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Mark of Intention - Garden Plots

Category: My Not So Secret Garden | Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 9:05 am

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Several years ago, I put in for a community garden plot close to my home. Just when I was on the cusp of having the hope of getting accepted into that garden community, it was snatched away and postponed until I'm fifty or older. So I've now got a little over a nine-year wait. It cannot be helped.


This year, while I will still play nice because that's just how I operate, I will be less self-sacrificing in the face of adversity. If there is a garden plot out there, my ambition is to get to it.


Given that I have no car and will be dependent upon either the transit system or rides, this will take more than a bit of planning. Baltimore is a big place for a pedestrian and some people here have great difficulties driving with accuracy.


I am also agoraphobic, with a host of other issues along with that one. However, in the furtherance of my goal to grow gardens and help others, I think I can push it aside long enough to get several hours of gardening in before getting back to the protection of my room.


With Food Insecurity so high right now, I could be an asset to the people I know in that I could grow a few gardens, give away the food, and hopefully, encourage others to grow gardens themselves. This would have the effect of encouraging people to not only eat healthier and wholesome diets but would also encourage more physical activity and improved health conditions overall.


I keep having this recurring dream of a network of gardens and gardeners. Each person growing a little but contributing to the greater whole and helping alleviate the sufferance so many have been under in food deserts and food-insecure regions.


This is a lot to take on. More a wishlist than a plan at this point but I think I can do it. :)

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Fallow In Hope and Garden

Category: My Not So Secret Garden | Posted: Sat May 25, 2019 4:28 pm

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I knew it was too good to be true.


I got a call this morning from the Garden Lady. She had apparently had a plot waiting for me to sign up for. Once I'd listened to the message, I raced at getting ready with the burning hope of, finally, having a garden.


I then returned her call and everything appeared to be all set for me to have my very own plot of land to grow things in. I was just about to head out of the door to catch the bus to the site with either my bankcard or checkbook when she called me right back. Less than ten seconds after we'd hung up.


"Did we discuss that the gardens were for people fifty-five and older?"


With that one question, all my hopes of having a garden within reasonable walking distance were dashed. I'm thirty-eight years old.


I'm back on the waiting list until such time when they open the garden for people of all ages.


Sadness would be an understatement of what I'm feeling right now.


:'(

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A Truly Lengthy Germination Period

Category: My Not So Secret Garden | Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 7:55 am

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For anyone who has followed this blog from the beginning, you may remember this post from February 2016.


In it, I make mention of my plans to acquire a garden plot as soon as the opportunity presents itself. From that time to this, I didn't hear a whisper but, when it comes to things of this nature, I am a patient being. I recently reached out to the director of the community garden and left a voicemail, asking where I might be on the list at this point.


Several days later, I got a reply. Patience is a virtue.


So, there I am in my kitchen, making a carrot cake from scratch when the call comes in. Thinking at first that it was a Robocall, I barely glanced up at my phone and was shocked to see the name I'd been longing to see emblazoned across my phone's screen. Finally, the call that I'd been waiting for. With alacrity, I seized the device and tapped the screen to answer.


After an exchanging of pleasantries and an apology from her for the long wait, she got down to business and informed me that they were preparing the site for growing this year. She explained that last year's garden didn't do so well due to the All-Encompassing-Almighty-Deluge we experienced in the form of rain. For an idea of the amount of rain that this area got, look up Ellicott City or Baltimore and Flooding.


So, I was asked to prepare for another call within the next few weeks. I'm guessing that's when I sign papers and get the key to the garden gate. I hope anyway. For all I know, I might have to write a two hundred page thesis on the intricacies of horticultural development in human civilization over the past fifteen thousand years before I'm approved.



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