whimsy, individuality & gloriousness

Dear Garden-lovers,

Photos of the garden tour now taken down.
Let me know if you need to see 'em.

A huge thankyou to all who grew, helped and were both organized and whimsical. Such beauty!
Plus; what is that fantastic recipe for pecan chocolate chip brown sugar bars???
Those were scrumptious!!

Best, Jen

What's Up? June 20th 2010

Dear Gardeners,

Just a few new pictures in slide show form (if you click right on the photos, you can make the slide show FULL SCREEN, which is way exciting!)


This week in the garden we did the following:

- had to admit that peas were definitely experiencing diabolical pea trouble, and that, except for the snow peas, which are doing GREAT, we may have to move on without tears. :*>) (okay, one tear)

- fertilized with "Raingrow" which is an organic compost-tea product as some plants were a bit yellow (mostly celery). This product is currently out of stock and I can't seem to locate an alternative source, so if anyone knows anything about obtaining more, let us know.

- this leads to the question: Should we use granular organic fertilizer as a top dressing? let's talk about this next week.

- we transplanted chard, beets, basil, parsley, and planted more runner beans.
- we harvested spinach, lettuce, garlic scapes,and radishes.
- the Little Diggers finished their excellent planters (photos anyone?)

- we weeded til the cows came home (actually they didn't come home....so if you hear mooo-ing from out in the boat basin, let us know. hahahhaa). It seems that using tons of mulch means later doing massive weeding of every volunteer seed we ever wanted to re-compost. Sigh..... well at least it keeps us all chatting together over tiny seedlings.

- watered everything well, had coffee, chatted up a storm, and looked around in wonder.

And that was Sunday morning.
If you can think of any task you did that didn't get listed here, go ahead and add it by clicking on the comment button.

But WOW, looks great! Thanks to all our gardeners!!
Best,
Jen

Virtual Tour of DIGS June 7th

Dear Gardeners,

For a close up view of what's going on in each bed of the garden, have a good look on our virtual tour.
Here's the full screen slideshow.(click to embiggen)

And just so you don't trip over any hoses or gardening hoes, here's a map of everthing that's planted so far, followed by collage photos of the whole garden!



For the slower, more languid Virtual Tour there are some collages below. The viewer is starting at the right side of the garden, where you start to look at beds 1-3 where some chrysanthemums have been potted up from slips and are waiting for the next plant sale. If you click on this collage, it will be big enough for taking a closer look at everything in the photo: (use back button to come back here.)



Next, in the center right of the community beds (just near the potato tower) are beds 4-6:



Next, in the center left of the garden, as you have your back to the road, the community garden beds 7-8: Click to embiggen, use back button to return here.



And the very very exciting beds 9 and 10 (lettuce ready for tasting in bed 11):


Now I'm not sure what we call those little half-beds that are just under the left hand trellis with its lovely climbing rose and clematis, but for today, let's call them 12a and b. Here they are along with some other main features that you may like to see:



And I always admire the fabulous diversity of the family allotments.
So interesting!! The greenhouse is also shown; full of peppers. Yum. Peppers. :>)



Other news this week:

Time to plant seeds for crops that will go in July-August for cool fall and winter brassicas and greens.

Baby transplants that bolt, may have been root-bound in cell-pack. Next year we may have to be planting more transplants per Sunday so to keep transplants from root-bound-dom.

Seeding through mulch or top dressing may cause uneven germination. So on heavily lasagned or mulched beds, best to move mulch aside to set in transplants only.

Come have a look at the REAL garden when it stops raining.
It will take your tiny breath away!

Best, Jen

What's Up? June 1st 2010

Dear Gardeners,
Hi, Jen here. My gosh.....thank you EVERYONE who helped with the plant swap, bake sale (Yum YUM!) and all the spring work in the garden. The garden raised a nice sum for tools and education.



I was able to dash out once or twice with my camera.
Here's a wonderful slide show of "What's Up?" for June 1st. You can make the slides full-screen if you want. They are taken in the community garden and around the island over the past two weekends:



If you click right on the above pictures, you can watch the slideshow in large size too. Take a peek into the greenhouse to see tomatoes and peppers! Fun!

