First of all, I would like to thank all of you who came out today and helped. We had a good, solid turnout and the garden is looking much better. But don’t fret! Those of you that couldn’t make it today, we left some stuff for you to do! Check the list that is posted around the garden and in the shed and walk around and see what needs to be finished, then finish it. I’ll give you a light summary of what we did today.
- We got the compost in order, so you don’t need to worry about that. If you would like to add to the compost, please use only the leftmost bins. In the north compost area, there are two leftmost bins that you may deposit materials; in the south compost, area please use only the left bin only.
- Raspberries still need to be pruned back. Please don’t put raspberry canes in the compost bins because their thorns take forever to break down and we gotta sometimes put our hands in the bins.
- The shed is organized: please take care in using items. Replace them in an orderly fashion. Put tomato cages upstairs.
- Blackberries can be pruned back, but only prune the dead canes. Again, no bramble vines in the compost bins, please.
- Weeding and thinning can still be done around the perimeter & pathways. If you see knotweed, morning glory or bittersweet, yank it! In fact, if you can help it, we’d really like to put the stop on random morning glories. They’re very pretty, but they tend to choke things out, so it would be beneficial to everyone if you didn’t plant them in your plot on purpose.
- We raked up the leaves outside the fence and used them to mulch plots that are done for the season. Taylor & his lady (I’m sorry I forget her name), left some hay in the shed for people to use as mulch. A quick reminder about hay: it typically has seed in it, so please don’t mulch community areas (terrace, outside the fence, etc.) with it, but you may use it in your plots. Just be aware you may have to keep on it in the spring to make sure you don’t get overrun by seeds. People also use shredded paper to mulch with and you are welcome to do that, too, just be sure it’s shredded well if there’s any sensitive information on the paper. And even though most of the newspapers use soy-based inks now, I’m still a little wary of colored inks, but my wariness could be out of ignorance. If anyone can shed light on that, I’ll forward the information to the website.
Speaking of the website, I want to remind you all that there is a subscription button on the middle-top left area of the site, just under the header & menu. If you sign up for the subscription, every time I post there, you’ll get an email saying there’s been a new post. This may help some people get the information they need as well as provide a stronger community forum where we can share ideas.
Also, if you have physical limitations at the garden, and have access to a computer, I’m happy to make you an editor of the site where you can post articles that are relevant to our growing concerns (like when to harvest x or when to plant y). Additionally, if anyone would like to be an administrator on the facebook page, I’m happy to give you the opportunity! Just let me know and I’ll make it happen.
We will be having the seed swap again this year, and I’m hoping to make it for the last week in February. We will be taking renewals for the 2013 season, which will be due by St. Patricks Day. Please do not send early payments. We’ll start at the seed swap and go from there. I already have a couple speakers lined up and a ton of saved seed! So save your seeds, folks!
Lastly, as we move into late fall & winter, I want to see your plots being noticeably used or put to bed. What happens every spring is that people just abandon their plots and then a few of us are left clearing them all out when we could be planting our own stuff. Even if you are coming back next year, your plot must be tended through the winter, and by tended that means either being used and tidy or put to bed with mulch or winter cover. I will be doing a walk-through at a reasonable, but unstated, point of time. Please don’t make me question whether your plot is abandoned or not.
Thank you again to everybody who came today. I’ll drop in the garden tomorrow to check in on things, but I probably won’t stay as Justin & I were there from about 10:30-4 today. Please be sure to mark your time in on the log sheet.
Warm regards,
k (&j!)