Barefoot Gardening

I got a packet in the mail from Santa Clara County. It was like getting a college acceptance letter – thin means rejection, fat means acceptance. It was a little fat. I tore it open like nobody’s business. The first page reads: “Congratulations! We are pleased to accept you into the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Program in Santa Clara County for 2011.”

If you recall, back in August, I attended the seminar and turned in my application. I hadn’t heard anything, so I assumed I wasn’t accepted. I am quite surprised.

I still have to accept, pay the fee, and figure out the logistics. But I am very excited. Classes are Thursdays during the day, so I have to work that out with my job. And the first class is while I’m still scheduled to be in Pittsburgh, but that can be changed too.

*SQUEE*

I finally got a chance to pot the plants I bought the same day as we built the raised beds. I’m already a huuuge fan of orange in the garden, and it is especially fitting for fall and Halloween. I was inspired by the nursery’s convenient positioning of peach heuchera (coral bells) in front of orange crocosmia masoniorum. I added in some orange mums with a lovely new container, and it was easy peasy. As usual, click the photo to embiggen.

On Saturday I got up nice and early to work at my day job, then headed south to rebuild a friend’s raised beds with his three boys. There were three neglected beds in the backyard that had hydrophobic soil, rotting boards, and plenty of weeds. I met everyone at the nursery and got a few supplies, but let the boys pick out the seedlings.

Back at the house, we removed tons of overgrown weeds, soaked the soil until it absorbed the water, amended it, and softened up the clumps. Since we weren’t starting from scratch, we had the added challenge of fix things up as we went. We probably should have replaced the boards before fixing the soil, but we didn’t discover the full damage until we started making a mess of the soil. Replacing the boards slowed us down a bit as people went to the store, and then we screwed together planks and stakes.

After a full day of labor, we ended with 3 mostly restored beds and seedlings in the ground. Two of the beds still need the wood replaced, so you will see that we only planted in the centers of the beds. So far there are brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and purple broccoli in the ground. There will be beets, spinach, and lettuce planted around the edges, and perhaps also sugar snap peas.

The entire process was a great exercise in planning and delegating. Often when I garden, I just dive in and figure it out as I go. Also? Barefoot gardening around others (especially children) requires special care so as to not receive a pitchfork in the foot. Not to mention my bad influence on the children and their filthy feet.

Honestly though, aside from seeing the final result, my proudest moment was watching the boys argue over who got to plant what. I loved their enthusiasm. I’m told that they got up early on Sunday morning just to water again!

As an added bonus, after we were all exhausted, we ate a fantastic fall dinner with porkloins, apples, acorn squash, and rolls.

Raised beds - before, overgrown weeds

Kevin rebuilding the wood supports in one of the beds

My minions at work

It was dark by the time we got seedlings in the ground, but that was the funnest part!