Second Time Around: Community Garden 2009

Saturday, May 29th was the start of another 20/30 Vision Community Garden season. Thanks to all who were able to show up. We were able to weed, till, fertilize (with our own compost!), plant, water, and organize the tools in 2 short hours! What a great team!

This year's garden promises a great harvest. The soil is looking fertile and healthy. The iris (thanks to last year's bulb fairy) and the hearty amount of weeds that were growing (now pulled!) indicate that (1) the garden is more healthy, and (2) the garden is getting more sun.

Summer 2009 promises a harvest of peas, beans, carrots, radish, grape and vine tomato, green zebra heirloom tomatoes, basil, strawberry, green to red peppers, carmen hot peppers, squash, lettuce, pickling cukes and regular cucumbers! OH MY!

Also, thanks to the work of 20/30's, especially Yana and Talya, we were able to raise $35.25 by selling our extra organic seedlings at last Saturday's Strawberry Festival. All of the money will go to offset the cost of this summer's gardening expenses.

This is an exciting time, gardeners! Thanks for your interest and support this summer.

The Take Over of the Cukes!

The rainy August might have delayed the growth of our tomatoes and squash (slowly but surely they are showing signs of harvest), but the cool, damp days seemed to benefit our cucumbers. They are sprawling across our little garden, too many flower buds to count have prickly baby cukes!!!

First Fruits of Our Labor!

Our garden now bears two tiny green tomatoes! Despite their small size, they hold both the love of our labor and the promise of what's to come. And as August rolls around and our garden, God willing, becomes bountiful, I do not want to forget this first thrill.

Gorgeous tomato plants (above)

Thriving squash plants (below)

What does our garden need of us?

A few reminders and to-do items:

• KEEPIN' IT CLEAN: Please remember to straighten up when you leave the garden. Shannon and I have purchased a plastic drawer that we can now store all our 20/30 garden tools in. Also, a hose-on-a-wheel wind-up "thingy" was purchased to aid in keeping the hose clean and less tangled. Please remember to wheel the hose in, and keep it neat in the garage when you leave the garden site.
• RECEIPTS?: If you have made a purchase for the garden, please email me with the total of your expenses. I will start working on crunching the numbers, so we can determin how much is owed to those who have purchased garden supplies.
• NEED NEW SEEDLINGS: The seeds in the garden-bed on the far left never took. Yana mentioned that she was going to look into seedlings that we can plant in this bed. Yana, if this is something you cannot do, let us know. There were supposed to be cucumbers and beets in that bed, but lets at least replant it with something. We've got the space! Let's not waste it. :)
• STAKE IT: Some of the tomato plants need to stakes. I have some extra twine; I will be responsible for this duty.
• PESKY WEEDS: Weeds are starting to come up at the garden. So when you are out watering, be on the look out for those pesky weeds. It is fairly obvious now which are the veggie plants and which are the weeds. Any weeds that you pull can go in the compost bin.

Food for Thought...

My friend Ann clipped this little blurb out of the July 9th Metro for us:

"'Almost everyone around here has a garden. If they would grow a row for the food program and the Friendly Meals program, it would help so much.' New Hampshire's Fall Mountain Foodshelf Pantry director Mary Lou Huffling has begun asking local gardeners and farmers to grow extra rows of produce to donate to food banks."

The 20/30 Vision Community Garden is certainly in its trail stages, but as we continue to learn from each other and from our little plot of earth it is worth remembering the different ways we can think about giving back.

Weeks Four: Tree Trimming

Many thanks to Kate, Yana and Andrew for their help this week in trimming the shrubs and trees at the garden this week. On Tuesday evening, Andrew and I trimmed the lower bushes and shrubs. The trimmers that Shannon and Roscoe purchased for the chore were amazing! Thursday night, Kate and Yana borrowed a towering tree trimmer from a friendly Brighton neighbor. Thanks to the hard work of these ladies on Thursday night, our Community Garden will get a great deal more sunlight! Thanks, Gardeners!

Also, the squash, cukes and tomatoes are really starting to show noticeable signs of growth! We will have the ingredients for a superb summer salad in no time!

Marigolds!

Hey green friends!

Roscoe and I sought out to plant the marigolds this evening at our lovely community garden.  One trip to home depot later, we came to the garden ready to get our hands dirty (i still have dirt under my nails)!  We planted them as directed by our fellow gardeners but then learned that marigolds and tomatoes are great companions as they keep the bugs from eating our lovely tomato plants.  So we were advised by Pat & Bill to pay attention to the bugs-if it seems there are a lot and they are harassing our sexy tomato friends, then we need to order some more muscle (marigolds) to keep those crazy fools out of our garden!  

We have some pics of the garden and my dirty hands to prove our labor.  If you look close, you'll notice we have a garden ghost.  Seriously, I'm not kidding!  What is that white thing in the picture?!?  Freaky!!!

And we bought a nice device to go on the hose so that you can choose between "shower, mist, etc."  We found trellises for our tomato plants (when needed) and some serious looking clippers for trimming.  

One last note- Bill suggested we make sure to give the garden a good hearty watering during these hot summer days...and the evening is a perfect time for it.

Happy gardening friends...

-ss