Neighborhood Gardens

Blanca helps Sylvia S. plant a tomatoe plant- they grow best when 80% of the plant is buried.

In Brownsville Texas, February 2 is the offical date of the last possible frost, so as soon as the date passed it was time to start planting a garden! Blanca Escobar and I headed out with the bed of her green truck filled with 3 gallon plastic pots, gardening tools, plants, and seeds. We stopped at the homes of 7 people who are diabetics, to begin small container gardens to help them to grow their own vegtables. At each home we planted a tomoatoe, brocoli and jalepeno pepper plants along with radish and squash seeds.
Now, every other week like a county extension agent, I visit the people and their plants. The plants are a good excuse to stop in and see how these folks are doing. It gives me an opportunity to talk with them about what is happening in their lives. A month into the gardening project the plants, for the most part, are growing well- the seeds have sprouted and the plants already have buds which will soon bear fruit (even the brocoli, a cool weather vegtable, is flowering!)

I watch as Francisca prepares her containter to plant the tomatoe plant.