Seattle Times: P-Patch Diary - Times Staffers take a stab at acommunity garden

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P-Patch diary: Times staffers take a stab at community  garden
By Lucy Mohl
Special to The Seattle Times
P-Patch community gardens in Seattle offer the urban dweller a chance  to dig
with a country attitude. There are 1,900 plots over 12 acres around the
city, including one a block away from The Seattle Times Co. Staffer Lucy Mohl,
a
self-confessed brown thumb, will give us regular reports on how she and her
gardening co-workers are taking a plot of land and transforming it into a tiny
Eden.
Hi, Patch: It's little old me b and six of my colleagues b toiling away on
you, a bit of ground we estimate at 8 by 19 feet.
If it were just me, a more appropriate name might have been "R.I.P. Patch" or
 "Plot of the Brown Thumb." As much as I love to watch things grow and bloom,
 I've always had trouble keeping a garden alive.
But after I came to work at The Times a few years ago, I kept walking by our
nearby P-Patch and decided to apply for a spot. Finally, after many months,
my  name came up to claim some dirt. Now, there are seven of us committed to
weeding, planting and harvesting, and some of my colleagues appear to know
what
 they're doing.
So, I may get the chance to learn this joy of gardening I've envied in
others. Digging at the dirt and contemplating summer tomatoes certainly beats
whacking at my keyboard over lunch. It just feels good to come back to the
desk
with a little honest sweat around my neck.
The first challenge was to get us organized. The previous P-Patcher had left
a plot with just two overgrown rose bushes and a whole batch of weeds. Would
we  carve up our dirt into many little plots? Or work "the land" communally?
The  answer came in a noon-hour weeding session that felt like the
barn-raising
scene  in "Witness."
We dove in with hoes and shovels and emerged by afternoon meeting time with a
 well-groomed swath of ground nearly ready for planting. Now, we've decided
to  dig together, grow together and enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of our
labor  together.
We know the season is getting on us to make our planting choices. Lettuce and
 carrots look like our first crop, soon to be followed by basil, tomatoes and
...  we're not exactly sure. It's good soil, and we get fantastic sun
coverage. Of  course, we'll follow the P-Patch rules and garden organically. I
can
taste those  Early Girls already.
Follow our progress and give us your gardening advice at
_http://p-patcher.blogspot.com_ (http://p-patcher.blogspot.com/) .
Lucy Mohl is Senior News Producer for  seattletimes.com

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