Community gardening has become more popular over the years and so has the collaboration of starting seeds indoors.

Community gardens are most popular in inner-city settings where many people do not have adequate yard space to garden with. Some alternative means of gardening on patio and roof tops take form in containers and even some elaborate waist high garden racks that conserve space. However, gardening cooperatives operating out of community centers present some novel opportunities that bring success as close to a guarantee as anything going.

Not everyone knows how to start seeds so what could be better than being part and parcel to a party where seed starting is the event? You simply put the playing cards back in their packs, push aside the checker and chess pieces, cover the tables you're working at with newspaper, set up the seed trays and get started.

Since Hilda usually takes charge at the bingo games it should come as no surprise of who's who at the seed starting party. Hilda had 30 floating styrofoam seed trays donated to the center. When she proposed the idea of making seed starting a community project among the prior year's participants in the community garden it was easy to persuade them to support a budget. She pointed out how much cheaper it would be to start their own seeds rather than buying plants.

The particulars that came up during the next meeting made for an interesting evening. With nine thousand three hundred and sixty holes to fill up no one was left out when it came to naming preferences. As might be expected in mixed company plans had it that the vegetable garden would be decorated with floral cousins.

There's no way to sit down a group of people with tiny seeds and tweezers without some complaints, but that happens at every kind of party. The difference is the kind of hangovers experienced in this type of extravaganza are the sprouts of hope.

Fortunately, the center's dining area had tall windows with a southern exposure. Now, this project did create some hardship because tables were drafted for a short while, but when the plants were ready to take outdoors everything went back to normal.

Starting seeds and gardening as a social event rather than as mere necessity gives everything a slightly different flavor. We would like to believe that fruits and vegetables will always be available in grocery stores because it is too unpleasant to think of it otherwise. However, gardening is contagious and knows no limits for age, or lack of it, and rewards to its cultivators are unlimited.