Hi All,
Another beautiful weekend! Tod and I went for a hike/birding trip to Coyote Point in San Mateo and we got to see a Horned Grebe & a Long Tailed Duck. Both were Lifers for me and for Tod the duck was a Lifer-that means it is the first time we got to see them! The Long Tailed Duck is a treat because it is usually found in Alaska and Canada! After that we went over to the Hayward Salt Marshes to walk around and the over to Mirchi’s Cafe in Dublin for lunch before my Knit & Gather with my friends! A fun filled Sunday!
Please help me welcome Aditi to the garden as our new staff member! She has been with us for the past 3 weeks and I am sure a lot of you have had the chance to work with this wonderful soul! Aditi has worked with volunteers on weeding, starting seeds, pricking out the seedlings, putting together new pots for the seedlings, planting Yokatta-Na in our emptying beds and worked with the Kaleidoscope crew! She is ever present in everything she does and never turns down a chance to learn something new to pass on to others. We only have her for a short time since she will be going back to school for her graduate degree! When you see her chat her up, she has a brilliant mind that needs to be shared with the world!
Last week in the garden…
Saturday we had SEWA out for the first time and they ROCKED it in the garden! They had volunteers out from each age group and it was a pleasure working with them. In the front of the garden part of the crew helped me to fill the G04 bed with soil and switch out the irrigation hose so we may plant seedlings this Tuesday. Another part of the crew worked with Aditi on planting over 180 Yokatta-Na seedlings in beds AB07-AB09, as well as a couple other A beds nearby. While panting the seedling they also helped Aditit to weed the beds. Part of the crew that was helping me out also helped out Aditi by covering the seedlings with strawberry baskets to protect the seedlings from the birds! Out back the rest of the crew helped the Enriques with sheet mulching part of the new expansion as well as helped Brenda and TE out with laying down the irrigation pipe! They were a very busy crew and worked a bit overtime to help us finish the sheet mulching! Go SEWA Go!
Pleasanton Transition, York and Kaleidoscope were all out last week! Pleasanton Transition continued helping to weed out the front part of the garden. They helped to get some of the Bermuda grass weeded out by the Tunnel Bed! They brought back some washed gloves and took another batch with them to help us keep up on the gloves. York helped me to place a sign in the field for the cardboard delivery and dropped cones in the field for the compost delivery. Afterwards we toured the garden and they got to ask questions about gardening and learned more about the seedlings we are growing. Kaleidoscope helped to clean labels, weed paths over by the larger M beds as well as helped to get a measurement for Brenda that helped her to plan the irrigation in the new expansion. While they were all hard at work the cardboard and compost delivery showed up at the same time! It was toward the end of the shift so we all stopped what we were doing to watch the crews make the deliveries! Thank you to EA for making the cardboard drop and for StopWaste dropping the compost!
Phew, that is already a busy note and there is so much more!
Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday saw more seeds started and more seedlings pricked out into larger pots. Tuesday crew, along with Aditi’s help, got the Rosemary cuttings started, 640 of them. Right now they are in the North east corner of the Little Hoop House if you wanted to check them out. Over 2,000 seeds were started and over 500 seedlings pricked out! The seeds starts are all in the Greenhouse and the pricked out seedlings are in the Little Hoop House. Tuesday crew also got over 300 seedlings planted into some of the emptying beds and CL planted another 2 grapes over by the Worm Area! Wednesdays crew got at least 34 flats of 4” pots filled with soil and they were all used up by Friday afternoon! Part of the crew cleaned over 400 4” pots-they got all the writing cleaned off with rubbing alcohol so it did not confuse our Plant Sale customers!
Out in the Orchard the guys continued their tree pruning and talked with Brenda about new heirloom trees for part of the new expansion! Brenda also got to talk with Graham and Dean about scion exchanges and that information went out in an email last week. Lance is diligently going through the Orchard trying to eradicate the vicious thistle and malicious mallowWhile he is trying his best the weeds seem to be keeping a lead on him! He may need some extra hands out there to at least get a little ahead of the race!
Weeds were weeded out, CW helped ClL to place a trellis for her grapes. The Native bed got a little bit more weeding out, the worms were fed a little bit and had some shredded paper placed on top of them. CW & DM weeded underneath the Outdoor Library and CW ended up finding radishes to take home with him!
For harvesting we were able to get a little over 166# of produce out to our local food pantries! MB also brought in 2 boxes of her Meyer lemons to share with the pantries! We always appreciate the extra help!
Take care
Lori
P.S.
Friday afternoons I have been working with KB on getting a parent and me shift going. Currently we are out there from about 2pm to no later than 4pm with her young daughter but we have not had any luck in finding other parents to join us. If you are aware of any parents that are looking to bring their kiddos in to learn about gardening please have them of to our web site, fill out the volunteer form and make a note in the form that they are interested in the parent and me shift on Fridays from 2pm to 4pm.