Bees, Flowers, Fruit, and Deadly Nightshade!
the community garden has it all

A great loss of honey bees is a major concern for all people though few people understand their importance to humans as well as gardeners do. Without bees we lose a huge percentage of our pollinating insect population. Some wasps pollinate, but we really rely on the bees to do the bulk of the work. That's why it's always such a relief to me to see them in the garden.

Until I moved back to Oregon as an adult, I never had a single run-in with deadly nightshade. Because my mother is an herbalist and I share her interest, I was familiar with the power and the dangers of the Solanaceae family of plants which include: Brugmansia, eggplant, potatoes, deadly nightshade, tomatoes, peppers, Physalis, mandrake, and peppers. That's a huge and very important family of plants! It's really no wonder that so many people in the 1600's were suspicious of eating tomatoes which bear a striking resemblance to its cousin, deadly nightshade, that can kill you.

In fact, I had a charming little tomato volunteer the first year I moved here. It looked just like a tiny wild tomato. I popped one red berry open and the seeds looked like miniatures and the fruit actually smelled a little like tomatoes too. However, being the kind of person who doesn't randomly pop new plants in my mouth, I did a little research and discovered that my tomato volunteer was a deadly nightshade plant. YIKES!

I weeded out my whole personal row yesterday (I'm sure you're all relieved!!) and found several nightshade plants growing amongst my beans. I kept them separate from the weeds for the compost pile-but- where do I put them? I left them on the counter because I didn't know where the regular trash was. So if anyone can tell me, I'd appreciate it. I didn't intend to leave a mess but I also didn't wish to leave them anywhere where they'd get further mixed up in the garden.

In my garden here at home I've got no ripe tomatoes...but look at these from my personal row!!! It couldn't be more perfect timing because this week we have no money for tomatoes. I know just what to do with so many tomatoes: cherry tomatoes baked with ricotta cheese, lots of salads, and fresh salsa with the romas. Summer has its perks!

Cosmos are one of my favorite flowers. I love how they exuberantly throw themselves all over the place with tons of blooms and sweet faces. The white ones and the deep magenta ones are my favorites. I have some in my home garden and they always cheer me up. These here are in Jack's row.

The whole garden is looking wonderful.

I worked hard on my own row. I know that no one here likes an untidy garden. My own gardening style is much less tidy. I would like to point out that I never did any trellising for my beans because all of them claimed to be bush beans. Well, they're not! All of them are vining like crazy and reaching for every one else's row. I have lots of stakes here at home that I keep meaning to bring with me but stakes are hard to carry on my scooter.

I am growing all shelling beans which means they need to mature and then dry on the vine. I noticed that I have some drying pods and now I'm concerned about the rain we've been having. This must be the trickiest part of growing shelling beans for drying here in the Pacific Northwest. I wonder if my beans are going to get enough dry weather to complete maturing and drying before the fall rains?

I think it's pretty amazing what every one has growing in their rows. It's clear that a 30' row can grow an awful lot of produce. So many people think you need a huge yard to produce food. This isn't true. The community garden is proof. I can't wait to see how many beans I get out of the approximate 10' of space I devoted to it. How many bean soups will I be able to make?

I'll just have to wait and see.

Pickles, Raspberries and Rain

This Sunday brings pickles, raspberries and rain.



I started out this Sunday in the garden by trying to finish a pickling session I started at home earlier in the day. I wanted to pick a bunch of cucumbers from my row so that I could finish up the pickling for this year, but unfortunately there weren't that many out there. I found enough to do four more quarts. I still have about five more quarts to fill the pantry with dill pickles for the year.

I like my pickles dilled ,nothing sweet. They are simple to make and fairly cheap. I just make a brine with cider vinegar, pickling salt and water. Bring it to a boil and pour over cold packed cucumbers. I like to also stuff each jar with a garlic clove, a chili pepper and a head of dill. Top that with a sterilized lid and cap and process. In about a week or so we have pickles. YUM!

*I went down to the garden a second time about 5:00pm or so to finish the watering the other two zones that I hadn't finished earlier. I thought I would tie back the raspberry canes while I waited for the watering to be done. I got one side half way done when I ran into a very cute light green froggy. I wanted so much to get a picture of him. I ran to the car grabbed my camera and went back to the row to find the frog. He was there just where I had left him. So I tried to take his picture. My battery was dead. I couldn't even get the camera to open. So you will just have to trust me he was really cute. About this time a little rain was starting to come down. So went to put the camera back and then get back the business of tying up the raspberry canes. The rain by this time was increasingly coming down. I finished off the first side of the raspberry row and started to come back on the second row but, by this time The rain was coming down by the bucket fulls. I kept going over to the tool shed for cover thinking that it would let up soon. Back and forth I went. The zones were almost completely watered when I finally realized that the rain was not going to stop and it was only coming down harder and harder. "Why am I watering?'' I asked myself and finally quit. I left the garden this evening having finished my watering chore, scratched-up from the raspberry cane, soaked to the skin and with a feeling of uselessness. Maybe my skin benefited from the long exposure to the rain. It does feel somewhat softer now and the raspberries were very delicious rinse by the rain.

