them the opportunity to "dig around in the dirt" and enjoy watching things grow.  Permission want granted, a bit reluctantly perhaps (She didn't know if we could count on our residents to follow through with helping.)   We were given an old-fashioned bathtub to use.

Perhaps a couple of years later, I came home from being away to see two beautiful raised garden beds out on the east patio - an early birthday present made by a neighbor friend of the Sisters at the lake house. 

Last year, when someone donated strawberry plants, more raised beds were found on sale and given to us to allow more garden space.

Now, we are expanding again; the space we're getting certainly won't feed everyone here for weeks or months on end, but hopefully it will help a little. (It’s about 8’8” x 12’6”.)

This past weekend, I didn't get much embroidery done; I was busy mapping out my plans for the various small raised gardens and the newly promised garden patch in our back yard.

Monday morning, our maintenance men had to run out to Menard's to pick up various supplies, so I rode along to visit their garden center.  Picking out seeds was more challenging this year with my vision partially blocked by a face mask (not my favorite piece of apparel).  Thankfully, I had carefully figured out which vegetables (and how many) we would be planting.  It was, however, still a tricky task.

I got back home and that afternoon and the next day, I got the seeds planted which I wanted to give a head start (tomatoes, broccoli, herbs, and onions).  We don't plant outdoors before mid to late May.

Over a few days’ time, I had collected and rinsed about 80 half-pint milk cartons from our residents' dining room (actually, staff were very helpful and saved most of these for me.)  The cartons are lined up on plastic trays.  If there is danger of frost, I will bring them indoors.

The cartons are filled with dirt, complete with little incisions for water drainage, and little seeds are now preparing to peek their heads out. 

I'll be watching to see when they emerge (in a week or two). 
 
This experience of preparing to garden has been good for me, especially at this time of pandemic and crisis, when the world is so different and when so much stress and uncertainty faces our world. 
 
It is beautiful to be able to take part in the wonder of God’s gift of the natural world; it’s exciting to prepare and wait for new life to start!

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