Community Garden

This was St. Paul, MN one week ago.

This week, we're building a garden. Bright and early Saturday, May the 4th a bunch of bleary neighbors in the Summit Hill neighborhood gathered at Linwood park for coffee, bagels, and HOURS OF MANUAL LABOR. After a sedentary winter, a day like this is particularly rough.

Anyways, I heard about the Summit Hill Community Garden through my downstairs neighbor, DeeAnn, and we subsequently put our names down for garden plots on a snow day filled with bloody marys and a spectacular walk down Grand ave.

On May the 4th, we made the thing.

The garden is set up in two "Mandala" shapes. To me, they look like circles, but I've been assured they are, in fact, "Mandalas". 

The day was spent hauling 50/50 compost/dirt, hauling mulch, weaving wattle fencing, keeping boy scouts in line, and chugging coffee.

The larger "Mandala" or "Circle"

 The smaller "Mandala"

 Marking separations between the plots, these lines were later filled with mulch to delineate who's plot is where.

And finally, here's our keyhole plots, mine on the right and DeeAnn's on the left.

What I haven't gotten across here is how much shoveling was required throughout the day. All I could think of during the day was Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" .

Anyways, Check back for exciting updates! Oh, and if anyone knows how I can get my hands on some ridiculously hot peppers, I'd love to give 'em a shot.

Toodles,

-Daniel Quinn