"This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."~W. Churchill

It was inevitable that this time of year would come, although hard to believe when we were watering plants daily in the 40 degree heat.
I am declaring the Waterford Community Garden a delightful success in its first year. We have learned so much and have had a wonderful response from the community.

We will be having our Fall Clean Up Day the morning of October 2, 2010.

Gardeners, please join up for a morning of light work and fellowship while we put our Community Garden to bed for the winter in anticipation of another glorious year in 2011.

We will continue our WCG Green Thumbs Newsletter throughout the winter to keep in touch with all our gardeners. If you would like to get onto our mailing list please contact me at garden@waterforduc.org. We would be happy to hear from anyone who might like to join us next year and wants to keep up with the news from the WCG. I will keep up the blog over the winter with gardening info - like seed catalouge information and updates for the 2011 growing season.

I have not forgotten our Thank You List that will be posted soon!

The Garden Song ~David Mallett

Today at brunch with my very musical Aunty and her curvaceous ukulele we sang a lovely rendition of "The Garden Song". This song has been covered by the likes of Arlo Gurthrie (see alternate anti-gardening words at the end), John Denver and until today, my favorite version by Peter Paul and Mary. This could be the theme song for our community garden. Read the words and let them sink in, they are lovely and honest, and then have your own family singalong:

Garden Song by David Mallett

Chorus
Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down

Verse
Man is made from dreams and bones
Feel the need to grow my own
'Cause the time is close at hand
Grain for grain, sun and rain
Find my way in nature's chain
To my body and my brain
To the music from the land

Verse
Plant your rows straight and long
Thicker than with pray'r and song
Mother Earth will make you strong
If you give her love and care
Old crow watchin' hungrily
From his perch in yonder tree
In my garden I'm as free
As that feathered thief up there


The Garden Song (Alternate Verse)
sung by Arlo Guthrie, independently of Sesame Street

Slug by slug, weed by weed
Boy this garden's got me t'd
All the insects come to feed
On my tomato plants
Sunburt face, skinned up knees
The kitchen's chocked with zucchinis
I'm shopping at the A&P's
Next time I get the chance

Old crow watching from a tree
He's got his hungry eye on me
In my garden I'm as free
As that feathered thief up there

A man's children and his garden both reflect the amount of weeding done during the growing season. ~AU

Do you ever not need your Dad??
I am 35 and he still gets me out of these jams I get myself in, without a whithering look or a sarcastic reply (well, almost always).

If you have driven past the WCG lately you will notice that the copious green foliage that had grown nearly 5 feet high has been chopped off at its knees, Thanks to Dad, again.

Be thankful today for families.