Rain, Rain, Go Away

Since we don't have a direct line of water, I usually love when it rains. However, the easy way is clearly not always the best. Rain helps our crops to grow, but it also helps the weeds. After about three days of rain, I went outside to find a jungle of weeds intermingling with our plants. Luckily, the ground is moist enough that weeding isn't too terrible of a chore. Still, it takes a while to clear out the intruders. I'm thinking a mulch run may be in order.

Jungle of weeds that pop up after every rain.

There they are!
A lovely row of beets after hours of weeding :)

Signs of Life

So, last Friday I planted a bunch of things (lettuce, radishes, cilantro, cucumbers, etc.)  and the week before that the volunteers had planted pumpkins and watermelon. While the potatoes and onions seemed to spring up overnight, the other seedlings weren't doing so well. Finally, after a long wait: life! The rain did a great job to help along germination and everything we've planted has sprouted. We have rows of healthy radishes and lettuce; mounds of pumpkin, watermelon, and cucumber vines. It looks like we'll be having a nice harvest later this summer and fall.

Radishes

A row of healthy radishes

Onions

Potatoes

Beets

Tomatoes

Peas

Pumpkins

Cucumber

Plans for the Future

So, it's only been a few weeks, but I feel like there are already a few things to note for next year. Just a few suggestions.

1. We should keep track of exact planting dates, varieties of seeds, and try to make a planting chart before digging in the dirt.

2. We should prepare the soil earlier (utilizing on-campus volunteers) so we can get some spring crops.

3. Let's try beds! It would limit/contain the amount of weeding and keep our crops organized.

4. It would be wise to pick up free compost and mulch at the start of the season. That stuff sure does go fast!

What better way to learn than from experience?

Power Planting!

This morning we worked at Matthew 25 (more shoveling and planting). After a hard morning's work, we were presented with a gift: free seeds! I made a mad dash to plant the seeds this afternoon since it's supposed to rain this weekend. It should be the perfect weather for germinating! Professor Chaimov also donated a few lovely strawberry plants. Now we have lettuce, radishes, cilantro, strawberries, and cucumbers. With the garden getting bigger, we'll be needing extra volunteer support.

Planting, Planning, Planting

This week has been super busy, but we've made some good progress. We picked up another load of compost this morning and created mounds for our pumpkin/melon patch. Later in the afternoon, a few of our lovely volunteers helped with planting seeds (pumpkins and watermelon) and tomato plants. The onions and potatoes are going strong. The potatoes we pulled out of the compost seem to be thriving-- they're about twice the size of our other potato plants! All of our onions have popped up and are growing everyday. I was especially pleased to see the beginnings of a few beets, their red stems barely distinguishing them from the baby weeds. Still no sign of the carrots, but we'll keep an eye out for them.

Volunteering

So, after much searching, we finally did it. We got a hold of a place to volunteer. On Friday, Emily and I went to Matthew 25 to have a grand tour of their facility and check out their urban garden. Matt, who is in charge of the garden, was super nice and had a lot of great ideas to maximize use of small spaces. Most of their plants are in wood-framed beds in intensive style plots. What I thought was most interesting was their swimming pool beds (could this be a perfect way to start a small plot for Polk?). We start work next Friday. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

Week 2: Things are heating up

The weather is beautiful, so there's lots of work to be done. After filling the garden with a thick layer of compost and mulching around the outer border, we planted marigolds on the corners of the lot. The next step was tilling. We had some trouble finding a tiller, and once we did get a hold of one, the belt broke! Luckily, we had a great number of helpful volunteers. We managed to hand-till almost half of the garden. We planted rows of yellow and white onions, red and white potatoes, beets, carrots, and peas. Later in the week, we borrowed a tiller from our friend Verlyn at Culver's. He was even so sweet as to set up a huge water barrel so we could water the garden without lugging buckets from Clark Racquet Center. Hopefully we'll see our plants start springing up!

Polk Elementary

This morning, Emily and I had a meeting with the volunteer coordinator at Polk. She seemed way into our idea to form a relationship with the school. We talked about starting herb gardens in each of the classrooms, bringing the kids to the garden for tours, teaching about compost and vermiculture, and even leading a cooking class. With the end of the school year coming soon, we decided it would be best to pitch the idea to the teachers at the first meeting of the next school year. Since Polk is a year-round school, this would allow us to work with them during the most important times of the growing season.

Week 1: Working the Land

We've spent the last three days preparing the garden for planting. We started out by weeding the earth, and picking up truckloads of compost from our local landfill. Since we are considered a non-profit, all our compost and mulch were received at no cost to us. After three truckloads of compost, we managed to cover the growing area in a thick layer. After that, we weeded the outer border of the garden, lined it with cardboard and mulch. Thanks to our volunteers and supportive faculty advisor, we had a great week of hard work. Now, it's time to till and plant!

Weather 2011

Wednesday, May 4: High 68, Low 46

Thursday, May 5: High 64, Low 44

Friday, May 6: High 71, Low 38