Hi All,
Sorry about the late update! I ended up taking Monday off for the holiday and the rest of the week has just been super busy in the garden!
York started last week out with getting bed N13 planted! They transplanted 49 Brandyfred and 6 Amana Orange tomatoes. One of the young ladies helped to break off the lower leaves for us to plant deep and she helped us to water them in once the tomatoes were in the ground. The Planters at first were able to plant them deep but towards the end of the bed we had some taller plants and they got to learn the trench method of planting the tomatoes on their sides. After that we checked in on the worms who are doing very well. We need to at some point get in there and use the compost for one of our beds! This was York’s last day for the summer. They will be back in the Fall to continue helping in the garden:) Thank you York Crew!
The Zeiss crew was back out last week and man were they productive! They helped to prep 4 beds-A02, A04, B13 & AB28! Two beds were gleaned, all the beds were weeded, amended with COF & compost and then straw mulched to keep the water from evaporating. They planted 3 of the beds they prepped and 2 others that were ready for planting with a total of 153 plants-bed B13 Takara Shishito, B16 San Marzano & Green Zebra tomatoes, A02 Celebrity tomatoes, A04 Anna Russian, Ron’s Cheetah, Yellow Pear and AB26 Tasty Green & Painted Serpent cucumbers & Cherokee Purple and Green Zebra tomatoes. They also helped to place the onions they gleaned out of bed AB28 (over 160lbs!) in to the box shed for storage and went to town getting the bindweed out of the ends of beds A04 & A02! On top of all that they also helped to harvest, wash and pack over 300lbs of produce to send in to the pantries that day!
Joe Mitchell School Garden Coordinator brought out her volunteers and they rocked it out-getting bed B14 gleaned, weeded, prepped and planted! These ladies came in and helped us get it all done by 11:30am! 22 Sugar Baby watermelons were planted and I can say I am looking forward to seeing them grow this year! Thank you Joelle and the JMS volunteer crew:)
Our regular volunteers were out in full force as well! They gleaned out 4 beds of the onions, weeded out 10 beds, prepped around 8 beds-this includes the new P beds that the Friday & Saturday crew got prepped and planted! They were able to get the majority of the squash plants we had in the Hoop Houses planted last weekend. There is still room for more so if you are wanting to be a part of planting those beds up let us know:)
One of our large beds-N13-had 56 tomato cages placed in by the Tuesday crew, thanks guys! They also moved a trellis from one bed to another for our cucumbers, yum! RB Weed Annihilator was back at it out in the pasture making sure to keep those weeds at bay-with a bit of help from Kelly! JR swept out the tool trailer, edge and swept up around the ARB beds and took the garbage out for us:) B18 had the garlic scapes go in for harvest and then got weeded out by SM & SF and the next day bed B17 got the same weed treatment by JT & JG!
Enrique M went out to the pasture and mowed all except South of the bees because….Eagle Scout Nolan was out building our bee shed! This is his Eagle Scout project and we are so proud of the work Nolan has put in to getting this build done for us! It is going to keep our bee equipment out by the bees so we do not need to lug it all out every time we see the bees
Please, everyone, please let me know what you did during the shift so I can write down what you are getting done in the garden. There are a few volunteers who are like butterflies going through the garden getting work done that I sometimes miss! We at least need to get it written down in our calcs log so we know what is getting done and can help you to plan for the future.
Harvest total for the week….645lbs! Brenda let me know this morning we are 600lbs over last year at this time! Good on you all for coming out and continuing to help us grow more produce for our neighbors!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Take care
Lori