Lettuce Harvest those Strawberry Fields

Weekday Strawberry Picking

On Wednesday and Friday evenings this week, May May 27 and May 29, members stopped by to harvest the strawberries that are ripening faster than we have been picking them. We will continue to harvest strawberries every other day while they last. 

Workday - May 31, 2015

It was a hot workday with 31 households attending today.  It was decided to make the change and begin workdays at 9:00 moving forward now that the hot weather is here.  Work that got done today included weeding the asparagus bed and sprinkling the bed with road salt to kill the weeds - but not the asparagus. It seems asparagus like salty conditions. Weedblock fabric was installed with staples near the northern perimeter of the perennial bed to halt the Canadian thistle from taking over. A crew worked the composte bin and augmented mushroom composite, adding this mixture to several of the beds.

Lots of harvesting was done  -  the majority of lettuce and cauliflower, all the arugula (which had started to flower), beets, pea pods, and strawberries. There was a large surplus that was transported to Our Daily Bread in Larry’s pick up truck.

May 17th and May 23rd. New Signs and New Crops are in.

Workday, Sunday, May 17, 2015

We harvested  a row and half of red lettuce, all of the spinach, some radishes, and planted tomatoes and peppers. We also cleaned the chard bed of leaves that had Leaf Miner bugs and covered the row with a white cloth to keep them out. Robin will be spraying the beets and the chard to try to keep them off.  Pyrethrum spray is used, a natural, botanical insecticide made from chrysanthemums.  Extra lettuce and spinach went to Our Daily Bread.

Workday, Saturday, May 23, 2015

We worked this Memorial Day weekend and were greeted by wonderful new community garden signs on the front gate as well as over the shed door and the back of the shed as well.  Many thanks to Debra for commissioning the making of the signs and for contributing them to the garden! They are fabulous.

We planted leeks, butternut squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. There was harvesting of kale, lettuce, arugula, beets, Swiss chard, strawberries, and herbs. The new perennial flower bed was planted, tubular stalks were cut from the rhubarb plants, and all the tomato plants and pepper plants had cages staked around them. 

Spring!

Saturday, April 25, 2015

                                          

Beds with seedlings were gently cleaned of wood chips and debris.  Arugula plants were thinned and transplanted. Flowers were pinched off 
the rhubarb plants. Creeping Charlie was weeded from the strawberry plants. Tomato cages were gathered and secured along the fencing. 
Spinach was harvested for all.

Sunday, May 3, 2015
It was surprisingly warm this morning. Leek seedlings were planted as 
well as bush bean seeds and Roma bean seeds. More arugula plants were 
thinned and transplanted. Labor intensive work was done digging deep 
to remove the Canadian Thistle weeds by the fencing along the 
perennial beds. Perennial flowers were planted along the southeast 
corner of the garden. Lots and lots of weeding was done in the beds 

and pathways, and a major harvesting of both spinach beds was done 
making a contribution to Our Daily Bread possible. Thanks to Catherine 
for making the delivery.  Mushroom compost will be delivered next 
week.  No workday next week as we're well caught up and it will be 
Mother's Day weekend.

The Garden in April!

Saturday, April 11th -  a beautiful day which was warmer then expected. We planted red and green romaine, red sails and butter crunch lettuce in three and a quarter rows utilizing space where the garlic did not survive.  We planted red and green cabbage, cauliflower, onion sets, kale and chard plants. We planted turnips and carrots. We planted beet, arugula and radish seeds.  We put a teaspoon of organic fertilizer in each hole and mixed it in the dirt before planting the seedlings. This year to prepare the beds we chose to till the clover in by hand to the existing beds instead of using a machine tiller. Finally we harvested spinach. 

And on Sunday, April 19

25 households showed up and we successfully re-planted the 5 beds of cauliflower and cabbage plants more deeply. We also re-watered each plant.  

The herb bed was cleaned up and the perennial garden weeded. 

All the parsley was moved to bed 19. 

A more narrow flower bed than was originally planned was dug up in between the peach trees in order to create a healthy distance from the trunks of the  trees.  Note - the trees are all in bloom!

Compost was placed by hand in the cauliflower, cabbage, thyme beds,  and the new perennial bed.

And everyone went home with spinach again.

Digging the new flower bed and bagging up the nasty weeds.

March 29th work day. Still cold.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Twenty families arrived this morning and learned the ground was frozen so seeds could not be planted. We finished covering all the garden pathways using a newly arrived pile of wood chips, weeded, and cleaned the beds.  We are ready for planting and this is scheduled for Saturday, April 11.

In addition, a new perennial flower bed was staked out amidst the peach trees today and perennial flowers will also be planted this spring in all four corners of the garden.

Staking out the Perennial Flower Bed:

Finally Spring (sort of): The 2015 Season Begins!

What happened at today's first workday of 2015 - March 22 :

Thanks to all who came out for today's first workday of the year. The weather was glorious and "many hands made light work" as a most impressive wheel barrow brigade of untiring workers distributed two huge piles of wood chips throughout the garden. We were done in two hours time. In addition, cardboard was put down in weedy areas before wood chips were spread, lots of weeding was done, the peach trees were pruned, the raspberry bushes supported, and pea pod seeds were planted.  It was too wet to do any other planting.

Right now it is unclear if we'll have a workday next weekend or not. It depends if Larry is able to purchase the plants this coming week.

I'll keep you posted.  

Updates:

13 new households have joined the garden and we have a new high of 62 household memberships this year.

Amazing when you realize we started with 24 households in 2011. And yes, there is still a wait list. It's down to 6 households at the moment.