Paula - I'm tickled! I'd love to come back to the spring fling this year! :-D Thank you so much for being a gracious host - I really appreciate(d) it! Re: community gardens - the more I read, the more tricky they seem... mostly because of permissions and personal accountability issues. I work at a private academic institution which owns some vacant lots across the street from the school's nucleus. I think they're holding them until they can develop the land, but that won't be for a while. I'm going to try to get a plan together that I can present that won't cost the university anything. That way, it'll be hard for them to say no. :-) soonergrandmom - i DO have the gardening bug! It's a bit insane, and I have lofty ideas - we'll see if I can implement them! I haven't taken up flying (expensive! time-consuming!), but I LOVE Snoopy... hence the screenname. I'm sorry I don't remember your name, and it's very kind of you to remember mine! I'll do better in the future. :-) ezzirah011- I have had several people tell me about Urban Harvest recently - I'm definitely getting with them to see what we can do together! Thanks for the suggestion and the link! Susan - thanks for the information! There IS a glut of info out there (I currently have around 30 books that I've checked out for gardening how-to's, plans, methodology, etc.). Thanks for the link as well, and for the community garden forum suggestion! I'm in a bit of a unique situation, as the community garden would be for the students, faculty, and staff of a private university and would be integrated with ongoing curriculum, but I'll definitely let everyone know what happens! We've got some students interested (in gardening and in composting!), as well as new freshman learning community plan unrolling (focused on sustainability), and I'm going to try to piggyback the garden on top of that, so we'll see what happens. Dawn - :-) Thank you! We're quite happy, and the wedding went really well (whew!)! And those spider mites were voracious little bugs! The only way I kept them under control at all was through insecticide (boo!), but they never actually died, even from multiple applications. I didn't try the sharp stream of water trick; maybe that or ladybugs would have helped. I finally let them go because spending all that money on poison seemed worse than letting the plants die. :-( And we shall see what happens with the garden - I'm planning this year so that I can secure permissions and start soil preparations for the next growing season. This year, I'm going to be planting in my pots and helping Mom is my "spare time." I know I'll do basil again (SO GOOD!). I might try again with tomatoes, and I'm insisting (ha!) that Mom and I do potatoes and onions. We'll see! :-D Suzie - Excellent link! I do know people at Chesapeake - some of them even left my institution to work there! Thanks for the great suggestion! Chandra - thanks for the information! I've pretty much decided that I'm going to be a guerrilla gardener if my school won't allow a community garden. :-) Of course, they would know who to blame immediately if i chose to focus my efforts on campus, but I'm hoping they'll look at my detailed plan and love it!!!

For the last 2 months i have been working on an idea to encourage kids to live, read books, and go outside. I began this journey by creating my YouTube channel AleksReader because i realized the internet is a great way to get my message out to kids. I want to know if you like my idea, and what you think about it. Your feedback will definitely help me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_3udm2VMNc

This thread has helped me a ton to see exactly what I am needing here. It's really two separate issues: one, what to plant that people won't take and two, is the money spent for the plot worth it. As for the former, I was asked if I know that pilfering is a problem. I am not sure at this plot, but I have visited other plots and have seen people take things that they admitted were not theirs. I figure it it happens there it could happen anywhere. The solution for this will be garlic, onions, potatoes and other crops that you all mentioned that don't need a bunch of time visiting them until they harvested. As for the second issue, I am still unsure on that. I am so used to gardening for free that paying for my love of it seems to rub me the wrong way. Oh, if only I had a double sized garden! I would pull out my raspberries, Dave, but they are what keeps my family happily in my garden. Plus, I love all of the homemade jam and pies I make with it. I live in the woods so I have no other place I can move them to. I also think I will do more pots on my deck filled with carrots, radishes and other such things. Maybe I won't need the plot. Thanks again for any and all ideas. You have all gotten me thinking more about this and anytime spent thinking on the garden is well spent! :)

Hello, I'd like to write a survial curriculum for a #1Sound community for free. The first thing I want to do is start a garden in my back yard. I have nothing except the free will of writing and the heart to help every single child and adult learn how to own and produce for the survival of all of God's people. Who will help?