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!