The good news is that we have several pretty healthy stands of peas, the beans are mostly doing well and there are radishes ready to be plucked up and eaten to make way for the carrots that are coming up among them.
The bad news is that while the rain of late May and early June got our seeds and seedlings off to a good start, subsequent days of cold, and especially of cold, dry, wind have stunted or killed many of our plants. For future years, we need to figure out ways to break the wind and protect our garden from the weather extremes of spring.
Two weeks ago we had several nice little rows of lettuces and spinach. Now they are mostly gone. We have also lost many of our peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, brussels sprouts and cauliflower. Our cucumbers are hanging in there, but they are sickly and stunted.
Fortunately, most of what has survived will recover and come back strong, and there is still time to replant the salad vegetables. I still have a few pepper and tomato plants that we can put in, and also some basils and other herbs that still need a home.
One thing we do have thriving is WEEDS! I have been pulling a few when I go over to water in the morning, but we need to schedule a work day to get them under control. I prefer Saturday mornings because I like to get the work done before it gets too hot, but an evening would be fine if that's what people prefer.
Please post your comments.
Cheers,
Chris
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Watering
I bought an oscillating sprinkler and set it up at the garden. It can cover the entire garden in two settings, one to cover the eastern half of the garden and one to cover the western half. Later this week I will mark the two sprinkler locations with flags or stakes so everyone can see where to set the sprinkler. It needs to run for about 1/2 hour in each location.
My routine has been to start the sprinkler at 6:00 AM on watering days, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and then to move it to it's second location at around 6:30 AM. I installed a shut off valve and a quick disconnect fitting in the middle of the hose run to make it pretty easy to move the sprinkler without getting tangled up in the swing set. I do think it is important to make sure that the hose is disconnected and the two parts are moved clear of the play area when we are not watering the garden. I don't want any kids to trip, but also I don't want playful children to drag the hose through the beds.
If there is someone who will be at the center in the morning to coil up the hose after the watering is done, I would put in a simple timer to shut the water off at around 7:30 AM. This would save me the third trip over to the garden in the morning. It's not that I mind the walk, but there are other things I need to be doing, often out of town in the morning.
It is difficult to move the hoses around in the garden without dragging them across the small plants, but I think this can be easily corrected by driving some stakes in the corners of some of the beds to guide the hoses.
The garden is looking pretty good. There are a few small footprints in the beds, but until more plants are up and growing, it is pretty hard to expect the kids to stay out of them. We have lost a few peppers and some of the broccoli and cauliflower to stomping. Also some of the basil didn't make it and one of the tomatoes has suffered a broken stem.
I still have a few pepper plants, basil, and some tomatoes that I can put in, so I will do that later in the week.
Several of the plant markers have been knocked out of place and are lost or broken. For next year we need to figure out something besides the cheap plastic markers. While I have a paper record of what we have planted, I think it is important to have physical markers for each of the beds and types of plants. This is not just being persnickety, I think part of our mission is to educate, and clearly identifying the plants that are growing is part of that.
I would still like to make the pathways more permanent. The starting place would be to install paving stones in the pathway on the northern border of the garden. I think that ultimately the pathways need to be three feet wide, adequate for wheel chair access. I'd like there to be three pathways running east-west, defining the north and south borders of the garden and one down the middle. A rough cost estimate: $1200 for material - The garden is 70 feet by about 20, so three 3ft paths would be about 630 square feet of paving stones, which cost around $2 per square foot, although there might be cheaper options, or maybe this is where an in-kind contribution might come in.
I'm taking a break from a class right now, so I'll have to proof read this later.
My routine has been to start the sprinkler at 6:00 AM on watering days, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and then to move it to it's second location at around 6:30 AM. I installed a shut off valve and a quick disconnect fitting in the middle of the hose run to make it pretty easy to move the sprinkler without getting tangled up in the swing set. I do think it is important to make sure that the hose is disconnected and the two parts are moved clear of the play area when we are not watering the garden. I don't want any kids to trip, but also I don't want playful children to drag the hose through the beds.
If there is someone who will be at the center in the morning to coil up the hose after the watering is done, I would put in a simple timer to shut the water off at around 7:30 AM. This would save me the third trip over to the garden in the morning. It's not that I mind the walk, but there are other things I need to be doing, often out of town in the morning.
It is difficult to move the hoses around in the garden without dragging them across the small plants, but I think this can be easily corrected by driving some stakes in the corners of some of the beds to guide the hoses.
The garden is looking pretty good. There are a few small footprints in the beds, but until more plants are up and growing, it is pretty hard to expect the kids to stay out of them. We have lost a few peppers and some of the broccoli and cauliflower to stomping. Also some of the basil didn't make it and one of the tomatoes has suffered a broken stem.
