Our community gardens, does yours?

At the end of September, I mentioned the Community Gardenproject that a group of volunteers worked on over the summer, and I showed you pictures of their raised beds. I haven’t been participating, having enough to do keeping my own garden in some semblance of order, but I notice the listserv calls for work parties, and I check out the site as I run by it regularly. I knew a group of gardeners had met to get seeds planted, then transplanted, and finally, here they are growing happily — a crop of fall/winter vegetables. I think the netting is meant to deter deer as well as birds, but I know a fence is going up in the next few weeks and that will at least make those fellows work for their meals!
These bags of leaves have been delivered by various islanders cleaning up their yards and willing to contribute this gardeners’ gold for a good cause. I’m really hoping that the stand they’re piled on will become a vendors’ stand for excess produce next summer.
Many of the community activities on our small island make me feel something between claustrophobia and sheer grumpiness — some of the more recent arrivals are early retirees determined to build an active social life and exhorting their neighbours to “community.” To which I want to snap “You do community in your way, and I’ll do it in mine.” (I do have many close friends on the island and treasure the support of this community, but prefer a more organic, less forced, approach to building togetherness. And I have other communities to meet responsibilities in — family, work, friends, etc.). This project, though, I’m really excited about and although I haven’t got time to join in while I’m working full-time, I love to watch it grow (okay, accidental pun acknowledged).Wouldn’t running past this put a smile on your face on a beautifully crisp, clear October morning?!