CVG 2015 March 23 - March 27 Progress and Upcoming Opportunities

Upcoming Week's CVG Organized Work Opportunities:

Sunday March 29: 3 pm - dusk -- continue building and filling raised beds in plot 6; if not too wet in plot 3 dig out asparagus and begin leveling, laying landscape fabric, and building new raised beds; begin leveling off/improving rain run-off in back archway walkway and far end of central walkway; lay landscape fabric in archways and continue setting archway planters; finish demo-ing center bed in plot 1; maybe start digging for placement of second drain tile along front of garden; remove any growing comfrey volunteers in plot 1; weed in plot 4; liquid fertilize cabbage in plot 5; finish planting available potatoes in plot 6.

Monday March 30: assume cancelled for rain.

Tuesday March 31: 9 am - noon -- if garden is dried out, continue Sunday's work plan, continue work in plots 7 and 8 (perennials), inventory and organize work benches, continue pulling weeds, etc., etc.

Work Progress:

On Monday March 23, Twila, Jan, Lynda, Teresa, and Stephanie met at Jan's house to divide and repot seedlings of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, basil and sow some pepper and borage seeds. They sectioned off a sweet potato and suspended the wedges over water to produce slips.

On Tuesday March 24, Twila, Jan, Teresa, and Stephanie. Jan continued leveling plot 6. Teresa put linseed oil on the newly donated archway planters (THANK YOU Scouts!) Twila prepared plot 7 for conversion to a butterfly and bee garden. Stephanie removed comfrey volunteers from plot 1 and picked up seed potatoes and strawberry starts.

On Wednesday March 25, Twila, Jan, Val, Dianne, Teresa, and Stephanie. Stephanie and Val started taking apart plot 1 center beds to make room for corn planting. Dianne planted 20 sequoia strawberries (June-bearing) in plot 2 concrete blocks and weeded around plot 2 garlic. Jan and Teresa continued leveling plot 6. They laid landscape fabric in plot 6 and built 5 new wooden raised beds. They all planted red potatoes in 4 of the new beds and purple potatoes in the new bed nearest the "north" archway. Teresa applied another layer of linseed onto the new archway planters. They applied 6-12-12 to the new plot 6 beds and the zinnia beds. Dianne applied liquid fertilizer to plot 2 cabbages. Jan and Kirk overhauled the large tiller and was able to till the entire plot 1!

On Thursday March 26, Twila, Jan, and Stephanie met with Dr. Chris about upcoming MAMG Intern visit on April 22 then covered all tender seedlings for expected frost/near freezing weather.

CVG 2015 March 15 - March 22 Progress and Upcoming Opportunities

Upcoming Week's CVG Organized Work Opportunities:

Monday March 23: cancelled -- the garden is too wet to work, unfortunately..... Could start parsley and sunflower seeds at Jan's house after lunch. Email me or Jan, if interested.
Tuesday March 24: 3 pm - dusk -- if garden is dried out, continue work in plots 3 and 6,  continue work in plots 7 and 8 (perennials), plant potatoes in large new wooden raised bed in plot 6, put air in wagon tires, inventory work benches, etc., etc.
Wednesday March 25: 8 am - noon -- start dismantling the two central wooden beds in plot 1, continue work in plots 3 and 6

Harvest donation:

March 19, 2015 26 lbs harvest donation:
to the Salvation Army = 26 lbs
Total YTD harvest donation = 187 lbs

Work Progress:

On Monday March 16, Twila, Jan, Teresa, Jeff, Jim, Stephanie, Sasha, Patree, Jessica, Cori, and Kayla. They pulled the frost covers off of the beets and carrots. They moved pine needles from plot 6 and straw from plot 3 and mulched the new cabbage. Jeff delivered the beautiful newly cleaned and sharpened and painted tools. Jim delivered the raised bed wood and cut the end boards down to size. They pulled the black plastic from plots 3 and 6 and moved all pots and tires. They started leveling plot 6 and laying weed fabric. They put together one 12 food bed. They moved asparagus from the corner of plot 3 to the corner of plot 8. They planted Tokyo hybrid turnips in the north archway planters. They put together the rest of the window a-frame/coldframes. They transplanted a surviving kale from plot 6 to plot 2. Patree delivered cardboard. They put out 2 fresh suet cakes for the birds.

