Four and counting ...

First off, there was the space in the patio planter (they are *huge* planters, separating our "private" patios from each other, and the common patio).  The landscapers hadn't done anything with it, and apparently didn't plan to, so I filled it with corn and sunflowers.  Obviously *way* too early, because nothing came up.  I added radishes, which sprouted, and carrots, which didn't.  So I replanted the corn and the carrots, and now I've got at least eleven shoots in the corn area (and the carrot rows are under newspaper, on my baby brother's advice, to keep them moist for a couple of weeks to see if that works).  Today I put in a fair amount of broad beans and more sunflowers.

Then there's the pot garden.  So called because it's all in pots.  But also because the bulk of the pots are left over from the time a family member rented a house, unwittingly, to someone who turned it into a grow-op.  After all the renos, a whole bunch of heavy duty plastic pots were surplus to requirements, so I've got a bunch of them.  They are also in my patio area, but they're portable, so anything I might want to move later tends to go in them.  Most (but not all) of the strawberry runners are in there, and some of the germinating pine trees.  I've got some experiments with "dense packing" of radishes and carrots in some.  I put some broad beans in some, one seed to a pot.  Don't know if those pots are *quite* big enough, but we'll see.

Then there's community garden L.  L rented it, but she's too busy to seed and weed, so it's mine to care for.  (Or neglect.)  There are corn shoots, and at least one of the bean plants *seems* to be trying to come up.  The line of radishes looks great, and the line of carrots is obviously ready to go as soon as we get some sun.  I put a bunch of broad beans in there, amongst the corn.  (Broad beans are good for fixing nitrogen in the soil, so the beans help the corn grow, and the corn helps the beans stand.)  Of the eight sunflower seeds I planted originally, four of them sprouted.  So, today I put some more sunflowers in there, and hopefully we'll get a decent crop.

Then there are the raised beds at my main church.  Still nothing.  Not even the radishes.  Until Easter Sunday, when the tiniest of radish shoots were up.  Which may count as a miracle, since even the day before there was nothing.  It might have been hard to get the kids excited about them if nothing is even sprouting by the time we do the main Sunday School planting lesson tomorrow.

Then there's the community garden for Deltassist.  That'd be five.  If I get it.  I have to go through a criminal record check.  Not, they are not looking for carrot-nappers.  Mostly Deltassist deals with people, not plant plots.  So all volunteers have to have a basic criminal record check to see if it's OK for them to deal with youth and vulnerable populations.  (I've been through them before for ESS, so I don't foresee any problems.  Interesting changes in the way you apply for a criminal record check these days.)

Then I was talking to W, at my emergency backup church, about the raised beds at my main church, and he's interested in doing that, if he can get it going.  And I'd probably lead that, so that'd be six.

So, what with having no background in gardening or farming, and not liking to get my hands dirty, what the heck am I doing with at least four gardens, and possibly six?  Well, for a security maven, that answer is obvious.  I've taught business continuity and disaster recovery for twenty years.  Obviously, I seriously believe in redundant backup ...