Happy rain day,

Janet

*It had been a warm, dry day up to this point.

Pumkins, Gourds and Potatoes

Sunday August 17th -

Miranda and I went to the garden to participate in an activity in the Children's Garden and water. Miranda and Zac and Coralyn were the only ones that showed for it, so Heidi and I decided to save the program that she worked on for another day. It looks like a fun one .... lots of dirt and worms.... that sort of thing. I"ll keep you posted on when we reschedule. The kids did some harvesting today and put their names in pumpkins for later. Below I took some pictures.

Miranda's was done last week or the week before that. It is already scaring over. As it grows we're thinking that the lettering will grow also. We are going to watch it.
Here are Zac and Coralyn's pumpkins. They scratched designs in their pumpkins today. We just used the pointy end of a wooden skewer to etch the pumpkins. In the past I've also used a nail.
Here is the infamous "Woody" or "Snowflake". The kids love the garden cat. As far as I can tell he lives out here. I've heard that he catches mice or moles or some kind of rodents. That makes him useful in my opinion.

We also found a few potatoes hiding under the straw. They are looking nice. In a week or two we are going to have to get the kids out here to dig them up.


The Bean Tunnel is being taken over by the birdhouse gourds and just in time. The scarlet runner beans are just now giving up. I really like this combo. The frame is holding up with out a problem also. I could have left a bit more room at the base of the row so that the tunnel passage was wider. I have to keep after the gourd plants or we won't have room to pass through.

Gourds hiding in the tunnel.




Look at this awesome pumpkin growing at the end of one of the gardener's personal row. Wow!

Saturday August 9

Miranda in the Bean tunnel you can't see the wire supports anymore and the bird's nest gourd plants are beginning to take over from the runner beans. It's a pretty combination with the earlier red from the runner beans and the later white flowers of the gourds.
Here is the Sunflower House. It's become a jungle. The kids and adults have been known to find refuge in the middle of it on the hot days. We also have a resident cat "Woody" or "Snowflake", depending on which kid you talk to, who lives in there most of the time. He has surprised me on several occasions when I have gone around the corner though the sunflowers.



Jack the Compost Man teaching Miranda how to play in the dirt with the help of John of course. It's hard to tell if she convinced that they are doing the sifting right.

Dave the Bean Picker. I think this is what he will be doing for several weeks now.

Wednesday Watering

Have I said recently how gorgeous the garden is looking these past couple of weeks? While I wither into a nasty tempered raisin when the weather is "beautiful" out, this is not true for the rest of the flora and fauna here in our town. Don't worry, I don't resent the heat. Long ago, after my first season of home grown tomatoes refused to blush and color up until I was sweating like crazy under a blistering insufferable summer heat wave I made peace with the seasons. All of them. I know that all gardens and all good things to eat benefit from some really good solid scorching weeks of sun.

Have you seen the runner beans? (Well now you have, they are pictured above) Today I picked 4.5 lbs of fat beans for the food pantry. I work on Wednesdays now so I had to come after work in the late afternoon. Have I told you yet how hot it was? 4pm is not the ideal time for work of any kind, especially the kind that puts you under the sun's microscope.

Even so, I couldn't help but feel excited by all the bounty I saw everywhere. Raspberries are forming in tight green clusters. Marigolds are sending their summer smell all over the garden like a blanket of memories for me. Personal rows are bursting with beans of all colors and Jack's beets are unbelievable! Every one's tomatoes are plumping up and look so tidy- except for mine since I seem to be incapable of staking tomatoes before they sprawl. Once they sprawl it's too late. My own beans (for drying) are doing really well. In case you were wondering, I didn't stake those because they were all supposed to be bush beans. Bush beans don't need staking. In spite of the claims to the contrary, my beans are curling and vining and seeking purchase but finding only themselves and- ahem!- some of your plants for support.

The last two times I've watered I've spent a few minutes in the relative shade of the sunflowers on the paint splattered bench set there for taking a load off. Last week it was so quiet that I could hear every single bumble and honey bee clocking time with the flowers. I looked up to see towering sunflowers set against the very blue sky and it seemed to me that the only thing that could have made it a more perfect moment is if I was sitting on a giant ice cube. The next time you visit the garden, take a break and just sit there under the canopy of smiling flowers and let all your worries go.

Photos from the last weeks in July

I found these photos in my camera. I thought I would share them.

This is what the Three Friends garden looked like back in mid July. There are potatoes planted in front of it in the row. I think we well be harvesting them next week or so. If we can find them under the squash vines.
This is the corn in my row again during the last half of July. I think I planted this part of the row three times, so I have some that actually sprputed from an earlier seed planting, some corn seedling from my generous row neighbor, and corn that Dave seeded for me in his green house and I planted out the seedling.
.....and this is the corn from my neighbors row. This picture was taken at the same time the previous one of my row was. Look how much taller the corn is. I'm not sure what variety she planted but I do know she started her seed in those little peat pellets in a tray earlier at home and then planted them out when they were four inches or so. It seems to me to be the way to do it.
Here is another picture of Miranda in the Sunflower House. It is quite a bit taller then her now.