Hey there, Kiddo!!!! I remember you and your Mom!!! So glad everything went well with the wedding and now you've settled in! REALLY glad you're still interested in gardening!

Those community things are tricky, from what I've found. Have you checked out a local church? A friend of mine's church has just decided to start one on some extra land the Church has. Some schools also do them, I've read. From what I've gathered, they operate pretty much the way an individual does. Plan...then start whatever seeds they can on their own, direct sowing the others. I've read several articles in Southern Living over the years about these projects, if that helps any.

Just wanted to say "hi" and welcome "back"! Hope we see you at this year's Spring Fling??? Same place...unless I come to my senses. LOL!

Paula

Hi Katie. Sounds like you have the gardening bug....and why 'theflyingace'. Is this a new hobby?

I don't know where you are located exactly, but contact Urban Harvest with the Regional Food Bank in Oklahoma City. There mission is to assist with just what you are trying to do. They lend seeds, help establishing the soil, etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Harvest

Gosh, I googled "starting a community garden" and there's all kinds of info out there on the web. There is even an American Community Gardening Association and I'll attach a link to it. It seems to have a lot of info on the mechanics of starting a community garden.

It is a great idea and there is certainly going to be a need for one with the recent news regarding the cost of food increasing.

Good luck and please keep us in the loop on how things are going. There may be others out there who are just waiting for this kind of information and discussion to start their own community garden. There is even a Community Gardening forum here at Garden Web that may have some help to offer as well.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: American Community Garden Association

Hi Katie,

What a wonderful surprise to see you posting here.

Your mom posted some photos after your wedding, and I just want to say how beautiful you looked! I hope you and your new hubby are enjoying your first year of marital bliss. Congrats, too, on your impending college graduation! December will be here before you know it.

Spider mites are more common in very hot, very dry weather, so that may be why you had issues with them last year. One way to combat them is to spray your plants with a sharp stream of water (including the undersides of the leaves). Ladybugs help control them. Our first few years here, we didn't have many lady bugs so I bought a package of them at a nursery for $4 or $5 and released them, and have had plenty of ladybugs ever since.

Also, spider mites are especially attracted to plants that have been fed a lot of nitrogen, so if you're fertilizing, go easy on the nitrogen and that may help somewhat. However, spider mites are widespread and a common problem especially in July and August, although they seem much worse some years than others. I don't see a lot of mites on herbs, but mites will attack just about anything, so I am not surprised you had trouble with them.

I hope you're able to get space in a nice community garden. I don't know what the community garden movement is like in OKC, but in Dallas it is pretty well-established and very popular and some of the community gardens there have impressively long lists of people hoping to get a plot in those community gardens when one becomes available.

I hope you have a wonderful gardening year.

Dawn

Katie,
Chesapeake Energy has a large community garden, and I posted a link below to the Regional Food Bank's blog from last July about Chesapeake's garden. It also references Urban Harvest that ezzirah mentioned above. If you know anyone who works at Chesapeake (seems like almost everyone knows someone who works there because it's so big), they might be able to give you more info too. Good luck with your efforts ... that is a wonderful idea!

Suzie

Here is a link that might be useful: Chespeake Community Garden

March/April issue of the Urban Farm magazine has article on "Secrets to Community Garden Success" the guerrilla gardening. -Chandra

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!!!

... I forgot to sign my name to that last one. Apologies!

- Katie

Katie,

We talked at the Spring Fling and I mentioned a community garden I had heard about in Warr Acres. Well, turns out it is actually in Bethany at the Church of Christ (MacArthur and ~32nd). They have signs saying to call 789-2923 for more information.

Andria

Thanks, Andria! I appreciate the info and will definitely check it out! :-)

One of my friend's sisters works for Chesapeake Energy and has a plot in the community garden there. What a great company! I very proudly donated to her many of my little tomato seedlings to use there, and hope they do well!

Jo