On Tuesday March 17, Jan, Twila, Dianne, Lauryce, Teresa, Stephanie, CJ, Dylan, Cori, Kayla, Jessica, Sophia and 6+ Schilling Farms Middle School Beta students. They harvested and donated 26 lbs of beets and carrots to The Salvation Army. Jan dug a trench for drain tile between plots 2 and 3. Twila and Lauryce tackled digging out a trench at the south side fence. They added a couple of inches of fine/screened compost to the largest raised bed in plot 2. Dianne taught middle schoolers to seed turnips, kale, lettuce, alpine/daikon radish and carrots in plots 2 and 5. Jan and Twila and middle schoolers trimmed lirope in plot 8. They filled the new raised bed in plot 6 with compost. They pulled plastic and pine needles off the zinnia beds and filled them with compost. They continued leveling plot 6. Twila moved garlic out of soggy plot 6 and into an empty end of a plot 4 raised bed. They laid out all black plastic to dry then folded and stored them. They shortened the southernmost wooden bed in plot 1 to create a 2 foot walkway at the fence line. Cori filled out some of the plant info tags for the Spring Fling plants donation.

On Wednesday March 18, Jan, Twila, Val, Stephanie. Jan and Twila worked to organize and label plants for donation to MAMG Spring Fling and to make room for more vegetable plantings this year. They continued leveling and completed the drain tile burial. Val worked on labels for donation plants. Stephanie worked on props for the Spring Fling Demonstration Table talk on CVG raised beds.

On Friday/Saturday March 20/21, Stephanie, Jan, and Twila led Demonstration Table Talks at the MAMG Spring Fling on raised vegetable beds and dividing perennials.

CVG 2015 March 8 - March 14 Progress and Upcoming Opportunities

Upcoming Week's CVG Organized Work Opportunities:
Monday March 16: 9 am - noon -- lots of perennial work to ready plants for donation to this week's MAMG Spring Fling and to start to empty out Plants for Habitat plots for conversion to butterfly garden and melon patch, continue planting seed (turnips, greens, radish, carrot, lettuce, nasturtium, etc) in new  archway planters and concrete block beds, pull any weeds/continue garden clean-up, finish up cold frame window "a-frames", label all areas that have been seeded/transplanted. Finish constructing any wooden planters for plot 3, maybe start addressing water drainage concerns if the garden has dried out enough.

Tuesday March 17: 9 am - noon -- continue Monday's work plan, focus on leveling and adding compost where necessary to plot 3.

Assume Wednesday-Friday is a wash-out for garden work....

This Week's Memphis Area Master Gardener Spring Fling:

If you are available and looking for something fun to do during this spring break week, please attend/support this 2 day event at the Agricenter Red Barn on Friday March 20 and Saturday March 21 from 9 am- 5pm! There will be lots of interesting speakers and more than 50 garden-themed booths to browse. We would love to see you there! MAMG gives the Collierville Victory Garden its budget every year and this is a way to give back to this organization.

Here's the speaker schedule for both days and the fun kids activities for Saturday:

For more information on the speakers, please visit the link below:
MAMG Spring Fling 2015

Work Progress:

On Sunday March 8, Carl, Jan, Kathy, and Stephanie planted 2 bunches of candy white onions, 2 bunches of candy red onions, and one bunch of leeks-- approximately 350 in all-- in concrete block plots 5 and 2.

On Monday March 9, Carl and Stephanie rolled out 48" landscape fabric in 2 of the 3 archway walkways. They set 7 new donated planter boxes (THANK YOU cub scouts and girl scouts!) on bricks centered on each archway panel and half-filled them with straw and compost. They look beau-ti-ful!

On Wednesday March 11, Carl delivered more Starbucks coffee grounds to the garden and Twila added them to the compost pile. Val and Sasha planted 2 flats of donated (THANK YOU!) Bonnie hybrid cabbage--approximately 108--mostly in plot 5. Carl and Teresa and Stephanie moved compost into the new archway planters as well as set one more planter in place. Twila and Stephanie fished out germinating Lincoln (pole) peas from the little 3 gallon pots and Val and Sasha replanted them into the archway planters. Stephanie added nitrogen/blood meal to all growing garlic and to the concrete beds.

