Visiting the garden

Gardening at a community garden has many advantages and a few drawbacks. But one of these drawbacks has a silver lining.

Because my plot is not outside the back door my visits this winter have been infrequent. Before last Saturday I had not been to the garden for several weeks. At that time I had spread the last leaves on one remaining bed and checked the garlic and shallots for signs of shoots. These beds I had mulched with a thick layer of leaves when I planted the sets in late fall. I poked around in the leaves and saw only one tiny green shoot. When the weather turned back to winter I imagined the garlic and shallots in their mulched beds, snug under the snow and basically dormant, waiting to emerge when the sun finally came to stay for a while.

And here’s the silver lining.

We were blessed with a sunny day last Saturday. The soil was still too saturated to work but I couldn’t resist a trip to the plot, if only to imagine what might be growing there in a scant few months. I was completely and pleasantly surprised to see healthy 4 inch garlic shoots and the beginning of shallots sprouting. Every garlic set had sprouted and grown (Big John’s Garden quality does it again!) during my absence.