The Community Garden Coalition

I am part of the Bowie County Community Garden Coalition. That is a fancy phrase meaning one of the Master Gardeners, who works for the County Health Department got a grant to put a few community gardens around Texarkana. Anyone in the county can be on the committee and we have folks from different walks of life. I'm probably the only one on who isn't gainfully employed and/or is a "community leader". That's okay. I'm having fun. 

We are currently working on two (maybe three?) gardens in the area, which will grow food for anyone who wants to eat it. I joined because 1) plants! and 2) I need the Master Gardener volunteer hours. But honestly, I would have joined just to play with plants.

Today we went over to the senior center on Texas Boulevard and planted cucumber, basil, tomatoes, marigolds, snapdragons, lettuce, squash and--I'm not making this up--about 16,000 habanero peppers*.  There were two women who were walking in the neighborhood who joined us. They were so intrigued, they started asking questions and I showed them how to transplant snapdragons and tomatoes. They were thrilled to learn how "easy" it was. They were even more thrilled to learn that they can eat the food being grown when it is ready. Though, I doubt they will just stroll on over, and grab a habanero if they feel inclined. 

In preparation for today's planting event, I made sure my trowel was clean. It would have been highly embarrassing as a Master Gardener trainee to show up at a garden event with a dirty trowel. And by the way, please clean your shovels and garden tools regularly, otherwise, they can spread diseases to your plants. The white stuff on my garden gloves (a birthday present from Polly) is diatomaceous earth. I had just sprinkled a metric-ton of it on my garden to ward off the slugs before I went to my plant-a-thon. 

*A word about the habaneros. I asked the woman who selected the habaneros. It turns out, she has never eaten one. She just thought they looked "cute" on the seed package, so she picked them as the pepper of choice. Bless her heart.