What a working bee actually looks like

It starts with a chalkboard

Every working bee begins at the shed, where someone has written the morning’s jobs on the board. Some are big, like moving a trailer of woodchips. Most are small: weed the herb bed, tie up the beans, sort the seed returns.

You pick one. If you’ve never done it, you pair up with someone who has. That’s the whole induction.

Half time

Around half past ten, the kettle goes on. People wander over with muddy hands and compare notes on whose zucchini is out of control.

Tools back by noon

The last fifteen minutes are for cleaning tools and hanging them back on their hooks. Then, if the shared beds have been kind, there is soup.

Written for the Seedlark Commons concept. The garden, its people and the events described are invented.