Victory Garden end of 2012 6,021 pounds

Wednesday December 19, 2012 we had another wonderful harvest from the Victory Garden.

Addition Friday 12/22/2012:
Carl picked 3 bags of kale, 4 bags of turnip greens, and 5 small and 1 large cabbage, and delivered them and 4 bushels of cabbage scrap leaves to a large family who raises chickens. Other than the scraps that added 20 pounds to our 2012 total.

AND  Victory Garden is in Horticulture Magazine online edition of Gardens On the Go:
http://issuu.com/horticulture/docs/gardenersonthegowinter2012

Leah and Anthony Mire, Karen and David and Cody Cichocki and her MIL, and I picked 127 lbs of cabbages and 84 lbs of turnips and greens and took them to the Collierville Food Pantry along with the cabbages and turnips from Germantown church of Christ. See pictures below.

Actually we picked 80 lbs of turnips and realized that left us with 5,997 for 2012 so we picked 4 more pounds to get past the three ton mark of His blessings for His needy people.

5,790 + 84 + 127  + 20 = 6,021 year to date lbs!!!! WOW, and plenty of turnip greens left to pick. 
Any ideas on that?

Next we need to spread straw on all bare ground and especially around the new garlic and onyuns where henbit is proliferating.

Here's wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas and a Safe and Prosperous and Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas!

Picking turnips.

David and Anthony and Cody pulled a few carrots to eat!

Church and Victory Garden haul headed to Collierville Food Pantry

Oakley Pendragon is a gnome who lives in this tree and guards the church garden.

Ain't God good!
cw

VG status and next work day 4pm Wednesday Dec 19

Next work day is 4pm until dark on Wednesday December 19.

We will, Lord willing, harvest the Savoy cabbages and turnip greens to take to the Collierville Food Pantry on Thursday morning - their last big distribution day before Christmas.

Quite a bit has been going on:

Katherine Green cleaned up and mulched the south half of plot 1.
I planted 22 elephant garlic cloves in the south demo garden raised bed.
Jes Crownover is creating us a new up to date PowerPoint presentation.
Bob, Sue & her mother, and I set out 300 onion sets.

Next chores beside the December 19 harvest are:
  1. Spread straw around the new onions.
  2. Spread straw on plots 3 and 5 whence we will harvest the cabbages and turnips.

Field trials results of the Carbon Boost-S product FBSciences.com donates to us.

http://precisiontillage.com/page/1?cat=3%2C9

According to the MAMG treasurer Tom Mashour, our fund now has $935.40 after the latest donation by Farmington Presbyterian Church of $347.00. Lord willing, 2013 is taken care of plus some.

This week's quotes:

"The tragic reality is that very few sustainable systems are designed or applied by those who hold power, and the reason for this is obvious and simple: to let people arrange their own food, energy and shelter is to lose economic and political control over them. We should cease to look to power structures, hierarchical systems, or governments to help us, and devise ways to help ourselves." 

- Bill Mollison

"Have your good acts during the year overbalanced the bad? Have you made more people happy than unhappy? Have you spoken more kind words than unkind? Have you helped others more than you have been helped? And has the world been made any better because you have lived in it? There is no shorter road to happiness than that which leads us to make those around us happier." –The Old Farmer’s Almanac, 1895

Ain't God good!

cw

Sharing God's flowers

This is a beautiful picture of one of the beautiful works our zinnia team does:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/photos/2012/nov/29/349311/

Connie Bogema helps grow lots of flowers at the Collierville Victory Garden and take arrangements to the neighborhood protectors and the local firefighters and police, as well as local health organizations such as Page Robbins Adult Day Care, Dove Rehab, The Biblical Resource Center and Museum and the Collierville Literacy Council.

I hope you had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did.

We got a lot of work done in the garden this week.

In Sung, Les Risner, Twila Christian, Sue Butler and her mom Sally, Bob Hathaway, Dave Fitzgerald and I:
(Hope I didn't fergit anyone.)

Spread half of the donated bales of wheat straw on plot (front right).
Mulched the garlic, which is sprouting!!!
Planted several rows of Bloomsdale spinach and Rainbow Swiss chard and applied 13-13-13.
Thinned the daikon reddishes.
Set out over 300 onyun sets after soaking them in Carbon Boost.

Some lessons here:
1) Bare ground is a waste and a break in the cycle of life.
2) Southern gardens can grow something all year around.
3) A gardeners work is never done.
4) Needy people are hungry on holidays and in cold weather.

We still need to clean out the south side of plot 1 (left rear) and plant more spinach so as not to waste good soil or have bare ground.

