Times, Pests, and Compost

Good Morning Vegetable Gardeners!

We will be meeting this Saturday April 28th at 10am to complete the work started last weekend. 

Work agenda for this Saturday:

Please bring wheelbarrows, rakes and shovels to complete laying down wood chips. Also Larry would like for the wood chip pile to be GONE! So we will be covering up the grass pathways in the new garden. Please bring your saved newspapers, brown paper shopping bags (not the glossy ads please) to lay down over the grass before we pile on the wood chips. We will also be stringing up the fence, planting beans and harvesting some spinach. 

Please note that the workdays will occur every weekend and will follow the Saturday/Sunday exchange from now until the end of the growing season as follows (please also note that at some point we will switch from 10am to 9am as the weather warms up; an announcement will be made):

Sunday May 6th 10am

Saturday May 12th 10am

Sunday May 20th 10am

Saturday May 26th 10am

Sunday June 3rd 10am

Saturday June 9th 10am

Sunday June 17th 10am

Saturday June 23rd 10am 

Sunday July 1st 9/10am

Saturday July 7th 9/10am

Sunday July 15th 9/10am

Saturday July 21st 9/10am

Sunday July 29th 9/10am

Saturday August 4th 9/10am

Sunday August 12th 9/10am

Saturday August 18th 9/10am

Sunday August 26th 9/10am

Saturday September 1st 9/10am

Et cetera....

Pest Management Committee: May great thoughts and ideas have come across the list serve. For those who have chimed in and perhaps those who were involved with the Ducks would like to move over to a Pest Control Committee. This is extremely important and we need to begin planning ASAP for very likely onslaught of stink-bugs, harlequin bugs and whatever else may be lurking in the shadows. On the bright side I noticed yesterday that we have a lovely crop of ladybug larvae and adult ladybugs on our flowering clover in the garden. And a helpful article about squash bugs here: http://www.rosalindcreasy.com/managing-squash-bugs/ 

Compost Committee: We also need a group of folks who are committed to rot and decay. We are fortunate that Larry is a Master Composter and can offer much in the way of teaching us how to create a working/sustainable composting system for our garden. 

If you are interested in being a member of one of these committees please send me an email at meaghan@meaghancarpenter.com or tell me this Saturday.

Notes From The Last Workday

Fellow Gardeners:

What Happened on Sunday:

An astounding 47 hard working people showed up to work this past Sunday, April 15.  In under two hours time they created 12 new beds in the new garden space.  Larry and Shane had staked out the beds earlier in the week and Meaghan had 3 tasks well organized:

The first group shoveled the composte from the walkway areas onto the beds.

The second group tackled the mound of dirt along the tree line.  This was the remains of the rolls of sod that we removed a year ago from the original garden space.  Children and adults weeded the pile and pulled out the nasty plastic netting that had been enmeshed with the grass. Another wheel barrow brigade was formed and 10 wheelbarrows worth of this organic material were dumped onto each bed.  That's a total of 120 wheelbarrows worth.

Finally, the third group raked in the organic material with the composte.

In addition, several diligent members arrived who weren't up to the sweaty labor.  They weeded the garden and harvested spinach for all.

Note: Under Larry's direction tillers were used on each bed prior to mixing in the decomposed sod and then again after the compost and sod were combined.

Next week - we build a fence and two gates!!!

SUNDAY, APRIL 22 AT 10:00 A.M. 

Update on the Masterplan for Northwest Park:

The survey results are in and the Mount Washington community overwhelming supported the community vegetable garden AND supported leaving the garden in its current location.  Thanks to all who completed the survey!

If interested, please attend the upcoming community meeting about the master plan for the park as well as the Jones Fall Trail.

Tuesday, April 24 at Springwell at 7:00 pm.

Ducks 

Thanks to Meaghan for forming a duck committee and for all those who have volunteered to serve.  The committee will have its first meeting this week. 

Have a great week,

Naomi