A crew of seven garden volunteers showed up today and installed shingles on the garden shed. Art organized this effort and it went quickly and smoothly, with great results.
Also this week, the school group, Girls Helping Girls, came to the garden. About 14 girls were there as a result of this program developed at Roland Park Country School. Larry had them plant a cover crop on the expansion bed that won't be utilized until next year.
Thanks to Art for organizing the numerous tasks needed to beautify the
garden shed. He has purchased all the materials and trim was installed on the sides of the shed today. Next week - shingles.
Thirty households showed up for lots of harvesting: kale, chard, beans, peas, cabbage, cauliflower, beets, basil, chives, and oregano. The pea vines were also harvested for people interested in cooking a Chinese dish of garlic and pea leaves. And a succession crop of beets was planted. Thanks to Jen for making this week's delivery to Our Daily Bread.
We had one of our smaller turnouts today, 18 households, and still got all the work done:
Larry gave a tutorial on composting. The compost in the first bin was turned, i.e. material was moved from the first compartment to the second. Rich soil had already been produced in the deeper part of the bin and this was added to the bed of leeks. The empty first bin then received all of today's plant material to begin the process again.
Tomato plants were pruned; bottom leaves were removed in order to prevent the risk of contamination from the leaves sitting in contact with the soil.
Straw was donated from a local resident. This was picked up in Larry's truck and then placed between the mounds of new zucchini and winter squash plants to control weeds.
More wood chips were moved into the new garden area.
There was a comparatively small harvest of broccoli, cauliflower, and turnips.
We made the change from a 10:00 a.m. start time to 9:00 a.m. and it was still incredibly hot this morning. Phoebe brought water to share and lots was accomplished:
In the two new beds outside the fenced garden, strawberries, asparagus, and raspberries were planted while wood chips were added to the paths. Work was done to move wood chips away from the perimeter of the trees along Wexford. Many thanks to Neil and Ann for their generosity in donating the raspbery plants.
The now empty lettuce beds were planted with butternut squash seeds. Small mounds were made with compost added in. They were planted 4 feet apart with 3 seeds planted per mound. There will be plenty of room for the plants to spread out.
All the garlic was harvested and this freed up two beds for planting zucchini seeds. Again this was done by creating mounds though these were only 3 feet apart.
All the mustard greens were harvested. The plants were removed and this has given the leeks lots of room to grow and thrive now.
Arugula was harvested by cutting the plants at the bottom, leaving about 2 inches of plant remaining in the ground.
Broccoli, radishes, turnips, and a small number of fava beans were harvested. Bush beans were planted where more garlic was removed from alongside the pea plants.
Many thanks to Donna and Lee for delivering our harvest to Our Daily Bread today. And many thanks to Aaron for repairs to the water system and setting up another sprinkler for the new beds!
