Little City Gardens

Thanks to a trusty tractor and our handy friend Evan, the lot is cleared and our fields are tilled! The potential of the space is more exposed than ever, and if I squint my eyes I can almost see neatly planted rows of lush greens, and butterflies landing on tufts of flowering herbs. Soon.

We’ve learned some important lessons in these past few months. We’re making decisions everyday (and changing our minds just as often) about priorities, orders of operation, the most appropriate tools to use, when to invest in new materials and when to be thrifty, when to rely on our bodies and when to turn to machines. Renting a tractor for a day was something we’d been waffling over for months. We thought it would be easier and more cost efficient for us to just chip away little by little with our weedwacker and small rototiller. But after months of troubleshooting numerous problems with both of these tools, and after adding up all of the time and sore backs it took (and would still take) for us to do it that way, we’re wishing we had gone the way of the tractor a long time ago. It’s a lesson in scale. We’re learning that we can’t be afraid of big numbers — because little numbers, too, add up to big ones over time.

So, now we can focus on marking out rows, getting our perennials in, and putting some compost, manure, sheet mulch and cover crops down just before the rainy season arrives (and before the fennel, wild radish and bermuda grass sprout right back up). We’re also planning out a test plot for some initial salad plantings. I feel energized! We’ve been working toward this fun part for months.