This Month in Photos

“Anina, have you watered the garden yet? Can we do it for you?” These are questions that I hear every day now, and fill me with joy! Summer has arrived to Lame Deer, which means it is hot out, and I’ve been dreading the tedious hauling of watering cans from the kitchen sink to the garden, over and over again. Now, however, the kids at the Boys & Girls Club have a personal interest in making sure that it is well-cared for. 

The last couple of weeks in the garden have been exciting, fun, and great for raising awareness about this project. Recently the Club was lucky enough to be visited by Tony West, the U.S. Associate Attorney General, who took a brief garden tour and recommended that I “send Michelle some pictures.” It was exciting and inspirational for us all to see the Club recognized for the amazing things that it does in the Lame Deer community, and has been doing for twenty years.

Last week, we planted a “pumpkin” patch. It is not strictly pumpkins, however. This garden includes watermelons, sunflowers, and seeds from a “mystery bag,” which was my sneaky way of getting them to plant zucchini. Everyone marked their plant with flags I made out of duct tape and coat-hangars, and every day since then the garden has been under close scrutiny. Our first watermelon sprouted yesterday. We have also lined one wall of the arts & crafts room with sunflowers which we hope will provide artistic inspiration.

This week we were lucky enough to have John Youngblood come and take some amazing photos of us working in the garden and of the first radish harvest!

The plants already growing in our beds are thriving. The first strawberry has started to turn pink, and others aren’t far behind, to the delight of all my little girls. The lettuce has fallen victim to daily snacking (which is great!!) and I need to get the trellis up ASAP for our rising peas and beans. I hardly need to even visit the garden any more, since throughout the day I receive daily reports from my fellow gardeners. “My plant needs water!” “Someone picked an onion!” "There's another strawberry growing!” "My pumpkin is going to be HUGE!"

Finally, I learned today that I got the FoodCorps position in North Powder, Oregon! Starting in August I will be working with the North Powder Charter School to expand many of the fantastic projects they already have going to promote healthy fool, and enjoying being back in my home state! I owe a great deal of thanks to everyone who helped me with this- from editing my application to acting as references to tolerating my constant FoodCorps-related conversation. Although I'm excited about this next step, I will be a little sad to leave all of my wonderful new friends and gardening-partners!