I still have a few pepper plants, basil, and some tomatoes that I can put in, so I will do that later in the week.
Several of the plant markers have been knocked out of place and are lost or broken. For next year we need to figure out something besides the cheap plastic markers. While I have a paper record of what we have planted, I think it is important to have physical markers for each of the beds and types of plants. This is not just being persnickety, I think part of our mission is to educate, and clearly identifying the plants that are growing is part of that.
I would still like to make the pathways more permanent. The starting place would be to install paving stones in the pathway on the northern border of the garden. I think that ultimately the pathways need to be three feet wide, adequate for wheel chair access. I'd like there to be three pathways running east-west, defining the north and south borders of the garden and one down the middle. A rough cost estimate: $1200 for material - The garden is 70 feet by about 20, so three 3ft paths would be about 630 square feet of paving stones, which cost around $2 per square foot, although there might be cheaper options, or maybe this is where an in-kind contribution might come in.
I'm taking a break from a class right now, so I'll have to proof read this later.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Gardeners Hard at Work
Hard at work in the garden on Saturday May 16. From left to right, me, Kyle, Donna, and Becky. Grace took the picture.We have prepared 30 raised earthen beds and have planted about 1/3 of them so far.
For fun, we planted several rows of Red Sweet sorn, and 4 beds of early maturing Sunshine Sweet corn. We started four beds of salad greens, including Tyee spinach, Red Sails, Black Seeded Simpson, and Butter Crisp lettuce.
To the left, Donna and Becky are planting lettuce.
We also started Cherry Belle radishes and two varieties of carrots, Red Cored Chantaney, and Danvers 126, in two of the beds in which we will later plant tomatoes. The carrots and radishes will form borders around the tomato plantings. We also planted onion sets.
Our regularly scheduled work time is Saturday morning from 8:00 until 10:00, but some of us will also meet at the garden on Tuesday, May 19 at 5:00 P.M.
Thanks again to everyone who helped out on Saturday.
Cheers,
Chris
Saturday, May 16, 2009
A seed is planted
Actually, many seeds. Amazing what a few people can accomplish in 2+1/2 hours.
Next garden work date is Tuesday, May 19, at 5:00 PM.
Thank you to Donna, Grace, and Becky, who did the lion's share of the work with a little help from Kyle, we finished laying out and forming up our planting beds this morning, and cleared out the weeds and grass growing up along the north boundary of the garden.
Then, eager to get seeds in the ground, we planted onion sets, corn, spinach, several varieties of lettuce, carrots, and radishes.
We agreed to meet at the garden briefly on Tuesday evening to water and clean up a bit more.
We still have space for potatoes, pumpkins, beans, peas, squash, broccoli, cauliflower and anything else that suits people's fancy.
I have school obligations until June 10, so I need to stick with our interim schedule of working the garden at 8:00AM on Saturday, but certainly that shouldn't stop anyone from going out and doing anything that looks like it needs to be done at any convenient time.
We have a great start on a beautiful garden.
Thank you to everyone.
Chris
Next garden work date is Tuesday, May 19, at 5:00 PM.
Thank you to Donna, Grace, and Becky, who did the lion's share of the work with a little help from Kyle, we finished laying out and forming up our planting beds this morning, and cleared out the weeds and grass growing up along the north boundary of the garden.
Then, eager to get seeds in the ground, we planted onion sets, corn, spinach, several varieties of lettuce, carrots, and radishes.
We agreed to meet at the garden briefly on Tuesday evening to water and clean up a bit more.
We still have space for potatoes, pumpkins, beans, peas, squash, broccoli, cauliflower and anything else that suits people's fancy.
I have school obligations until June 10, so I need to stick with our interim schedule of working the garden at 8:00AM on Saturday, but certainly that shouldn't stop anyone from going out and doing anything that looks like it needs to be done at any convenient time.
We have a great start on a beautiful garden.
Thank you to everyone.
Chris
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Beds and Pathways
Today's Activities
Donna and I met this morning at the garden. Donna pulled weeds and moved lots of dirt. I rototilled, Kyle and Kelsie got dirty. We all had other obligations for the day, but in an hour and a half we got a lot done. We laid out and cleared pathways and marked out and began preparing 30 planting beds.
There are two long beds, about 18' x 3' at the north and south ends of the garden. I suggest that we reserve these for asparagus and strawberries. In between, we marked out space for 28 smaller beds, each about 8x3. My children's attention spans prevented me from staying to finish, but at least we made a good start.
Things to Do
If anyone has time during the week, feel free to stop by and finish up a bed or two. I'm hoping that we can handle weeding and cultivation chores on an "adopt-a-bed" basis.
