Workday(s) and priorities

 

 

Hello Gardeners!

        I have to say I was quite impressed with how you all have battled the evil bind weed! The rest of the tomatoes and A-frames look nice too, especially considering that nasty hail storm. Thank you, Sija, and thanks to all of you who came out and worked while I was away. I am in Ottawa now, but I will be back 15 July. I hope to make it back for at least the tale end of the workday, but whether I am or not, I would like for everyone to mark his/her calendar now (if you will be in town) for Wednesday, July 16. There will be

Saturday & SHED KEYS

Hello all,

A chance of rain tomorrow; however, there’s lot’s to do if the storm passes us
by:

-the scarlet runner beans in the back plot have a wooden trellis on the ground
behind them, ready to be put up for their climbing pleasure. This is at least a
2 or 3 person job; the trellis is big & awkward, and you might need to dig
little holes (measured out beforehand) to accommodate the legs of the trellis

-finish planting the perennials which are sitting on the workbench (one of those
is a strawberry variety—this can go in the established strawberry plots if you
can find space)

-harvest swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, and peas (look carefully for the peas,
there should be lot’s of them! Might as well get all the mature ones off the
plant ASAP, before they rot or get eaten by critters)

-continue weeding (in addition to the east section of the garden, you will find
plenty of weeds starting to come up in the west (main) section—the
strawberry/spinach patch comes to mind.

I’m not sure what time/or whether I can get out there tomorrow, but come by
whenever you can. ALSO A NOTE REGARDING SHED KEYS: if you are a paying member
and haven’t yet received a key, get in touch with me as soon as you can, since
this coming Tuesday might be my last day at the garden (I will be leaving the
week after, for 3-4 weeks). If you can’t make it Tuesday, I might be able to
arrange an alternate time to get it to you before the end of the week.

Cheers,

Sija

Vegetables of Our Labour

Ian, Sija and I harvested a lot of items on Wednesday. I’ll write more very soon (here and on the listserv) about what we did and what needs to be done over the next several workdays, but

Yesterday’s workday

Hi all,

Just a quick update–

As many of us saw yesterday, the garden has suffered a bit of wear and tear from
that huge hailstorm.  However, we had a great workday, having finished planting
tomatoes (finally), transplanted the mystery squash (a.k.a. “Compost
Surprise”), pulled lots of weeds, planted Forget-Me-Nots, and even did a bit of
landscaping with those interesting perennials that Najat, Helena and Maria
brought back from the plant giveaway.

And a great potluck! Thanks Tom for putting it together, and thanks to all who
brought great snacks…chocolate strawberry cake, banana bread, cookies, giant
chocolate chips, olive bread, melon, rice & chickpea, fruit salad…MMMmmmmm….

More info to come soon from Eric.

Cheers,

Sija

Tuesday agenda

Hi folks,

As Eric has mentioned, there will be people at the garden on both Tuesday and
Wednesday.
For those who will be coming on Tuesday, I will be there at 5-ish. On the
agenda:

-planting Forget-me-nots around the raspberries

-transplanting more tomato plants (some of the ones originally planted under the
A-frames aren’t doing to great, so we can replace these with the healthier ones
that are on/under the workbench)

-”Mystery squash”: as Ian discovered on Saturday, we have some VERY healthy
plants from the squash/zucchini/pumpkin family happily growing in the second
compost bin, in a heap of (guess). Since it would be a shame to waste such
great-looking plants, we will find a new home for them tomorrow. One option is
to replace the ones that were planted on the large mounds last week (as they
appear to be dying…but we’ll see, maybe they’ve sprung back after all the
rain we got). So PLEASE do not turn the compost from that bin until we’ve taken
the plants out!

-bindweed & co. !

See ya later,

Sija

Tomorrow

Wow, nice job Maria, Najat and Helena, for getting all those plants! I look
forward to seeing them.
Since I’ve been out of touch with Maloca stuff for a few days, I’m not sure if
anyone has laid out a plan for tomorrow’s workday—in any case, I’m aiming to
be there around 5-ish. I’m sure there’s lot’s of weeding & planting to be done,
for anyone else who’s interested.

Cheers,

Sija

Plant Giveaway Adventure Pictures

FoodShare plant giveaway update

Hi folks,

Most of the plants from the Foodshare plant giveaway have already been planted. So there is little left to plant.

If anyone feels like it, the smaller plants could use some water when it doesn’t rain.

