Things are "popping" at the garden, and we're getting ready for our big plant sale on May 7th (from 10 to 3). The greenhouse is full, and we're borrowing a little 6x8 pop-up greenhouse to handle the overflow. As you can imagine, the pottin-up team and the watering team have been quite busy. We're excited to have such a good start on our baby plants, despite the cool and often gloomy spring.

This year, we have lots of vegetables again, but with a new emphasis on heirloom tomatoes. Come to the sale and try a new variety (or six!) this year. We have some very tasty old-fashioned-flavored types that will make your growing adventure even more rewarding. See below for a complete list, with the number of days to maturity from transplant into the garden and short descriptions.

For new gardeners who are just entering into the tomato-growing adventure, we are offering two demonstrations on varieties, planting techniques, fertilization, and staking options. The mini classes will be held at 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM by the tool shed.

2011 TOMATOES

Ace 55 (80) Low-acid tomato with good yields of large fruit.

Beefsteak (96) Heirloom with huge tomatoes, sometimes reaching two pounds.

Black Krim (70) Beautiful dark purple-black fruit with rich, old-fashioned flavor and a hint of smokiness.

Box Car Willie (80) Indeterminate red slicer; beautiful and delicious. Very prolific over a long season.

Brandy Boy (78) Large pink fruit with soft texture and thin skin. Potato-leaf vines, high yielding; cross between the famous Brandywine and Better Boy, resulting in earlier maturity and bigger yields, with nearly as good a flavor.

Celebrity (80) Medium-large red fruit; reliable producer.

Cherokee Purple (85) Large dusky rose-purple fruit. Delicious mild flavor.

Druzba (90) Large red fruits with fine flavor. Bulgarian heirloom; tolerates heat and moisture.

Fantastic (85) Lives up to its name, with uniform beautiful fruit and old-fashioned flavor.

Golden Treasure (70) One of the best storage tomatoes around – delicious golden fruit.

Italian Ice (65) Ivory-white cherry tomato with very mild sweet flavor.

Jake's Awesome (?) Seeds saved from a garden gift from Jake; the variety is a mystery, but the flavor was AWESOME.

Jaune Flammee (80) Indeterminate heirloom from France; excellent flavor with a hint of smokiness; productive; golden/orange with redder inside.

Opalka (85) Heirloom from Poland. Phenomenal set of fruit; excellent fresh, used in sauces or dried.

Oregon Spring (80) Large red oval slicing tomato; "incredible" productivity.

Pik Red (70) Industry standard hybrid; large firm fruit that holds well on bushy plants; good old-fashioned flavor & reliable yields

Pineapple (90) Yellow heirloom; large beefsteak with red streaks. Nice fruity flavor.

Principe Borghese (75) Determinate Italian heirloom; small oval fruit with excellent flavor and prolific yields; great for drying or fresh eating; hold well on the vine.

Roma (76) Clusters of elongated mild flavored fruit with little juice; great for canning.

San Marzano (90) Heavy-yielding, used for fresh eating, preserves, canning, paste, and sauces. Little juice and mild flavor.

Stupice (60) Czechoslovakian heirloom; cold-tolerant potato-leaf vines; abundance of sweet tomato flavor that starts early and keeps going.

Sun Gold (65) Indeterminate hybrid golden cherry. Does well in cool seasons; loads of sweet fruit. Holds well on the vine.

Super Sweet 100 (65) Red cherry, with good balance of sweetness and full tomato flavor.

Taxi (70) Medium yellow, heavy yielder over short season. Mild & acid-free.

Thessaloniki (68) Greek heirloom, with smooth red medium-sized fruit. Pleasant mild flavor, holds well.

Window Box Roma (70) Determinate red hybrid; develops yield after yield of elongated fruit that hold well. Work well in planters.

Orientation done; garden volunteers gearing up for successful 2011

The McMinnville Community Garden held its annual orientation for new personal row gardeners on Saturday, March 19. The garden is welcoming back a solid core of regular personal row gardeners and several enthusiastic newcomers.

Garden volunteers are gearing up for a successful 2011. We are awaiting, of course, for the garden to dry out so that we can access the rows that are currently waterlogged.

We'll be fixing the deer fence, weeding, moving the herb boxes, putting up shelving in the interior of the new tool shed and, hopefully, erecting a donated greenhouse structure in the near future.

