Sharing

The plot kitty-corner to mine was full of weeds because its gardener is out of town this summer. I knew that one of the other gardeners (not the plot tenant) was kind of gardening there. He hadn't really spoken to anyone, but had put a couple of unused tomato plants in the untended plot. He did so because they were extra plants and he had nowhere else to put them. That way, he figured, if/when the gardener returned to her garden, she would have some tomatoes waiting for her.

But, since I remembered the garden's owner mentioning that she might be out of town this summer, I asked her if I could tend her garden while she was gone. She graciously offered to let me care for it in her stead. So, over the last couple of weeks, we have weeded, tilled, fertilized, and added compost to the garden. And, inside, so the bunnies don't harvest them too early, I have seedlings growing for my fall crops.

Yesterday we went out to the garden plot and someone had planted a row of seeds, in the carefully worked, fertilized and now composted soil. The row is about a third of the way into the plot from one end to the other, so it truly takes up a third of the garden. And I think it's a third gardener!

I'm kind of bummed out about it. I know it's not really my plot and it is a community garden after all. But we are the ones who cared for the soil. And the third gardener let us do all of this work and only then started to plant in it. I had also hoped to add more compost. I only had time to put one wheelbarrow of compost in and I think the soil could use the organic matter.

So, I just left a little note (on duct tape) in the plot asking who the co-gardener is so that we can discuss our plans for the garden, mutually.