Happy New Year everyone,
Wow what a year! Felt like a real rollercoaster ride to me. Thanks to all of you for making the garden an oasis of peace and calm this past month. We have gotten a lot done out in the garden, with the help of teams from Breaking Beariers, Global Leadership, the Granada High Human Rights Club, and many new and returning volunteers. Thanks for coming out, whatever the weather these past couple weeks – everything from freezing to 65F – has been wild!
Together, we have been able to harvest and share 210 pounds of winter greens. It may not sound like a lot, but when you figure that a full crate of greens only weighs between 3 and 4 pounds, it is a lot of good healthy food being harvested.
Our relatively dry, cold Fall and Winter has slowed the germination and growth of many of the plants we put out from September through the end of the year. It looks like they, like the weeds, are growing better with the rain that we got at the end of December and with the warm days that we have had since. Alas, the weeds are growing faster than the veggies – go figure.
We weeded a lot of the garden, including the orchard, native hedgerows, green house and hoop house, and many of the garden pathways. Plus, we weeded 6,000 square feet of garden beds as we pulled the Agribon, and replaced it with straw mulch. To combat new weeds, we are working on sheet-mulching the 3 garden paths – the cardboard will keep weed seeds from germinating. We started with a couple of our largest paths, covering 2,400 square feet with cardboard and 2 to 3 inches of dirt excavated from the church office site. For all of you who helped move about 26 tons of dirt that Saturday, THANKS!
Removing the Agribon highlighted that some of the older seed we sowed was not germinating well, so we over-seeded those beds with newer seed for 500 beets, 400 radishes, 700 turnips, and 300 parsnips, and added 300 onions that JM gave us from the sets that we were holding for LHS. On top of those seeds, we also started 335 beet seeds in the green house to start a second planting of them. We will be starting seeds for second plantings of lettuce, kohlrabi and arugula later this week and next. Oh boy, we also are starting to plan and dream of our summer crops! I can’t wait to complain that it is too hot. We started seeds for 768 peppers for the plant sale and for the big garden – with lots more to come. It is fun to dream!
Out in the orchard, we weeded and added another 2 inches of soil, AKA moved another 15 tons of soil. You all are some strong people! THANK YOU! We also caged the newest trees and sprayed liquid fence around, as the rabbits and squirrels are sneaking through the tree fencing to nibble at the trunks of the baby trees. The covering for the citrus trees blew off, but we put it back on, and the trees are surviving the frosts of their first winter . YAY!
As always there is lots to do in the garden. None of it would get done without wonderful volunteers like you. You are all truly amazing human beings. THANK YOU!!! for enabling us to TEACH, GROW, and GIVE.
I do hope that you all will be able to come back, and will see how your efforts have helped the garden to grow and change with the seasons.
Until next we meet, please do take care of yourselves, and have a great weekend.
Happy gardening everyone.
With sincere gratitude and hugs
Brenda