Stay tuned as the McMinnville Community Garden continues its work of growing healthy food for needy families in Yamhill County.

In addition, our row sponsorship fundraiser (see post below) is getting off to a great start. We have received several sponsorships, including $100 from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and commitments from other local individuals, companies and organizations. We'll be updating the row sponsors as donations arrive. Thank you to all who have donated or committed to a row sponsorship! Your donations will help us offset the expenses incurred to grow healthy food for the Salvation Army Food Pantry.

Community Garden seeks Food Pantry row sponsors

The McMinnville Community Garden @ The Salvation Army, 1950 S.W. Second St., McMinnville, is starting a new spring fundraising campaign in seeking local businesses and/or individuals to sponsor a Food Pantry row for $50 per row.


In 2010, Community Garden volunteers donated more than 2,500 hours and grew more than 5,000 pounds of fresh produce for local families and other food share organizations in Yamhill County on the plot of land next to the Salvation Army building. There are approximately 40 Food Pantry rows in the garden available for sponsorship. Food grown in these rows goes directly into the Salvation Army’s Food Pantry, which feeds needy families in our communities.

The Community Garden Steering Committee is seeking those interested in sponsoring a row for $50 to send a check to The Salvation Army, 1950 S.W. Second St., McMinnville, OR 97128. Food Pantry row sponsorships will help garden volunteers fund the work of the garden, from purchasing supplies and tools, paying for water and possibly making more expensive purchases, such as buying a new tiller. A tax-deductible donation will help feed those in need in Yamhill County.

For more information, contact Community Garden Publicity Coordinator Dean Rhodes at 503-883-3397 or dean.rhodes@comcast.net or Fundraising Coordinator Amy Desmond at 503-857-0881.

2011 Gardening Season

We are about to burst into the 2011 gardening season. I was just at the garden today and a wonderful surprise greeted me,  daffodils.   I know we are expecting snow later this week, but the fever has begun!

 WELCOME NEW GARDEN SEASON. 

Mulching with Wool

Saturday morning

In an effort to help cut down on the weeding we are looking at different kinds of mulches. Daryll Alt a Yamhill County Master Gardener Volunteer and local small farmer came out to the garden this Saturday to share with us how to use waste form the wool shearing process as a mulch. He and his wife Kim raise sheep among other things on their small acreage outside of Amity.


Daryll started out by introducing us to the properties of the wool.
It lies down thick and blocks the light and it breaks down slowly. It helps hold the moisture in the soil during the dry months to cut down on watering and the parts of the wool being used are considered waste, so by using it we keep it out of the land fill. (Daryll uses wool on the farm as mulch also)


Here we are concentrating on the pathways between the beds.

After raking back the mostly decomposed straw from the pathway onto the rows Daryll is laying a thick layer of wool down in the rows to suppress the weeds. The wool should last 3-4 years before needing to be replaced. The cardboard or newspaper we will have to replace next year.

Then he put down a layer of straw. The straw will be replace as needed. The only potential draw back to the wool is that it can be hard to get a wheelbarrow over it. We are hopeful that the rains will help pack it down.



Most of the rest of the morning was spent preparing for next Saturdays work party by cutting up cardboard and continuing to weed. The Slow Foods of Yamhill County will be out to help us put several layers of cardboard or newspaper in the paths and then cover them with straw.





While we were learning about mulching with wool Miranda learned how to spin wool onto yarn from Kim Alt. She loved it!

Thank you so much Daryll and Kim!

Our harvest is in full swing at the garden.  This is one of the busiest times of the year.  Harvesting, cleaning out the garden, preparing for winter.   So much to do.


Basil from our herb garden.

 Community Section

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Some of our valuable vulunteers

Sunflowers from the flower garden

Personal rows

News Register Article of the Vandalism at the Garden

Vandals ravage community garden

Published: August 25, 2010

Vandals ravage community garden
By NICOLE MONTESANO
Of the News-Register
Vandals destroyed food from several crops Sunday night at the McMinnville Community Garden, smashing some items, stealing others and engaging in apparent food fights. In some cases, crops were pulled up and left lying on the ground.

"Tomatoes, peppers, squash, carrots, raspberries, pumpkins, watermelons and cantaloupe were picked and either thrown around and smashed or taken," children's garden coordinator Janet Gahr said in a statement to police. "Most of the produce was brought to the back of the garden and smashed."

