Hi All,
Question before beginning the Happy Monday Note;
Does anyone know of where we can purchase 6”x8” chalkboards? We have tried Amazon and everything they have on offer is not of decent quality, the reviews are awful. Lance had mentioned that the Dollar store does not have them in stock anymore so we are kind of at a stand still as to where to find these small chalkboards! If you know of a place could you please drop me a line and let me know where?
Back to regularly scheduled update!
Kind of a quiet weekend for Tod and I. Saturday I was not feeling 100% so it ended up being a movie marathon day. By Sunday I was ready to get out of the house and Tod surprised me with a visit to the Shinn Historical Park And Arboretum in Fremont! The house was not open but getting to walk around the grounds was so very nice! We want to go back when they are open for tours. Afterwards we were wanting to head over to the California Nursery Historical park in Niles but I had washed the car fob the day before and it was not working too well…we were concerned about getting locked out of the car! We grabbed some sandwiched from the little deli in Niles and headed back home where we switched out the fob and went food shopping instead. It was nice getting to spend some time outside and the ride home through Niles Canyon is always worth the trip!
Brenda went to the California Rare Fruit Growers Scion Exchange yesterday. It was held by the DVC Horticulture Department. She brought along cuttings of the Davay’s Green Gage plum to donate from Fertile GroundWorks. Dean did the cuttings that for us when he had pruned the tree about a month ago, spritz a little water in a gallon size bag and Brenda placed it her fridge’s vegetable crisper so it did not dry out! She ran in to many peeps while there; Graham was there for his talk, EU (Tuesday Orchard Crew), Linda with CFRG who is helping us with Heritage tress for the garden and many others who had been out over the years to volunteer at the garden! Many different scions to choose from as well as plants from the DVC Hort. Dept. and Santa Cruz Rare Fruit Growers. Here is what Brenda got for the garden;Scions;
2 free Pomegranate Gissarski RozovyiKodota figWhite Genoa figPropagate from the cuttingsImperial pruneIllinois everbearing mulberryBlack Russian cherry
Plants
St Anthony Yellow fruited fig from DVC Hort. Dept
Pepino melon, from DVC
Frederick passion flower fromDVC
Vanilla plant from DVC
Growers Best Mulberry from Santa Cruz Ca Rare Fruit Growers Chapter
Panache fig, also known as Tiger fig, from Santa Cruz
FYI:
Dvc plant sale is this coming weekend 3-6 on Friday and 9-12 on Saturday! They are worth the trip!!!
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Last week in the garden started out COLD
and WET
Tuesday we got SOAKED Just when we thought we might get away without getting rained on the skies just opened up! Everyone got the harvest done as soon as possible! Brenda, Aditi and JR stayed behind to get the produce washed and packed for deliveries-which they also got done! The rest of us went in to the Big Hoop House and continued starting seeds and potting up seedlings for the Plant Sale. Over 2,000 basil seeds were started and another 180 seedlings potted up into their 4” pots. Some of the crew cleaned close to 400 4” pots for us to reuse, over 15 flats of 6 packs were filled with soil and numerous labels filled out to keep the plants organized!
Wednesday was threatening rain but luckily it did not commit-but is was COLDSome of the crew headed into the Big Hoop House to continue potting up the seedlings (over 170), cleaned labels and filled 17 flats of 4” pots for future plantings! Brenda took some of the crew out to the Orchard to start fertilizing the trees! The first 2 Eastern rows in Section 3 & 4 were done! They also worked on updating the Orchard Map!
Friday brought us lovelier weather but still a bit cold! There were still more seedlings (~100) to pot up into the 4” pots so 2 of our volunteers helped with that! Another 3 volunteers went weeding through the garden. DW wanted to finish the weeding she had begun last Friday over by the trailers and we had 2 other volunteers starting out in the N beds to get ahead of the onslaught of bindweed that started rearing its head!!! The rest of the crew were busy out in the expansion, continuing the sheet mulching! A little bit of wrestling with the cardboard sheets due to the wind picking up!
Saturday’s weather continued to improve and the crew continued with the weeding in the N beds! In the Orchard they fertilized the trees in rows 2, 3 & 4 in Sections V-Q! Also in the Orchard there was a broken spigot that was fixed. The expansion work continued-a design layout for the valves was done up by volunteers AW & TE and compost was brought over by the tractor to 2nd segments on West and East side.
Lance is still heading out in to the garden to continue the hunt for the vicious thistle and the malicious mallow! He continues finding it everywhere he goes. Please help him out! If you are in the garden and happen to see either of the weeds, grab a bucket and pull them out. These are 2 weeds that just grow so big and take over so much room that it will push out the vegetable plants we are growing for our food pantries. Also be on the look out for the infamous bindweed! Yup, it is already popping up. We are currently finding it in the N beds and last year it just got so out of control out there that the South end of the beds were overrun by it! With the weeding that went on over Friday and Saturday this week we need to get out there and cardboard and wood chip the paths to help us keep it tamped down.
Through the extremely wet Tuesday and very cold Wednesday we harvested over 140# combined! We also harvested another 22# for Culinary Angels on Saturday! Broccoli, cabbages and cauliflower are looking good in the garden! We are so happy they are up and we are able to send them in to the pantries!
Thank you all for continuing to help out the way that you do!!!
Take care
Lori