Mother's Day is a great time to get plantings out into the garden

We had a beautiful, sunny, perfect first Saturday together out in the community garden!  Old and new friends gathered to lay out plans for the medicinal and rainbow gardens and to put in some plantings (peanuts in the rainbow and romanesco broccoli in the Mother garden).  It was perfect timing for those who hold off on planting until after Mother's Day, when the risk of frost will be less.

Here are some pictures from our day:

sunny skies over the garden

the sign on the corner of Elmerton and State Farm road

Krista, Karen, Kristin and Jane breaking ground

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the medicinal garden


(even better with friends!) :)

one half of the Mother Garden

the rainbow garden  

peanuts (they'll have yellow leaves, so they are in 
their own stripe of the rainbow garden)

We'll be back out there this Wednesday from 6pm to dusk, so come on out if you'd like to play in the dirt with us!  Hugs and love to our garden sister Llenay who is on a 3 week trip to Africa planting seeds of peace, abundance and community among the women there.  


Happy Mother's Day!
~Marykaye

The garden is tilled and ready for us to get out there!

We are thrilled to report that the community garden is officially tilled and ready for us to start preparing the space for this year's garden.  We'll begin to bring out tools and lay down lines for the paths and sections in the next week and hope to start bringing in truckloads of compost next weekend.

Regular garden hours will begin next Wednesday (5/4) from 6 pm to dusk and Saturday (5/8) from 8 am to 11 am and everyone is welcome.  If you can't make it out there, no worries: we can't wait to start having some more pictures to post so we can show you what we are up to!

Another exciting item: we are featured in the May issue of Natural Awakenings magazine, a great new local publication highlighting natural, alternative events and practitioners in Central Pa.  You can find copies at most studios, health food stores or anywhere friends gather or you can contact them if you have someplace you'd like this wonderful free resource to be available.  You can also check out some of this month's content on their Facebook page and a digital edition for May should be online soon.

For those who enjoyed our last Fairy Festival in the garden and can't wait for the next one, consider checking out the Fairie Festival at Spoutwood Farm in Glen Rock, Pa this Friday, Saturday and Sunday (4/29-5/1).  Their mission: "to help people come alive to nature as well as our own creative natures and to invite people to nurture a sense of wonder; to respect and befriend all living beings as well as the environment that supports us all".  Beautifully put!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
~Marykaye

Stay tuned!

We heard back from DCNR and they are just waiting to till the garden until after the ground dries up a little from all of this rain!  (We've cancelled this weekend's planned garden opening and classes until we can get out there).  Just wanted to let you know that we are still here!

  Have a great day!
  ~Marykaye

Mechanicsburg Earth Day Festival canceled due to inclement weather

We're sorry to miss the festival this Saturday but it sounds like the funds can be used for other important projects and it may be a pretty thunderstormy day. More refreshment for Mama Earth!

~Take care,
Marykaye

Join us at the Mechanicsburg Earth Festival this weekend!

beautiful image from www.tracysworld.com

We are all chomping at the bit to get back out there for our spring planting but plans are still on hold awaiting tilling of the garden by the township. We have some calls out and are hoping that that may take place sometime in the next week or two!  For now, we're gazing at slender green seedlings and dreaming of abundant harvests... :)

To hold us over, here's some news from around the webisphere that seemed interesting:

We aren't the only ones that think kids and gardening go together well.  It's exciting to hear that the USDA is funding a $1 million dollar initiative to establish vegetable gardens at 70 elementary schools in four states.  The goal of the pilot program is to help educate kids about food production and good nutrition, acknowledging that a garden is one of the best (and most fun!) ways to do that.  You can read more about it here:

 USDA project will fund vegetable gardens at 70 schools

We hope you can join us this weekend for the Mechanicsburg Earth Day Festival from 9 to 3 pm.  It's a great opportunity to enjoy music and fun activities while remembering to honor this beautiful earth, our home!  Our Children's Rainbow Garden members will be hosting a table with kid's activities and helping out at the festival throughout the day.

You can check out: http://www.mechanicsburgearthdayfestival.com for more information.

~Hope your Earth Day (4/23) is wonderful wherever you are! :)

The great leaf compost experiment

We had a great first day out in the garden!  Sunshine+wind+blue skies+friends is a recipe for happiness, for sure (and it sure helps with getting that daily dose of Vitamin D).  Every season brings new adventures and challenges and the most recent one was the discovery that a majority of the community garden is now covered in a pretty thick layer of partially composted leaves (several feet deep in places).  We spent a couple of hours yesterday moving them to the edge of our garden plots while we took turns guessing the purpose of the leafy distribution.  In the final count, we decided that it might have been a case of good intentions tempered by the logistics of composting (ie composted leaves need a lot more time to become healthy, plantable soil)!  The county schedules a pre-season tilling of the ground for gardeners any day now, so we'll see how it goes.  We're hoping it doesn't make it any harder for any of our fellow gardeners to plant but we've left a few of our plots as-is to see how it goes.

an especially large leaf pile on the edge of the garden

In other news, everyone's been starting seeds and here is a little sample of what we've got going: Greek tomatoes, Jalapeno peppers, Red Russian Kale, Lemon apple cucumbers, Kohlrabi, Mache, Leeks and Celery.  We are also planning a great medicinal herb garden and the Feverfew, Chamomile, Echinacea, Calendula, Lemon Balm and Organo are already on their way.  There are so many ways we can be connected to the earth for healthy eating and healing and we hope to highlight that in this year's garden!

chamomile in full bloom (ETA: this summer)

And it seems we keep hearing about more and more research on the benefits of gardening, so here's today's installment.  A recent study indicates that gardeners are more likely to eat fresh vegetables than non-gardeners, regardless of how much time and energy they actually spent out there in a garden.  This particular study focused on older adults, so if you are lucky enough to have one in your life, bring 'em on down to the garden to acquaint them with some yummy veggies!  It just goes to show you that nobody can resist a fresh-picked tomato or carrot straight out of the garden.

Hope you have a great week and get out there for a little sunshine or time with a friend.  We can all vouch for the fact that it definitely makes life so much more beautiful! :)

~Marykaye

We've got a great season planned!

Hello!  We've been enjoying the taste of warmer, sunnier days and hope you are too.  It's easy to feel spring right around the corner and we are getting excited about planting this year's garden!  Part of our planning includes creating a schedule of great events that we'll offer throughout the season at the garden on Elmerton Avenue in Harrisburg.

Our first event will be an introduction to the garden in April and it will highlight healthy fresh flavors you can find in the garden in the Spring.  Other events will include great classes for kids and adults along with some fun festivals in the garden.  We hope you'll visit our blog and Facebook page throughout the season so you can join us and spread the word!  You can always find a list of upcoming events along the right sidebar of this page under "Calendar" along with more details under the "Events" tab at the top of the page.  It's just another way we can all stay connected on this adventure in healthy, sustainable living and building community!

See you soon!
~Marykaye