Saturday 24 Workday

Seeds are one of the most important things us humans have learned to cultivate and harvest. Without them, I'm afraid most of us humans would starve to death. One of the things I love best about gardening is planting seeds. The main reason is that it seems so impossible that these beet seeds, that look like fossilized bits of wood, will ever develop into anything edible that when they do, it always feels like a minor miracle.

The truth is that I love planting vegetables from transplants that other people have grown up in a nursery because I feel so much more certain that they will progress properly onto my dinner plate by the end of summer...it doesn't require as much patience. I'm not as patient as I'd like to be. Some things can't be planted as transplants and this saves me from complete and utter laziness. If I want to have home grown beets, and I do!, then I have to plant them from seed. It's good for me to have to cultivate some patience.

And then, as I said, there is that greater sense of achievement and of wonder that I could put something so unpromising in the ground and end up pulling deep red jewels out of the soil a couple of months later. Doesn't everyone need these exercises in patience?

These particular beet seeds were planted in a food pantry row.

The community garden is full of gorgeous blossoms right now: chives, chamomile, comfrey, foxgloves, delphiniums, and sweet peas are all busted out in full glory. Lovely, lovely to walk around and see what's opened up.

Can you believe the broccoli is already forming small flower heads? When did that happen? (Presumably while I wasn't looking).

These are comfrey blossoms. Comfrey is an important herb that has earned itself a little obscurity in recent years by being misused by humans. It used to be widely used internally for it's incredible healing properties but it can make you very sick if you take too much of it or take it for too long so it is no longer recommended that you ingest it. However, it is still a very useful herb. I asked Bev what it's doing in the community garden (because I rarely see it outside of my own or my herbalist mother's gardens) and she said they will be using it for compost tea.

That is an excellent use for it and it made me so happy to hear that the community garden is making use of this wonderful herb. If you steep the leaves in water and then feed your garden with the resulting tea, it will give all your plants a really nice nutrient boost. You can also feed the leaves into your compost bin but you must be careful not to add it in thick layers or you will end up with a nasty slimy mess.

There is still a great way to use comfrey safely for personal use as well: dry the leaves or roots (roots are best) and make a tea out of it to add to your bath. (Don't drink it!) Take about two tablespoons of the dried root and steep in boiling hot water for ten minutes, then dump the resulting tea in your bath. Why would you do such a thing? Because comfrey is great for healing and soothing and smoothing skin.

If you haven't made your appearance at the garden yet this season, it's time to do so...look at how much is going on. It's really filling out and it's only the end of May. I'm so excited to see what it will look like in another couple of weeks.

I finally caught Jack working!

Jack is so much fun to tease because he's so good natured...but he's put in so much hard work in the garden already while I have been frittering away my time in Scotland that I have a lot of catching up to do.

That was a great work day. I hope to be there on this Tuesday as well and hope to see some of you there!

News from the Children's Garden

One Happy Kid

Here is Miranda "Helping" plant the Children's Garden. She is so happy playing in the mud. We have had several baths this week end.





This week the Bean Tunnel was planted with "magic" beans (scarlet runners). Coralyn was so certain that the were magic because of their size that we had her kiss each one before she and her mom Heidi planted them. I'm sure they will grow as magically as Jack's beans did. We also planted a couple of Gourds that Angela grew at the corners of the bean tunnel Saturday. Now the Bean Tunnel is well on it's way.



The corn in the Three Friends Garden is now in the earth and we will wait a couple of weeks until they are four to six inches high and then plant the the second friend Bean. Then the third friend squash will be next. Our Three Friends Garden is based on the Native American Three Sisters planting method. It is said that Corn, Beans and Squash have a very close friendship. The Corn grows tall like a pole so that the Bean can have a support to climb up. The Bean helps by fixing nitrogen in the soil and lastly the Squash helps her companions by shading the earth with her large leaves so that the weeds have no where to grow and the ground stays moist.




Also Peppers and Cucumber plants were put in there rows. Carrots and onions are seeded side by side. Another companion planting sort of, it's suppose to be chives, but we have so many out in the garden. I will need to find some oregano for the cucumbers. I have read that the scent is supposed to confuse the cucumber beetles. It's worth a try. We certainly have plenty of cucumber beetles in garden to try out the theory on.







This one is a "good guy". A Ladybug resting on a baby sunflower.

Pictures Miranda Took

New little pepper plants.

Gardeners hard at work.


Bean row. Little beans coming up.

Pear birdhouse in bean tunnel.

