How To Use This Blog

We have set up this blog as a way to share with the community what we are up to and so members can see what needs to be done in the garden week to week.

How to use this blog:
We will post the to-do's and you simply write in the comments what you will be taking care of so we know it's getting done.
  • After you have entered your comment, simply hit the arrow next to profile, select anonymous and make sure you write your name in the comments section so we know who you are!
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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

I have to admit

I do enjoy visiting the worms. Did you know that we now have a thriving worm composting unit up at the garden? Thanks to Nancy Hunt-Coffey and the Sunday School program at All Saints B.H., we have some healthy worms in residence. Below I am posting a little tutorial on worms. Not starting from the beginning: if there is interest I can teach worms in the fall. Let me know.

I really am starting to have hopes for the garden after two years of a lot of struggling with the pest problems. It has been about a month now, maybe a little less and knock on wood, both of the trial bed covers are working. We have a nice group of tomatoes, also lettuce, carrots, pumpkins, beets and a few herbs coming along nicely. Don't forget to come up the next 2 Saturdays, 8 a.m. and following to help Troop 110 install 5 more covers in 2 designs.

Also, the garden is starting to feel like home. The city donated a nice umbrella, I brought up a couple of my old garden chairs, and today I bought an outdoor carpet and a couple of pillows. It makes such a huge difference to be able to sit down in the shade and rest while you're working up there. If anyone has some outdoor furniture they could donate please let me know. We need it.

The help that Armstrong Garden Center and Whole Foods Market has given me has been so motivational. It makes all the difference in the world to have a fence with a gate: we are able to leave things in the area with security.  We may be able to start teaching some classes in the fall through Parks and Recreation, with professional teachers. Stay tuned!

HOW TO HARVEST WORM COMPOST

KEEP YOUR WORMS SHADED AT ALL TIMES
THEY HATE THE SUN
WHEN YOU HAVE RIPE COMPOST, PUT THE LOWEST SEIVE IN YOUR UNIT ON TOP, AND LEAVE IT UNCOVERED. THE WORMS WILL MOVE DOWN AS THEY DON'T LIKE THE LIGHT. USE GLOVES AND START SCRAPING THE COMPOST INTO A BUCKET. AS YOU DO THIS, THE WORMS WILL KEEP MOVING DOWN UNTIL THEY HAVE LEFT THE TOP SEIVE ENTIRELY! 
 SINCE GARDENERS ARE LAZY, I MANAGED TO DISTRIBUTE THE COMPOST INTO THE COVERED BEDS BY SQUASHING IT THROUGH THE HARDWARE MESH. THIS SERVED TWO PURPOSES: I DIDN'T HAVE TO TAKE OFF THE COVERS, AND IT WORKS GREAT TO BREAK UP AND SEIVE THE COMPOST! THEN I WATERED NICELY TO CLEAN OFF THE COVERS AND ALSO INCORPORATE THE COMPOST. YUM.
ALWAYS KEEP A BUCKET UNDER THE WORM FARM SPIGOT TO COLLECT YOUR NICE "WORM JUICE" WHICH CAN ALSO BE USED AS A FERTILIZER.
IN THE NEXT PHOTO YOU CAN SEE HOW COMFY OUR AREA IS BECOMING. WITH LOVE, GGLH








Sunday, May 11, 2014

May in the Demonstration Garden

This week we are gearing up for two great Eagle Scout projects to be completed by Max and Sam Holland on Saturday, May 17th, and Saturday, May 24th. Please plan to come on up and help Troop 110 build 3 pvc raised bed covers and one beautiful "corn house" (my own invention) over 2 other raised beds. I will be on hand and needing assistance in planting seeds in these 5 beds.  Here is my plan: we will have a soup bed, with all of the vegetables that you would need to make a vegan stock (such as rutabaga, turnip, beets, parsley, leeks, garlic). We will have a melon bed, and then I had an idea to grow the vegetables that would go into succotash, so a bed of bush lima beans, a bed of corn and a bed of spice plants such as jalapeƱo peppers, sage, onions. On the north side of the corn I will plant lettuces and kales, as the corn will shade them from the hot weather. I also have some pumpkin plants to stick in somewhere, and in all of these beds I will observe the Plant Companion Proprieties (look up companion planting on line).

Also, Nancy Hunt-Coffey and her group of young gardeners from All Saints have brought up a worm farm this weekend. I need someone to help me feed the worms by saving their kitchen leavings, such as old fruit, coffee grounds, old undressed salads, skins of fruits/vegetables. Please send me an email if you can help with this and we will make an arrangement.  No citrus or animal products please. <blinder01@roadrunner.com>

There is much to do in the garden this summer. I look forward to it, and to having old and new friends join me. I will have photos of the bed covers next time. Garden on!  GGLH




Friday, May 2, 2014

It's Too Hot....

But I've been working in the garden anyway. I decided to try to build a bed cover for the tomato plants, as we are starting to get tomatoes forming and I just know the ground squirrels are watching them. I have gotten a good start on a 3 foot tall cover for the back bed, not quite finished gluing things yet but it is (hopefully) functional and protecting the plants. Skip and Craig's 2 foot tall cover seems to be working for us, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

On May 17th, Max Holland will be building 3 more 2 foot tall covers for his Eagle Project, and the the following week, his brother Sam will undertake something I'm calling "The Corn House", which will be a very attractive wood and wire greenhouse sort of structure which will attach to one set of beds, it will have a door, and it will be tall enough to grow the shorter varieties of corn.

On the remaining beds, I am open to suggestion. Because this is a demonstration garden, I want there to be different sorts of covers, so people can see the possibilities for gardening under extremely challenging conditions, animal-wise. I am considering a cold frame design made out of wood that will have 2 hinged doors for access.....

Also, it is absolutely brutally sunny up there, so high on my list is some garden furniture and some sort of sun protection. I won't be around next week, so stay tuned. Lisa Davis will go up on Wednesday next to water the newer growth and weed. Please join her, around 10 a.m. Also, if anyone has contacts with our local public/private schools, we could really use some service learners who need community service credit, please have them contact me, Barbara Linder, at <blinder01@roadrunner.com> and garden on!