Next work day is 4pm Wednesday December 19 when we pick the rest of the turnips and cabbiges and take to the Collierville Food Pantry the next morning. We have to because if it frosts, the produce will be too brittle Thursday morning. This is the last picking of the year.

Ain't God good!
cw
901-485-6910 cell phone

bloomsdale spinach and rainbow swiss chard in beautiful soil

sally and sue planting onyuns

bob hathaway cleaning out anuther onion beds

les and in sung spreading wheat straw

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!

I am so thankful for you. 

Your hard work and advice and encouragement and donations of time, sweat, and money,  have made this year the best ever and the most successful one yet in the Victory Garden. And yes, each minute and dollar and donated supply is valuable, needed, and most appreciated.

"God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” Hebrews 6:10

This year already we have harvested and donated to God's hungry children 5,790 pounds. And we have received the greater blessing! And we provided flowers to help brighten the days of many patients in the Baptist Trinity Hospice and area nursing homes.

The soil is in the best condition ever. The winter garden has sprouted. The garden has received its winter coverlet of organic material. We will harvest more turnips greens and Savoy cabbages for the Food Pantry for their Christmas baskets on December 20. We have been blessed with visits and comments and help from so many children and adults. Our 2013 fund is more than adequate. Collierville Christian Church continues to support and encourage us. Our reach into the community continues to grow. 

I continue to dream of a large garden with lots of annual flowers, room for families to have their own garden spots, and us growing more food than the needy of Collierville can use. The Memphis Food Bank needs our excess. What a blessing for us!

God bless you and your family and friends. I wish you happiness, safe trips, bountiful feasts, good health, and joy.

Carl Wayne

 

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”  

...or a stack of burlap bags, or hoe in hand, or fresh shelled butter beans, or tomato plants, or worm castings, or  seeds, or fertilizer, or garlic, or advice, or encouragement....
― Linda Grayson

I am only one, / But still I am one. / I cannot do everything, / But still I can do something; / And because I cannot do everything, / I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. -Edward Everett Hale, author (1822-1909)

James Richard Jones

Pay attention: If you want to "plant it and forget it," you're better off buying your vegetables at the farmer's market. A garden requires attention. Visit your garden daily; it's a lovely way to start the day or de-stress after work. You'll spot weeds, insects, beans or squash that need to be harvested or overgrown plants that need pruning or staking when the problem is small and easily handled. You will find that paying attention to your vegetable plot helps put you in touch with the whole natural world: the weather, the rain, what's sprouting or hatching or blooming or fruiting. And you'll have the steady satisfaction of watching your garden grow.

A good read:

One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka:

http://idc-america.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/One_Straw_Farming_Fukuoka.pdf

 

Invariably our peasant visitors were puzzled about our opposition to

ploughing. I would dig up some soil and show them how many more

insects and worms we had. Farmers had no difficulty understanding that

those were our ploughmen. I used to ask them, with so many millions of

tireless ploughmen in the soil, where was the need for us to plough?

Some observant visitors used to point to weeds, cobwebs, frogs, algae,

and other signs of untidiness in our fields. I used to tell them that if they

compared their own crop with ours they would find our input costs lower

and yields much higher. The choice was theirs.

Victory Garden status Nov 16 2012 5,790 lbs YTD

WOW! What a Blessed week.

All of this weeks harvest went to helping the needy have a Thanksgiving Day meal.

Today Whit and Jan Whitaker, Sue Butler, Al Klug, Twila Christian, Les and Peggy Risner, and little old me picked 85 lbs of Bonnie Dutch cabbage and 37 plastic bags (185 lbs) ot turnip greens with a few small turnips, which were taken to a Memphis inner city Thankgiving food box give away.

We also donated a large stack of outer cabbage leaves to a large family which raises chickens. That is not included in our weight.

5,5520 + 85 + 185  = 5,790 year to date lbs!!!! WOW, and some greens and Savoy cabbages still growing to pick in December.

Next chore is to spread the donated 25 bales of straw where the cabbages and greens were and the south side of plot 1. BIG THANKS to the church(?) who donated the straw and to Jimmy Gafford for going to get it.

Elaine Graf organized a benefit chili supper for us last Wednesday. She raised over $320 for us which has been sent to our fund in the aster Gardener books. Will learn the final amount next week.
WOW!

Ain't God good!
cw

Victory Garden picked 11/15 also 4pm Friday 11/16

In Sung, Sue Butler, Twila Christian, Arlene Grahek, and I picked 92 lbs cabbiges, 2 lbs aigplants, and 40 lbs of turnip greens this morning and took to the Food Pantry.

We learnt a lesson. Everything was froze and too brittle to pick easily.