David and Janet (mom)

Birdhouse on corner pole in children's garden.

Janet (mom) in our row.

Growing Fast

We harvested one little broccoli spear on Tuesday and more to come soon! It is amazing to watch the rate of new growth on the vegetables and flowers this month. Last week's hot weather really gave them a burst of energy. Don't despair with the rain we are now having as we need that too and it sure saves on the water bills.

Our garden is a labor of love tended by gardeners who want to grow fresh food for people in need within our community and for their own families.

Here are three of our hard working gardeners taking a moment to rest and admire their accomplishments of the day. From left is Dave, Janet & Jack. They are part of the committee that plans and organizes our garden. We sure do appreciate all their hard work.

First Cutting of Market Flowers

These flowers are beautiful. We harvested them to sale to Incahoots. 10 stems of Delphinium and about 30 stems of Foxglove. Don from the Sage Restaurant also came down to day and harvested his first herbs. He said they would be having a fennel soup as a lunch special today. Yummy!

The Flea Market

Why do they call junk sales Flea Markets? We didn't sell any fleas. At least I hope not. What we did sell was lots of plants. David and the Master Gardener's grew a few too many tomatoes and such and decided to sell them to help pay the water bill for the garden this year. We received a large amount of golden chain trees and annual flowers(beautiful verbenas) plants from the Yamhill County OSU Master Gardeners and some strawberry plants from a very nice man who was resetting his strawberry beds. David and the community gardeners grew all the rest. We sold a lot. We actually met our goal of paying for the water. There was also lots of "junk", Miranda says "it's"stuff" not junk mom", that we sold also.

Miranda had talked me into letting her have a booth so that she should could make some money. Why she wants money I not sure. She has quite a bit for a 6 year old. About a year or so ago she had decided that she wanted to buy some "property". Our little lot in the city was too small for her aspirations. If I remember right she wanted a carnival complete with a Ferris wheel and other rides. There were other desires also such as a Zoo, skyscraper, some sort of under ground building(like the bat cave on "Batman" and many more which of course we had to disappoint the poor child and say no to. So, she came to the conclusion that she need to purchase some "property" and went about acquiring money to do so. She even opened up a savings account. I haven't heard much talk of moving out lately to her own place but it may still be in the back of her mind. She does, although, always seem to want to make some money by selling items. She is the daughter of retailers so she must come by it honestly.

The result of this sell was that Miranda actually got rid of some of her "stuff" that she was done with. Although she isn't going to be moving out of the house soon, she did learn some very valuable lessons today. Such as, how to clean out your stuff, how to stick with something once you committed to it (it was close to 90 degrees), and that giving to others makes you feel good. She donated 1/2 of what she made to the Community Garden and Salvation Army. Also that 8:30 - 4:00 is a really long time. I am very proud for her. She just amazes me more and more each day. What a kid. It's such a gift to be her mom.

I would like to thank all of you that helped out in the scorching heat to make our fund raiser such a great success. It was a lot of work for some of you and because of you we have great start towards our goal of self sufficiency this year. We have also learned a lesson or two with this sell and hope to make it some what easier the next time we attempt it. Like not so many hours and were plenty of sun screen!

If you know anyone that need vegetable starts we still have some. They will be for sale at the garden on Tuesday and Saturday mornings this week.

I hope to see everyone out in the garden next Saturday.

Janet

Beginings of the Bean Tunnel

After much thought and research I finally decided on the bean tunnel structure. I was having a hard time coming up with a structure that would be tall enough for children of all ages to be able experience it. I came across this idea somewhere from a Goggle search. It appeared to be sturdy and fairly easy to make. Which in the end it was.

Here is how we made it:


We started with a ridged cattle fencing that we bought from Wilco Farm Store. Brian clamped two 2x4 together at the bend point.


Then the three of us bent it over them. Well, mostly Brian.


It was fairly easy to make and I think it looks great. It will look even better with beans and gourds climbing all over it. I'm getting excited about planting the rest of the garden. In the back ground you can almost see the fresh straw we put down yesterday in the sunflower house.

Janet

A great Mother's Day gift

I was starting to feel the pressure of the planting season. Miranda and I went down this Saturday and began to form the beds to accommodate the Sunflower house for the new Children's Garden. Miranda again surprised me with her energy and her new found enthusiasm for gardening. It may be short lived but I'm loving every moment. What a great Mother's Day gift! It feels so good to share with my child something that is in the very core of who I am. I love to garden. I love the way the soil and the plants that grow in it leave me in such awe of nature. I always am left feeling completely grounded(no pun intended).

