Golden Pholiota on a Stump

 A handsome stump I pass on my daily neighborhood walks. Observed on October 6, 2020.

Stronger Together: Building Unity Through Community

In fall of 2019, Caera and I started volunteering in a new diversity, equity, and inclusion program called Stronger Together. It was originally supposed to be a big, multicultural, family-friendly outdoor event held in downtown Arlington in May, complete with educational activities, swag, food, music, games, art, and more. Because of the pandemic, we had to postpone until September and reconfigure it into a virtual event, which took place today. The brochure is here, if you're interested in the particulars. Caera ran two events: Gaelic Language Introduction for Children, and LGBTQ Vocabulary. 

I'm grateful something like this is happening in our community, and I hope it can get more attention in future years when we can gather in person. I especially want to thank Will Nelson, Director of Equity and Student Success at Arlington Public Schools, for spearheading this event. He's also been leading virtual anti-racism classes and a book group to continue the work.

What's Happening at the Third Street Community Garden?

Arlington's community garden moved to a new location this year next to Presidents Elementary School on E Third St. I got involved with the garden in spring and decided to volunteer some time for the food bank patch. Here are some of the highlights from the first growing season:

Staking out an area at the north end of the garden. 

Removing grass and weeds. 4/21/19

Tilled with a layer of compost. 5/17/19

Added a fun rock pathway in the middle, using rocks we found while weeding and tilling the ground. 5/23/19

Seeds and starts planted. Corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, chives, and marigolds. 5/28/19

I also planted and cared for two food bank raised beds. This one had tomatoes, chard, cauliflower, marigolds, and pineapple sage. 5/28/19

Second food bank box. Tomatoes, chard, cauliflower, squash, and marigolds. 5/28/19

I experimented with woodchips to see if they would help retain moisture (or for that matter, negatively affect the plants). 6/2/19

6/2/19

The soil was pretty nitrogen deficient, so I watered with fish fertilizer. Made a big difference. 6/21/19

Makeshift bean trellis. This worked wonderfully in the beginning, but needed to be much bigger once the beans really took off. 6/21/19

6/21/19

Pollinators enjoyed the chive flowers. 5/28/19

First cauliflower. 6/21/19

7/25/19

7/25/19

7/25/19

The sunflowers were incredible! 8/3/19

So colorful! 8/25/19

I'm happy about well-pollinated ears of corn. 8/25/19

Tomatoes are here! 8/27/19

Harvests

Here are some of our food bank donations. Next year I'd like to keep a better log of how much we harvest. Not bad for a brand new location and a late start.

7/17/19

8/27/19

9/9/19

9/9/19

Getting Back into Community Gardening

I miss being a part of a community garden. Red Barn was an incredible experience, though it was extra challenging because it was almost 25 minutes away from the place we had been living at the time. Now that we're in Arlington, I'd really like to find a way to get to know people here, and it just so happens that they're relocating their local community garden this year, so it feels like a good time to get started. So I'll be volunteering with their food bank patch, in which we'll be growing corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, and more. Stay tuned for more details.