Thus, instead of picking Satiddy morning we will pick 4-530 tomorrow (Friday, Nov 16) for the Satiddy morning delivery of Thanksgiving baskets to inner city Memphis.

5,386 + 92 + 2 + 40  = 5,520 year to date lbs!!!!!  WOW!!!!! And Friday picking left to do. 

Matt Woo, reporter for the Commercial Appeal and the photographer were there this morning. Look for us in the paper this weekend.

We had a wonderful column on the Garlic Planting Party in the CA last Friday Nov 9.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/nov/09/greens-and-garlic-make-great-winter-crops-in/

We will be featured in the online edition of Horticulture Magazine sometime next Spring. We are blessed!

Ain't God Good!!!
cw 485-6910

Garlic Planting Party Nov 3, 2012

WOW! We were blessed with wonderful weather, an expert leader (Dave Fitzgerald), an interview by Chris Gang of the Commercial Appeal (check this Fridays edition), and n even dozen garden volunteer angels.
David and Cody and Aaron Chichocki, Leah and Anthony Mire, In Sung, Janet Dickey, Sue and Jerry Butler, Vicki ?, Twila Christian, and little ole me.

See pix:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4779445724650.191316.1250851810&type=1&l=9a909c3725

We planted the following garlic:

1 elephant garlic 100 cloves

2 lorz italian softneck 27 cloves

3 killarney red hardneck 25

4 nootka rose h 20

5 belarus h 28

6 romanian red h 29

7 ajo rojo h 15

8 brown tempest h 40

9 mountain carlos h 14

10 italian purple s 28

11 bavarian purple h 30

12 red neck wild h 35

13 chesnok red h 75

14 transylvania s 75

15 inchellium red s 75

16 st helens red s 75

17 georgian crystal h 35

18 red tochliavari s 30

19 music h 13

    total  769    and.....

20 unidentified miscellaneous 200

Les Risner brought us 9 BIG bags of leaves. We need now to cover all bare ground 2-3".  Any volunteers???? I will be with grandson and Mimi in Atlanta this weekend for Memphis Blues ice hockey tournament. Corey is a left wing.

This Thursday morning we will harvest cabbages and turnips for the big day at the Food Pantry - this is the last time they are open before Thanksgiving.

Ain't God good!

Carl Wayne 485-6910 

Victory Garden status Nov 1, 2012

Next work day is this Saturday Nov 3.
Time yet to be determined.
It will be a Garlic Planting Party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then next work day is Thursday Nov 15 730-900am.

WOW! Another blessed week! 

Matt Phillips assisted by his mom Karen cleaned out the two front veggie demo beds and the outside row of plot 3 behind the asperagi. Nice job! They are looking for pine straw for us to use to mulch garlic. They also picked 4 trash bags of pears from Mrs Doris Harper's yard and took to the Food Pantry this morning. This young man is learning the blessing of doing for others, and learning from his good parents!

Last Saturday  Oct 27 In Sung and two helpers thinned all of the turnips in plot 6. He says weight was over 300 lbs which were donated to his church. I rounded down to 300 lbs.

This morning In Sung, Sue, and I picked jalapeno peppers, aigplants, and the "walking" onions and took total 45 lbs to the Food Pantry. We also planted 150 garlic cloves where the onions were. These are miscellaneous unidentified varieties (the garlic, not In Sung and Sue), but some were huge.

5,041 + 300 + 45  = 5,386 year to date lbs!!!!!  WOW!!!!! A new record for us! 

We will make a decision Friday about having a BIG GARLIC PLANTING PARTY Saturday, most likely Saturday morning. Dave Fitzgerald will once again lead this.

Our next harvest and work day is Thursday 730-900am November 15  two weeks from today. We will, Lord willing, have a lot of cabbages, turnips, and turnip greens for our needy neighbors. That is the last day the Food Pantry will be open before Thanksgiving.

Aint God good!!
cw 485-6910

Victory Garden status Oct 25 2012

Victory Garden status Oct 25 2012

WOW! What a week! 

We finished harvesting all the rest of the mustard greens and all the rest of the turnips and turnip greens in plot 2, which is not ready to hill up and plant garlic. We began the first thinning of the plot 6 turnip patch. Plot 5 turnip patch is in the seedling stage.

Monday Patree, Selby, Sue, Leah, and I picked 13 big plastic yard bags of turnips and turnip greens and three bags of mustard greens.Patree and Selby took their cars crammed full to the Memphis Food Bank (total 340 lbs.) I took the mustard greens (total 15 lbs) to some elderly ladies on South St. Additionally, Sue and Leah thinned the diakon reddishes and cleaned up the last few mater vines.  

