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!