Epworth Veggie Garden

Today, we continued to cleanup the garden at Epworth. Removed some of the tomatoes from the wading pool gardens and also picked some of the orange cosmos that were pulled up last week. We will send a few tomatoes to the food pantry and we'll put some of the leaves and bad tomatoes in the compost pit. Temperatures are expected to be close to freezing this evening.

Maple Grove Cleanup

We began to cleanup the garden over at Maple Grove. The tomatoes are mostly done for the season. We decided that we'd make 2 different piles. One pile was mostly leaves and tomatoes. The second pile was stems and other items that would take too long to decay. We still have some cleanup work to do. Probably need to rake some and when the soil dries out a bit more we will do one final till. As usual we have waited too long to get a winter cover crop started.


There are still some peas and swiss chard growing.

Buckeye Lake Cleanup

Tonight, we began to clean up the garden out at Buckeye Lake. Some of the tasks planned for clean up include: storing the boards for the raised beds, moving the reusable soil into a temporary compost pit, raking up the wood chips, removing the weed fabric and putting away the fence for next year. We tried to sweep some of the soil off the boards for the raised beds. This wood is untreated, so we'd like to protect it a bit from the elements. Perhaps next year we will paint or stain these board. We always think about adding some wood chips to the compost pit, but it typically takes wood chips this size a while to break down and then as they break down they could rob the soil of nitrogen.


We haven't pulled up many of the plants because we wanted to save some of the leaves for the compost pile. We intend to build a more formal compost pit next year over at the new Tom Sawyer house. Tonight we just dumped everything in a big pile. We threw away the tomato plants, but saved the tomatoes and broccoli leaves for the compost pile. Over the past couple of weeks we have had a good time tossing the tomatoes all over the garden. The main goal was to toss the tomatoes into one of the empty raised beds so the tomatoes could start breaking down in the soil. Some times the tomatoes made it into the correct spot and other times...well... it got a little messy. We had lots of fun and it will all work out. We'll probably have some volunteer tomato plants next year. We'll see who can recognize the tomato plants when they pop up next year.

Garden Cleanup

We've started to clean up around the garden a bit. Several of the veggies are done for the season like beans, cucumbers and squash. Since we've harvested the last of the carrots and potatoes we've taken the board and are putting them away for the winter. We took the bent brackets and any remaining nails off the board and brushed the dirt off before putting them back in with the "scrap" wood. Most of the board will find their way back into the garden next season. Much of the soil that was in the raised beds will be raked back into the garden, have compost added and tilled in.

Grasshoppers and Slugs!

It's amazing the creatures you find in the garden if you take a minute or two to look. Some of the creatures are looking to eat and some are actually beneficial to the garden. The grasshopper above was found in the middle of the strawberries. Perhaps this type of grasshopper is a lubber grasshopper? Down south we always had big black and yellow grasshoppers we called Georgia Thumpers (I believe these are actually Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers) We've also been finding lots of slugs. With all the rain the slugs must be loving it! There have been slugs in the tomatoes and lots of other wet places. As we've moved some of the rocks we've seen slugs crawling all around looking for another dark wet place. I believe the slug shown below is a spotted garden slug? When I first can across this slug it really startled me because it reminded me of a rattlesnake.

Frost

We finally had a bit of cold weather and you can clearly see some of the frost damage on the plants. I believe the temperature at the Epworth Veggie Garden drop to around 30 or 31 degrees overnight. Above, you can see damage to the red salvia. Below you'll see some damage to the Lima beans. We'll probably pull out many of the damaged plants this weekend. The tomatoes have really slowed down with the cooler weather. Not may of the nice "vine ripe" tomatoes we had a wee or so ago. Soon we will switch from "harvest" mode to "clean up" mode.

More Veggies

The harvest is winding down for the year. The weather is turning cooler and veggies like the tomatoes and yellow squash has slowed down production. We decided this evening to harvest the last batch of carrots and another solid batch of lettuce. Looking back on this year, well....its been a great year. Check out the harvest numbers. Best year yet!

