My new garden

A few days ago I made the unfortunate error of locking myself out of my apartment.  Exactly how that happened is irrelevant to my story, but suffice to say it ended up necessitating a mile-long stroll to my landlord's office to get a spare key (all the while I was wearing my workout duds because I had originally been on my way to hit the gym).  What is relevant is that, along the way to the landlord's, I walked past the Fountain Community Gardens, which is a relatively new (like just a couple years old) community garden just a short 15-minute walk (or 5-minute bike ride) from my apartment.

I took note of the contact info posted outside the gardens and sent them an email when I got back home, and today I dropped by for their garden work day.

One of the garden's boardmembers greeted me at the gate and showed me around, including pointing out several plots that were available to rent by those on the garden waitlist.  I was very interested in getting a plot and wondered how long the waitlist might be.  My experience in San Francisco was that these sorts of things could take years to get a plot after putting your name on a waitlist, so I checked out the plots without any keen interest, only making note of different plants, herbs, and vegetables that the gardeners were growing throughout the garden.

We strolled around to the common spaces, including the sheds with tools and soil.  This particular boardmember had been instrumental in growing and tending to a communal herb and citrus garden.  After taking me around, she showed me the garden work day project, which was weeding out nut grass (thus buggers are tough to pull!), and then asked me if I wanted to get a garden plot before doing the project.  I told her that I definitely wanted to, and she directed me to the garden treasurer, who was standing nearby.

The treasurer asked me, "which plot would you like?  They're $10/month."  This caught me by surprise.  While there had been about 5 vacant plots out of 65, I did not expect that I could just show up and rent one on the spot.  And sure enough, I could!  So.... I did!  :-D  Plot 21 is my new garden, and I'm super stoked about it.

One of the things I've been saddest about in the transition from my previous apartment to my current apartment has been the loss of garden space.  While I love my new apartment, I did really enjoy poking around my garden in San Francisco, planting different herbs and flowers, and clearing out the various weeds that relentlessly regrew every few months.  I've noticed that LA homes generally have a lot more green space on their properties than did homes in SF, but, at least in my neighborhood, they're not often well-tended.  In the nicer parts of town it's fairly apparent that the homeowners pay someone else to tend to their properties, which to me is a big loss because there's little else like digging your hands in the ground and tending to the growth of plants to feel connected to nature.

So, stumbling upon this community garden and now being the proud renter of a 5' x 15' garden plot - just a few days later! - has me pretty stoked.  For those of you wondering, here's my new garden...

Luke's new garden :-)

After a couple hours of weeding common space, I went about weeding some of my plot, which is basically the whole area in the middle that is clear of plants.

The prior plot renter left behind some tomato cages, so I'll definitely be using those next year!  Just about everything currently growing in my new plot is a weed, so next time I get to the garden I'll be tearing out those weeds and putting down a new bed of soil.

Can I just reiterate how excited I am about this?  For a mere $10/month, I now have a garden where I can grow my own fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc.  There won't be as much weeding of this plot as my garden in SF, since it will be pretty clear once I tear out what's there now, and that will free me up to spend more time getting my plants to grow nice and strong.  I am also thinking that I might do more work in the garden communal areas, helping spruce them up and making the garden better for everyone who comes there.