Hi All,
Over the weekend Tod worked on our van-he created a bed platform that we can use for camping but then he can remove when he is using it for work! I cleaned the kitchen, part of the garage and dealt with the ant problem…UGH!!! Every time I turned around this weekend I was finding ants inside the house. It drives me up the wall! I didn’t see any yesterday so fingers crossed they are being kept at bay for mow. We also went Costco shopping yesterday, Safeway, OSH….I did meet up with my friends for our knitting group. That was it, that was our weekend.
In the garden last week;
Sandia was back in the garden last week and helped us out in practically every part of the garden! There was a crew up front helping us to finish up bagging the garlic that was left in that Office from Tuesdays crew who worked on bagging it. They also had a crew out in the P beds placing irrigation lines for the trees that are out there. Another part of the crew were over in the large AB beds weeding out any and all of the weeds that have shown up this year. In the smaller beds up front part of the crew was working on getting the last of our transplants in the ground as well as direct sowing radish, carrot & beet seeds and one gentleman started clearing out the Big Hoop House with 2 of our regular volunteers. Sandia is always a busy crew that truly leans into helping us to accomplish what needs to be done for the day they are helping out! Thank you Sandia Crew!
Kaleidoscope was out 2 days and got busy shredding paper for compost, watering the last of the trees that are set aside for the expansion beds and labelling 2 of the beds that were direct sown the other day. They also cleared out the Worm Bin so Enrique and I could get in there to place 1/2” hard wire clothe on the bottom of the bin to keep the mice and ground squirrels out! Yup, the critters were able to get up inside the bin and would eat the squash we were placing in there for the worms! I am sure they were also eating the worms…little stinkers! Thank you Kaleidoscope!
Our crew of regular volunteers were also all over the garden making sure chores were being taken care of!
Burrow Busters was back out to continue the help of getting the ground squirrel population down. Thanks to the ground squirrels there are already leaks in the R beds that need fixing. Please do remember, if you see a leak grab one of the staff and we can show you how to fix it. The more people who know how to fix a leak the quicker we can get them fixed and the more water we are able to save! Even if you are not interested in learning how to fix a leak, grab us anyway and let us know you are not interested! Also, if you are having any issues with the sprinkler heads on the hoses let us know. The 4H Club donated sprinkler heads that we can use to replace any that are not working. Last week we replaced the entire hose and sprinkler head for the Berry Patch! If you have any good use for an old hose let us know. The old hose is currently sitting over by the garbage cans and if we do not find something to do with it soon it will be thrown away.
Irrometer ditch digging continued in the front of the garden as well as some pipe getting laid out for it. The work continued later in the week with wires being hooked up to the logging box. Now as far as I can recall, this is all for measuring soil moisture. If anyone is interested in learning more about it drop me a line and I will get you the info!
CL continued her work of keeping the cucumbers and opo tied back and off the ground. SM helped this week with tying back a couple of squash beds to keep them off the ground as well. There were also some volunteers tying back tomato plants to keep them out of the way of our paths! All of this tying back is important to the health of the plant. If they continue growing into the paths we are walking on then the branches in the path get stepped or bumped into and all that breakage could lead to diseases getting into the plants which affects food production. There are also squash beds in the larger AB beds that are growing on the ground and need to be pulled out of the paths and placed back in to the beds. Come grab me if you’d like to see what I am talking about!
The Potting Shed continues getting organized! There are still some pots & flats in the Little Hoop House that need to go in but the majority of what goes in the shed is pretty much piled up. The only thing that needs to happen now is a bit more clean up inside the shed so the piles can go inside! The pots we are storing are for the Plant Sale as well as for us growing plants for the garden. There are also a couple of more boxes on the Office back patio that have the new 4” pots and we need to get those off the patio and into the shed as well!
Weeding happened…as usual, lol! We are ready with cardboard and wood chip though! The wood chip was delivered the week before and the cardboard was delivered this past Friday. We now have plenty of cardboard to start covering all our paths back up to help with the weed situation! For cardboard and wood chipping a path, first weed out the area, please ensure it is level, lay down the cardboard and then place the wood chip on top of the cardboard. Be sure to overlap the cardboard. If you do not overlap the cardboard it just makes quicker work for the weeds to find their way through the cracks between the cardboard.
We invested in 20 gallons of 45% vinegar to help us continue the work of eradicating the bindweed. Lance joined in spraying the Front Apron to help us control it out front in order for us to help the church with keeping it out of their lawn!
The last holes were dug for the trees in the R beds and another line was installed for the trees in bed P12.
Thank you all for helping us with all you accomplished this week. On top of all that you also harvested 258# of produce to send in to the local food pantries with 60# of that going to Culinary Angels this weekend!
Take care
Lori