Babysitting for the HCG

We are part of the Holland Community Garden where we have the title of  Principal Volunteers.  The difference between a principal and a regular volunteer is pretty much how much time you put into it.  Since we were upgraded this spring we have been very active in several projects for the garden. 

This year we helped with the tomatoes, peppers and egg plant grown for the garden by a local greenhouse.  Since we had a lot of cold nights this spring, we did not want to plant the garden with them until the night time temps were over 50 degrees.  The grower offered to put a growth retardant on them and keep them at the greenhouse but we decided to take them and baby-sit them for the two weeks until the warmer temperatures arrived. 

We divided the flats in half and put 6 trays per flat to spread out the plants and give them more room to grow.  So the original 21 flats now took up 42 flats worth of space.  Our little greenhouse had no hope of holding all that so our deck became flat central.  All the flats fit with little rows in between so I could get in and water with a watering can.  On sunny days, I watered twice a day.

Every night all the plants came inside and squatted in the living room.  The dogs had just enough room for their blanket, but not much else fit. One night we wanted to watch a movie and we had to climb over plants to get to the couch.  I do have to say though; they were very quiet and didn't make much fuss.

The last of them were planted yesterday so now we are finished with that baby-sitting job.