The gates were found closed. Garden organizers are speculating that the vandals may have crawled underneath the mesh deer fence. They are seeking help to keep it from happening again, and are asking neighbors to call police if they see unsupervised teen-agers in the garden.
A large portion of the food from the garden is donated to the Salvation Army's food pantry. Families that sign up grow food both for themselves and for the food pantry, and volunteers help with the donation crops.

According to garden organizers Dean and Patricia Rhodes, the garden donated more than 5,000 pounds of produce to The Salvation Army food pantry in 2009.

"We are all volunteers who livethroughout Yamhill County," Patricia Rhodes said. "We do not have the funds to hire a security guard or to install security devices at the garden. For those who committed this act of vandalism, you need to know that you have taken food out of the mouths of hungry people in Yamhill County. We are asking that you understand your actions and not do it again."

The vandals picked a giant pumpkin that a member was growing for seed. They apparently intended to take it with them, but left it under the edge of the fence around the garden, possibly finding it too heavy.
Gahr said she found the mess Monday morning, when she went to put stems in the compost pile after cutting flowers for her florist shop, Incahoots, which buys flowers from the garden.

"I was kind of discouraged," she said. "They destroyed a lot of watermelons that the kids had been growing for the food pantry. I was just in shock when I saw it."

She said the vandals apparently took some melons with them. But Gahr said some medium-sized melons remain on the vine and she has hopes they will mature in time.

Carrots one of the children was growing for the state fair were pulled up and left lying near the compost area. Significant damage was done to watermelon and canteloupe vines.

"We found tomatoes and peppers spewed about everywhere, so I think they were having a fight," Gahr said. "Having a bit of fun at our expense." One pepper plant was pulled out of the ground.
However, Gahr said the garden should still enjoy a bountiful harvest.

"There was a lot more than they could take," she said. "It's just more discouraging than anything, I think."

For more information about the garden, call Patricia Rhodes at 503-883-1735.

Lots of New Stuff

The garden is looking even better, and is much more comfortable for people and birds!

Thanks to our wonderful Volunteers


Amy and John D have found all sorts of wonderful things for the garden. Two lovely benches were added for the gardeners to rest. They put them up along the bean row so there is even a little shade. Amy is always finding little (and big) things for the garden. She is a jewel!


Brett S. had made beautiful bird houses and put them around the garden. The houses were full of birds within a week of being put up.


Angela D made a large bird bath in her row for the birds. The sound of the birds is so delightful!


The volunteers at the garden do so much more than just grow food for the needy. We are very fortunate! What a great year. Thank you wonderful volunteers.


If you would like to be part of this wonderful Community Garden Experience, please let us know.

What a wonderful garden season we are having. The garden is growing, vegetables and fruits are getting big (or have already been picked) Volunteers are working hard, and we are starting to plan for next year. This has been an extraordinary year at the garden. So many wonderful things have happened.


The key to this years garden ~ Our wonderful VOLUNTEERS! Thank you everyone for all your hard work, and for all the fun you have brought to the garden.

What a Blessing

I was emotionally moved by some of the volunteers I met in the garden today. A family of four came out to help; a mom, a dad, and two kids (a girl and a boy). Ordinary so far it seems. What impressed me so much was that they were so willing to give their help to us. This family had come down from Lake Oswego for one purpose, to help at our Community Garden. They have no connections here and will probably never be back, but we were blessed with them for today. They found out about the Community Garden when their daughter was looking for colleges to attend this coming fall. Linfield was on their list. Patricia, one of our fearless garden leaders, was at a Linfield event where she was in a booth showcasing the McMinnville Community Garden when she met the daughter of this family. She convinced her to come down and volunteer at the garden. Although Linfield was not the choice of college,our garden was.

With the rain pouring down by the buckets full and the temperatures lower than usual for this time of year, this family got up, got dressed and came down to McMinnville to muck around in the mud. They helped us pull weeds, lay down straw and whatever else they were asked to do. I didn’t hear a complaint from any of them. They just steadily, together, completed the tasks that were given to them. They were still busily laying down straw on the slippery pathways when I left with my daughter to escape the miserably weather. What a family outing!


It is people like this that make our garden such an awesome place. When I am out in the garden volunteering I always feel I am part of a group of people that truly do want to make a positive difference in the world. It renews my faith in our garden, our community, our world. We are so blessed!

Thank you to all my fellow volunteers that come out to "help the hungry grow healthy".

Janet