Long lost 80° sunshine, welcome home! It was the perfect weather for a break from my astronomy reading to doing something much more grounded: gardening. I’d signed up for the UVA Community Garden mailing list the night before and received an email that Monday was going to be a terrific workday, so I headed over to the gardening corner at Alderman and McCormick (across the street from Ohill).
They put me right to work pulling winter growth and I realized I despise gardening even more than I wither in the kitchen! When you go, prepare to get dirty. My feet are caked in dirt and it’s all up in my fingernails with hopes of an overstayed vacation there. At least the site is somewhat shaded at that point in the afternoon, so even though you will work up a sweat, the heat isn’t intolerable.
The garden, however, is thriving. Started pretty recently (I’m guessing sometime in the Obama era when Michelle brought a lot of focus on the White House Garden) as a student enterprise, the garden produces potatoes, broccoli, lettuce, and herbs, and I’m sure a greater variety of vegetables although that is what was helped to be planted today! I asked one of the leaders what was done with the produce, and she said that volunteers are able to take it home; in the summer when there are fewer volunteers, veggies go to a UVA kitchen or a soup-kitchen deal in Charlottesville for the less fortunate. What I respect more than anything is that the leaders didn’t know that this volunteer opportunity was put on the List of 111 Things, and they’re so grateful for the help anyway!
If you're interested in helping out, the garden community will be working every Monday and Friday from 3-5 during the remainder of the semester!
“Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there.” – Thomas Fuller
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