Update – Feb 18th, 2009

It’s been a week and a half since we built the first planting beds, and they’ve generated quite a lot of buzz, especially among the teachers watching the kids in the playground by the garden.  Two and a half beds are claimed, which means that we’ve got one and a half left to be claimed.  Sonia and I have started planting in one of them.  James Johnson and his family have claimed one, and the Elshires have claimed half of another.

Here are some pictures of what Sonia and I have planted.

Marigolds help to keep bugs away.

Swiss Chard adds more color to the garden, and it tastes great.

Once the weather warms up, these basil plants will be huge and fragrant.

In addition to marigolds, chard, and basil, we’ve planted three kinds of tomatoes – one of them is Brandywine, an heirloom variety, cucumbers, strawberries, two kinds of green beans, bell peppers, jalapenos, carrots, onions, cilantro, parsley, and chives.

On Square Foot Gardening

Because we’re using a fairly small amount of space for our garden, we’ll be using the Square Foot Gardening method.  This is a technique popularized by Mel Bartholomew, who wrote a book called Square Foot Gardning (surprise!).  The way it works it that you have planting beds which are divided into grids consisting of one foot squares, and you treat each square like a separate crop.

For instance, you can plant a bunch of carrots in one square, and two weeks later, plant more carrots in the square next to it.  This will ensure that you have a constant supply of carrots.  Once you harvest the first square, you can work some organic material back into the soil and plant something else there.  Managing small plots means less weeding, watering, cultivating – less work.  You’ll be surprised at how much you can produce in such a small space.

To read more, look at the links section on the right side of this page – especially the link regarding plant spacing.

The First Beds are Made

It was a long day of labor today, much longer than any of us thought it would be, but we’ve got 4 big planting beds ready for seeds and plants.  As we were cutting up pieces of scrap metal and stacking leftover bricks and broken concrete to make planting beds which will soon be filled with nourishing and life sustaining food, I realized how appropriate this was for God’s Garden.  After all, we worship a God who redeems junk and turns it into beauty and life.

Today would not have happened without the generosity of those who lent their strength and sweat (and even blood!), as well as some leftovers they had laying around – Doug Stewart, Jennifer Elshire, James Johnson and his sons, Dylan, Grant, Blake, and Noah.  I feel indebted to all of them, and I’m grateful to be in the company of such people.

The trailer full of rich earth

Friday evening, Doug Stewart got his giant flatbed trailer out of storage, and took me and my family to Living Earth Technologies to pick up three yards of dark, rich, aromatic gardening soil, which we parked at the garden site to await the big work day.

Jennifer Elshire brought the metal this morning and we got straight to work on building the first bed out of bricks while we waited for James Johnson and his sons, who were at his house loading up huge chunks of broken concrete.

The most difficult part of the work was scraping the grass and its roots from the ground. Without this step, the shorter beds will soon find lush, healthy grass growing among the lettuce and radishes. Each person pitched in on this job for as long as their back would hold out, and then the job would pass to the next victim.

Sonia digging up the grass

We completed the first bed, which was made with bricks held in place with rebar, and moved on to the second bed.  Three of the walls were formed from recycled parts of metal lockers, and the third wall was made with more bricks.

Dylan and Grant build the fourth wall out of brick

The third bed was constructed from big and small chunks of broken concrete, the leftovers of a patio James has replaced with a deck.  It was during the construction of this bed that Blake demonstrated his dedication to this garden by shedding blood, when he scraped his hand on a sharp edge of rock.

Gloves kept Grant's hands safe from injury.

The last planting bed is shaped like a circle, and was made from the corrugated metal that Jennifer was able to donate.  We wanted to elevate this one so that people who have bad backs can have a planting bed that they can work without straining their backs.  We built the walls of this one first, and filled it halfway with the remaining concrete chunks, then filled the upper half with soil, which required James and Dylan to lift wheelbarrows full of dirt over the wall and dump it in.

A wheelbarrow loaded with soil

At the end of the day, everyone was tired, sweaty, and dirty.

James takes a break.

Again, huge, heartfelt thanks to everyone who was able to pitch in.  It was a lot of work, but don’t worry if you weren’t able to make it today – there’s lots left to be done!

From left: Sonia, Blake, James, Noah (crouching), Dylan, Grant, Chris (Jennifer had to leave early for a birthday lunch)

We Got the Dirt!

Doug Stewart graciously loaned his trailer and his time today, and he and I went to Living Earth Technologies and picked up three yards of gardening soil, which are waiting for us at the garden site even as we speak.  Thanks to Doug!

Tomorrow is our first work day on the garden, and our goal will be to complete at least 3 raised beds – and possibly even get some seeds in the ground.  I’m excited that after talking about this for the better part of a year, it’s finally coming together.  Thanks to all of you who are giving of your time and resources to help make it happen!

Building Materials, part 3

Wow!  God continues to bless our efforts as we work on getting this garden together.  Jennifer Elshire works for Fairbanks United Methodist Church, who is getting a new metal roof this week.  Jennifer talked to them about our garden and not only are they going to donate all of the scrap metal, they’re going to have it delivered for us.  It’s amazing what sorts of things have been falling into place!  Thanks to Jennifer for spreading the word, to Fairbanks UMC for the donation, and to RCI Construction for delivering the material.  And of course, thanks to God for everything.

It seems that we’ll now have lots of material for building the raised beds.  What we need now is soil, so please be on the lookout for that.

Building Materials, Part 2

Hey everyone.  Here’s what we’ve got so far:

• A palate of bricks that’s been up here at St. Tim for a long time.
• Lots of broken concrete, courtesy of James Johnson
• Possibly also some wood from James
• More bricks, courtesy of Pastor Steve

Be on the lookout for people rebuilding their fences and throwing away the old fence.  We shouldn’t use treated lumber for vegetables, but for ornamental plants, that will be fine.  I like the idea of building a garden out of what would be considered junk, stuff that would otherwise wind up in a landfill somewhere, when it could be helping to produce life.

Other stuff we’ll need for the workday this weekend.

• Dirt
• Humus
• Wheelbarrows (I can bring one)
• Tillers (I have one, and Brad has one)
• Shovels
• Sledgehammers
• Wooden or metal stakes

Down the road, as we continue to build, we’ll need:

• Crushed gravel
• Mulch
• Maybe a fence – hopefully people won’t vandalize the garden
• Other ornamental things we’d like to add.
• Hoses