Thursday, May 8, 2008
Wednesday evening, May 7:
Julie, Jan, Martha and Carl
Martha tilled and cleaned the North Flower bed. We are not sure what magic potion Jim and Jeff put in the South Flower bed to make it look so good. We will wait to plant flowers when Jeff and/or Jim can help with the North Flower bed.
Julie, Jan and Martha planted the South Flower bed with the following: Hibiscus, Poppy, Tithonia, Cosmos, Celosia, Marigold, Nasturtium, Morning Glories and Moon flowers. The south end of the flower bed is pretty wet. We might need to put a couple of drain holes at the south end.
Jan and Julie planted Marigolds and Zinnias on several corners of the garden plots.
We also found evidence of rabbits which might be the reason for the tops off of some plants. The Killdeer family is back but no signs of a nest.
With all the rain, we will not be planting flowers tonight. Carl is there anything we can do in the garden plots or is it going to be too wet?
Jan Trent
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Hi!
We will start planting the Flower Gardens Wednesday around 4 pm. If you have any flowers you would like us to incorporate in the beds please deliver before 4 pm - labeled with name and mature height. If want to help plant our schedule is:
Wednesday - 4 pm til dusk Julie and Jan
Thursday - 3:30 pm til dusk Joan, Julie and Jan
Friday - 10 til (rain date for flowers and help Carl in the gardens) Joan and Jan
If you have any questions, please call.
Thanks,
Jan Trent
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
80 degrees 5pm, damp, 3.75" rain in gauge, rained again Tuesday night.
The C'ville edition of today's CA had nice blurb on page B2 inviting everyone to our open garden Saturday morning.
Jeff cooked up 6 gallons of SoilSoup which I put on plots 3, 4, and 5. I ordered a SoilSoup refill kit from our money ($71). I paid for it and the machine last year and shared with the garden and will do vice versa this year. Should be enough for next year too.
I applied light nitrogen to plots 3 and 5 (tomatoes squash cucumbers peppers) as most of the plants leaves are yellow. The rain last night should have soaked it in.
At least a dozen tomato plants and several squash plants have succumbed to various causes, one with a clear footprint on it and its tag (may have been me).
MAJOR REWORK NEEDED THIS FRIDAY to replant the dead, dying, and broken squash and tomato plants (about a dozen at least) and to stick and tie and relabel (as needed) all the tomatoes and peppers. I have all the supplies. As we replant we need to dig a 6" cube hole, add top soil (bags in back of potato patch), add osmocote, mix, strip bottom leaves, plant, steady with wooden skewer, tie, and label.
Potatoes need hilling up again at least half way up each plant to build a space between the seed potato and top of the soil for the new potatoes to grow.
I left the new fertilizer sprayer and box of MiracleGro hidden behind the straw bales in case anyone has time to mix some up and lightly spray the foliage on each plant, when it will not rain for at least 12 hours. I believe the heavy rains are leaching the fertilizer etc out of the mulch the plants are planted in. Hopefully next year we will have the benefit of full composting of the existing organic material mulch, but this year we are having to make do.
I will apply pesticide where needed as soon as it isn't going to rain that day. Too far gone to argue over organicity, if I may make up a word.
Collierville Food Pantry can use about a dozen heads of Romaine lettuce this week. Martha will harvest and weigh and deliver. Page-Robbins does not want lettuce as it is difficult for their clients to eat.
Memphis Food Bank truck will call me sometime in next few days and meet me for the rest of the Romain lettuce. We must always weigh (I need to put scales and baskets in the shed) to keep a record of how much of what. YTD is 8 lbs of BEAUTIFUL HEALTHY NUTRITIOUS Romaine lettuce.
We will then replant that whole side of plot 1 in purplehull peas. BTW the peas in plot 4 have begun coming up a good stand. Purplehull peas are the number 1 item the local Food Pantry and Page-Robbins want.
I will get more newspapers Thursday morning so we can continue mulching to prevent weed growth. I cannot over emphasize the urgency of this.
Friday I will use my mini tiller to till the unmulched parts of each bed.
Janet and some others will be working on the flowers today 4-dusk and Thursday, and Friday 10am till. I moved the left over bag of planting mix to flower bed 2 to amend it as we will or whatever we do there. Let me know if you need more.
Most of the stuff listed below still needs done. I am a little worried since I have only heard from 3 people about working Friday and/or Saturday yet lots of work needs done before 9am Saturday.
Thanks,
Carl
May 5-10, 2008
48 degrees 7am still very wet (I need to check the rain gauge).
