It doesn't look like much now...

...and it probably won't look like much later, but it's a start.  Another 'personal change' project is to increase the amount of local food consumed.  If we were eating as in the olden days, we'd be eating seasonally rather than mass produced, post harvest ripened, genetically engineered foods (e.g., Tomatoland).  Since disgust was registered last spring at my $2 orange pepper from Holland, here are my before:

and after:

pictures of plot 2 at the Coralville Community Garden.

Though I've never grown anything, "Cowspriracy" reminds that it's still important to pay attention to the organic and local elements of a vegan lifestyle.  The garden features beets on the far left, spinach on the far right (I think...I might have that reversed!), watermelon in the rear, peas in the middle, and winter squash (acorn like, I think) in the front.  I will have to place some Irish Spring soap around the perimeter as things begin to sprout.  I also have a small pot of basil (with green onion coming soon) at our condo.

Lessons learned so far from the garden:

• Slow is good.  I've always read, moved, processed, etc., with the end of getting things done as quickly as possible and then moving on to 'the good stuff.'  I'm working hard to go deeper and slower so that each task is, instead, part of the good stuff!  [Plus it's hot out there and I have to go slowly.]
• I like biking to the garden.  I don't need a lot of supplies as there are some tools on site and I'm old school (read: I don't buy extra things for this endeavor).  12th Avenue is a bit of a doozie for me, so I take shortcuts, but otherwise I didn't die on my first garden commute.  This is good.  I guess.
• I made friends.  Someone spared a bit of 'brawn' to open the water spigot for me, someone else asked a question about getting a plot, and a third gentleman came over to offer some advice.  The latter was greatly appreciated and confirmed my suspicion that fencing was not indicated (rabbits burrow under and deer scoff).
• Speaking of critters, I like them.  As I was digging in the mulch and dirt, I saw many (many!) spiders and lots of different types of ants.  Historically, I run screaming from spiders (or worse, commit spidercide).  Since adhering (mostly...) to the 5 precepts of Vipassana meditation, I haven't killed a critter.  I've tried to be curious about them, study them, and move toward the fear I have.  Spiders are the biggest challenge.  I like interacting with them outside the best as I believe that's their turf.  Inside, I am practicing spider relocation.