You should be able to see the pattern we laid out and continue the pathways between the beds. The idea is to take soil from the pathways and add this to the north ends of the beds. Currently the ground slopes to the north and it would be better if the ground sloped to the south to improve the solar heating of the soil and extend our growing season a bit. The tops of the beds should be raked flat and smooth, built up on the north and sloping down slightly to the south. This is pretty easy work with a square-nose shovel and an iron rake and only takes 10 or 15 minutes.
Watering
Eventually it would be wonderful to have a drip irrigation system, but for now I thought that an easy approach would be to set up a tractor type lawn sprinkler to run the length of a garden hose laid down the middle of the central path. We can set this up to run on a timer to comply with Del Norte's watering restrictions so the only work that would be required is a schedule to stop by and reset the sprinkler to the beginning of it's run.
Donna and I met this morning at the garden. Donna pulled weeds and moved lots of dirt. I rototilled, Kyle and Kelsie got dirty. We all had other obligations for the day, but in an hour and a half we got a lot done. We laid out and cleared pathways and marked out and began preparing 30 planting beds.
There are two long beds, about 18' x 3' at the north and south ends of the garden. I suggest that we reserve these for asparagus and strawberries. In between, we marked out space for 28 smaller beds, each about 8x3. My children's attention spans prevented me from staying to finish, but at least we made a good start.
Things to Do
If anyone has time during the week, feel free to stop by and finish up a bed or two. I'm hoping that we can handle weeding and cultivation chores on an "adopt-a-bed" basis.
You should be able to see the pattern we laid out and continue the pathways between the beds. The idea is to take soil from the pathways and add this to the north ends of the beds. Currently the ground slopes to the north and it would be better if the ground sloped to the south to improve the solar heating of the soil and extend our growing season a bit. The tops of the beds should be raked flat and smooth, built up on the north and sloping down slightly to the south. This is pretty easy work with a square-nose shovel and an iron rake and only takes 10 or 15 minutes.
Watering
Eventually it would be wonderful to have a drip irrigation system, but for now I thought that an easy approach would be to set up a tractor type lawn sprinkler to run the length of a garden hose laid down the middle of the central path. We can set this up to run on a timer to comply with Del Norte's watering restrictions so the only work that would be required is a schedule to stop by and reset the sprinkler to the beginning of it's run.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Time to get serious!
Hello all,
Thanks to everyone who came out to help on Saturday.
Subject to my obligations to my students, I will make time one evening this week to till in the manure and then would like to suggest that we plan a morning to begin preparing some beds for planting, maybe Saturday May 9?
Meanwhile I think we should put some thought into what sort of things we should plant this year. I will be placing one more seed order this year for my own garden, and if anyone has any ideas or thoughts on what we MUST plant, I would be willing to spring for some extra packets of seed. I also have lots of leftover seed from last year that is apparently viable, so I am willing to share that as well. So, Please read the following and then reply with your thoughts!
I have started extra tomato plants, cucumbers, peppers, and herbs to share with the garden, and will be starting some other items later this week, pumpkins, squash...
We need to put some thought into if and where we should plant some perennials. Asparagus, strawberries...
I have a fantasy that we would grow a nice bed of June bearing strawberries and then make hand cranked strawberry ice-cream as an annual HVCC-DNCG summer event tradition.
Strawberries take a couple of years to get going, so we should think about that ASAP, but we could probably get enough berries from my garden for a couple of small batches of ice-cream anyway.
Asparagus takes three years before there is a sustainable crop, so if we are interested in that, we should get started on it as well.
As far as annuals, I ordered more seed potatoes than I need this year and would be happy to share the extra with the garden if we all decide to grow potatoes. Sometimes I think growing potatoes in the Valley is hauling coals to Newcastle however.
I have lots of different types and varieties of salad vegetable seeds, lettuce, carrot, spinach, radish etc that I am willing to share.
I think we should grow beans and peas.
My experience with corn has been hit and miss, but it would be fun to have a "corn on the cob-fest" to end the gardening year maybe.
There are lots of other things that grow well that we should consider, some of which I don't grow because I don't know how to prepare well, chard, turnips, rutabagas, or just don't like...beets.
We still have a couple of weeks before we need to plant, but they are going to go by fast.
Thanks to everyone who came out to help on Saturday.
Subject to my obligations to my students, I will make time one evening this week to till in the manure and then would like to suggest that we plan a morning to begin preparing some beds for planting, maybe Saturday May 9?
Meanwhile I think we should put some thought into what sort of things we should plant this year. I will be placing one more seed order this year for my own garden, and if anyone has any ideas or thoughts on what we MUST plant, I would be willing to spring for some extra packets of seed. I also have lots of leftover seed from last year that is apparently viable, so I am willing to share that as well. So, Please read the following and then reply with your thoughts!
