March plantings

 These past few Saturday work parties have been full of fun and greenhouse work and baked goods. Many new crops have been started, and many many more are at people's homes, started as seedlings (such as Snowpea, Onion, Leek, Tomato) waiting to be planted in the Community Garden. Here are some photos from the past two weekends.

Firstly, so many hanging baskets, Geraniums, Sweetpea pots, Annuals (such as Pansy, Viola & Petunia) and outdoor perennials have been transplanted in huge numbers by some pretty amazing volunteers. They move tiny plants on to larger and larger pots, in readiness for the plant sale on May 13th, and for transplanting into our own community garden beds too. This is steady work, and we are so grateful to those who come on weekdays as well to transplant so much!

click on photo to enlarge

Started two weeks ago, in Bed 17 we have repeated the spring planting for "The Coleman Project" with two kinds of Radishes and some mixed Lettuce (Mesclun) to start off (see last year's success!). Later there will be Turnip, Carrot and other crops added. These Radish varieties are not "hot" and are very juicy and delish, plus will be completely worm-free as they were grown beneath "Reemay" cloth which keeps the chewiest of bugs out of them.

 Meanwhile, in the larger public beds, the Garlic and Kale have been joined by Broadbeans and Potatoes! The Reemay cloth is to stop the birds from making a buffet out of newly sprouted beans.

The compost corral now out of sight at the back of the garden, has begun again, with layers of dry leaves and seaweed starting to be piled up alternating, inside of a pallet wood rectangle next to Joyce's Greenhouse. We no longer mow the leaves to break them down, as we're using an electric lawnmower now instead of gas, so we will be adding beneficial bacterial powder to help break the leaves down faster. We lost a couple of years of composting over lockdown so have to speed it up again so we can constantly replenish the beds. Folks with raked and bagged leaves at home are welcome to donate them to DIGS to add to our compost corral. 

 Although it's difficult to photograph, I did note that chicken manure was top dressed over the Rhubarb crop (yummy for them!) and also thanks to volunteers, the heavy-duty arches were raised in beds 2 &3 to support the Squash and Beans plantings.

click on photos to enlarge

Finally, we'll be researching changing the raised veggie beds from (expensive) wood to corrugated metal roofing material with wooden top edging this week. Many of the beds have rotten wood now, and they fragment. It will be a large ongoing project to gradually replace them with more affordable alternatives. Photos of the metal beds will appear on the blog shortly so stay tuned.

Jen

P.S. Good tips on how to get more food in less space from Linda Gilkeson! See the pdf here from March 2022.