A really Big garden

My friend Kate has asked me to water her garden while she’s on vacation. But it’s not just any garden. One short street over from me is Dowling gardens, 6 blocks that the city has managed to preserve for neighborhood gardeners since 1943…a true Victory Garden!
It’s a wonderful place to walk your dog, particularly in the early evening when the sun has released the scent of dill, basil, and marigolds (to keep the rabbits out). Birds and butterflies are everywhere. You see gardeners all over the place watering their plants and they all volunteer to help keep the enterprise working well. (Kate has weed patrol. Others are unlucky enough be assigned keeping the water barrels filled.) Because it gets full sun from early morning to the end of the day, the plants are really outrageously huge. There is corn, lettuce, beans, strawberries, squash and cucumbers. Minnesotans are wildly crazy about tomatoes…they are almost a religion here, so everyone has them as well.







Many people have sunflowers but I love the hollyhocks best. So for the next two weeks Bella and I will walk over each night and see what’s new. We get to pick the flowers and cucumbers from Plot 36 as well! (The tomatoes aren't ready until the end of the month ;-)