So as many of you may recall from last months blog, I made a list of goals for myself to accomplish and get outside to enjoy the summer sunshine. Unfortunately – I was only able to accomplish 2/5. However the two I did check off my list (riding the Dequinder Cut and planting and urban garden) are on-going ventures, so I guess I could give myself half a star for effort.

Earlier in the month, three of us purchased a plot in the Brush Park Community Garden on the corner of John R and Alfred St. Unfortunately, there weren’t any raised beds available, “but there’s plenty of room!” Tee said, so we decided to build our own. Now, I’ve never built a raised bed before. And after chatting amongst ourselves… we realized that non of us had. Not a problem! We knew the gist of it and decided to give it a whirl. With the generosity of Tee, a resident at the John R Apartments and unofficial oversee-er of the community garden, and the scraps left behind from other constructions throughout Brush Park, we were able to accumulate enough wood to frame a small 4′ by 6′ garden plot.

But first – we had to dig it out. I used muscles I hadn’t used since high school lacrosse practice (thanks Coach Allen), when we would have to shovel off the snow from the field in early season. Glutes, hamstrings, lower back, I was hurting. But within the hour, our two-[wo]man powerhouse carved out our plot and ripped up the dirt to start loosening the soil.

Next, it was time to assemble the box. We pulled together our scrap 2’x4’s to fit them into our carvings. With Rachel’s power tools, Sarah’s steady hands, and lots of reworking, redigging, and remeasuring, we assembled a 4′ by 6′ rectangle, empty. We hacked at the soil and loosened the ground. We even emptied out quite a bit of soil to allow for a deeper bed and deeper root growth.

We took a drive over to the Cultivation Station at Eastern Market to stock up on rich garden soil and nutrients for our garden. We literally cleaned out the store of the soil stock that we used. 4′ by 6′ doesn’t look like much, but it takes quite a bit of soil to fill it up, and fill it deep. They even gave us a few bags of organic fertilizer feed for free!

The clouds were beginning to get thicker and it looked like rain was on its way. We gathered the veggies and herbs that we already had and planned out the garden. We started with cucumbers, two pepper plants, eggplant, tomatoes, lettuce, and a sunflower. The generosity of Tee and the other garden owners throughout the community garden were so great! Many of them had overgrown herbs and vegetables that re-sprouted from last season, so they offered to transplant a few into ours. So we accumulated a bit more herbs: cilantro, basil, two kinds of mint, and some thyme.

Since we’ve planted, we’ve already seen major growth! Both in the plants themselves, the additions to the garden (we now also have kale, lemon balm, romaine lettuce, a cherry tomato plant, and dill!), and in our relationship with the community garden. I’ll stop by every once and a while on my way home from work to water the plants and stop to chat with Tee and the other gardeners. People will compliment us and comment on our gardens on their walk to Comerica Park on game days. Sometimes I forget that I’m in the middle of a big city… it all just feels like a quiet, friendly, little community.