We started the Children's Garden today! We cleared out part of one row to make way for the floor of the Sunflower House. Miranda particularly liked leveling the dirt out after I got rid of the majority of soil from the remaining row. She said she liked to see how flat she could make it. Maybe she will be an excavator when she grows up? After we finished excavating the floor we put down several layers of newspaper to hopefully block the weeds. Then topped it with straw. A special thanks to Kathy for helping out. We were on such a roll that we decided to transplant some of the volunteer sunflowers to the edges of the house. They will help form the wall along with the morning glories. Now we need to put more compost on the remaining rows and finish putting newspaper and straw in the pathways.

The garden is looking beautiful. I was able to cut some of the first cut flowers for Incahoots today. Four gorgeous stems of delphinium. Just what we needed at the shop for the Mother's Day rush.
The flower beds were being readied and planted with annual flowers and more volunteer sunflowers were rescued then transplanted.
All the remaining rows have been cleared of weeds and the planting has begun. I saw a whole row of tomatoes going in and I think squash. ? The broccoli and cauliflower that was planted in previous weeks is growing like mad.
David and Jack finished the center bean row by putting up the wires for the strings and installing the drip irrigation. The water in on and the irrigation system is working.

Wow a lot happened today. High fives to everyone.

Janet

The Planting Season Begins
Saturday Work Day, May 3

Jewel and Hanna plant sweet peas while Jack looks on.
Now Jack, what is it they say about idle hands?
Ha ha, I'm just kidding you!

Personal rows were assigned and people are getting to know their rows and planting their first seeds!

Naturally I couldn't make it to the most important work day of the season: the real opening of the season this past Saturday May 3rd. As it happens I was hunting for supplies for my upcoming trip. I have to say that I would have much preferred to have been bent over my own personal row in the community garden with the rest of you. I hear that the turnout was really great which bodes well for this fresh year of gardening together.

I managed to come for a bit of weeding on Tuesday and was impressed with how good the garden is already looking. It was such a hairy mess of grass and weeds in March and now it is so trim; filling up with wonderful plantings such as the sweet peas, herbs, and neat rows full of seeds.

Bev told me that there are 22 members this year compared with about 8 or 9 members last year- what a phenomenal change! Does this mean that everyone will keep on top of weeding? (That was a completely non subtle hint, in case you didn't catch it.) I really can't wait to see what everyone is going to grow. I am going to grow some potatoes for both me and the food bank, some shelling beans, tomatoes, and beets.

I know that weeding isn't every one's favorite activity but I want to say that although it can be murder on the back, I really enjoy it. One of the best things about it is that it's a little like getting to watch a National Geographic program on insects while you're freeing the soil of plants that you don't wish to grow. If I can find a really good insect field guide for our region I will bring it to keep in the new shed. While weeding on Tuesday I got to know one of the younger members of the garden named Ariel with whom I enjoyed a lively chat about all the insects we were unearthing. Amongst them were some little slugs which she had no trouble picking up with her bare hands, cucumber beetles, those queer black spiders that are so abundant right now on the ground, giant earth worms, grubs, and one rather large beetle.

Weeding nearly always puts me in either a philosophical state of mind in which I contemplate all manner of issues humans tend to grapple with, or I revert to the part of kid-hood that I actually enjoyed (I didn't enjoy being a kid much) which was: excitedly digging in the dirt and finding treasures of all kinds...like bits of bottles, coins, bottle caps, that sort of thing, or intently watching the life of insects unfold before my eyes.

A word to the wise: if you hear a milk-curdling scream coming from my little corner of the garden it means I've unearthed a potato bug. If such a thing occurs, either pay me no mind, or if you notice that I have passed out- do break out the smelling salts for me. Thank you. I have come to deeply appreciate the roll that insects play on the planet but that doesn't mean I want to get up close and personal with an insect whose legs are so meaty you could almost slather them with BBQ sauce and pop them on the grill.

Have a great time in the garden while I'm gone...I look forward to seeing you all out there when I get back!

Sneeking down on Sunday

Well, Angela and I "sneaked" down to the garden this sunny Sunday afternoon. We let the girls play and we pulled a few more weeds and readied her row for planting. She got one of the rows which had a winter crop of kale in it so it missed the clean-up and the rototiller. It wasn't too bad though and we added a bunch of mushroom compost to it. Then Miranda and Roselyn helped by digging it in. I was actually having a bit of trouble getting Miranda to stop digging. I don't think that has ever happened. She may make a gardener yet. I just need to exercise lots of patience and not push her into it. I'll just keep bringing her. One of these days it may happen.