Things to do this week:
Carl will buy the supplies and bring them when you need them.
Current funds balance: $665.
Saturday morning is an ALL HANDS ON DECK work day beginning 8am.
We need to get the garden ready for public tour Saturday 9am-noon.
Invite friends and neighbors.
Get your required MG "education given" hours.
We must do this even if it rains.
RSVP to Carl when you can work. Feel free to form teams and pick a day/time. Carl's schedule is to work beginning 10am Friday. Some may want to work very early Saturday morning. Let Carl know what supplies you need and when you will be there and what you plan to do. There is enough work for EVERYONE to do SOMETHING on YOUR schedule.
2. Mow/trim/edge leaving the crosswise paths as is between the plots except for edging. The cross paths are for walking but also are a source of plant biodiversity which attracts beneficial insects.
3. Fertilize the tomatoes and peppers - looking yellowish so they need nitrogen. I imagine the rain washed most of they nutrients away. We have MiracleGro. I will get a sprayer from WalMart. Jeff will provide 6 gallons of SoilSoup (not a fertilizer), which provides beneficial microbes to the mulch.
4. Apply organic insecticide (Bt or neet) to cabbage and potatoes and squash (yellow and zucchini) ,since we are beginning to have some leaf damage. Need some research and recommendations here. I am convinced squash cannot be grown in the midsouth without borer protection. I have tried it at home and lost every plant for last two years. We used Sevin dust last year on South Rowlett and did not lose any plants and had huge beautiful plants and fruit.
5. Put a wooden skewer beside each tomato and pepper and squash/zucchini plant to deter cutworms. They are unable to completely wrap a plant. Put the skewer no more than 1/2 inch, preferably 1/2 inch, away from the plant and secure it with ties/twine.
6. Make a list, by plot, of all plants by variety, where known, and type and laminate two copies and attach one copy to a stake for each plot.
7. Finish planting purple hull peas???
8. Mulch plots 1,3,5 with newspaper and cover with the leaves in the bags behind the hedges. Martha has the newspaper. I will get more this week and next.
9. Start caging and staking the tomato using however many large cages we have behind the hedges. Jimmy has wire to make new cages.
10. Contact Joyce Sogga (Carl) and see how much Romaine lettuce they can use. Contact Page-Robbins and ask them same question (Carl). harvest deliver by 9am Thursday morning, even if it rains.
11. Finish creating flower garden 2 and unsod flower gardens 3 and 4 (already cut).
12. Finish planting all flowers plants and seeds especially sunflowers and zucchinis and plant marigolds are corner of plots 3 and 5 where tomatoes and peppers are.
Carl's shopping list:
1. Make sure we have enough water soluble MiracleGro.
2. Wooden skewers.
3. Ties.
4. Organic pesticide.
5. Pesticide sprayer.
6. Fertilizer sprayer.
7. SoilSoup (no cost from Jeff)
8. Newspaper mulch (free)
9. More mulch from EPlex?
10. Stakes.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
YTD Food Pantry: 7 lbs Romain lettuce
Thursday, May 1, 2008
April:
Thanks for the nice story and pix in the Independent this week and for putting it in your online edition, too.
http://suburbancommunitynews.com/articles/2008/03/27/the_independent/community/doc47ec19bd8673c902369674.txt
Carl
On Monday, Martha Pauley plants vegetables in the Collierville Victory Garden. That day, garden volunteers discovered a Kildeer bird, which had laid four eggs in garden leaves. "We were originally going to work that plot," volunteer Larry Bicknell said. But, the group decided to just work around the ground nest for a few weeks until the eggs hatch (or a preditor intervenes). On March 30 the gardeners will gather at the site, located at Collierville Christian Church, 740 Gunnison Dr., at 4 p.m. for an "All Hands on Deck" meeting. Volunteers are invited to join the effort to raise vegetables that will be donated to various local groups, including the Collierville Food Pantry, Page-Robbins Adult Daycare Center, and the Memphis Food Bank.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Due to cold ground and not having plants from Bonnie Farms and from me (tomatoes), we will, Lord willing and soil temperature rises, plant tomatoes/squash/peppers/cucumbers/zucchinis/eggplants and maybe purple hull peas on Friday and Saturday April 25 and 26.
Perhaps some of you can organize a Friday team and/or a Saturday team and pick what hours are best for you. My time will probably be that Friday morning site preparation (spread rotted cow manure and till) if anyone wants to join me. I will be out of town that Saturday and Sunday.
I need to get Memphis Magazine newspaper to spread around the tomatoes and peppers, then we will put the rest of the mulch pile on top of the papers.
