community garden plot 8 update

my very own community garden plot number 8!

The Sun has finally come back to the Bay! Perhaps he’s been shy? More likely, he’s been enjoying the summertime beaches in Rio de Janeiro and didn’t have much time for us chilly San Franciscans.
Last Saturday morning the members of my new community garden joined forces to weed the common areas. It was fun meeting the other plot gardeners (or should we be called “garden plotters?”) for the first time. The garden looked pretty good to me, but there were tons of unwelcome green clover and this other problem plant that to me seemed as inoffensive as a kitten, but apparently causes real problems. I didn’t quite get the name but it sort of looked like a tropical thing that you might see in Brazil or in somebody’s home as a house plant. It has a tuberous root that you have to remove if you want to eradicate it. Otherwise it will sprout back in no time and take over. Problem is that the roots are super deep so they’re really difficult to pull out completely.

weeding the community garden

other garden plotters hard at work

So Steven and I took turns with the various shovels, forks, hoes and rakes. The gardeners filled two compost bins and a large wheelbarrow. Whew! I am so not in farmer condition! We were both completely exhausted after just an hour.

It is curious how I’ve never thought of clover as a weed. In fact despite the back breaking work I still find it beautiful, particularly in bloom. Have you ever noticed Bernal Heights after the rain? It turns a stunning emerald green. Later, lovely yellow patches appear as the clover flowers. So beautiful! It must also be beneficial somehow. It holds soil thus avoiding erosion, houses bugs, etc. I wouldn’t mind seeing that in the community garden, instead of the bare earth that we left behind after our weeding marathon. But I’m new there, so what do I know? I’m still learning. Heck, I just discovered what a hoe and a rake look like the other day. Of course I knew the words in Portuguese but since I never used these tools here before, I never bothered learning their English names 😉

look at those cute little raddish sprouts at the two-leaf stage!

a kale cutting struggling among the clover

So that’s the update for the garden at large. Now for the Plot 8 update. The radishes have sprouted!! The plants are about an inch tall now. Some have already passed the “two leaf” period which I understand means that they can be transplanted. Yeah! They survived to the two leaf stage!! It is true: some have already been eaten by bugs or birds. I think that maybe we also sowed the seeds too close together. Taking the advice of one of the more experienced gardeners, we’re going to try to thin them out a bit. Steven has already uprooted a few and replanted them farther apart. We’ll see if it works.

There is no sign of the Italian parsley, even though it’s been three weeks since we sowed the seeds. I hope that doesn’t signal any bad news…

Our kale plants don’t look too good, either. I transplanted these from cuttings. Initially it seemed like they took. But now the birds have eaten a bunch of leaves and those that remain are struggling to develop roots. We covered them with mesh on Monday with the hopes of keeping hungry nature out. Time will tell.

We got our shipment of seeds from Seed Savers. We ordered heirloom Japanese cucumber, Jimmy Nardello pepper, Portugal hot pepper, red burgundy okra, Udumalapet and Diamond eggplants. Except for the cucumber, I started them at home in an egg carton. Steven planted some cucumber seeds directly in the plot. There’s not much to see yet but I’m still excited!

my Seed Saver seeds

That’s all for now!