In 2011 I started the year by planning a new community garden for our community. Its funny as I read back to an old post here and chuckled when I realized that a community garden was on my mind even then. Little did I know it would take months of paperwork and meetings before we would build the garden. I worked with an amazing group of volunteers this year and have to thank Lynn, Michelle, Sharon and Don for being there and pitching in when I couldn't be there.
The Ladner Community Garden opened in May and we had 46 new gardeners plant allotment beds. In June we had a children's garden built. I was so excited but we still didn't have a class come to the garden until September.
Since then a grade three class has come twice a month to learn in the garden. Its been so much fun working with them.
In February, hubby and I travelled to Seattle for the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. What a fun time we had. I went to my first tweetup and met some amazing gardeners and writers. I cant wait to see them again in 2012! The garden show is amazing and I vow to bring home as much as I can in 2012. My garden needs it after a summer of no gardening.
We also formed a new partnership with West Coast Seeds. They built fourteen beds in our community garden to do some seed trials. I watched Mark Mcdonald carefully plant 24 varieties of squash in June. I am anxious to see what he plants in 2012.
Mark has the amazing ability to plant and grow vegetables and I swear these plants grew by leaps and bounds while mine sat looking sluggish. I still have lots to learn about growing food.
I also continued my work with the grade one class and some amazing volunteers. When we couldn't be in the garden, we took the garden to the classroom. Thanks to Jan, Donna, Gloria, Yvonne and Kathy for supporting me this year.
My luck ran out in July. After a very busy spring I took a nasty fall and broke two bones. My gardening season ended abruptly. I spent three months in a wheelchair recovering and griping about how hard it was to get around. Poor hubby had to take on all the household and garden duties. Someone said back then, that everything happens for a reason. It angered me then as no one breaks a bone for a reason. I humbly have to admit that once I was better I complained about accessibility in our town and people listened. In the new year the business community that I am part of of will be working on this issue. So maybe some good will come from my misfortune.
I went back to working with the students in late September. They watched as I progressed from wheelchair to walker to cane. One child even came up and asked me," Mrs. Crouch, did you get low graded from your walker?" Its moments like those that make my work with kids in the garden so worthwhile. You just ever know what they are going to say.
So what are my resolutions for the new year? I will be presenting in January on the value of school gardens at a conference. I firmly believe every school should have a garden. So that's my plan, just open at least one more school garden in my community.
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