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

Introducing...The Patch!

(We haven't come up with a good name for it.)

A few gardeners and I have been clearing space for the food bank bed. We've dug up most of the weeds and brought over a layer of compost. I made a little dry river rock pathway for funsies. Recently we planted corn in the circles on the left, a row of my favorite mix of sunflower seeds toward the front [of this photo], and some squash starts. I'll plant some beans and whatever else takes my fancy on the right side of the path. I'm excited to see how this develops. The Patch will mostly be responsibility, so hopefully I don't screw it up!