Hello All,
Hope everyone had a good weekend!
School is back in session and so is York! The kids were back in the garden last week and got right to work checking in on the worms! Just before they left for summer back in May they helped to plant a Jack O Lantern patch for worm food! There were 3 pumpkins that were in perfect shape to feed the worms. Once the holes were dug and pumpkins buried they watered them in and covered them back up. Just before they left they also grabbed the container of dirty gloves to wash for us! There were a few new students so we also took them on a tour of the garden to get everyone accustomed to it:) we also received more compost that day and they driver kindly honked the truck’s horn for the kids to get a kick out of!
Kaleidoscope made it out this week! They helped us to plant Long Pie pumpkins in bed N15, watered them in and placed straw on top to keep them protected, fed the worms a pumpkin or 2 along with some veggies from RL who also helped them with this chore and helped to clean out the hoop houses of pots and flats to make room for the fall seeds we will be starting soon enough! We gave a little tour of the garden to the new client and staff members with the returning clients helping us out:)
Stanford, Panera, Fremont Group and Salesforce were all out last week helping in the garden! The Stanford group split up and helped to clip back tomatoes, fix leaks in some of the beds, organize the compost area and harvested. Panera came out and fixed leaks in the expansion, started wood chipping for the compost area, clipped back tomatoes and harvested. Fremont Group was out to help us harvest for the tasting event and baked focaccia bread for it as well. Salesforce helped us bring tables from the church over to the garden and set the food out for the tasting event. Ryan also got them out to the compost bins to show them the ropes. So much was accomplished each day we had these work groups out!
The Weed Annihilator was back out and helped to clear out some weeds in the front of the garden as well as stopped in and helped Ryan with the compost. CB was out front raking back the wood chips from the walkway as well as weeding out the smaller weeds before they got away from us. Weeding took place in the beds as well, trying to get caught up with all the amaranth before it completely took over our veggie beds. VT & EG helped to tie back the ground cherries and weeded out the north end of the bed. The Eastern hedgerow that was planted just a couple of months ago got some love before the weeds took over!
Whilst all that was going on the Hoop Houses got cleared out of the empty planters/flats and organized back into the potting shed, thank you PB for helping with that. Enrique had a crew out fertilizing, watering and laying straw on the expansion to keep it from drying out before we can plant it. EG also got the rest of AB33 planted with about 120 seeds of Silver Queen Sweet corn. EL helped to get cardboard laid down and wood chips covering the small irrigation hoses for the kiwi plants next to the pump shed. Weeks ago a placed a wheelbarrow upside down outside the tool shed knowing full well that EL would fix it when he saw it and he did not disappoint! As soon as this young man saw the wheelbarrow needed fixing he was on it! Thank you EL!
Friday was our first tasting event of this year. We had so many great volunteers out Thursday and Friday helping Teresa in the kitchen cook up all her delicious recipes as well as helping us to get it all ready and set up in the garden! It was really nice having everyone out to the garden and sharing what we all love so much! For whomever is on Instagram I will be posting some pictures this afternoon!
And as always I am sure I am forgetting something we did during the week but please know that every thing done for the garden we are extremely grateful for
Take care
Lori
