Bev and Dave are Back!!!!

Whoopee! Dave and Bev are back from a much deserved vacation. We missed them when they where gone and are glad to have them back. We did keep the garden weeded and continued to plant and do what gardeners do. Thanks to all of you that helped out. I believe Bev was impressed by the sweet peas. Here she and Miranda pick some to sell.

Miranda snapped a candid picture of Suzanne as she toils over her assigned rows.

The Children's Garden continues to grow. Here is how our potatoes are growing.

Miranda is posing in the Sunflower House. She does most of her writing and drawing here already. The straw is quite comfortable when it's dry.

I had her stand by the sunflowers to measure how high they have grow since last time we took a photo. On June 7th they were below her knees. Now they are up to her belly.
Miranda standing in the Bean Tunnel. I hope that in couple of weeks the beans will also be up past her belly. This warmer weather sure helps.
Here is an over view of the Children's Garden. Except for the corn in the Three Friends Garden the garden is growing great. We have a few weeds that will need to be attended to before the get out of hand and I'll have to figure out what to do about the corn. Other wise things a growing quite well.

Later in the afternoon.....

Jack, Patrica and Dean, and I attended the Winter Gardening Talk the Public Library by Casey and Katie Kulla of Oakhill Organics. It was very interesting. I may try a few of their ideas out.

Janet

Gardening Lesson

A lesson in gardening from Miranda. This is what she worked on while out in the garden today. Pay extra attention to the life cycles of Sunflowers, caret(carrots), lettchish (lettuce). We also like at the bottom the descriptive drawings of Tall, Big, Stringy, Straight, Weeds and Plant Bugs.

This week at the Garden June 14 - June 18

Saturday Miranda brought out a friend to help in the garden. Her friend helped me plant flowers.........



while Miranda wrote poetry in the beginnings of the sunflower house.


We planted lots of flowers and watered them in. You can see that the sunflowers are really starting to grow. If you look closely you may even be able to see the morning glory plants.





On Tuesday Coralyn and Zachary planted four pumpkins and helped their mom Heidi weeded the Children's Garden.

I've all but given up on the corn. Maybe a few sunflowers for the beans to grow up would be nice? I'm not too sure what to do. "Frog where are you? I (*Toad) need help. One of the sisters, corn, isn't wanting to come to our garden. It's suppose to be corn, beans, and squash."



Today, Thursday, I brought three flats of tomato plants and eight foxglove bouquets down to the Master Gardener's booth at the Farmer's Market. We sold about a third of the tomato plants and all but one of the foxglove bouquets. It was suggested by the Master Gardener's that we sell our flowers and plants down there again next week. If any of you gardeners would like to help me with that please let me know. I'll be in the garden Saturday.

Also, remember the winter garden talk at the Library. It's this Saturday form 2- 4.

Janet

Artichokes

The other day a few of us at the garden had a discussion about artichokes. There were questions about cardoons and which artichoke varieties were tastiest. I just happen to have a couple of plants so I was sharing about the two varieties I have out in the back garden at our house. I just couldn't remember the varieties I planted 15 years ago or so but here are some pictures. Hopefully this will help illustrate the two different varieties.

I believe this variety is Green Globe. It taste is ok and produces a lot of artichokes.

This is the other one I have and I unfortunately can't remember the variety name. It taste so good and comes on a bit earlier.

Both of these are big plants and require a lot of room to grow. Most years I need to stake them with large stakes or they will fall over and take out large parts of the plant off in the process.

I just learned from a local CSA farmer that cardoons are good winter vegetables. She said that Nick's Italian Restaurant on third street has a way of fixing the blanched winter stems. I'm going to try to make it to her talk at the Library later this month and see if I can find out more about this recipe and winter gardening in general.

Here is the information about the talk at the McMinnville Public Library.

Plan Your Fall and Winter Vegetable Garden
Saturday June 21, 2 – 4 p.m.
Join Casey and Katie Kulla of Oakhill Organics as they share insights into cold season gardening including selecting cold hardy varieties, transplanting timing, and tips for winter gardening success.

Janet

Progress on our beautiful Community Garden

Garden Volunteers hard at work staking tomatoes. We have a lot of tomatoes again this year.



These beautiful foxglove plants surround the front of the garden and have created a colorful entrance to the garden.



Hannah tending the sweet peas.
Josie and Hannah planning their next move. " What should we plant next?" What ever it was I'm sure it will be stunning.
Dave, look your beans are growing. They have reached the strings. They may be a few 1/2 way up the strings by the time you guys come back from your vacation.
Orla stringing the beans and planting mystery peppers in the Food Pantry rows while other gardeners tend to their rows.
The "Boys" fixing up a new compost bin. Jack got lots of help from John and Deb. I think they all worked too hard this day. Deb must have been camera shy I missed him in all of the photos.

We continue to plant the rows. String the beans. Patch the water system. Build compost bins. Plant flowers. And what ever else needs to be done.

Children's Garden Update

Here is Miranda standing next to a few sunflowers helping to measure them. They all look healthy and seem to have taken to the transplanting quite nicely. A few cooler days let them settle in to they're new patch of earth.




Coralyn's Magic Beans have emerged and have just started to grow. The kiss for each one was the trick.
















The corn in the Three Friends Garden hasn't come up yet. We will have to continue to wait and see if they are going to make it.
I feel a little like "Toad" from the story book Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. I've planted the seeds. "Now seeds, start growing". I've checked them several times but I haven't shouted like Toad yet. "NOW SEEDS, START GROWING", because I've read the book and I know that Frog says shouting may frighten the poor seeds and then they will be afraid to grow. Maybe I need to read them stories , sing them song , read them poems and play them music. It seemed to have worked in the end for Toad.

Garden Update

In spite of the fact that I am a practically invisible force at the garden, I've been there a couple of times this past week and I must say that things are growing very well, the beds are filling out, and the weeds haven't taken over yet. Luckily for me, I didn't have to water this past Wednesday because the rain did the job for me. I came to the garden to make sure the ground was moist enough and had a look around. I would like to say that you all have been doing lots of work...great job on stringing up the beans. I know that Dave wanted to be sure that this job wasn't forgotten.

It's Saturday morning and as usual, I will not be able to come to the work day today. I seem only able to come when no one's there. Saturdays are difficult for me. Today I will be applying for a job at Safeway instead of having a great time gardening with all of you.

The Wednesday before last when I came to water the garden, I did some weeding, and I harvested the chamomile buds to dry at home for tea. I trimmed them down after harvesting a good amount of buds and so they should fill out again and in a month or two may have a whole new batch of flowers for picking. They were covered in thrips so I had to wash the harvest several times. I never eat bugs if I don't have to. However, my washing was successful and I now have a jar of dried sweet smelling tea to drink when I need to feel calm.

Bev says it's fine to harvest them (the food pantry doesn't need them) so if a second crop develops and anyone is interested in drying some for themselves- don't be shy! Chamomile is mild, sweet, and there is no risk of harming yourself consuming them. If you want to harvest some but are not sure about how to do that, just ask me and I'll be glad to answer any questions you have.

It was really nice to spend an hour and a half in the calm of the garden. I love working with others as well, chatting the time away while working, but equally valuable to me is the meditative quiet that one can find in a deserted garden. I've been a very stressed out person lately and as is always the case I find my heart rate slows down, my mind empties out it's garbage, and I feel peaceful when bent over a big patch of fertile soil with my fingers digging into the cool earth.

If any of my row team-mates have any questions for me about what to do when at the garden, or need to know when the heck I'll be there, please feel free to e-mail me at: angelinadotwilliamsonatverizondotnet.

Have a great week-end everyone!!