September 21st Work Day

Saturday, September 21
 

We planted garlic cloves and radish seed, then tackled the poke weed that had  overgrown the new garden bed area.  Also, we thinned out the radicchio and h

arvested tomatoes, eggplants, beets, Swiss chard, arugula, all the  remaining Chinese cabbage, and some butternut squash.

 Larry estimates that there will only be three more workdays this year as we continue to prepare for winter.

Starting to Wind Down

Sunday, Sep. 15, 2013

Naomi writes:

As the season comes to an end we continue to clean out beds that have been harvested.  They are then covered with clover seeds to provide  greenery during the winter and nutrients for the soil.
Minor repair work was needed today as we discovered the fence had been  torn along the lower gate. The garden was clearly broken into but no  damage was done.
We have a lush crop of green Treviso Radicchio thanks to seeds from  Italy that Melanie provided.  However, "googling" needed to be done to  determine when and how to harvest this.  The green leaves are very bitter and research determined we need to wait to harvest in the  colder weather. This should lessen the bitterness.
Crops that were harvested today: all the red leaf and romaine lettuces and Chinese cabbage, as they were starting to bolt, butternut squash,  jalapenos, beans, eggplants, and tomatoes, and arugula.

Many thanks to Maria for again taking the food donation to Our Daily Bread.
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Melanie wrote in with information about radiccio:

This is the best website I could find that answers our questions about the radiccio treviso in our garden.

http://www.garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=201110-edible

And Maria wrote in about celariac:

This is my choice for doing something new with celeriac. If any of you have some celeriac you will not be using, please let me know and I will add it to the "Pot-Roast".

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pot-Roasted-Celery-Root-with-Olives-and-Buttermilk-394712

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Lots of harvesting today: Tomatoes, Swiss chard, beans, romaine and red-leaf lettuce, Chinese cabbage, celeriac, beets, thyme, basil, some

zucchini and cucumbers - and a tub of food for Our Daily bread. 
Thanks to Maria who made today's delivery.

The empty bean bed was reworked and planted with clover seeds to ready it for winter.  Seems this is referred to as "green manure" as the clover then nourishes the soil when we mix it back into the beds come 
springtime.

Spinach was planted.  Garlic should go in next week.

The mulcher that was donated to the garden this year was used today for the first time. It helped to further break down yard "waste" going into the compost bin.

Two Weeks in Late August

Naomi writes:

                                     Check out the new garden chairs

                              Asparagus and lush weeds

       The harvest: beans, romaine and red lettuce 

Getting the beds ready for planting.

Sunday, August 25
22 families yesterday.  We harvested chard, tomatoes, jalenpeno peppers, beets, leeks, beans, and herbs.  We also planted the fig tree we were awarded in the front corner of the garden by the bench. Green pepper plants were pulled and fava beans and Chinese cabbage seedlings were planted.  Larry demonstrated a garden "chair" and Art volunteered to purchase six of them for the garden and for any interested members.


Saturday, August 31
There was a large turnout of 28 families today given that it was Labor Day Weekend.  Art delivered the chairs which were used and then hung in the garden shed. A bed of beans was harvested and pulled, preparing it for next week's plantings of spinach and garlic.
There were barely any zucchini or cucumbers this year due to insect  borers and Larry has generously been sharing some of each from his own home garden.
Weeding was done in the asparagus bed as well as the second new bed outside the garden.
Harvest included tomatoes, beans, red leaf and romaine lettuce, leeks, celeriac, and beets.