I would also like to welcome all of you the garden this season and thank Angelina for helping out with the blog. If any other gardeners would like to join Bev (gardenangel), Angelina, or myself in the posting to this blog I would welcome it. Just let me know.

Janet

Tuesday Work Day
(Let me introduce myself...)

Janet has kindly asked me to contribute to this blog. Most likely you don't know me yet because my presence has been notably invisible since I signed up to hoe a row and to volunteer here. The reason I haven't been around is that I had a very sudden (and happy) move to an old farmhouse here in Mac. Now that the move is done I will be participating a lot more on work days.

Right after my trip to Scotland this coming week.

I did make it to the last Tuesday work day and I will make it this Tuesday as well.

Since you don't know me well I should probably tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Angelina. I am a writer, mother, urban homesteader, and gardener. I am silly, serious, love irreverent humor, and drinking beer. I have just finished taking the Master Gardening classes this winter and am starting to do my "pay back" hours. I don't personally care for the term "pay back" as it sounds too much like doing community service work in payment for crimes committed. I prefer to think of it just as my volunteer hours. While I did learn a lot in the program, I honestly think there is no better gardening class than just doing it. Trying different methods and seeing what works for yourself.

The botany sections were pretty amazing though, I must confess.

Throughout the program it was impressed on us that we should choose to do our volunteer hours in events and programs that best suit our interests. Although I realize how important the plant sales are to the Master Gardening program, I have a lot of anxieties that make working such busy events a nightmare for me. So I didn't do the plant sale. My mother asked me if I was ashamed to show my face there when everyone else was working at the sale. I adore my mother and have learned not to be hooked by such guilt inducing tactics.

What my passion is, is gardening. Not perennials, natives, or shrubs...but food. Food, herbs, and flowers for cutting. That is my passion. My other passion is inspiring others to grow their own too. This is why I have decided that I will focus all my volunteer hours to the community garden (and the help desk when required). When I found out about this community garden I got really spazzy excited! There is nothing more fundamental to humans than growing, eating, and sharing food. It used to be that almost all families tended at least a small patch of their own. Not as a hobby, but as a necessary supplement to an often otherwise poor diet.

Now the majority of us have lost the knowledge or the space to garden and there's never been a more important time to help people rediscover how empowering it is to step outside your door and pick something for dinner that is so fresh the sap is still running from the stem. I want to be a part of a garden that invites everyone to participate. I want to be a part of this garden because it will not only expand my own growing capabilities but because this garden helps to feed the community. I want to be a part of this garden because it's fantastic to meet with others who feel as I do and chat while wrestling with the grass-weeds and meet the local frogs.

Last Tuesday I came to the work day late and stayed late too. In the end it was just me and the croaking frogs and that gorgeous Oregon spring sky full of shifting clouds that periodically dump rain and then shine a bright sun on the work you're doing. The community garden is a wonderful spot in which to enjoy our rich (clay) soil and even when I'm working alone, I can feel the community of you who have been putting your back into it long before I arrived.

I look forward to many hours of cursing pulling the weeds and chatting with everyone as the season progresses. Thanks for letting me be part of this group!

A bit under the weather

As I write this I'm feeling the effects of the nasty cold I seem to have caught. I'm sorry I didn't contribute much to the garden today. I couldn't keep myself away though, so I did go down eventually(after 11:00am) I missed those of you that are early birds. I am glad I did make it, as there was so much activity in the garden. The rows were assigned, folks were planting things, and digging in the dirt. I saw lots of plants in many of the rows. Unfortunately in my fogginess of of this cold thing I have I forgot to bring Miranda's camera so I didn't get any pictures today. Take it from me, the garden looks great. Now, let's all pray we don't have a late frost. Fingers crossed. I'm the daughter of a local old timer so I usually don't plant until Memorial Day. I know, I will miss out on all the cabbage and broccoli and my row won't be harvest able until almost August. I must confess though I am tempted to plant some carrots soon and I do have lettuce and onions already going at home. My dad (the old timer,I hope he doesn't mind me calling him that) actually bought some tomatoes last week. No doubt for his green house. He likes to grow them in there in gallon pots then transplant them out later. Wouldn't that be nice to have a green house. Oh yeah, then someone would have to look after it. Maybe not. Well, anyway I do hope for nice weather. Maybe an old dog like me can be taught few new tricks.

Happy Gardening,
Janet