What's Left in the Garden?

I thought I'd like the veggies that are still growing in the garden and include some pictures. You never know what the weather will be like and I'm sure as soon as we have our first good frost we'll be out of the regular gardening business. We could bring in some techniques to extend the gardening season, but some of the gardeners and the soil need a little time to recover for next year. Typically our gardening season has been from about April until late October.

Here is what's left in the garden: lettuce, beans, yellow squash (this is our second planting this year), tomtoes, peppers, okra, collard green, cabbage, carrots and some herbs.

Epworth Havesting

We've had lots of rain in the past week and unfortunately we haven't been able to harvest in the gardens like we normally would. This evening, I went out determined to harvest tomatoes and a few other items. I knew that since we hadn't picked tomatoes in about a week that there would be lots! This time of the year darkness comes earlier and earlier so it becomes a race against time to get over to the garden after work and harvest everything before night comes. First on the list to harvest are the purple beans. Purple is a bit hard to see in the dark. Last on the list is typically tomatoes. At a certain point it becomes just too dark to see the tomatoes and you'll start stepping on more than you harvest. I got as much as I could before it was just too dark. I'll try to get up early in the morning and go back to the garden and harvest more tomatoes. I bet this week will be a record harvest for tomatoes for Epworth.

Buckeye Lake

The harvest at Buckeye Lake is winding down for the season. We're getting a few tomatoes, but many aren't being picked regularly. It appears that perhaps some birds are snacking on the tomatoes? We've seen slugs on the tomatoes and many of the tomatoes are laying directly on the ground. Next year, we'll need to do a better job of staking the tomatoes, watering and harvesting.


One of the coolest things is the seed pods that have formed on the broccoli. We've let the broccoli continue to grow and even flower. Sorry the picture didn't turn out, but perhaps next week we'll have a picture. Many of the kids are mentioning how good the "green beans" are, but they seem to take a little like broccoli. This is the first time I've seen broccoli seeds.

Northwold

Its been tough to keep up the watering over at the Northwold property. The one thing about growing veggies in the wading pools is that you need to make sure the moisture level in the soil is consistent. We've been through several extremes with the pools this year. We've had plants stressed from lack of water and then bottom rot on the tomatoes. Things are a little easier now that we have the 55 gallon rain barrel to fill up and take over to the garden. Perhaps next year we can figure out a way to have water available at the garden.

Potatoes

The past few weeks I've been very curious about the potatoes. At times I would stop at the "potato box" and dig around a little with my hand. I guess you are suppose to wait to harvest until the plants have died back. Well - the garden season is winding down and I just could not wait any longer! Towards the end of the night, I decided to take a look and see if I could find any potatoes. After I dug up the first potato I was ready for a second potato, then a third and so on.


By the end of the night we had dug the potatoes up in about 1/2 of the bed. The potatoes were nice. I asked several others in the garden if they'd like to dig some potatoes and that it was like a treasure hunt. Finally a couple of the youth tried their hand at potato digging and actually said how much fun it was to search for the potatoes.

Garlic

Today, we decided to go ahead and harvest our garlic and then plant a new crop for next year. We purchased 6 bulbs of garlic to plant this year. Much time was spent peeling the garlic and getting down to the individual cloves. I'm sure all of our hands will smell like garlic for a while. I personally really like fresh garlic and it doesn't get much fresher than right out of the garden.


Some of the garlic was ready to go and looked good. Other pieces of garlic looked like they could spend more time growing. Care had to be taken that you plant the garlic cloves correctly. You should be able to tell which end has the sprout and which end will form roots.

Compost

We continue to work on the compost pit up at the Epworth Veggie Garden. I heard somewhere that you should feed the soil and not the plant. As we can remember we've tried to add in different green and brown materials into the compost pit. We're also done a better job this year of covering up material in the compost pit and rotating the soil through the various bins.


