Hi All,
No trips for Tod and me this weekend-well, that’s not exactly true-we dropped off a honey extractor I borrowed from another beekeeper up in Berkeley but that was work related…we did stop by a bakery afterwards to treat ourselves to some yummy pastries! Tod started his new business last week! He is working for a company that does installations for Costco. He is also going to be doing handyman work on the side but we need to build that up for him as he is working for the installation company. Exciting times! That means Saturday he was working to build the business and I was also working…the Plant Sale! Yes, it has finally arrived!
Friday was pretty busy! At the beginning of the shift we found out it was kinda packed in the Big Hoop House so DW & I slowed customers down by having them sit and fill out there “Wish Lists” before they headed back to shop, that seemed to do the job! In the Big Hoop House Aditi, Kelly and their crew of volunteers started labelling the individual varieties so they, along with the customers, could see where the plants were located without having to find individual labels. Board member Barbara, her friend CC & AP manned the cashiering table for us the first day!
Saturday was not as busy so the welcome crew of 2 out front did not need to slow down the flow of traffic! In the Big Hoop House the crew worked steadily on the customers who showed up, helping them to find their plants and to sell them on some other plants they did not know about! Lance’s favorite, the Riesentraube tomato, was one of them! Customers were happy to find out about them and happily purchased them to bring home! CC was unable to join us for cashiering but Barbara was back and her crew of JH & KH were there to help customers figure out their payment method!
With crews in place this helped to free Brenda up to visit with customers-returnees and new ones as well! It is important to keep relationships going and to start new ones up too! Thank you all who came out to help for the first weekend! You helped to make it the success it was!
Last week in the garden was mostly about getting ready for the Plant Sale-pricking out the last of the seedlings into their final pots, almost 900 seedlings! Weeding happening to get the front end of the garden spruced up for our visiting customers. There were 3 batches of triple batch fertilizer made on 3 different days, filling at least 162 bags of fertilizer to sell at the Plant Sale-it is a pretty dusty job, lol!!! Kaleidoscope was out and helped to clean labels and weed the first day and the second day out they helped Brenda and the staff to move plants from the Greenhouse and Little Hope House into the Big Hoop House!
Pleasanton Transition was out and help us with some regular chores! They watered the heeled in trees waiting for their spots to open up in the new expansion, some other new trees in the Big Hoop House, also waiting for their spots and the plants in the Greenhouse needed a bit of extra watering. There was also gloves to pair up which the crew made quick work of! They also took a couple e of buckets of gloves with them to get washed and paired up for their next visit.
Lance is still getting the thistle weeded out, garden wide. The Enrique’s continued their work in the expansion, almost done! AW & TE continued their work helping to set up the irrigation in the expansion, installing a valve box and hookups.
I know I am missing something but please know we appreciate ALL the help that is happening in the garden even if it did not make it in the Happy Note!
We have this Friday and Saturday to continue the Plant Sale but we are now looking to start bed prep in the garden! This week I am hoping to get at least 2 beds started in the P bed section since the critters devoured the plants that were started in the Fall. We may need to figure out a protection for the seedlings we start in order to help them survive the critters.
Through all of last week, with the focus on the Plant Sale, we got 233.63# of produce out to the local food pantries!
Thank you everyone for showing up and helping out!
Take care
Lori