Happy Monday everyone!
You all went above and beyond the last couple weeks, coming out to help no matter the weather from rain and hail to sunny days when the hoophouses ran up to 100F to keep the garden going and bring our plant sale to completion. Because of your efforts we were able to raise $16,000.00 to support our School Garden programs, that doesn’t even include the 1,000 plus free seedlings you packed up for their campus gardens. YOU ALL ROCK! and I owe you a ride to the airport or help moving your piano, just let me know and I will be there for you too. THANK YOU!
Beyond all the plant sale seedling moving, packing, organizing, counting and overseeding the birds’ favorites (beans, cukes and squashes, we also managed to get a lot done in the garden. We were able to harvest and share 417 pounds of produce with our human neighbors, nice to know that we were able to feed someone besides our feathered friends.
We also got four new trees planted out in the orchard and new natives in the hedgerows. Plus huge swathes of the garden got weeded and paths got cleared of blooming brassicas (kale and collards) so folks could get to the hoophouses more easily. We also got a lot of the main driveways re-sheet mulched with wood chips.
There are still plenty of blooms for our bees, native and honey bees to get pollen from. Kind of cool that our native Western yellow faced hive has taken a liking to the brassicas’ pretty yellow blooms in addition to all the native ceanothus and poppy flowers. Think it may be because the 2 year old kales started blooming before the native flowers did this year. I don’t really know why, it just makes me happy to see the bees buzzing about the flowers in the garden and out in the orchard on the warmer days.
We also managed to get 500 pepper and eggplants seeds started for planting in our garden in the coming weeks. They are sprouting now and I am looking forward to planting them and all the tomatoes seedlings we have starting this week. YAY back to ‘normal’ in the garden.
The RM Sharpening Company also tuned up and sharpened most of our garden pruners so be careful they are all sharp again! THANK YOU RM!
As always I hope you can all make it back out to the garden to see how your efforts help it grow and change with the seasons. Thank you all for everything you do to make the world a better place for so many – may your kindnesses be returned tenfold.
With my sincere gratitude,
Brenda
