Garden laid by for the winter Jan 8, 2011

Victory Garden Sleeps For the Winter Jan 8, 2011

“…I got a peaceful easy feeling…” ~ The Eagles

We laid by the Victory Garden on Saturday with a foot thick layer of ground up leaves, and Sunday, Mother Nature covered it with a half foot of snow. The garden has been put to bed for the winter. I have a peaceful easy feeling this morning.

Snow is both Mother Nature’s insulation from bitter cold expected this week and a drip irrigation system letting water slowly seep into the ground.

We finished the last winter harvest for the year just before mulching the garden. We pulled turnips and rutabagas to give to the Food Pantry and some lovely elderly ladies who live south of the tracks. This beautiful sustainable garden consists entirely of raised beds of loose dark humus made of in_place composted Dragonville leaves and grass.

While hidden from our eyes, the garden lives on. The thirty-one varieties of garlic, the yellow onions, and collards, will bring new bounty in spring. The collards already have new small leaves.

We were blessed in 2010 with a bounty of 3,666 lbs of fresh tasty produce grown sustainably and all donated to the needy. We have begun 2011 with 161 lbs.

We have been blessed seeing the joy of many children helping and learning in the garden. Status reports and links to pictures: http://www.colliervillevictorygarden.org/
The lady with the rutabagas is Somer Greene, VP Community Service Hutchison School.

We were blessed by the good people of Collierville Christian Church for letting us use their property and generously supporting us with infrastructure and valuable water. And we were blessed by a generous donor who took care of our funding needs for the near future.

We are honored having been designated a Tennessee Demonstration Garden. We are open 24 X 7 X 365 and have walking paths. You can schedule a tour by contacting me or go on your own. There is always something worth seeing.

We volunteers are already planning the early spring garden. We need and welcome more volunteers, both novice and experienced. Our primary objectives are education and demonstration of sustainable practices, providing fresh produce to the needy, propagating and raising landscaping plants for Habitat For Humanity, and having fun.

Lord willing we will work Saturday mornings in mid March and mid April planting the spring garden and the summer garden. Come join in the fun and receive the greater blessing of giving.

Aint God good!

Carl Wayne Hardeman mymaters@yahoo.com 901-485-6910

Victory Garden mulch and final winter harvest Jan 8, 2011

Victory Garden Jan 8, 2011:

We welcomed Terri(sp?) and Somer Greene of the Hutchison School who will be putting in a garden at that school.

Carl, Whit, Wes, Zoe, Jack, Les, Peg, Terri, Somer, and Larry:

Finished mulching the garden a foot deep. Used 2 piles of mulched leaves. Left the 3rd for the HFH/Flower Team.

We harvested the last of the turnips 18 lbs and rutabagas 80 lbs for a total of 98 lbs which I delivered to Ms Julia Ferguson in Harris Cv south of the tracks.

YTD 2011 total 161 lbs.

Kodak gallery VG2011:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=723315047407%3A980645892&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee

Next Saturday Jan 15 9am - 1pm is open garden tour for the HFH/Flower Team, but feel free to come any or all of that time to show the veggie garden and earn required education_given Master Gardener volunteer hours.

Also on Saturday, weather permitting, I have my spreader and 100 lbs of Super Green (with sulfur) 33-0-0 to add nitrogen (green) to the leaves (brown, carbon) which is necessary for composting, and to bring down our 7-7.2 pH which needs to be in the 6.5 to 6.8 range.

We are blessed!
cw

Victory Garden harvest Jan 4, 2011

Victory Garden harvest Jan 4, 2011:

I harvested 13 lbs cabbages and 27 lbs turnips (discarded the greens) and 23 lbs rutabagas for a total of 63 lbs which I will deliver to the Food Pantry on Thursday morning.

YTD 2011 total 63 lbs.

Kodak gallery VG2011:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=592820637407%3A239269843&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee

I will pick more turnips and rutabagase next Wednesday 4pm.

We are blessed!
cw

Victory Garden: getting started in 2011

Carl Wayne Hardeman is chairman and Joan Hermann is vice chairman for the Victory Garden for 2011. We are always looking for more board volunteers and volunteers in general. We try to operate informally by email and by consensus. Your input is more than welcome. We are helping each other grow.

We harvested 3,666 pounds of fresh produce in 2010 and donated all to charity, principally the Collierville Food Pantry. We keep a simple horticulture plan to match the needs and wants of their clients, so total weight is not our primary objective. We report annually the total weight to the Garden Writers Association Plant-A-Row (for the needy) project.

Martha Pauley is our liaison with the good people of Collierville Christian Church. They supply us with the garden space, water, various infrastructure improvements, and lots of prayer and encouragement.
Their requirements are:
1) we keep the garden safe and neat and amenable to the property neighbors,
2) be good citizens of the town and compliant with all town codes, and
3) every volunteer complete annually before working in the garden the attached liability release form. Print out and sign and bring them to me or Martha for filing and our signature. This is the same form required for doing Habitat For Humanity work.

We are a part of the non profit Memphis Area Master Gardeners Association and a State of TN demonstration garden. Donations can be made to the MAMGA and earmarked for the Victory Garden. We are a CORE project which means any volunteers who are a Master Gardener, not a requirement, get official credit for their required annual volunteer hours. We have approximately $2,200 in funds, which is more than we need or use in one or two years unless we get very ambitious.

Our objectives include:
- Demonstration of sustainable gardening practices:
- Limited tilling.
- Limited fertilizer (nitrogen).
- Limited insecticides (squash and cucumbers).
- Integrated pest management.
- Companion plants.
- Intensive planting.
- Year long gardening.
- Raised beds.
- Heavy mulch.
- Education via tours and novice volunteers.
- Provide fresh produce to the needy.
- Have fun.

We have two primary teams which are always looking for more help:
- One team handles all work in the six garden plots. We ordinarily work Monday evenings and Wednesday evenings and Thursday mornings. Carl is the primary contact.
- One team handles the front two flower beds and the Habitat For Humanity holding beds. Joan Hermann is the primary contact.

We are off to a good start this week with harvesting of rutabagas Wednesday 4pm, and spreading leaves on the garden Saturday 9-noon. Our garlic experiment is thriving with 686 cloves planted of 31 varieties. Dave Fitzgerald is leading this project. We hope to have some sort of event associated with harvesting the garlic when they are ready. Dave and Larry Bicknell will be leading the Spring potato planning and planting. Valentines Day is the traditional sweetpea planting time but we will probably wait and do that around St Paddy's Day which is the traditional potato and onion planting time.

We need to purchase and put down black plastic ASAP to deter weeds getting started and to let the soil warm up earlier than normal. When we plant early crops, we will put row covers over them to protect from frost and insects and help deter weeds.

We need someone to erect two rows of pole bean trellises. We will purchase the supplies.

We need someone to start from seeds 100 each beets (Harvard) and carrots (Nantes) and carrots Chardonnay) from seeds. They need to be ready for transplanting in the garden by end of March.

Your comments and questions and suggestions are more than welcome.
Our blog is http://www.colliervillevictorygarden.org/
and we are physically located at http://colliervillechristian.org/find-us/ .

Thanks,
Carl Wayne Hardeman
mymaters@yahoo.com
901-485-6910