Wed. May 20

I arrived at the garden and was delighted to see Jen and Michael St. James already hard at work weeding a plot. More workers drifted in behind me. Della and Debbie created a bean arbor and Della and Mae Lee planted beans beside it. Della and Ryan planted a row of beans along a fence panel. Geri and Debbie planted 3 rows of tomatoes in the fenced area after Kathy put in a huge effort prepping the plot. Patricia C. helped on that project, too. Geri cautioned us not to over water that area due to the hardpan so close to the surface. We are being more careful to give the tomatoes plenty of room, planting them farther apart and not along a fence. We will try making cages with hog wire. It is sturdy but has big enough holes in it to harvest the tomatoes. Linda brought herbs from her garden and planted them in the north raised bed.

Kocha was dealt a solid blow when Suzanne and Linda teamed up by the entrance and pulled roots and all. On the other side of the garden Amber and Erin and their crew of kids and Patricia C. tackled the kocha with the Rogue hoes. There was some watering done. Michael C. was the official photographer for the day. We harvested radishes and spinach from our late winter plot.

ATTENTION OFFICERS / BOARD MEMBERS! Meeting at the garden this Sat. May 23, 11 AM

Sat. May 23

We welcomed Steve back to the garden and he and Ron mowed the mustard in Jan and George’s yard. They took turns mowing the rest of the kocha. (FYI- a certain leaf hopper walks around on the mustard blossoms, picks up a virus and then flies over to our sweet baby tomato plants, then they have the virus and their leaves curl and turn brown. Last year we pulled almost half of our GH tomato plants) Suzanne watered the greenhouse and checked the plots to see if they needed to be watered. We were glad to see Bethel back in the garden recovered from her foot surgery. She prepped and planted more beans along the fence panels. Debbie did shovel therapy all over the garden. Geri planted more tomatoes in the caged area and I painted plot signs. It was a lovely day to garden.

What we need to do next

Let’s make some trial tomato cages out of hog wire. We need to decide where we will plant chiles. The padrons could go in the plot by the back trees, Deb has already begun to prep a plot by the fish tanks. There are several open plots in the circle; however, they are flat and mostly below the surface. We will have to see how they might work for chiles. There is a fence panel in the caged area that could be set up for a divider. Pretty soon it will be time to harvest garlic. Can’t wait! That job is almost like recovering artifacts in my student archaeology days.
Every work day the garden changes, see you there! jjh