I have started extra tomato plants, cucumbers, peppers, and herbs to share with the garden, and will be starting some other items later this week, pumpkins, squash...
We need to put some thought into if and where we should plant some perennials. Asparagus, strawberries...
I have a fantasy that we would grow a nice bed of June bearing strawberries and then make hand cranked strawberry ice-cream as an annual HVCC-DNCG summer event tradition.
Strawberries take a couple of years to get going, so we should think about that ASAP, but we could probably get enough berries from my garden for a couple of small batches of ice-cream anyway.
Asparagus takes three years before there is a sustainable crop, so if we are interested in that, we should get started on it as well.
As far as annuals, I ordered more seed potatoes than I need this year and would be happy to share the extra with the garden if we all decide to grow potatoes. Sometimes I think growing potatoes in the Valley is hauling coals to Newcastle however.
I have lots of different types and varieties of salad vegetable seeds, lettuce, carrot, spinach, radish etc that I am willing to share.
I think we should grow beans and peas.
My experience with corn has been hit and miss, but it would be fun to have a "corn on the cob-fest" to end the gardening year maybe.
There are lots of other things that grow well that we should consider, some of which I don't grow because I don't know how to prepare well, chard, turnips, rutabagas, or just don't like...beets.
We still have a couple of weeks before we need to plant, but they are going to go by fast.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Weathered Out
March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, but for the second year in a row, the opposite is true. My garden notes from last year indicate that warm weather in early March had me out cleaning up the garden and actually planting peas, lettuce, and spinach in early March, and this year was similarly promising.
This year we started ground work for our community garden and then had 6 inches of snow on the ground the following weekend, postponing our plans to haul manure on March 28. Snow greeted us again on the morning of April 4 and 5. Next weekend is not forecast to be much better. I don't mind a bit of cold, but I don't think any of us are eager to shovel manure in the snow.
I think we still have plenty of time though. Last year I recorded and experienced killing cold in my garden around June 14. It would be nice to have all the ground work and planning done in time to plant the first weekend in June.
This year we started ground work for our community garden and then had 6 inches of snow on the ground the following weekend, postponing our plans to haul manure on March 28. Snow greeted us again on the morning of April 4 and 5. Next weekend is not forecast to be much better. I don't mind a bit of cold, but I don't think any of us are eager to shovel manure in the snow.
I think we still have plenty of time though. Last year I recorded and experienced killing cold in my garden around June 14. It would be nice to have all the ground work and planning done in time to plant the first weekend in June.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
On our way
The purpose of this blog is to allow community members interested in the Del Norte Community Garden to follow garden activities. We can use the comment feature to discuss plans, and organize activities and work sessions.
I will try to post an update of the garden's status at least once a week. I believe I can add other garden volunteers as "Authors" on this web log, but I don't know how to do that yet, so for now, if you wish to add anything to what I have written, please use the "comment" feature. I've set this up to send me an e-mail if anyone leaves a comment.
For now, I am the "Administrator" of this Blog. I can add other people as "Authors" and you can request to become a "Member". Anyone can leave a comment, but members will not have to go through the verification process each time they want to add a post or a comment.
As I gain familiarity with this tool, we can add photos and keep a schedule here so everyone knows what is happening.
Recent activity:
On Friday March 21 a small group of volunteers turned out to begin work on our garden. We marked out the boundaries of the garden, cleared some trash from the area and lightly roto-tilled.
We were pleased to find that the earth was loose and reasonably free of rocks. We are planning on having a soil test completed and have been offered a good supply of goat manure which we will add to the soil.
We had planned to haul in the manure today, but the snow we had yesterday put those plans on hold. We have tentatively planned to do this on Friday April 3, or Saturday April 4.
Cheers,
Christopher Dahle
I will try to post an update of the garden's status at least once a week. I believe I can add other garden volunteers as "Authors" on this web log, but I don't know how to do that yet, so for now, if you wish to add anything to what I have written, please use the "comment" feature. I've set this up to send me an e-mail if anyone leaves a comment.
For now, I am the "Administrator" of this Blog. I can add other people as "Authors" and you can request to become a "Member". Anyone can leave a comment, but members will not have to go through the verification process each time they want to add a post or a comment.
As I gain familiarity with this tool, we can add photos and keep a schedule here so everyone knows what is happening.
Recent activity:
On Friday March 21 a small group of volunteers turned out to begin work on our garden. We marked out the boundaries of the garden, cleared some trash from the area and lightly roto-tilled.
We were pleased to find that the earth was loose and reasonably free of rocks. We are planning on having a soil test completed and have been offered a good supply of goat manure which we will add to the soil.
We had planned to haul in the manure today, but the snow we had yesterday put those plans on hold. We have tentatively planned to do this on Friday April 3, or Saturday April 4.
Cheers,
Christopher Dahle
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