Mildly Green Thumb

My community garden plot on Evergreen and Fales

Weeeeeelllllll. It looks like my summer plan of transforming my black thumb into more of a murky brown is working after all. Living in Hartford with a VISTA stipend (meaning I get paid… hmm, almost nothing), I decided back in December that one way I could amuse myself would be to buy a community garden plot from Knox Parks Foundation for a mere $25. Unfortunately, the garden down the road by the UConn Law School was already filled, but the garden on Fales and Evergreen had a couple of spots left. Upon finding this out, I called up Miss Mimi, the head honcho of the Fales/Evergreen garden and set up a meeting with this grey-braided, southern-accented elder woman. We met on a Saturday morning- her Southern tongue telling my roommate Chrissa and I all about her family’s history and which plot owners grew the best gardens and about Miss so-and-so’s phenomenal green bean growing abilities. Quickly, what I intended to be a 15 minute meeting quadrupled in time, and an hour had passed. It was determined that if Chrissa and I could help with the flowers surrounding the edges of the space, we could have the front plot. Chrissa quickly volunteered the two of us to help with the flowers… (you know, since her mama seems to be the flower-growing queen of Chillicothe Ohio) before bailing out on me a few weeks later.

Beautiful Baby Tomato Plant
Being who I am, I was beyond stoked to have a garden. To be honest as a small-nosed Pinocchio, the first few days of gardening is what I imagine preparing to have a child must be like… the fear that you might screw up, the knowledge that there is so much care that must be given, and hoping that it all works out the way it’s supposed to. Alas, after the first couple of weeks of wonder wore off, I neglected the garden (especially after Miss Mimi scolded me for watering my garden when the sun was still out). I would only venture over there once a week, pick a few weeds, make sure nothing was dying, and replant my kitchen-grown seedlings. It’s been a sorry, neglected, disheveled plot but even so, when I went over yesterday, my cucumber and tomato plants were thriving and there were even tiny little bell peppers growing!The garden’s not even remotely perfect, but at least it’s not dried up and dead (like it probably would be if someone wasn’t watering all the plots every evening). I mean, maybe next year I’ll actually have a decent looking garden, or a small container garden on one of my porches.