Inspired by tipi trellises that Tory built in urban community gardens back in Providence, RI, we decided to put one in the courtyard. The kids will be able to go inside of it and hopefully enjoy some shade provided by peas and climbing beans. We planted the peas we'd been growing in the greenhouse and found that we had some peapods (below). We had help building and planting from some neighborhood kids who stopped by to see what we were doing. They thought the peas tasted great too! 
One of our supervisors and a co-founder of Montana FoodCorps, Crissie McMullan, came to our Workparty and sent us some pictures. Above is a shot of Tory, Robin, and Jean in the garden after a long, successful day of work. Below left, Robin is digging in a bed in the courtyard to make room for the mint and chamomile. Below right, Tory, Jean and a local high school student are planting corn.
Our WorkParty was on Saturday and it was a great success! We had 20 people throughout the day and got a lot done. With all the extra hands we got five planters (below, left) filled with peppers, tomatoes, French tarragon, and marigolds (to keep the bugs away). We also used the rototiller and got the raspberries planted (below, right). We cleared space in the courtyard and planted corn, sunflowers, delphinium, mint, chamomile, and more marigolds (far below, left). It felt great to have so many people in the garden and we couldn't believe how fast the work got done with so many extra hands. If you missed the workparty but still want to see the garden, come by any week day, we're usually around 9-5 or leave a comment on the blog!
The weather has heated up here in Somers and the plants are starting to perk up. Our squash plants have a ton of blossoms on them (above), we have our first tomato ripening (below right), our first potato is leafing out the side of one of the potato towers (below left), and the lettuce and carrots are growing happily (below center). We are looking forward to our first Work Party this Saturday, July 23, 10 am- 3pm. Come by and see the plants, get your hands dirty and enjoy the beautiful weather! Bring water and garden gloves and a spade if you have one, and invite your family, friends and neighbors. We look forward to seeing you there!
Today we completed one of the most difficult tasks to date, we completed installing the chain link fence! This involved pounding in metal fence posts and lashing the chain link panels to the posts (no easy feat for just two people, on a slope, with donated materials). Though it was stressful at times, we're glad that it will keep the deer out of the garden. Robin was here to help and took a picture of us "stuck" in the garden as a thunderstorm was threatening.
Although it may not look much like a garden right now, we're on the home stretch! After some initial difficulty, we started to put up our chain link deer fence (thanks to Tim Rogge for donating the fence panels and expertise!). Once the fence is complete we will be able to remove the remay cloth from the beds and our plants will be able to get some direct sunlight! Yesterday we also patched the drip irrigation system in the flower garden in front of the school. The delphinium are blooming and we pulled out a bunch of weeds to let the flowers thrive!
We'd love to say that everything works perfectly the first time, but that's not the way that gardening (or most of life) goes. After the weekend, we returned to find that we'd built the Leaning Tower of Potatoes. Concerned that it would topple downhill, we decided to build a second tower and split the original one in half. We also added extra supports on the sides, hopefully this will keep the towers vertical! 
