garden news-a week in the garden

GARDEN NEWS-A WEEK IN THE GARDEN

recently our community garden had its first summer school garden week
we limited the numbers since it was our inaugural launch of the summer school program
here is the garden educator reading a book to some of the campers under the beautiful large grandfather pepper tree
this site is a favorite spot for folks to sit and relax hear the birds hear the wind blow the wispy leaves of the tree 
sometimes it has lots of bees buzzing around
kids like to lay on the ground and look up at the sky through the tree
sometimes they spy a large spider and its web maybe a squirrel or several birds or a hawk flying above 

we hope to increase this successful program next year to include more days

here is mr h and ms b looking in the telescope at the moon right before sunset
later the moon got brighter and more was seen via the scope
the same week as the summer program the local astronomy club brought several telescopes to our garden for the community to come see the skies at dark
we had a large turnout
most also toured our gardens to see it in the twilight


we have several native milkweeds in the garden that have been covered by monarch caterpillars
one crawled up on this comfrey plant 
hung itself upside down 
folded itself to form this chrysalis 
eventually a beautiful monarch will emerge from it
we have been able to observe several this spring and summer


in our front field we have a meadow that we planted wildflowers for the spring
here is some red poppies that brightened the field


after the wildflowers have dried up the field was cleared and tilled fertilized this week
we then prepped the field so we have 3 ft wide rows that we will plant about 140 pumpkins
we started all these pumpkins in our greenhouse a few weeks ago
ms b and mr h did one flat of them for us

the field is about 100 feet by 50 ft
later in late november it will turn into a christmas tree lot for our fundraiser then the cycle starts over again with the wildflower seeding for the spring

some of these pumpkins will be sold via our pumpkin sale
the pumpkin patch will be enjoyed by the local community for weeks

this fall we will have about 500 elementary kids come through the pumpkin patch and grandfather pepper tree area along with the rest of the garden for a 2 hour educational program
their favorite are the chickens 
each child will get their own small pumpkin to take home

the kids say its their favorite field trip of the year 

today with a large group of volunteers we will plant our pumpkins

also yesterday we hosted a tour group of high school students from the east coast to spend 2 hours in our garden
after the tour they harvested vegetables form our garden to use to make a large salad which they all sat down and ate
the vegetables were three different squash kale yes kale lettuce strawberries mulberries boysenberries malabar spinach mint tomatoes lemon juice orange slices

their favorite part of the tour
just like the little kids
it was the chickens
we let them take a dozen eggs with them to make breakfast with today



recently i decided i wanted to try grow bags 
so
i bought several online
they are 30 gallons and are made of a felt like material

inside the bag i added 
mulch
a mixture of soil and compost about half and half
then
i topped it off with a bag of good quality potting mix
i then added a dripper line to the grow bag

in this one i planted a celebration tomato that i grew from a cutting from one i planted earlier this spring

i now have 12 of these grow bags in our garden plot with these veggies in them
basil shashito pepper jalapeno pepper bell pepper sweet banana pepper curly leaf kale tuscan kale cucumbers black beauty eggplant Japanese long eggplant chard arugula tatume squash and strawberries

i am resting my beds since they were overrun with bermuda and mint
they beds are covered with plastic and mulch
next spring i will remove the plastic and mix all the soils together and start growing in the beds again

unless of course
the grow bags are more successful

there is always something going on in our community garden

the organicgreen doctor