I was away for six weeks doing concerts (note spouse in dress-coat in slideshow above; shocker!) Meanwhile fabulous things happened, everything turned green and grew, and tireless volunteers brought the DIGS garden to life AND provided baked goods for the plant swap and bake sale! Huge success, have a look:



1. The lettuce grew into full heads of red and green leaf butter lettuce. Outer leaves can now be eaten! Seeing onions and lettuce growing fully beneathe the raspberry plants is a wonderful sight.





2. The snow peas took off and grew tall in the Community garden, but the spotty germination of the regular pea seed might mean quiet pea failure. Yikes. Was it a pea-seed storage mishap? Or did the birds steal each one as it sprouted (I did notice, as did other gardeners, there was heavy Robin activity in the sprouting pea-seed area of the garden; almost an eating frenzy for four weeks. Hmmmm. ) Or is it simply that pea seed packets may have gotten damp over the winter?
Doh. What happened? Do comment. Oh well; we can't be all perfect like peas-in-pod...we might have to live with this smalll round green lesson. Eek. Easy to grow my FOOT!



3. The tireless DIGS volunteers have done an amazing job planting spinach, beets,lettuce, onions, leeks, carrots and transplanting peppers and kohlrabi (sorry I still can't spell that last one.) How gorgeous! I can't tell you how grateful I am that everyone makes such magical things happen.

4. The apple trees (heritage Protection Island vintage trees grafted to create new baby vintage trees) are growing strong, and being trained to espalier, on their dwarf root stock at the back of the garden. Thanks so much Jim for this brilliant project (back fence right behind new kholrabi.) What strong little fellows they look!

5. Both potato towers are planted now, and we're trying to beat our record of 55 lbs from last year per tower.



6. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries all growing strongly as well. The birds have found our garden, so here comes some berry netting in the next little while.
We'll try and pick a little lettuce first in the raspberry bed, and then put on the netting when the berries start to appear, I guess.



7. The island is as green as can be thanks to two weeks of grey, rainy weather. The creek from the duck pond is running, the waterlilies are just finishing their yellow spherical flowering. Wild lily seed pods are visible just on the north side of the bridge.







8. Volunteer flower seeds of calendula and cosmos have sprung up in our much-mulched community garden beds (1-11) in between the lettuce and spinach. How co-operative is that? :>) See slide show at top.

9. Squash vertical supports are in place in bed no. 1 ready for the weather to warmup to plant squash vines! This will be cool! Can't wait to take time-lapse pictures (if possible.) I suppose that UNDERNEATHE the vertical trellis that one could plant lettuce that will enjoy the shade?



10. The garlic is HUGE! Is it a different kind from last year? Or did the soil change and the mulch additions really boost it? What's the secret success? Anyone hazzard a guess?




11. There are herbs to snip and freeze, if you need curly parsley (bed no. 10 in pots), sage, fennel fronds, oregano, etc. Look in the herb bed front left and snip away! If you want to know what to do with these herbs by the handful, try this recipe for chimichurri sauce (for meat, fish, salads.)

12. The carrot germination (covered with white "remay" cloth back fence left) is terrific! Compare and contrast with open bed carrot sprouting. Maybe the constant drizzle was really what the carrot seed enjoyed most. Note: the remay cloth prevents carrot fly that lays eggs on young carrots and eats them as they grow; to be avoided by suppressing the carrot's scent so that the fly doesn't find it. (Note: I learn alot from the Little Diggers!)

Thank you everyone for a beautiful public garden. Wow. I'm almost speechless (but not type-less.)



Oh, and do please please comment using the comment button below.
And do please add corrections to the above ramblin' blather, as I am a novice gardener for sure. :>) I know nothink. :>)
Though when the sun comes out, I do feel summer is really coming now!
And greens to eat! (though no one eats too many collards as we can see from how huge they are now!)
Best and do join in and talk about the garden,
Jen

P.S. I just found a very good article on what seeds to plant now for transplanting for fall and winter crops in July. Plant these asian greens and cabbages now for later transplants....etc. SEE ARTICLE.