The plan is in the fall to spread much of the composted material into the soil and till it in. We will then probably start some of the end of the season material (plants, straw, etc) in the compost for next year. Another project is to see if we can get more neighbors and church members to bring appropriate materials to help build the compost.


We really should add some worms and focus more on converting on clay into better soil full or organic matter. It seems like in the summer time, if we can maintain the proper temperature, we can really create some nice rich soil.

St. James the Less - Community Garden

We checked out yet another community garden in our area. St. James the Less Catholic Church started a new garden this year. They actually converted one of their baseball fields into a community garden. I often see folks working in the garden and I believe Wednesday nights is a big work night for them. They've got great stuff growing in the garden - giant sunflowers, corn, tomatoes, lettuce - lots of stuff. I'm sure quite a bit of produce is donated to their food pantry. Another feature in their garden is a section of corn that is no-till.


Recently they have added a water harvesting system.

Helping Hands Food Pantry

We continue to have lots of veggies and we're always looking at ways we can get these veggies to folks that can use them. Since Epworth Food Pantry typically serves clients Monday thru Thursday we've been looking for places we can take vegges after Thursdays. Today we stopped by the Christian Assembly Church on Karl Road next to Brookhaven High School. Christian Assembly operates a food pantry on Saturday mornings from 9 to 11Am and also on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday evenings. We were glad to share tomatoes with our neighbors down the street and looking forward to sharing more veggies with this wonderful ministry in the future.


The Helping Hands Food Pantry has a nice setup. We were impressed not only with the friendly volunteers hard at work, but also with how efficiently things were setup. They have an area where the food pantry clients check in and then there is a separate area where bags are packed. Approximately 75 families are served here each Saturday.

Good Seeds Community Garden

We went to check out the community garden over at Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church next to Beechcroft High School. This is the first year for the Good Seeds Community Garden and things are looking great! They have nice sunflowers, lots of tomatoes, young watermelons and colorful peppers to name a few. Its nice to spend time checking out other community gardens. So many interesting techniques and plants to observe.

Buckeye Lake Projects

The gardening season is winding down a bit over at the Takin' it to the Edge Community Garden at Water's Edge in Buckeye Lake. We're down to harvesting mostly tomatoes. The talk in the garden is focusing mostly on things we can do next gardening season. One idea is to begin to add for color to the garden. We start Wednesday evening by priming the picnic table. Chance are the table will eventually be painted blue or red.


The plan for 2010 is to expand the garden and take advantage of the space at the Tom Sawyer house next door. We will probably offer individual plots to the children and youth that are interested. Another focus will be to expand every gardener's knowledge of taking care of the gardens. One good example this year is the lack of consistancy when it comes to watering the plants. We're also dreaming about different plants, trees and shrubs we can start in the garden with more space. Perhaps we will plant an apple tree? Maybe blueberrie bushes? Some many reasons to be thankful and lots of reason to be excited about 2010!

Northwold Harvest

We harvested our first veggies today from the pools over at the Northwold Garden. The garden got a late start and we switched over to wading pool gardens right around the 4th of July. I guess you can say this year at Northwold has been more like a scientific experiment. The wading pool gardens seem to be doing a bit better than the wading pools at the Epworth Veggie Garden. One theory is that the wading pools at Epworth are directly on the asphalt and the pools probably dry out faster. You can see than growing veggie in container still present challenges. Our first tomato seems to have some bottom rot. This is probably a results of the inconsistent moisture level of the soil.

Ascension Lutheran Garden

Things are growing right along over at the Ascension Lutheran Garden. Lots of tomatoes, some eggplants, peppers and many other veggies. The harvest from this garden is shared with clients at the Helping Hands Free Clinic that is held typically every other Friday. Not only are there veggies growing in the pools, but also flowers. These marigolds caught my attention. Although the picture might not accurately reflect the size of the marigold bloom, I found these some of the smallest marigold blooms I've seem in a while.