The Eleven Block Garden

Time to plant the scarlet runner beans;  cannot find the saved beans from last year for this year's planting.

Time to plant potatoes;  I only want two or three and seed potato packages are intended for much larger gardens than mine.

I want a bronze fennel plant and find some in the garden section of my local grocery store but as I stand and stare and consider which one to choose the sudden image of a lovely fennel plant growing in the boulevard where it i going to be mowed sooner than later a block or so from my home suddenly comes to mind.  Along with the notion of "100 mile diet".  Eureka.  The Eleven Block Garden idea is born.

What if I seek out the runner beans (I only need six or so) and the potatoes from friends and neighbours within an eleven block radius of my own garden.  And dig up the fennel plant.  And put out the word for an elderberry bush or two (Sambucus canadensis and S. caerulea).  And let people know we have iris to share.

How much of an area is eleven blocks anyway?  I get out a map and count off streets.  Wow.  It is a surprisingly large area!  And if I get the beans from someone who is eight blocks from me and he has grown the plants from seeds he got from someone ten blocks further afield – this is a growing adventure.

The market garden on the next block where I buy veggies and eggs in the summer has already planted their potatoes but this is a source for next year.  A friend a few streets away has scarlet runner beans.  When I see people in their garden who I know to see but not to know (you know what I mean) the EBG has me approaching and explaining;  they do not have seed potatoes but I come away with a butterfly bush and thistle and offer of heritage tomatoes later in the month. We decide to try growing elderberry from cuttings, they from their large trees and I from a tree overhanging the road that I pass each day.    Now I know them to see them. 

The organic plant sale is this weekend and I expect to get to know more of my 'neighbours'.

Of course this is not a new practice but everything old is new again with focus and an increased awareness.