ILC Week 5
I continue to garden and go on a forage almost daily. The seedlings are taking off and I have given away over 800 to date.
Cascadia Cares had the opportunity to participate with our subsidiary Belly Brigade in a fundraiser for mental health awareness. We were invited, and accepted, to set up a booth at Run the Lake in Longview. We had the chance to engage with several hundred people, give away lettuce/broccoli/strawberry starts.
I also spent some time in the library checking out books and videos. I was able to meet with the library manager to network. Cascadia Cares is invited to give away starts during an Event they are having on May 20th.
Last year we had a free fruit stand and one of our constituents is a disabled mother of 4 special needs children. I met her at her house and designed where I will be putting in her garden and talked about what she wanted planted. I was able to use the opportunity to network with her regarding gleaning later on in the season. She will be talking to her Girl Scout Troupe to partner with us.
Things are in full bloom and I am happy seeing the Earth springing to life. I have a front yard berry patch-3 types of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries-all of them blooming and showing the promise of fruit to share. I have also grown a little boy. I looked out one morning to find a dirty-cheeked little boy with too-short pants and an overgrown home-hair cut fondling one of my garden gnomes. I recognised him from a home around the corner that has several kids and never enough adults. My new friend’s name is Kayden and he loves to drink sun tea on my porch. My garden is starting to become what I imagined a front yard garden could be.
When I was planting strawberries a few years ago, John (the widower next door) came and warned me to not plant berries in the front yard because the neighborhood kids would come and steal them. I was so excited to think of little kids wanting to eat fruits and veggies that I planted 6 more! This was the beginning of my front yard garden. The few strawberry plants I planted have spread and I have added chives, mint, lemon balm, and other berries. During the summer I also will plant tomatoes and zucchini in the front yard plot I dug up this week.
