Hi All,
Sun filled Sunday for Tod and me! The past 2 Sundays we went on a 4-4.5 mile walk and yesterday we took on 6 miles of trails at Sycamore Grove Park to continue our endurance training for our big hike next year! We do not know what that hike is going to be just yet but I am tired of waiting to come up with an idea and just got right in to training! Our pace was pretty good for most of it, 16-17 minute mile for about 4 miles of it-that was flatter terrain-and then a nice cool down pace for the last 2 miles…plus we got to enjoy all that sunshine!
Short week in the garden due to Halloween! Nobody signed up for a Friday Night Halloween…who would have thought that, lol!!! Hope you all had a Happy One
That did not keep Workday or Kaiser from coming and helping in the garden last week! They were smaller but mighty crews! Combined effort they helped us to get 4 beds gleaned and weeded and 2 beds amended-ready for planting! The energy and enthusiasm they all brought with them helped us all to continue our efforts to get the beds all prepped by Thanksgiving!
Tzu Chi were out on Saturday to help! In the afternoon they took on 2 of the longer AB beds and got both gleaned! One of the beds had a trellis in it and they took that out as well as got it weeded. They also helped to finish prepping a bed that had gotten started during the AM shift!
What else happened in the garden you may be asking yourself…well let me tell you;
Another 3 beds got prepped during the week and 4 beds were planted. The sweet potato vine started growing in to the path between beds M17 & M16 so a couple of our regular volunteers came in to trim it back and we sent the leaves & cuttings in to the pantries (did you know sweet potato leaves were edible?). Another couple of our regulars went in to the K18 bed to harvest out the sun choke roots both to send in to the pantries and to replant back in to the bed. There are still more sun chokes to be harvested so if you are interested please let us know!
Another one of our regular volunteers did an inventory of the Greenhouse and Little Hoop House for us. We do have onions on the way but Brenda and I both were talking the other day that next year we need to up our counts for ordering transplants! The garden is continuing to grow!
Saturday’s AM Crew came out and got another 5 beds prepped and 3 of those beds planted! Everyone came in, put their heads down and got a lot done that morning. Looks like we just planted the last of our shallots that we grew in the garden and we are starting to get low on the garlic we held back…luckily we have those onions on the way! We may also need to look at holding more shallots and garlic back next year!
So many chores done in the garden and you were all able to harvest almost 700# of produce to send in to our pantries! Just a fair warning, that number will be dropping soon. Once we pull out the tomato and squash beds the weights will quickly go down. That does not mean we do not have enough to send in, it just means what we are harvesting is going to be weighing less-lettuces, kales, bok choys…etc…the greens just weigh ALOT less than our summer veg. Once the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages start coming on the weights will start going back up, not to summer weights but up nonetheless.
Thank you one and all for continuing to help out in the garden!!!
Take care
Lori