Sunflowers!

First Harvest of the Season

I forgot to take pictures of the actual harvest work, but here are some pictures of the fruit!

Radishes!

Mixed lettuce (green, chard, romain)

Green Onions

Lots of spinach...

Here's an update on what's going on with the garden right now:

Hey Gardeners,
We had a great harvest this morning.  Sorry we missed some of you out of town.  For those of you who couldn't make it, here's the run down of what you can pick right now:

1. Radishes - Feel free to take a couple of radishes on your watering day.  Ping pong size ones are the best I'm told.  If they're smaller than that, let them continue to grow (you can get a sense of how big they are as you look at the red heads popping out of the ground).  Don't get to caught up on whether they're the right size or not.  Just enjoy them!

2. Spinach - We're coming to the end of spinach season so pick all the spinach you want.  If you happen to notice it flowering, pinch off the flower.  That will help keep it longer.  Just pick a leaf at a time.  That way the plant will continue to grow more leaves.

3. Lettuce - Feel free to pick a head of lettuce.  Leave the smaller ones.  Thin them out by taking one that is diagonal from the others.  There is also some baby romaine that can be picked and thinned out.

4.  Chard - There is a small amount of chard that can be thinned.  Pick a couple of the bigger leaves.

5. Strawberries - Since the birds will get the berries, just pick them as you see them.  Enjoy!

6. Green Onions - you can pick a couple of the tops of the onions that are green.  Just cut off one or two green shoots.  Don't take them all.  The onion will be fine if they lose a couple of green shoots.

7. Parsley & Basil - Go ahead and pick a little basil and there's plenty of parsley to have a decent amount.

8. Weeds - Weed anything that looks like it is out of place.  Watch out for the two small tomato plants I started from seed that are in a square foot all by themselves in the new 4x8 bed.

9. Sunflowers - Don't forget to water the sun flowers growing up along the back fence toward the fire ring.

10. Watering - Just keep watering.  So far mother nature has done most of it for us, but it will get drier as the summer progresses.  If you can't hit it on the day you were supposed to, consider going the day before or after you're scheduled if someone else isn't already scheduled on that day.  You can find the schedule here: http://englishmeadowsgarden.blogspot.com/2010/07/planting-calendar.html.

It's looking to be a great season!
Peace,
Tom

P.S. If you know anyone who wants to join in, feel free to send them my way.

Strawberry Work Day!

This morning we planted some new things in our garden.  A big batch of strawberries, some broccoli, cabbage, onions (red, white, and yellow) and some collard greens (only a little!).  Niki showed up with her five daycare kids, and we all had a great time.

Learning how to prepare the soil

The supervisor

Putting in the plants

Preparing for distribution

First Workday of the Season!

Today under cloudy skies and 40 degrees, we had our first work day. Where was the sun and 60 degrees that was forecasted?  Nevertheless, we persevered.  It helped that two new families joined us.  Yeah!  Because everyone else was on spring break.  Well, almost everyone.  The goals for the day included:

• Compost the old 8x4 beds including peat moss, and compost the 4x4 new beds.
• Put square foot grids on the old 4x8 beds.
• Plant some broccoli, spinach, parsley, and pea seeds (it may be too early, but we can always remain optimistic).

If you didn't make the work day today, it's not to late to join in the future.  Also, consider taking the vegetable survey to help us decide what to plant this year!

An early visitor.

Mixing in compost and peat moss to improve our soil.

Putting in the square foot grids on our old 4x8 beds.

Planning seeds.

Peas!

Spinach, Broccoli, Parsley!

Community Garden Flyer

Garden Season is in the Air!

We had our first community garden meeting of the season to prepare for the spring planting season.  We're very excited.  Below is a schedule for workdays and plantings.  Check out the calendar too for more details.

We'd also love to hear from you.  Will you take some time to fill out a survey and let us know what you think?

Click here to take survey


Hope to see you at a workday!

a.     Buy Compost – April 5 (Tuesday) – 7PM

b.     Workday – April 9 (Saturday) – 9AM

                                               i.     Compost

                                              ii.     Grid on 4x8 beds

c.      Plant – April 26 (Tuesday) – 7PM

                                               i.     Spinach & Pea seeds

                                              ii.     Broccoli, Cabbage, Parsley seedlings

d.     Plant – May 3 (Tuesday) – 7PM

                                               i.     Cauliflower, Onion, Lettuce, Strawberry seedlings

                                              ii.     Lettuce seeds

e.     Plant – May 10 (Tuesday) – 7PM

                                               i.     Beet, Carrot, Radish, Swiss Chard seeds

                                              ii.     Swiss Chard seedlings

f.      Buy stuff for workday – May 24 (Tuesday) – 7PM

                                               i.     4x8 beds

                                              ii.     Compost

g.     Workday – May 28 (Saturday) – 9AM

                                               i.     Build two 4x8 beds

h.     Plant – May 31 (Tuesday) – 7PM

                                               i.     Been (bush and pole), Corn, Summer Squash, seeds

                                              ii.     Summer Squash, Tomato seedlings

Our next meeting will be on May 17th at 7:00PM.