Onyun Planting Satiddy Jan. 11, 2014

What a beautiful day to work in the Victory Garden Satiddy Jan. 11, 2014.  I thoroughly enjoyed the weather, the garden, the exercize, the fellowship, and seeing the children work and learn!!!

It rained hard all evening yestiddy and most of last night, but your hard work creating raised beds and heavy mulching made the garden easy to work in and no mud! The rich dark loose soil was full of earthworms. See some of the pix below.

Wes, Stephanie, Jane and I worked with Lisa McGhee and the Crosswinds Elementary School Roots and Shoots Club to plant over a hunnert more sets of Texas Sweet White onyuns from Dixon Dale Farms in TX. The kids worked hard and did an excellent job under direction from Stephanie and Jane.

ALL the new onyuns are standing up straight. The children also did a fine job of getting rid of the henbit weeds in plot 5 and getting the residual plant material out of the two inner beds of plot 1.  http://www.better-lawn-care.com/henbit.html#axzz2q7ZUy3AG

Note: Master Gardeners can record today's hours as Teaching since we were showing the children how to do their work.

The previously planted onyun sets were doctored with extry soil, but they have had a hard time with the deep freeze and two torrential rain storms. We'll give them another week to stand back up and replant if needed. I told them they have one last chance. We now have about 413 sets planted. Last year we had 300 sets and harvested almost perzactly 300 pounds.

We follered http://www.dixondalefarms.com/ directions and made a six inch deep furrow and put fertilizer therein and covered it. Then we made two shallow furrows on either side and the children placed the onyuns and patted the soil around them (them being the onyuns not the children.)

Wes put the straw bales in place and put composted soil on top for seasoning and made holes in the bales so we can try growing maters in those bales.

We now have a mason bee house to hang from one of the trellises. Now we need to buy four more cattle panel trellises and set them up. http://www.gardeners.com/Mason-Bee-House/37-481,default,pd.html

Next major work day will be around St Paddy's Day when Southerners traditionally plant red taters, sweet peas, cabbiges, and first stab at sweet corn. I would like for us to try the new prolific bush style sweet peas instead of along the fences. All ideas and improvements are appreciated.

Please keep Jerry and Sue Butler in your prayers as they relocate to Georgia! Like the others in the previous entry, they will be sorely missed.

Our request for funding for two more sets of raised beds in plots 2 and 5 was denied by the Master Gardening Association. While the Victory Garden is considered a CoRe Project by the Master Gardeners, the Plants for Humanity Project which shares space with us was taken off the CoRe list. This is just a bookkeeping point for us MG'ers. We have to get so many hours in each of several categories.

We should have adequate funds for our normal annual supplies.  If we can raise $1,200, we can make two sets of raised beds with double stacked cinder blocks.

If anyone would like to be the Chairman or CoChairman please let me know. This is just an official Master Gardener need to continue to qualify as a CoRe project, but in any case we will continue as is except for the information the Master Gardener Association needs.

Thanks,
Ain't God good!

Jane and Stephanie and Roots and Shoots Club

Roots and Shoots Club hard at work

Wes preparing bales of straw for seasoning

Raised beds doing their thang after hard rain all night

Roots and Shoots Club planting onyuns

planting onyuns

Lisa McGhee hard at work

Fertilizer furrow for onyun sets - see our beautiful loose rich deep soil after a hard rain all night.

Getting started 2014 Work Day Satiddy 1/11 11am plant onions

Welcome to 2014 in the Victory Garden. I am excited by the prospects of a fun and productive and rewarding year.

We have two more bunches each of Texas yellow and white sweet onyun sets to plants: about 250 plants to add to the 286 we already have set out.

We will do this Satiddy morning 11am or earlier if some of you contact me wanting an earlier time.
Please RSVP me by email if you can be there.

I have high hopes for 2014, hoping I can stall off the knee replacement one more year. Reminds me of the old song High Hopes.

The town of Collierville donated 5 damaged trash carts for us to use as compost bins, They are missing lids. Thanks to Janet Trent for this idea.

We are waiting to hear if our requested funds are given to us by Memphis Area Master Gardeners so we can build raised beds in two more of the six plots and add four more trellises.

My desire this year is to mulch a lot more and smother all weeds, to not plant peas as thickly, to not over fertilizer, to use more organic pest control (witch hazel in soapy water), and a new tomato plan which is sposed to produce tons of tomatoes.

We will be using two of the front raised beds (beside the bins) for our cut flower zinnia beds.

I was so happy to hear our benefactor Les Branum of Bonnie Farms has decided not to take the transfer to Indiana.

People to remember in your prayers:
Sherry Barwick who lost her husband Sid.
Peggy Risner who is having an ongoing medical problem.
Athena (Connie) Bogema is undergoing cancer treatments.
Dave Fitgerald and family will be relocating out of the area.
Whit and Jan Whitacre have relocated to middle Tennessee.
and others I am not aware of.

