One of the benefits of being a GreenThumb garden is getting support to help us farm better. A big part of that support is free materials, and most of our planting committee went out to East New York Farms this Saturday for a GreenThumb-sponsored plant giveaway. The event was very organized, with each registered garden receiving a number when they checked in and one person for each garden entering to pick out a tray of seedlings and native perennials. We chatted up a bunch of fellow gardeners while we waited for our numbers, sharing resources and contact info for further networking.

It was great for us to see such a large, well-run farm that hosts a weekly market during the summer, featuring local gardeners and vendors. While East New York is the neighborhood with the least grocery stores per capita in the city, they also have the most community gardens, in large part due to the stewardship of East New York Farms. Running three urban farms and one community garden themselves, the organization additionally provides support for over 60 gardens in the neighborhood.

Back in our little plot, we set to work planting up the beds, currently carpeted with a yellow-green dusting from our resident tree’s blooms. With the late start to spring, we’ve been a little slow out of the gate, so this was a good opportunity to jumpstart our planting. We picked up cucumbers, butternut squash, hot and sweet peppers, parsley, and traded out some tomatoes for eggplant with another farm. (Don’t worry, we have plenty of tomatoes coming — members of the Windsor Terrace Food Coop should look out next weekend for our surplus seedlings.) The Brussels sprouts that survived the winter have since gone to seed, which we are leaving until we are ready to plant in that bed, since they are so popular with the bees.

More to come soon as we continue planting out our beds!