The First Seeds of the Spring

Work begins here in Americana's Community Garden! We will welcome eight growers back to the soil this season, as well as five new families. This year the garden represents the countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nepal, Myanmar, Mexico, Sudan, and The Republic of the Congo, not to mention all of the countries from which our youth participants in the Children's Garden come.

Over the past few weeks, many hands have begun turning and preparing the soil for the first seeds of the spring. In our after school program, we have tested our catalog of donated seeds for productivity by rolling them in moist paper towels and leaving them inside plastic baggies for a week or so. The vast majority sprouted! We have also started some of our slower seeds--tomatoes and peppers--in cardboard egg crates and we will carefully tend to them until May. Our early crops will be sown in our new raised beds--constructed by Youth Build out of salvaged wood--over the next few weeks. First in the ground will be lettuce, radishes, turnips, peas, beets, carrots, collards, kale, and cabbage. As our veggies sprout we will taste them all! Two very important rules in garden club are to get our hands dirty and try new foods.