The Day I Harvest the First Greens from My Community Garden

On an overcast Wednesday in southwest Connecticut, May 16, I head to my garden plot in Greenwich Community Gardens in the woods of Cos Cob, Greenwich. It's 9:30 in the morning, and I am alone at the garden. 

Rain drops fall as I kneel by the garden bed. The vegetables look green and healthy. The honey drop cherry tomato, which I wrote off as dead last week, appears this week to have revived and grown (see "The Day I Learn That Some Vegetables Thrive, Others Wither -- Don't Take It Personally”). 

As I look around, I realize I have enough greens here to start harvesting. 

• Carefully I pick my first vegetables from the garden -- young radishes, arugula, fresh parsley, scallions.
• I twist off the still-tasty leaves from my "bolted" bok choy, toss the leaves into my bag of mixed greens, then toss the leggy stalk in the compost bin.
• At home I rinse the bitter greens, including the radish tops, and put them in a bowl with balsamic vinegar and EVOO. A tasty treat. 
• When I launched my community garden experiment two months ago, I could not imagine how happy I would feel harvesting my first crops. What a thrill!

I re-examine the other plants. Out of the twelve blocks I laid out, three blocks have room for new vegetables. Patty-pan squash is destined for one block, but it's too early. The weather continues to swing twenty to thirty degrees in a day. The seed packet suggests placing the patty-pans in the ground two weeks or more after the last frost date. I'll plant the seeds a couple days before Memorial Day. 

In other news, I got my assignment for community garden service this morning. I am now a member of the beautification team. During the season the team keeps the common areas free of weeds and vines, maintains and organizes the tool shed, spreads wood chips to prevent weeds and keeps the Welcome Garden in shape. We also plan to launch a garden project to complement the new shade structure being planned (mmmm, shade ... yes, please). Teams across the community garden keep things working properly, and the time we put into the teams count for our community service hours (eight hours to go for me).

I'll be back with more after I meet the beautification team at the community garden social this weekend. Ciao for now!