Dec 16, 2013

Finally a chance to garden again as a group! The rain has been quite frequent the past couple weeks, though never a steady downpour. But it's been enough to keep the soil moist and the plants get fully wet daily. This has helped some of the veggies (and grass!) but damaged others. Seedlings suffered the worse, with most of them dying. The frequent moisture and cool temperatures allowed mildew to establish itself on the kale. But luckily much of the garden is fine. 

Doug and Laurie are back. Hurrah! All that grass below Doug's feet magically disappeared and a garden was revealed! 

Lots of work was accomplished today, with all the volunteers seemingly happy to be back at work. Large sections of the garden were dug. Piles of invading grass removed. Old plants taken out. New seedlings transplanted. Seeds sown. Row markers set in place. It's much easier to visualize the garden with the white markers in place. 

Harvesting started with some beans but before you knew it, a pile of veggies had built up. Daikons, golden turnips, Spanish black radish, bok choy, carrots, broccoli, collards, sweet potatoes, oranges. 

Lots of other stuff in the garden, but they get picked as volunteers want them since they are either delicate or not overly abundant -- arugula, yacon, snap peas, kale, chard, herbs. 

(Above- a big harvest pile is growing.) 

Today was the start of the new season. Lots of onion plants and seed potatoes got into the ground. Several new crops got seeded or transplanted into place. 

We're getting the garden reorganized. The rows and beds have been widened from 2 foot to 3 feet. And markers are gradually getting into place. Over lunch we discussed having a garden plan of some sort. We're coming up with ideas to make this better organized and easier for everyone. 

The greenhouse suffered badly in the rain, so there's a lot of work to do getting it cleaned up. As you can see, the plain plastic has shredded due to the sun. So we plan to use greenhouse plastic next time. 

Yes, we are getting a few avocados today. The tree doesn't have many, but the ones it has are large and good tasting this year. Not enough to sell but just enough to share among the volunteers. 

Lunch today-

Spagetti with homemade sauces 

......meat sauce using Michelle Galimba's grass fed local beef

......vegan style using a wide assortment of our own veggies and herbs

Fresh homemade bread from the Naystation