Cathy Wetmore is the caretaker of one of the 48 garden plots outside of Blaine City Hall. Having recently moved from Wisconsin to be closer to her grandchildren, this is her first year as a Minnesota gardener.
Pushkar Vaidya is another one of the gardeners. Living in a townhouse, he had very few ways to take up gardening, but when the city newsletter came last winter letting him know about the possibility of getting a garden plot, he signed up right away. “I was interested in gardening,” said Vaidya. This is his first year with his own garden.
The City of Blaine helps the gardeners in many ways. They provide the water, they stake out the garden boundaries, and they lay down a weed blocker between the plots.
Wetmore, being new to this area, listened to some of the tips from her fellow gardeners. Her first radish crop turned out great, but once she planted for a second time, she learned that she may have missed the chance to give her radishes the best chance of success.
“I started with your basic peas, radishes, onions. Radishes did really good the first planting. The second planting I learned about bright side of the moon or dark side of the moon…some nonsense that I really don’t do,” says Wetmore. “I put them in the ground, and they say ‘talk to your plants’ and I said ‘Listen you plants, grow!’ And that’s all the talking they’ve gotten.
But, as she says, at 80 cents per pack of seeds, there isn’t too much loss in missing out in one radish crop. A much bigger financial impact was seen with her tomatoes.
“My biggest project here was growing tomatoes. Because last year being the first year I’d never had a garden, I had to buy tomatoes to can. And, I spent almost $200 on tomatoes.”
And with vegetables now in peak season, the gardeners are not only eating more vegetables, but also saving an incredible amount of money at the grocery story.
“July’s bill was cut in half,” says Wetmore.
“When I go to grocery stores, I don’t have to buy tomatoes, until last week I didn’t have to buy cauliflowers. I don’t buy eggplant anymore,” says Vaidya.
Some community garden plots are the victims of theft every year. Whether it’s passersby who don’t understand the rules, or someone intentionally stealing the food, it’s not always clear. But, so far this year, Blaine’s gardens have seen almost no losses to anything other than weather and wildlife.
Wetmore lives in a nearby senior apartment building. Living in an apartment and not having a yard was one of the reasons she was excited to get a garden plot this year. But, living in the apartment has also helped her share some of her more bountiful crops.
“You can grow summer squash until it comes out your ears. And after a while you really don’t want to eat it anymore.”
When she can’t eat anymore, she sets up a table in her apartment with a sign encouraging her neighbors to help themselves.
“They last maybe twenty minutes,” she says.
Vaidya freezes some of his vegetables, but he has also used his abundance of crops as a reason to spend more time with friends.
“[We] picked carrots then went home and cooked something out of those and had a harvest party.”
Looking towards next year, most of the gardeners are planning on coming back, and maybe even learning more about gardening in the off season. And they’ll be back, because they love what they do.
“Anytime you can plant a little tiny seed that you can barely see and get something taller than yourself, it’s kind of miraculous,” says Wetmore.
