Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
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Subject Topic: Being called to community gardening... Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Donna Marie
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Posted: March 14 2009 at 3:16pm | IP Logged Quote Donna Marie
Hi all!

I have been very busy "babymooning" with our beloved little Peter James (who is 5 mos old!!) anyhoo...

My dh have been seeing that although we long for acreage and a cow and that sortof thing, God is calling our family into a unique kind of community centered around our parish church! We are praying with like minded families and are going to be putting in a parish community garden with several families. So now I really need to learn how to garden! LOL!!

last year I was all set to do a raised bed (square foot gardening) garden. finances got really bad and we couldn't do a thing. This year we will be able to do this in our yard aaand we will be putting one in just down the street beside our parish church.   I need ideas as to how to do this easily and with a maximum yield and keep it organic and such.

I have some questions....

What is the best way to do a compost bin...as we are just starting one now and need to plant in a few months I need some info soon and of the "composting for dummies" type...haha!

What type of veggies should we plant...herbs too? Keep in mind we live in NJ... I KNOW tomatoes, squash, beans, and peppers do well here....what about from a nutritional perspective...what would be good to keep in mind?

How do we avoid pests...and how we identify them?
How often do we water it??

By keeping this garden family-centered we will be able to better control the quality of it and minimize what I call the "too many cooks in the kitchen" syndrome. I want this thing easy to put in, maintain and keep things as organic as possible.

Where should I get my seeds from. I am soooo afraid of accidentally planing seeds that have been tampered with in any way. Are there any keywords to keep in mind?

Can you recommend any sites that I can peruse for inspiration?

I plan on taking everything to adoration before I do ANYTHING (after all , I have to consult the main gardener here!)
I would LOVE to have a statue of St Fiacre....any idea where I can get one inexpensively on-line??

PS! PRAY for us- ok??

Much love to you all...you remain in our prayers!


God Love You!!
Donna Marie-from NJ
hs mom of 8dc (15,15,13,10,8,6,4,5mos)
http://donnamarie.wordpress.com/
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Servant2theKing
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Posted: March 30 2009 at 9:19am | IP Logged Quote Servant2theKing
"Square Foot Gardening", by Mel Bartholomew, would be a helpful resource for maximizing your use of space. The book focuses on spacing plants closer together in easily accessed growing sections and training plants to grow vertically, whenever possible, using various types of supports. If you have existent fencing with sun exposure around the areas you will be using you could use the fencing for vertical support for vining plants such as certain tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beanes, etc. We've used old roof trusses and old fencing to build structures for vertical support, using concepts from Square Foot Gardening, improvising the plans in the book to utilize the materials we had on hand. We definitely strayed from the author's concepts in how we designed our garden spots, but we used his basic ideas for closer spacing (which also helps cut down on weeds) and for growing certain plants vertically, which helps maximize use of space and keeps vegetables off the ground as they ripen.   

Companion gardening books can help you learn what plants are beneficial for avoiding pests when planted together. Flowers like marigold, nasturium and certain herbs are excellent companion plants for warding off particular pests. Companion gardening resources also help you learn what plants do not do well when planted near one another.

Heirloom seeds should help you avoid seeds that have been "tampered with". Two companies we've used are Seed Savers Exchange (www.seedsavers.org) and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com). Baker Creek also has a gardening forum (www.iDigmyGarden.com)

You should be able to find resources for planting a community gardens online or through your library catalogue. Just search for community garden or community gardening. It would definitely help to learn what has worked for others who have embraced a similar project.

Mary garden resources and books on biblical plants might also be helpful guides for making this a grace-filled experience for everyone involved. Praying for you as you embrace this project. I can just imagine little Peter James camped out in the shade while you putter away in your garden. May God kiss your endeavor with grace, peace and fruitful abundance.



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