Well I am officially a community gardener.  I have a small plot in a garden not too far from my home.  I could walk there but if I'm honest, the chance of me ever walking there are slim to none.  I do hope I will at least ride my bike there a bit though.  You know, the bike I got last summer and never rode even once! 

So now that I am officially a community gardener, I need to start planning my plot layout.  And I need to finish starting my seeds too!

As I don't have grow lights (Something I will get next year.  I wanted to make sure I actually liked gardening as much as I have imagined I will all of these years before I went out buying shelves and lights and whatnot.), I have exactly one window where I can grow seeds.  And the weather has not been cooperating. 

Damn North Pole winters!

Slowly but surely, I am seeing signs of life.  Well, in everything except for my eggplants and peppers.  Not a single one of those seeds is growing so far.

Below you see baby artichoke plants!  They take up a lot of space so I will likely only keep a few.  The rest I will use at the food swap and share with friends.




Here's a view of my seed trays.  So far I am seeing growth from purple okra, a few varieties of squash, purple tomatillos, a few crane melon seeds are starting to sprout, heirloom beefsteak tomatoes, a really pretty pink and green heirloom tomato, sweet basil, rainbow chard, kale, artichokes, marigolds, and more!




A fun bonus of going to the official Community Garden Plot sign up was the opportunity to pick from thousands of free seeds.  I could have taken dozens more but as I have already purchase and started so many seeds and I didn't want to be greedy, below is what I took.  Which is still a lot.  I didn't realize I took this many until the next day when I took them out of my bag.

If the fennel is a success, I promise to share with you, Kara!




Most need to be started indoors so that's on my agenda this weekend.  Did I mention that these were all free to me?  Hello fun surprise!

Next up is a before shot of my garden plot.  I need to go measure it so I can start planning the layout and promise to take some decent before shots.  Which I can hopefully compare to an after shot that will be full of tomatoes, artichokes, beans and more!