Dirty knees! Look at these!

Well!  It's official.  I have a garden! My experience so far is I LOVE THIS!!

It's only been a couple weeks since I first went to my community garden plot and started plucking away at weeds. (They're everywhere right now, but tiny and I don't want to pull what might be seedlings.) I absolutely love getting covered in dirt.  I would like to invest in some gardening knee pads, among some other tools, but it certainly didn't slow me down to get right in there with my hands and on my knees.

My nice jeans!! Meh... It's only dirt...

I was incredibly ecstatic to see my first little pea sprout.  It looked so determined! I was all like "Go little pea plant go!!"  I have yet to see any carrot sprouts.  I'm starting to get a little worried, but I'll give hem a few more days to make an appearance.  

I am very anxious to see some produce.  I didn't get any starters done before planting season started so I went and purchased a number of plants from a greenhouse.  Maybe this fall I'll be able to collect seeds to use for next year.  And I'll do my best to get some of them started ahead of time. 

I was a tad disappointed at the plastic containers that my starters came in. But I kept them to use for doing my own next year.

New Blood!

It's amazing how hard it is to resist the influence of those around you.  When I first moved back to Houston, I was ready to get this town in shape!  I wanted to join up with the few other environmentalists in town and make a difference.  I was ready to dig in!

Less than three years later I feel bogged down by the lack of enthusiasm in reaction tomy efforts.  Sure I've moved up to treasurer of the group I've joined, but really, there wasn't much competition for the position (Or any).

It gets hard not to just throw up my hands and give up. Sometimes I feel like we're not really accomplishing anything.  Just wasting our time and effort.  Such energy put in for little result.

But new blood is always a pick-me-up.  We have a new market manager this year and she is over and above our expectations.  She cares!  She wants to see something get done about the lack of recycling in our town.  And she's coming up with creative ways to incorporate it with as little cost as possible.  Recycling bins at the farmer's market!  How simple!  Yet, no one in our group (which is supposed to be about recycling and the farmer's market) has thought of this before.

She's a delight!  And I can't wait to work with her more!