Community Gardens

I have spent the last few days looking into getting a garden. The community garden in my area is now accepting payments for the spring.  The cost of this garden is $20 for the garden itself, and a one-time membership fee of $20.  Not bad.  The size of the plot is 30x30 feet.  

If anyone is reading this, and you want to use a community garden, I suggest you start searching the web now for gardens in your area. And get your payment in early, the early bird gets the best site.  There are lots of community gardens in big cities.  I have worked gardens in two major cities in the USA, and had a "crate box" container garden in a small town apartment, so no excuses.   Speaking of container gardens, I learned that I will not be able to utilize that method while working this particular community garden. I had hoped to try a few different containers and demonstrate them here, but that probably won't happen. No worries, there are plenty of web sites that feature them.  There are also various books on the subject of container gardening.

This particular garden does not allow ground covers that are not biodegradeable, so having a good crop that covers the ground helps keep weeds at a minimum.  I hope to avoid too much weeding by planting large areas with sunflower, sweetgrass, white sage, quinoa, amaranth and various squash. Doing this will allow me to focus more attention on the smaller areas where I will be planting the more interesting herbs like Mandrake, Henbane and Monkshood. 

I am considering limiting my witch herbs to about a dozen specimens. As I have said before, I get happy and tend to over extend myself and I don't want to do that this year.  I want to be able to handle what I've got and produce some quality herbs.  More importantly, I want to chronicle my efforts in raising these herbs for the benefit of the curious witch who is new to gardening.

I found a website that allows me to make "floor plans".  I'm sure there are better sites out there, but I was really enjoying designing the layout for the garden. Seeing my ideas laid out gives me new ideas and confirms concerns about space and available time to work things out.