Lots and lots of planning and leg-work has been done by Jan this week to start the wooden raised bed work in plots 3 and 6. The next couple of weeks in the garden should be transformative! And hopefully a lot of the donated compost pile on the parking lot will be moved into the garden.

On Saturday March 14, Jan moved iris pots from the Plants for Habitat area to the Garden sign for later pick-up.

Beauty Growing in the Garden:

Chioggia beets!

CVG 2015 Feb 9 - March 7 Progress and Upcoming Opportunities

Upcoming Week's CVG Organized Work Opportunities:

Sunday March 8: 2 pm - 4:30 pm -- (may start slightly earlier-30 min?- depending on weather/forecast) Plant 5 sets of onions (red and white candy) and leeks in plot 5, start setting 9 donated archway boxes with brick corner supports/base and fill with compost, ready plot 3 for wooden raised bed work, finish making window "a-frame" cold frames for plot 2, start planting (maybe) plot 2 under cold frames, dismantle 2 center raised beds in plot 1

Bring: drinking water, wading boots (for wet, soggy ground), layer clothing, leather gloves better than cloth for blisters, garden gloves, shovels, hoes, rakes, hammers, garden scissors, staplers, battery operated drills.

Monday March 9: 9 am - 11 am -- continue Sunday's work plan, weather permitting

Wednesday March 11:  1 pm - 3 pm -- continue Sunday's work plan, weather permitting, and maybe harvest beets/greens and carrots for Thursday's Collierville Food Pantry

Many Upcoming Teaching/Education Opportunities in April and early May-- stay tuned for details!

Harvest donation:

Feb 12, 2015 3 lbs of harvest donations:
to the Collierville Food Pantry = 3 lbs
Total YTD harvest donation = 161 lbs

Work Progress:

On Monday Feb 9, Twila, Val, Teresa, Patree, and Stephanie continued laying cardboard and pine needles in plot 4, weeded beet beds in plot 1, sprayed remainder of plot 1 and bean pots with dormant oil, watered comfrey "volunteers", spread nitrogen in plot 2 and hay bale raised beds, overfilled hay bale raised beds with compost, started building a-frame cold frames from donated windows, covered plot 6 in black plastic, deconstructed chicken wire frames, ordered more seed from Burpee.

On Wednesday Feb 11, Carl delivered coffee grounds, cardboard boxes, fed birds. Stephanie picked up linseed oil for the donated archway boxes/planters (THANK YOU cub scouts and girl scouts!) and suet cakes for birds. Teresa started trenching archways for the new boxes, donated 30 bricks (THANK YOU Teresa!), and turned the cinderblock soil.

On Thursday Feb 12, Twila and Stephanie added coffee grounds (delivered by Carl and Sophia) to compost barrels, harvested 3 lbs of collards and carrots and delivered to the Pantry, discussed placement of archway boxes at angle on walkway lumber with front brick corner supports. Fed birds, Added pine needles over remaining cabbages. Moved donated archway boxes to Stephanie's garage.

On Saturday Feb 14, Stephanie put 3 layers of linseed oil on two of the wooden archway boxes.

On Tuesday Feb 24, Twila, Jan, and Stephanie met to discuss 2015 budget, seed starting, online planting organizer.

On Friday Feb 27, Stephanie planted "Lincoln" early peas in one large container and some of the old 3 gallon pots as well as "Peas in a Pot" compact bush early peas in 2 rows around edge of central concrete bed in plot 5.

On Tuesday March 3, Twila, Jan, Stephanie moved donated coffee grounds (delivered by Carl and Sophia) to composters, moved seed start kits to Jan's car, moved 6 more donated archway boxes to Jan's car, measured some garden dimensions for the online garden planner, started discussing new fencing/north gate.

On Wednesday March 4, Twila, Jan, Stephanie discussed plan for MAMG Intern visit; budget; March seed sowing plan for MAMG interns, other groups; added 2 layers of linseed oil on 6 wooden archway planter boxes, started some seed in one of the seed starter kits-- 3 varieties tomatoes, cukes, red romaine lettuce, alyssum. (update Saturday March 7-- red romaine is coming up!)

Beauty in the Garden: