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  

Let the Decomposition Begin!

Hi all ya'll Garden Growers and Garden Groupies!

I've barely written on a blog, much less written a post about decomposing food waste, but that's what this entry is all about! The garden did not need to be watered last night, thanks to a wonderfully ground-soaking spring rain, therefore the composter got some extra attention. New additions include: a large pumpkin which I had left-over from Halloween (yes, I kept this fruit a very, very, veeeerrryyy long time, but it was just so beautiful and now ended up serving a special purpose in the end!), and one large bag full of starbucks coffee grounds! (A barista told us to stop by the Washington Square Starbucks on Friday's, when they usually make fresh bags.) So the garden received both brown and...orange?

According to http://www.compostguide.com/, a compost requires a ratio of about 25 parts brown material to 1 part green material! You know what that means...bring on the brown!...which even includes newspapers, cardboard boxes, and dryer lint, which are all carbon-rich materials! (wet and/or tear these items into small pieces first, but don't over pile the composter, recycle the rest!)

A bit about what's going on inside our large plastic outer space-like worm home we call a composter:
"Compost is the end product of a complex feeding pattern involving hundreds of different organisms, including bacteria, fungi, worms, and insects. What remains after these organisms break down organic materials is the rich, earthy substance your garden will love. Composting replicates nature's natural system of breaking down materials on the forest floor. In every forest, grassland, jungle, and garden, plants die, fall to the ground, and decay. They are slowly dismantled by the small organisms living in the soil. Eventually these plant parts disappear into the brown crumbly forest floor. This humus keeps the soil light and fluffy." -compostguide.com

What a wonderful addition the composter is to our garden! We can all become familiar with what items to add to the compost and what not to add and reduce our trash in the process!

Week Two

Monday, June 2 marked the end of our second week with the Community Garden. We have baby shoots of squash, cucumber and beets coming up, and the tomatoes seem to be growing. So, we must be doing something right. I suspect it is all the tender loving care of each small group...thus the whole group as a collective unit!

I've attached some new pictures of the baby veggies sprouting. Andrew and I also spotted a jumpy friend. We have a garden frog; shall we call him Kermit?

Things to do at the garden:

• Obtain limb clippers and trim back the trees; we need to let in more light for our plants.
• Get some trellis material for the tomato plants...and maybe for the peppers?
• Bring your "compostable" materials to the garden when you visit the garden each week!