Garden time!

It's almost garden time!

We haven't even dug anything up yet at the Boys' Club garden site, but it's already off to a great start - I have a fantastic crew of 7th and 8th graders working with me who are enthusiastic ("ooh, can we grow spinach?!" I almost cried!) and bring a wealth of previous gardening experience to the table (several have gardened with their mothers, grandmothers, and aunties in the past!). Meeting them was a huge highlight of my week....nutty as they are, I really love teenagers, and I've missed working with them. I've also got a great grown-up crew for this garden project of Boys' Club staff and volunteers that I'm really looking forward to working with.

As if that weren't enough good news, we're now up to $600 in donated gift cards and certificates for this garden project from three local Home Depot stores. As much as I hate using my blog to give props to the second largest retailer in the USA behind Sprawl-Mart, promulgator of big box capitalism, crusher of downtowns and small businesses, and purveyor of voluminous pesticides, among many other environmentally unfriendly products....damn, is it cool to have $600 to use for this garden. Home Depot will also be sending a crew of their "associates" out for a big work-day photo op. Iiiiiinteresting. I've only got 10 kids, and a few local volunteers - a crew of 30 Home Depot folks could quickly overwhelm us. I'm thinking of having them work on other landscaping and fix-it projects at the Boys' Club that day in addition to the garden...we'll see what the Boys' Club is needing.

Anyway, after the crazy week I'm about to have at work, I plan to get right out to the garden and start working! Check back here in the coming weeks and months for pictures, stories, recipes and other learnings from the Boys' Club garden.

And, if you have any tips for me on gardening in NC (last time I had my own garden it was in NY state!) and/or gardening with 12 year olds - favorite books, plants, ideas, sources for great organic fertilizers, etc etc - I'd be thrilled to have them, so please feel free to leave them here.
Thank you!