Hi All,
You would think in the dead of winter there would not be much going on in the garden but we are just as busy now as in the summertime:)
The past few times York has been out we have been getting the rotating composter working so we continued that last week by using the coffee grounds from the garden, melons that we had put aside for the worms (but they got a bit too mushy), grass that was weeded out of parts of the garden as well as some handfuls of leaves we received from one of our regular volunteers, MB! LD, their teacher, watered it all in and everyone got their hand on rotating it a full turn! They helped me to check the bin temperatures in the Compost Area and we checked in on the worms to make sure the food was all on one side…we are keeping them all to the South side of the bin so we can get in the North side and pull out the compost the worms made for use in the garden. Their final chore was helping me to inventory the bee suits and hoods. Brenda and I ordered 2 new Nucs (the Queen and her brood) the other day so we need to keep prepping for them:)
Pleasanton NCL & AYLUS were out to help in the garden! AYLUS helped get compost sifted into the ready to use stall and started up a new bin of compost. The NCL’s helped to create six packs for planting as well as got a lot of them seeded up!
Weeding is happening everywhere in the garden. The Tuesday regs were back in the Orchard helping out the OG’s, Brenda and a couple of volunteers tackled the Little Hoop House, MT & her daughter tackled the Big Hoop House and 2 new volunteers helped me to tackle some weeds by the church trailer & lay cardboard with wood chip! That is something we need help with moving forward. If you find yourself in an area where it would be pretty quick to lay down cardboard and grab some wheelbarrows of wood chip, give a holler and we can help you get it done! There is plenty of cardboard in the Big Hoop House, a pile of wood chips out where we have the compost in the field and 2 more piles out back by the New Expansion. We are needing it everywhere…even inside the hoop houses!
We had the Mosquito Abatement guy walk the garden. He let me know the biggest thing we need to be on top of is not letting water stand for more than a week. We walked the garden together but did not find a lot that needed turning over!
Around the garden all kinds of things are getting done; the cardboard in the Big Hoop House needed to be stacked neater to get the tractor inside and safe from the rain-thank you for getting that started AL, CW is working on hand rails for the platform leading up to the worm bin and RM took 8 clippers home with him, fixed them up & got them sharpened! RB took apart an old cabinet out back so we can reuse the wood, EU is hard at work helping to keep down the gopher population and a group of our regular volunteers potted up some plants leftover from a school into gallon sized pots for when the school picks them up.
Two new volunteers showed up, a momma and her little, and they got broccoli harvested for that day, labels cleaned & sorted for the seed plantings, planted some garlic we almost lost in some 2 gallon containers and helped to feed the worms some bananas and compost Brenda and I both brought from home! The Momma told me Miss Little told her Dad all about being in the garden that evening and brought some of the broccoli she harvested to her daycare the next day…how wonderful is that:):):)
Lance helped out with his weighing of the produce this week and he also helped find seeds for planting the GOG plants for the spring garden! He was hard at work during 2 shifts going through the drawers and boxes of seeds we have them stored in and placed them into boxes for us to get to quickly.
Lots of leaks around the garden lately. JM got out in the AB28-AB33 beds to get some fixed. Momma and her Little learned how to fix leaks after Lance had pointed out there were at least 6 leaks in the A & B beds up front. More leaks this week. Found some this morning out in the AB beds out back. There are a few main lines that also need to be fixed. Anyone else wanting to learn how to fix leaks? If not I will tap the peeps that know;)
I want to give a shout out to TE who helps us out on Saturdays. He has been busy over the past few weeks working on creating metal signs for us to use in the garden when we are needing to keep volunteers and You Pickers from harvesting in certain beds in order it for us to keep for seed. He made us 12 beautifully blue signs we will be able to use in the future for times like that! No more sun faded, rain damaged, laminated signs anymore:)
We also harvested 110lbs of produce for our neighbors and RB brought in grapefruit from his trees to help the pantries-83lbs of grapefruit!!!
And as usual I realize I am not covering absolutely EVERYTHING that was accomplished in the garden! Thank you to everyone who came out and helped us get all these chores and more done!
Take care
Lori