We FIRST need to add rest of the rotted cow manure onto plot 3 (killdeer plot, middle left/south) anytime between when the eggs hatch and Friday the 25th. Eggs should hatch this week as this is 3rd week.
Then we need to grind up all organic matter on plots 3, 4, and 5 with the tiller. I am tempted to get 5 yards of compost to spread on them, too, before we till. YOUR THOUGHTS????? The church tiller is in the shed ready to slip on the outside tines, add gasoline, and go. I can meet anyone there to help get it going.
Let's reserve one bed in plot 3 (south side) for a Three Sisters demo.
We need to dilute in water some MiracleGro and pour 1/2 cup on each existing plant either this Thursday (tomorrow) before the rain or this weekend after the rain. I'll have the MiracleGro hiding behind the hay bale. Call me anytime cell phone 485-6910.
Someone can check on the mustard/turnip/lettuce and thin them to 2" apart any time now.
Your thoughts on anything?????
Thanks,
Carl
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
went by the garden Wednesday April 16 and found:
- Killdeer are gone.
- Goose egg is gone.
- Frost nipped the potato tops but they should recover mostly.
- Frost nipped most of the greens. I don't know if they will recover.
- Only the Romaine lettuce plants are healthy and appear to be growing.
So this is what we can do now:
1. Apply MiracleGro 24-8-16 (it is behind the hay bales) 1/2 cup per plant. Joan volunteered to do this and could use help. Click here for product details.
2. Spread rest of rotted moo cow poop onto plot 3 (killdeer plot). See grid below.
3. Till the organic material in plots 3,4,5 after applying the rotted manure to plot 3. Technically I call this mincing the mulch to avoid sounding like we are tilling the soil which we are not as we go to great pains not to disturb the soil structure except in plot 1, which is a control plot in our grand experiment.
4. Cover plots 3,4,5 with black plastic (in Carl's car Bluebird).
5. Uncover and retill and recover unused portion of plot 1. We now have several bundles of newspaper to put down after we plant tomatoes in that plot.
6. Mow and trim.
7. We need a crew of at least 4 with shovels und rakes to flatten the sod pile to tidy up the area and so the church lawn mower can mow over it.
8. Dig the flower garden. (Jimmy &Jeff when Jimmy finishes this school term in a week or so)
9. Plant flowers Janet and <Senior Moment>?<Senior Moment>.
10. Thin the greens. (Joan)
Summer planting will still be next Friday and Saturday April 25-26:
- I will have plenty of organic humus to put into each hole given we have little humus accumulated so far since it has been too cool and not enough time over winter for the organic material to decompose. This time next year it should be deep beautiful humus.
- We will continue to plant in beds (like plot 6) and use intensive methods.
- Carl & Tom will procure plants from Bonnie Farms this week.
- Carl will work, Lord willing and no rain, Friday morning April 25.
Plot grid:
west side hedges
s 1 2
t
r 3 4
e
e 5 6
t
east side parking lot
Thanks,
Carl
Monday, April 21 2008
82 degrees 3pm soil is very damp, rain expected off and on all week
Jan applied liquid MiracleGro to all plants. Needs a dry hot spell (the plants, not Jan).
The initial potato sprouts got frost zapped but have since come back out nicely. When they get 4 to 6 inches tall, we need to pull up 2-3 inches of soil around them and keep doing this until the rows are at least 8 inches deep. Potatoes form between the seed potato and the soil surface.
Joan/Julie/Janet have begun work on flowers. Will plant the corners of each plot and the front beds. I have tons of seeds including sunflowers of all sorts and lots of zinnia seeds donated by Renea Sain. Goal is here is aesthetic as well as to attract pollinators and human visitors and goldfinches and bluebirds and butterflies.
Jimmy, Jeff, Larry, and Carl completed the first front flower bed. It is ready to plant having been desodded and given wood edges and amended (but not fertilized yet) and deeply tilled with rotted cow manure and finely shredded leaves and . Second bed has been desodded only so far. More sod has been cut and is ready to be removed. Jeff and Jimmy have begun that as well as laying the sod in the sink hole neatly and doing some tilling of the mounds of old sod to make it look better and can use lots of help. We spread the remaining rotted cow manure and a 1/2 trailer load of finely shredded leaves on plot 3 (now the killdeer are gone) and tilled all the organic material together. And mowed and trimmed.
First thing Friday we will till again plots 4 and 5 so they and rest of plot 1 will be ready to plant.
