August 2011

Lots of rain and sunshine equals happy and fast growing plants. Here is the cucumber plant on July 21.

Less than two weeks later the plant is almost in the next box.

Not only did the plant grow rapidly, but produced many lemon cucumbers. Here are some I found this morning.

Plants are getting big

I was reading the blog and found out that I did not get cucumbers and tomatoes until after July 24. So I patiently wait....
My tomatillos are HUGE. Here is a picture from May 25:

And here they are on July 14:

Zucchini

This year I did not have room in my box to plant a zucchini because the beets took longer than usual. My boss heard this and said that he had two zucchini plants and he would gladly give me one. So on June 29 Mr Zucchini joined the community garden in the spare box.

Some of his leaves died out, but I watered him everyday and he has sprouted new leaves and a flower. Here is Mr Zucchini on July 7.

I hope to get a zucchini soon----Mr Bee needs to do his work!

July 1 2011

Welcome July! Where did June go? A week in June was creating the herb garden (that will come at a later blog post). This past week has been warm and sunny days, so the plants have started to grow! Here are two cherry tomatoes I found this morning:

The pepper may be ready any day now:

We finally picked the beets today. A fellow gardener gave me some lettuce. There will be yummy meals this weekend!

the Herb Garden!

I have been pondering and drawing and talking about an herb garden for about nine months. Part of gardening is patience, trying something, having it fail or change, trying again----and having wonderful support from fellow gardeners.
Here is a picture of the area when I starting pondering about a visual herb garden:

After weeding and waiting for a dry day (that would be May 6!), Steven tilled the area (thank you!!!---I would've hurt myself with the tiller).

May 2011 was a wet and rainy month. And we were all busy with things. This let me: research herbs; learn how to place stepping stones into the ground; shop around, pick stepping stones; and budget. Then one day the person with the money said "let's go shopping!". So three hours later and lots of stuff unpacked, I was ready to implement all this planning.
First I laid out the stones and asked a few people their opinion. Then I started digging!

After digging, I placed the weed cloth over the area and then placed the heavier sand/rock mixture over the weed cloth.

I was able to get some of the stone in the first night, but the second night I was able to finish it by 7:30pm---then ate dinner under the tree.

The next morning fellow gardeners helped plant all the herbs. (I was tired!)

And here is the group with the completed herb garden! I hope that everyone gets to cook with some of the fresh herbs from the garden!

Mid-June Garden 2011

Sun was welcomed on this Monday morning. The garden is looking happy! Peas pods are appearing daily. About eight people were in the garden at noon. It is the happening place!

My plot is a little behind schedule from last year, but everything is finally in and we shall see what happens.


(above picture taken by Clint Gardner)

Future Herb Garden

The sage is encouragement to keep creating an herb garden. It will be a corner of the herb garden. We have had a cold wet spring, so my goal is to have it created in two weeks!
I also planted a cherry tomato plant and a lemon cucumber plant. Definitely later than last year!

Welcome June 2011

The garden is slowly growing. We've had lots of rain but not much warmth and sunshine. I did pick all of the spinach last week and ate a salad of spinach and radishes. I still need to plant a bit more ---- but other garden plots are very happy!

Tomatillos

I planted the tomatillos on Friday May 21. Luckily it became sunny on Saturday and then lots of rain again. Today was a sunny day and they look very happy. I look forward to trying some recipes later this summer!

rain....and a duck

It's been RAINING for four days straight. A rainy day is a good day to be a duck. This morning two ducks walked through the garden.



After watching the ducks pass through, I planted my two tomatillos and one yellow pepper plant. A fellow gardener and I picked some radishes. And here are some beautiful mustard greens from a neighboring planter!



We are hoping for some sunny weather to dry out! The herb garden is on hold.

First radish harvest

I planted the radishes on March 25. And here is the first harvest! I had two of them with my lunch today ---- yummy! Vegetables taste better when they are home grown. Seven weeks of patience.

Weclome May 2011!

April showers bring green and happy plants! This is a collage of radishes, peas, tomato, and strawberry plants. May has brought sunny and warm days after a very cold and wet April.

end of April

It's been a month since we planted. If you look close, you can see baby beets appearing through the soil. A year ago we just placed the soil in the boxes...and now I have my second crop slowly growing.

Seeds are bursting out!

It is always fun to go to the garden and see what's new. Today another group box (HEE) had the peas popping out!



There are just a few spinach and beets sprouting, but the radishes are growing bigger each day!

Happy radishes!

The radishes are happy a week later. Two or three spinach plants have also appeared. (The radishes have been in almost three weeks.)

Radishes have sprouted!

After the beautiful 70 degrees on Friday, snow fell on Sunday and it was still in the garden yesterday.


Today I walked over to the garden to find no snow and tiny radishes appearing!

Welcome April 2011!

A year ago we barely had the boxes in place in the garden----and now we are checking to see if our first round of plantings sprouted. Our boxes are still without sprouts. It has been in the low 70s the last three days, but this morning I awoke to 5 inches of snow!

Welcoming April is Clint checking out his plot.

Planting!

Today we planted some radishes and spinach. I hope they will be ok....there MIGHT be some snow in the morning!

March happenings

After tilling many boxes March 4, we awoke to almost a foot of snow (!) on March 8. (photo by Clint)

But by March 11, we were back to tilling and planning.

This past week was spring break, so it was all quiet in the community garden. Two of us did an inventory of the shed. I hope to do some planting next week.

Soil Prep

We had a beautiful morning for our first garden party. Snow was predicted, but we were blessed with a sunny blue sky instead.

I decided to turn in the oats I planted last fall and amend the soil with bat guano and bone meal. I plan to let the many earth worms do their thing for a few weeks and then start planting.

Welcome March 2011

March has arrived like a lamb. And some weeds have arrived also.

Spring Tease!

Last weekend we had four days of 50 degree weather. The garden looked like it was getting ready for us to plant.


But then two days later it snowed. And more snow came this morning. March cannot come fast enough!

February

Is it spring yet?


The Punxsutawney Groundhog (picture is from the official website at http://www.groundhog.org/) thinks spring will be here soon. But some Westerners don't think it will be soon.

In less than a month the community will begin gathering weekly and working the garden. I am yearning for fresh grown veggies!

The Garden in January

Earlier in the month, the garden was covered with lots of snow and it was about 18 degrees (Jan 10, 2011)


And then 11 days later, the garden is uncovered and in the 40 degree sunshine. (Jan 21, 2011) I even picked two radishes that day.


Last week we had our garden meeting to start planning for March, which includes cleaning the beds and planning some events for March and April. Think spring!

Welcome 2011!

A year ago the SLCC Community Garden did not even exist, and now I have been blogging about it for six months!

No pictures today.....some updates and some goals.

UPDATES
The basil bush did not like my kitchen. Its leaves gave me a few more leaves for dishes these past two months, but it is no longer in the kitchen :(.

The tomatoes are all gone also. So I am eating the last of 2010's harvest in my pesto I took out of the freezer.

GOALS
1. I hope to create/plant more in the herb garden area.
2. I will plant one new vegetable this year.
3. I want to experience canning. I have never done it. I heard it is hard, but I like to try things at least once.

Only three more months until I can smell the earth and see things sprouting up from the earth!