Hi All,
Oh my gosh, the past few weeks have been a flurry of activity! First it was the gala and all the prep that led up to the night of…and what fun that was! The next week Tod and I were in Canada for my Birthday trip and it was such a wonderful experience! Last week though…I was sick with some darn flu bug! I am feeling on the better side of it now and am able to get what has been done in the garden down in writing to you all:)
Man has it been a busy 3 weeks in the garden! I am going to cover it all in this email here!
The week leading up to the gala Pleasanton Transition and York came out to help in the garden. Pleasanton helped with feeding the worms and took gloves for laundry. York came in, got the worms covered with shredded paper and harvested cherry tomatoes for Joe Michell school. The worms are in need of help and the transition classes are back in to help them out!
Kaleidoscope was out as well! They got in the worm bin and forked it up to aerate the worms compost and found the worms! We were not seeing worms and it was a happy sight when we found them! Some of the crew shredded more paper so we continue having enough for the worms and Last week York started the rotation composter back up so we will need it to feed that as well. Kaleidoscope also helped to trim the shallots for delivery and printed out the dill seed packets for the gala baskets.
That week you all got weeding done, gopher traps set, bed D01 prepped and planted lettuce, beets, celtuce, mustard & beans pretty much garden wide! In the Orchard trees got posts installed, trees were trimmed and a pear tree with fire blight was taken out. Yes, that is unfortunate but thanks to the experienced volunteers in the garden they caught it and were able to take it out before things got worse.
The gala was so fun! Our wonderful NCL crew came out to help with creating the veggies basket for the tables, helped to set up said tables and gave Lance the support he needed for the tomato tasting during the event! JG, NS & LA also joined in helping out during the event! The Mayor was there to proclaim September 13th 2025 Mayor’s Monarch Pledge Day for the City of Livermore. All our founders were there to celebrate the 15 years that Fertile GroundWorks has been around to continue with Pastor Chuck’s dream! Our Board President, Angela Ko, also announced the new endowment program that will help us continue making the dream a reality!
Phew, that was the first week! The second week….
More gopher trapping, tomatoes being tamed, weeds being weeded, bed B18 prepped & planted with carrots and the Orchard got wood chipped to help with those weeds! Bed B14-which was prepped the weekend before-was planted with Portuguese kale. The Compost Area’s bunkers were chipped and organized!
Ya know what, that looks like a small paragraph but the work was huge!
The third week….
Like I mentioned above, York started up the rotating composter this week with everyone taking a turn at rotating it. The next time they are out we are planning to start feeding and watering it throughout the winter season. Pleasanton Transition brought out the cleaned gloves and helped to put away the boxes Open Heart Kitchen dropped off for us!
The Culinary Class was out and they got to tour the garden, help with harvest and pot up some Portuguese kale for the rest of the schools. Kaiser was out as well and helped to plant out all the seedlings left in the Greenhouse! Two beds and 30 seedlings!
KM pricked out almost 150 Dino lettuce into bigger pots, weeding continued, the irrigation was checked out and out VT winter veggie transplants came in! Friday and Saturday saw the crew potting up over 4,000 veggies for our partner schools! Another bed was prepped and planted on Saturday-bed AB09 and it was planted with Caraflex cabbage!
All that, and so much more I am sure, got done in the garden as well as a BOUNTIFUL harvest each week! Over 3,400lbs of produce went into the pantries over the past 3 weeks! We have been helping out One Nation Dream Makers by sending in the produce delivery earlier than normal to ensure they have the produce for our neighbors. Thanks to you all pulling together you continue making that happen!
Take care
Lori