Flower bed lesson we learned last year was the mass of dry shredded leaves absorbed almost all moisture leaving (no pun intended) the plants bereft thereof, so they will require daily watering for a while. Not so bad if we Can have one person daily get out the hose and set up and start a sprinkler and another person scheduled for an hour later to pack it all back up into the storage shed. I'm not sure of the logistics of moving multiple heavy hoses from the shed to the garden. Do we need a cart? I'm thinking so!
Carl will get many bags of Black Kow to make sure we have enough real dirt in each planting hole (flowerbeds and garden beds) and not just ground up organic material. And will get osmocote to put in each hole.
Carl will make sure all plants and seeds will be at the garden ready Friday morning at 08early (we used to say in the military). We will plant everything except the purplehull peas on Friday, and Saturday, if needed. Sunday the peas can be planted as part of the celebration. I have the newspaper to cover the ground after we plant the tomatoes starting in plot 1. ANYONE KNOW WHEN THE ROMAINE LETTUCE IS READY TO PICK? Looked ready and tasty when we planted it to me. :)
We received another deeply appreciated check thru the Food Pantry of $100 from Carol Pope!!!!!!!!!!!! Our balance is $730!!!!!! We will be able to have nice stakes and cages for veggies.
Note: I want us to not mow the north-south crosswalks unless they get out of hand. The tenet is biodiversity to attract beneficial insects. I cringed when we mowed the beautiful clover down in the sake of having a relatively clean garden for Sunday. I would vote for using timber to close off those walkways (not the east-west ones) and let them grow naturally yet support foot traffic.
Thanks,
Carl
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
75 degrees 1pm. light rain last night heavy rain expected tonight.
Momma and Daddy Killdeer still on duty with they four eggs.
Momma and Daddy Canada geese laid they first egg smack dab in the middle of plot 6 (right front plot).
Mustard greens, turnip greens, and lettuce are all sprouting in plot 6. That's right! Same plot. The goose egg (no pun intended) is in the midst thereof. Let us all pray for patience and tolerance!
The taters are sprouting in plot 2 (right rear plot). Some varmint is eating the leaves of a few cabbages in the NW corner of plot 2, the NW plot.
All the other plants are looking good but need a dose of liquid fertilizer which I will apply before Monday and after the rain has soaked in.
Tom Mashour brought 2 big flats of various kinds of peppers to the garden today.
Since it's approaching May 1 and time to plant all summer crops and flowers, let's not do corn. Actually, we repented of that last year. How soon we forget!
Tom will have big plant-and-spread-compost days at PAR when it dries out from Thursday's rain, so he could use our help. He has been a huge help to CVG.
We have a new scale to weigh the produce (WalMart $20) which shows pounds and ounces. It will be in the shed along with hose and wand and water tool etc.
Status of bamboo poles?
Status of getting the plant frm Bonnie farms?
Status of rotted horse manure?
Status of flower seeds sowed?
Status of preparing the flower beds?
Status of CarbonPower from John Bradley?
Thanks,
Carl
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Martha, Scott, Larry, and Bill worked Saturday November 24 shredding leaves and mulching plot 4 with mulched leaves which were mulched roughly where plot 6 will be. Larry moved cages and stakes and water hose etc from the old garden. We now have water and hose and enclosed water hose box donated by Jennifer which needs some minor repair.
Thursday morning 7:30am we will make last picking at the old garden. Also Wednesday at 11am I will pick lots of turnip greens which Gladys Liles has donated to the Food Pantry. Her garden is on Sweetwater Circle near Barton MS just south of Collierville off Byhalia Rd.
The cover crop is up and grassy but we will knock it down, grass and all, in the Spring with generic glyphosate. The mulched plots look soooo good.
Jimmy will get some rotted horse manure for plots 3, 5, and 6. Let's do these plots by adding rotted horse manure and alfalfa pellets before we mulch.
I agree with Bill about the potential for lots of grass, so let's work this Saturday to remove the sod from plots 3, 5, and 6 and rake the grass out of plot 3.
We need lots more leaves and I will get another load of newspaper this week and next, if we need them. I picked up a bale of straw and remembered there are 4 bales of hay at the old garden to bring over to use.
Jeff will mix and apply solution on top of the mulch to improve composting rate (nitrogen, molasses, ???). I will buy when he tells me what to get.
I have attached the Liability Release Form which everyone needs to print and sign and get to me. Renea, you need to resubmit as the form was altered from Habitat For Humanity to Collierville Christian Church.
Martha has our wonderful garden video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwGv6pZHLh8
Thanks,
Carl
