Hi All,
My daughter Kyla visited last weekend! She had reached out for a girls weekend up at her home but I needed to work this Saturday so she came down to volunteer in the garden and got to work with Blue Oaks Church! Afterwards we went thrift store shopping, had sushi for dinner and wonderful conversation all night long:) Sunday morning we took off on a walk to downtown to get some coffee & pastries and then walked back home through South Livermore to admire the houses and soak up as much time together as possible. It is always so darn lovely to spend time with that kiddo!!!
Last week in the garden….we had a lot of extra help beyond our regular volunteers!
PG&E was out to help in the garden and the crew got to working weeding out the area in front of the Office with our new weed puller, the Grandpa’s Helper. Another part of the crew helped Kelly to prepped bed ARB2 and got bed F01 gleaned & weeded. Brenda and I had the rest of the crew up front to help us prep beds H01 & I01 as well as replace the irrigation lines on both beds. In total the crew helped to move over 2000# of compost!
Sandia was out and part of the crew helped Brenda & me prep beds M09 & L02 and ended up moving over 5000# of compost into the beds! About 4 of their crew members that day got in to another 2 beds to glean and weed them for future bed prep. The rest of the crew ended up out in the expansion and set up the main irrigation lines for us to start connecting the irrigation hoses in to the beds!
Blue Oaks Church ended the week with a bang, getting 3 beds prepped and moving over 6,000# of compost! Part of the crew at the beginning of the shift went and helped Brenda and Enrique Garcia to move the load of cardboard we had delivered on Wednesday. I wish I had the stats for how much cardboard was moved! Another part of the crew helped Enrique Martinez to switch out the irrigation hoses in 2 beds we were not able to get to over the past couple of weeks.
Pleasanton Transition class was out to help Kelly size reduce fava plants to place in the rotating composter and they picked up the gloves for cleaning. Kaleidoscope was out and helped Kelly to size reduce more fava plants for the rotating composter and they got the trees that are waiting for their spots in the expansion watered in. Peas & Me saw 2 young ladies helping me with planting tomatoes whilst one of their moms & baby brother took soil samples out in the P beds. After a little rest they went back to work taking connectors off the old irrigation hoses from the beds we were starting to prep and then they helped us to break ground on about 5 feet of the same bed…now I know what they are truly capable of!
The rest of the week saw our regulars getting a lot more chores done whilst the work crews kept us busy. Another 3 beds were prepped which saw them moving over 6,000# of compost into them! Another bed was gleaned and weeded but no more than that since there were SO MANY onions! They took care of the harvest for us, getting over 200# of produce washed, packed & delivered to the local food pantries! They got one of the beds planted with 18 of the Chef’s Choice tomatoes that we got from the Master Gardeners and cannot wait to offer them up to the food pantries-such as delicious tomato! They also continued the work on weeding out the West side of the Orchard. I am sure more happened but that is all I am looking at in the notes we wrote down last week.
All this effort (and the sore muscles you may be experiencing) will help us to plant summer veggies to send in to our local food pantries! Lots of tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, herbs, okra, melons, squashes…the list goes on. We sent in over 32,000# of produce to the food pantries last year and we are on track to break that record this year and with the help you just gave we are going to be able to plant even more plants this year to do so!
Total harvest for the week was 214.5# that went in to One Nation Dream Makers, Try-Valley Haven, Open Heart Kitchen and St. Bart’s Church!
Thank you one and all for all the help you put in to the garden this week!
Take care
Lori