Happy Monday everyone,
Hope you all survived the goblins and had a bit of fun with them too! Sure was another very productive week in the garden the regulars were joined by hard working teams from Kaiser and Sandia families. Together we got tons done to prepare the garden for winter growing. Thank you all!
We focused our preparations on the beds that will be soon be home to the 5,782 onions that will be arriving on Wednesday this week.
First we were able to glean out 270 pounds of summer produce to share with our neighbors in need from the plants we took out of 1,392 square feet of beds. This included the weeds, tomatoes, squash, and eggplant plants that have been growing since April/May. These plants have not been thriving with our cooler night time temperatures and were just about all in. That is way more than I thought we would be able to find. Thanks to all you eagle eyed harvesters!
It was amazing that folks were able to amend 704 square feet of beds with about 6,250 pounds of compost and a half dose of fertilizer. As winter plants grow a bit slower than summer crops we are able to use less fertilizer, then we would for summer crops, and add only about an inch or two of compost to each bed.
Into some of the newly prepped beds and those that we amended last week we were able to transplant 521 Asian greens, cabbage, mustard, cauliflower, and broccoli seedlings and sow more garlic into the beds that won’t be getting onions. The alliums (onion, garlic, leeks and shallots) are good companion plants for the Brassicas (everything we planted) and the Chenopodias (beets, chard and spinach). Some say the smell of the alliums helps deter some of the common pests of both of the other families of veggies. We will see! I think we have seen less damage to the leaves of broccoli we planted with garlics last month but..maybe wishful thinking. All I really know is that I love eating onions and garlic.
We also kept on working on replacing the mouse eaten seedlings by starting a batch of seeds including seeds for 144 more lettuce, 96 more leeks, and 48 seeds for a new type red bunching onions to transplant out in a few weeks. Out in the garden the directly sown fava and oats sown in the new beds created by Young Men’s Service League have just started to sprout, as have the garlic, peas, beets and carrots we sowed into the summer cucumber and melon beds. YAY!
The birds have been loving their winter aviary of tomato cages. The volunteers were surprised and loving the new mural that the Breaking BEARiers team started last weekend. The BB team was out again this weekend and hope to put the final touches on the mural this coming weekend. I just have to stand in awe of the great talent of the BB team, it is so fun just to watch them work. It is amazing! I do hope you all will be able to come and see it soon.
As always, my sincere and heartfelt gratitude to all you. You all truly make the world a better place to be. Thank you all for coming out to help the garden feed our neighbors and keep the garden loved. You all make the garden a truly special place of kindness and joy. You keep the truth of the wonderful world we live in alive in my heart. Fertile GroundWorks couldn’t do what we do without each and every one of you. THANK YOU for all your generosity and energy!
Until next we meet please do take care of yourselves and keep loving the ones you are with. Have a wonderful week everyone, study hard and try to have a little fun too.
With sincere gratitude,
Brenda
