As October nears its end, it’s time to reflect on another year in the garden.
This year, the garden began with a bang — the SW Earth, Arts, and Music Day. Our annual spring kick-off was transformed by a $1000 micro-grant from the SW BID and Southwest Neighborhood Assembly. In addition to our usual communal planting, we had a collaborative mural project, as well as live music. You can read the full review of the event we submitted to the Southwester for their May 2018 issue.
This year we also partnered with Christ United Methodist Church to help build some garden plots on the church’s property. The project was spearheaded by Diana Park, a member of the church. With help from fellow gardeners, 6 plots were built and filled with soil so that members of the church, and other SW residents could try their green thumbs out after Sunday service. This is a great collaboration that we look forward to exploring more next year.
Throughout the growing year, we grew arugula, corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, basil, beets, peanuts, peas, carrots, and collards. Some of our biggest harvests came from the sweet potatoes, corn, peanuts, and cilantro.
Some highlights of the year included eating corn straight off the stalk with farmhands of all ages, learning how much our younger farmhands enjoy eating cucumbers with apple cider vinegar and coarse salt, our 45-pound sweet potato harvest, the “Gelato In The Garden Fundraisier” with Dolci Gelati, and when we brought the bike blender out to make garden-grown basil pesto.
New this year, was the launching of our compost cooperative. We have composting available to SW residents 24/7/365. During our Sunday work days, we work the compost piles to help the decomposition process occur as quickly as possible. Every Sunday, that wasn’t cancelled due to weather, a small group of SW neighbors volunteered their time and energy to help compost. Nothing says neighborliness like sorting through random people’s food scraps!
All in all, it was another great year in the garden. We welcomed new faces and strengthened relationships with familiar ones. So thankful we have this green communal space to gather! We hope to see you some time!
SW Gardens 