Today Thursday Patree, Twila, Sue, Selby, In Sung, and I picked the last turnips in plot 2 and the last mustard greens and a few odds and ends and thinned the first two rows on plot 6 the second turnip patch. The Memphis Food Bank Truck picked up 19 plastic yard bags total weight 404 lbs. Patree took 52 lbs of the new thinned turnip greens and some odds and ends and took to the Collierville Food Pantry. And they cleaned out the raised beds where the mustard was.
 
4,230 + 340 + 15 + 404 + 52  = 5,041 year to date lbs!!!!!  YA!!!!! A new record for us! 

I will be working with a scout on Saturday morning. He needs to get 8 volunteer hours, We will do some cleanup and forking and hilling in preparation for garlic planting which Dave Fitzgerald and organize and lead ASAP.

Next scheduled work day is next Thursday morning 730-900am.

Aint God good!
Carl Wayne Hardeman 485-6910

in sung and patree

mustard greens

sue, selby, and twila

finishing the mustard greens - their 5th picking

getting last from plot 2 the first turnip patch

patree, in sung, sue, and 3 turnips

third turnip patch

19 bags for MFB 

plot 6 second turnip patch ready to thin

Victory Garden Oct 18, 2012 Next work day Monday

Victory Garden status Oct 18 2012

Nice crisp wet morning after big rain but our lovely garden is not muddy - just spongy.

Jan Dickey and I picked 89 lbs this morning of pak choy, turnips and turnip greens, mustard greens, peppers, green maters, and aig plants, and took them to the Food Pantry. See pix below.
 
4,141 + 89  = 4,230 year to date lbs!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Tentative plans are for a big turnip picking party 8-10am Monday morning. We will pull all turnips in plot 2 and meet the Memphis Food Bank truck at the garden, Lord willing.

I will email again as soon as I get a confirmation,

I NEED RSVP from you if you plan to join the fun!
Aint God good!
Carl Wayne Hardeman 485-6910

cabbages

Family size turnip and we have lots of'em

Jan picking  mustard greens

walking onions

Savoy vey cabbage

gigantic Bonnie dutch cabbge

beautiful bounty

awesome flowers

flowers still beautiful

a happy customer

one of our kale plots on Peterson Lake Rd

Victory Garden status Oct 15 2012

Aint this weather and garden bounty beautiful?

Me and Twila and Matt Baker pulled 8 bushels 142 lbs of turnips and greens and 24 lbs green maters which I took to various elderly people along Harris St.

There are at least 20-30 more bushels of turnips and turnip greens and 4-6 bushels of mustard greens which all need picking.

3,975 + 166  = 4,141 year to date lbs!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! OVER TWO TONS!!!!

Some angel had finished pulling the weeds out of plot 1. BIG THANKS! Besides helping with the harvest Matt put all the weed piles onto the compost pile spread the pile of bags of grass clippings into the middles of plots 1 and 6. Good job: Matt!

I will pick Thursday morning 715-815am for the Food Pantry.

Sure wish some angels would pick a car or truck load of the rest of the mature greens and take to the Memphis Food Bank! New box of plastic bags in the storage bin.

Aint God good!
Carl Wayne Hardeman 485-6910

Victory Garden Status October 11, 2012

WOW! Another AMAZING week in the Collierville Victory Garden. We once more have made a lot of progress and have been blessed with a bountiful harvest for the Collierville Food Pantry.

On Monday Oct 8, Jan, Leah and Anthony, Selby and Sammy and Jesslyn(sp?), and I cleaned out half of the last plot (number 1) and planted 4 rows of daikon reddishes and 2 rows of collard greens. We also cleaned out 2 of the raised beds and planted them with rutabagas. Then we planted plot 5 as our late (third) turnip green plot. Thus we have most of the winter garden planted. The children were very well behaved and actually did help. Hershel had brought a truck load of bags of grass clippings. We used some of them to mulch the new reddishes and collards.

Today Thursday Oct 11, I watered the new seed beds and picked 3 bushels of mustard greens, three bushels of turnips and turnip greens, plus an assortment of aigplants, onions, jalapeno peppers, pak choy, and maters. Total 53 lbs which I took to the Food Pantry.

 

3,922 + 53  = 3,975 year to date lbs!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Almost 2 tons: 4,000 lbs!

Monday 430-6pm we will pick the remaining mustard and most of plot 2 of the early turnips and replant that area with something.

Aint God good!

turnips and greens 

beautiful cabbages

picking mustard greens

mustard greens, aigplants, onions, peppers, maters, and pak choy

wow! what a turnip!!!