More Garden Space

How does your garden grow this time of year? Mine just doubled in size! Complete with a fallen tree branch, here it is, my second 10' X 40' garden space at the Happy Valley Community Gardens.

Leasing community garden space annually from the City of Bellingham through the Department of Parks & Recreation, last year my garden consisted of two 10' X 20' spaces back to back, making it 10' X 40'. With raised beds and square-foot gardening techinques, I felt it a very successful gardening season. I harvested a lot, ate healthy, organically-grown vegetables and saved a tremendous amount of money on my grocery bill. But, I really wanted more gardening space. I wanted to grow more vegetables, more flowers, maybe even plant more raspberries and blueberries.

~~~

The City's community garden leasing policy generously allows up to four 10' X 20' spaces to be leased per family. The only reason I confined myself to gardening in only two spaces was because that was all the City had available back when my name reached the top of their waiting list. It being a new year and knowing that many gardeners continue their gardens year after year (I fall into that catagory!), I also knew that some would not - especially given the fact that the City raised the price from $18 to $25 per 10' X 20' space for 2010 (still a very reasonable price in my humble opinion!). Since the deadline for continuing gardeners to pay for this year has already come and gone, today on a whim I stopped by the Parks office to see if they had any spaces available. I was in luck, they had several. So, off to the Happy Valley Community Gardens I went, garden map in hand, to check out the available spaces.

I had the entire community gardens to myself as I walked the grounds. Some of the available spaces had more weeds than others, some more rocks, and some were covered almost completely with grass. I finally made my selection, two more back-to-back spaces that looked as if the previous gardeners had done a decent job of clearning it last fall. So, standing there in my new, additional garden spaces, I called the parks office to let them know.

~~~

While I had been thinking that it would have been so lazy convenient if my new garden spaces bordered my existing space. But they don't. My new spots are up the hill and a little way from my established garden. Looks like I'll be getting even more exercise while gardening next season. But, if you know me at all, you'd know that I would like that.