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