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I was really excited when I found out that the graduate housing here has a community garden. It took almost 2 years to get a plot after putting my name on the waiting list, but once I did get my plot, I immediately set to work clearing out all of the dead plants and overgrown weeds.
I had some experience helping my Mom with her flowerbeds back home, but back home was Kansas City where we got considerable rain and humid summers, making it easier to keep plants alive. The first summer here, I really struggled to get anything to grow because of the drought and the sandy soil. I replaced much of the soil in the beds, combined it with compost and mulch, but nothing seemed to work. Everything I planted died. It was kind of a bummer. That fall, I planted a bunch of petunias and a bougainvillea, and crossed my fingers that something would stay alive. Luckily, last winter we received an abundance of rain, so my flowers did amazingly well!
Unfortunately, so did the weeds in the rest of my plot. That spring took a lot of work to get my garden back under control. I planted more flowers and tomatoes, but the new flowers all died, and my tomatoes were stolen. I planted more tomatoes, but they got blight, so I finally just gave up on them. So now I stick with growing petunias and bougainvillea, and some random flower that I can’t identify, but has somehow stayed alive.
Even though I struggle with the actual growing of plants, I really enjoy the process of gardening. There’s a certain satisfaction I get with digging in dirt, saying hi to grub worms, and trying to outsmart the many gophers that plague the community garden. This last fall, several of the other gardeners and I got together to clean up all of the abandoned plots and remove the old beds. We used the money from garden dues to build a bunch of raised beds for the new gardeners coming in. Many of the other gardeners are growing beautiful plots, full of all kinds of flowers and vegetables, I’m a bit jealous. Probably my favorite part about gardening is getting to know the other gardeners, they’re all other graduate students or their partners, and it’s nice to meet people in other departments who have different perspectives on the world. We don’t do that enough. Gardening is often frustrating, and sometimes it’s hard to find time to devote to it, but when I do get out there I feel peaceful and happy.