Planting the Community Garden Plot

The California crew may well scoff because they've been enjoying their veggie gardens for weeks now, but I'm sunburnt, achy, and extremely happy after three days of putting my vegetable garden in order

As I observed on Twitter a couple of days ago, 70 square feet seems very small indeed while planting, but huge while weeding. I needed to pull out lots of weeds, enrich the soil, transplant the "volunteers", sow seeds and plant seedlings.

Here it is, good to go, with some two dozen crops planted, including tomatoes, hot peppers, eggplant, Swiss chard, bok choi, carrots, beets, radishes, onions, garlic, sunflowers, lettuces of all descriptions and many herbs. (Please don't hate me for my fondness for Chinese-made dollar-store decorations like the sun-on-a-stick!)


Especially exciting are the strawberries, which were either gifts from friends last year or strays that crept into the community garden walkways and were going to be pulled out. Aren't they pretty?

I really edited the garden this year: only four types of tomatoes instead of eight, and space carved out for stepping stones, which I found I really missed round about August last year. The four tomato plants I chose, after much deliberation, are:

• Heirloom Beefsteak, which I hope will yield well
• Blondköpfchen, the yellow cherry tomatoes that gave and gave and gave last year
• Paul Robeson, a full-sized dark purple-black tomato that's highly recommended by my friends
• Jeff Davis, my experiment for this year. Likely named for the Confederate leader (1808-1889), it's a slightly ribbed red and yellow beefsteak-style tomato. I'm intrigued by its very simple leaves, pictured above.
  

Now to wait and weed and water, wait and weed and water...