Carl Wayne
Ain't God good.

Garden Changes For 2014

Garden Changes For Next Year                                                   December 6, 2013

“A gardener’s work is never done.” ~anonymous 

 It is said that all gardening is experiments. This time of year (mid-December)  I am planning changes and improvements for next year’s garden. This year is no exception. Four seed catalogs have already come in and are well thumbed and lists and dreams are being made. Mimi’s pom-a-poo Belle sits in my lap in the recliner and helps.

We have one more harvest from the Victory Garden this year the week before Christmas, which is the last day the local Food Pantry is open this year. We will have, Lord willing, have cabbages, turnips, rutabagas, and collards, assuming they survive the predicted below freezing temps this next week. We grew and donated to charity 4,430 pounds so far this year.

The two long rows of Nantes and Chardonnay carrots will be left till next spring as will the garlic. We planted thirteen thirty-two foot rows with the cloves spaced ten inches apart in each row. I haven’t totaled that up yet. We have six varieties: elephant garlic, one softneck Kettle River Giant, and four hard neck varieties.

We volunteers plan to make some changes in the Victory garden in 2014. Goals are to find ways to increase our education outreach and production while lessening the impacts on both Mother Earth and our backs.

-       Add four more trellises made of cow panels ($20 at Halls’ Feed Store) and grow pole beans, cucumbers, decorative gourds, and small cantaloupes on them.

-       Create cinder block raised beds instead of wood in two more of the six plots. We have two of the six plots built already. This saves a lot of labor needed for bending over and for hilling up new rows at the end of each season.

-       Try a new way  to grow tons of tomatoes. Our production varieties will be Bonnie Hybrid, Better Boy, BNH602, and BHN640. http://deltafarmpress.com/print/management/how-get-major-tomato-yields-small-plots-few-plants

-       Be more organic. Use soapy water and witch hazel instead of bug spray. Use anything to mask the smell of the plants so the bad bugs cannot find the plants. We also plant marigolds and basil around the garden for the same reason.

-       Keep my garden tools cleaned up and sharp at all times. I say this every year.

-       Don’t over fertilize or plant too thick. We had big beautiful pea vines which grew into an impenetrable mass with too few blooms. The soil is a rich loose humus and only needs a little nitrogen when the plants start growing.

-       Don’t wait for honey bees which are scarce in Collierville. Buy mason bee houses to attract them to get better pollination. http://www.gardeners.com/Mason-Bee-House/37-481,default,pd.html

-       Move the four year old chest high compost pile into the garden.

-       Be more proactive in weed management with more mulch to cover all bare ground and smother the weeds.

-       Plant fewer peas and more beans as we have too many peas and not many beans.

-       Continue to solicit more volunteer angels to work and learn with us.

-       Work more with children groups in the garden, such as the Crosswinds Elementary Roots and Shoots Club and all of Collierville Elementary School.

Ain't God good!

Carl Wayne 

Wilbur Norris oinkbituary

 Wilbur Norris oinkbituary

Wilbur Norris Dead Here at 17

(Collierville Reserve, TN. Dec 29, 2013) - Wilbur Norris (Sus scrofa domesticus) died of natural causes on Sunday, December 29, 2013, at his residence on historic Greenlevel Farm north of Collierville.

Wilbur's exact date of birth is unknown. He was adopted by Chris and Mark Norris on the couple's 18th wedding anniversary on August 5, 1996. He was preceded in death by Charlotte, his companion of nearly 14 years at the time of her death in 2011.

Orphaned as a pot-bellied piglet in Memphis, Tennessee, Wilbur rose to the position of caretaker in the main barn at Greenlevel where his duties included calming the horses, goats and mules in residence. When off duty, he frequently manicured the north lawn by keeping it clear of acorns and persimmons. Later in life, Wilbur delighted, and sometimes frightened, dozens of children who came to visit.

Wilbur enjoyed public service. He volunteered in Mark's campaign for County Commission eschewing the pork barrel politics of the past. He also played a role in Mark's unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 2002 with the slogan, "Norris won't bring home the bacon; it's already here!" Most importantly, Wilbur taught Mark the importance of maintaining a thick skin.

"Wilbur was an inspiration to so many friends," said Chris Norris who was given permission by Wilbur to use his photograph on thank you notes she designed  in 2003. "He gave everyone who met him a more positive attitude."

Wilbur was laid to rest near his favorite Oak trees at Greenlevel in a private, graveside ceremony today.

Mark Norris, Sr.
Greenlevel Farm853 South Collierville-Arlington
Collierville, Tennessee 38017
NorrisNow@aol.com
www.marknorris.org