So far Najat, Maria and I got most of the pumpkins, herbs, flowers, and tomatoes in with the help of Maria’s new recruit who stayed with us till well after dark to plant and water.

Carli (hope I am spelling your name right) and her friend stopped by briefly for a garden tour on their walk and tried their hand at plot expansion.

Updated list of what got planted where:

Now we have a row of sunflowers in front of the water tank. (At least two varieties.) And some extras in the west end of the garden for the birds.

The Thai Basil was planted with some tomatoes.

Lily of the Valley and Primrose were planted close to / in plot 26.

The plants with the red flowers were planted on the edge of the wildflower patch.

The tall ornamental grass and the lamb’s ears are behind the water tank.

Snapdragons are in the flowers. (26?)

The marigold plugs are by the peas.

The yarrow is in the herb patch.

Around the potatoes, going anti-clockwise starting in the North, there are hot and sweet peppers, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, more tomatoes and finally okra.

(Note: As much as possible we have gotten tomatoes with tags. But due to the amount of stuff we were getting and planting, we were not able to track the varieties by name.)

There are 3 pumpkin mounds on what used to be bindweed territory.
(Cross our fingers they’ll do ok.) We can’t think of anywhere else to put them.

There are two artichokes / cardune-like things bracketing the two ends of a tomato plot.

Small plugs of tomatoes in 3/4 of a plot. (Might need to be replanted due to spacing, but we figured that ex-winter rye plot would make a good holding spot until we figured out where they would go.)

Almost done, a little more planting and lots of watering to go! I for one had a really fun day! Thank you Najat and Maria for making it so fun!

See pictures of our adventures. (Thanks to Najat and her camera phone. She will be posting pics.) From our Zen-like Timmie picnic in rush hour TTC traffic to us sorting through the score. Sorry we don’t have a picture of the beautiful purple sunset.

But we do have loads of planted plants, thanks to Maria’s ability to wave over someone interested in the garden, give him a tour and put him to work right away. Oh yeah and many thanks to Maria for starting the list of where we planted what.

P/s: At the end of the long night, we took some peas, herbs and other stuff from the garden.

From Susan:

Hi Everyone,

I was out at the garden at 5:30, and Ana came shortly after.  I was unable to go earlier as I had to work today, so I’m sorry if we missed anyone who may have been out earlier;  and if anyone was, thank you for whatever you did today!  Ana and I replanted the scarlett runner beans in plot 4, and then we got enough of plot 42 ready to plant the rest of the tomato plants that were sitting out.  Ana stayed on to do some weeding as well.

We decided not to have a potluck for the two of us, so the next one will be Tuesday June 24.

I don’t know how to post on the blog, so if anyone does can you please post this message there as well.  Thanks.

-Susie

Missing maps/Saturday workday

Hello all,

Has anyone seen the maps & to-do lists that were posted on the shed door? I
couldn’t seem to find them when I stopped by the garden this morning.

As for tomorrow: As most of you know, Saturday times tend to be flexible, so
just come whenever you can make it. But as Susan has mentioned, there will be a
potluck at the end, so evening might be the best time to come!

I am not sure if I can make it to the garden to give direction tomorrow, and
since the to-do lists & maps are missing, here’s a brief list in case ppl are
looking for things to do:

-as the scarlet runner beans in plot 4 got chewed up by an unidentified critter,
those can be replanted. This is a very easy task. First, before heading to the
garden, check the map on the blog for plot #4. Then, at the garden, you will
find the scarlet runner beans in a pocket-sized plastic bag, within a larger
white plastic bag of other seeds, in the blue-lided container in the shed. The
yoghurt containers in plot 4 are already arranged for planting; just pull out
the chewed-up bean plants and replace them with a new bean (3 cm down, I think,
but read the instructions to be sure)

-there are still tomato plants that can be planted—you will find them on the
workbench in a small crate. I believe we’ve used up most of the allotted
tomato-space in the main section; but if my memory serves me correctly, Eric
said the newly-amended plot #42 of the other section (formerly winter rye)
could be used to plant excess stuff. (Eric, if I’m wrong and you happen to get
this email, by all means send out a correction!) Again, check the blog-map
before you head out, in order to identify plot 42. Use the tomato cages if
there are any left.

-and of course, there are lots of weeds to be pulled. Another thing that can be
done is using those red-handled shears to trim the long grass wherever it’s
blocking the path

Cheers,

-S