Planting Day, bed prep, and compost pile, 29 January 2011

On Saturday, 29 January 2011, sieving of bed A4 was completed, and bed A5 was stripped of all plants except for spinach, and turned with a fork, picked of rocks, and leveled.  Bed A5 was not planted; bed A4 was planted with the carrots Touchon Deluxe, Coreless Amsterdam, and King Midas.  Only the E half of the bed was planted in carrots…the W half will be planted in a couple of weeks.  Radishes were interplanted between the carrots, and the entire W half was also planted in radishes.  Varieties were Easter Egg II, White Icicle, and Cherry Belle.  For bed A2, where the broccoli had been, the remaining Fortress onions were transplanted on the E end with 4 inch spacing, and in the middle of the bed purple top turnip seeds were planted at 8 inch spacing, triangular.  Personnel were Dionne, Miki Okada, Maya Brunell, Bruce Campbell and Mark Brunell.  The first compost pile was constructed in the new 3-bin container, filling the right-most bin to the top.  Brown leaves were layered with freshly harvested chickweed and wetted.

Planting Day 22 January 2011

On 22 January 2011, beds C1, D1, and E1 (N-S beds) where planted with lettuce seed.  Bed C1 has the Red Sails variety; bed D1 has Salad Bowl (green); bed E1 has Red Salad Bowl.  The lettuce spacing was: transversely 8 inches in rows of 5 and 6, longitudinally 7 inches.  Seeds where topped with a mixture of sieved soil and manure blend.  Bed AB9 was planted with Vates Collard starts on the E end and center, with Charmant Cabbage starts and a few Cauliflowers on the W end.  In bed AB10, La Soda Potatoes where planted on the W end, and Cal White on the E end.  In bed CDE2, some Cal White and Norkotah Russet were planted.  Both potato beds were well forked and raked before planting.  A hoe was used to make a longitudinal furrows, about 6 inches deep and spaced 12 inches apart.  Holes about 6 inches deep were dug in the bottom of the furrows, potato pieces placed in, buds up, and were covered with about 2 inches of soil.  On bed B6, which was about 3/5^th sieved previously, Bull’s Blood Beets were bared root planted (by pricking out the seedlings from a flat).  Beets were planted on a 4 inch gridiron.  In bed A1, all Arugula plants were harvested (several had bolted and a few were flowering), and the remaining bok choi plants, which were all strongly in flower, were pulled and sent to compost.

 MGs attending were Judy Matthew, Teresa Godfrey, Mary Tanakit, Diana Marzola, Emily Bailey, Paula Glogovac, Bruce Campbell, and Mark Brunell.  Other attendees were Ruth, Jennifer (Mary’s friend), Miki Okada, and Maya Brunell.

Broccoli and Kale planting

On 16 January 2011, Judy, Peg, Ruth, Jennifer, Miki, Maya, John, and Mark planted out some of the starts seeded on 15 Dec 10 (starts were about one month old).  All beds used, except B2, were top-dressed with manure blend.  In bed B2, fava beans were snapped off at ground level before planting Goliath broccoli with 2+3 spacing, rows 15 inches apart.  Fava beans were added to compost area.  On bed A6, Vates Blue Curled kale was planted with 3+4 spacing, rows 12 inches apart.  On the W end of bed A6 some Red Russian and Lacinato kale was also planted.  Beds AB7 & AB8 were planted with broccoli, same spacing as in bed B2.  AB7 had Premium Crop on the W end, and Waltham 29 on the E end.  AB8 had a few Goliath on the W end, then some Premium Crop in the middle, and Waltham 29 on the E end.  Extra Waltham 29 broccoli (a few plants) were stuck into bed B4, and extra kales were placed in B4 and B5.  Peg and Maya pulled the old broccoli from bed A2 and placed them near the compost bins.  Ruth, Maya and Miki pulled a lot of chickweed from adjacent areas, which was added to the compost.

Compost Bin Construction 1/8/11

Saturday, January 8, 2011 Ron, Mark and Bruce worked on the compost bins, placed them in a location between the fence and the compostable materials piles. Bin structure and wire cloth  is basically completed and door slats were started. Goal is to have the bins ready for building the first compost piles Wednesday, 1/12/11.

Mustard planted bed B3 and B4

On Wednesday, 5Jan2011, bed B3 was prepped, manured lightly, and planted with India Mustard (Florida Broad Leaf and Southern Giant Curled), using alternating N-S rows of 5 and 4, spaced at 8 inches.  A few rows of the lettuce and pak choi from previous planting was allowed to stay in place on the W edge of the bed.  The bed was lightly watered and covered with row cover.  A few rows of mustard were also planted on the W edge of bed B4, and were not covered.  The mustard starts grew from seeds planted on 15Dec2010.  Other activities included general weeding of the B beds, and rock sifting and removal in bed B6 (about 1/2 completed).  The EMT tube frame was moved from bed A3 to bed B2 (which now has fava beans) in preparation for additional planting of starts.

Arugula was harvested, and the remaining beets in bed A5.  These were delivered to OHK by Bruce.

In attendance were: Judy Matthew, Diana Marzola, Emily Bailey, Bruce Campbell and Mark Brunell.

Brief Update for December 2010

Mark and Bruce tilled the remaining GOG garden area on December 16th, bringing the total tilled plot area  to 4,352 sf (64 ft E-W and 68 ft N-S). Of this, 2,371 sf of raised bed space is being created. Tilling started around 9:00 AM and ended around 4:30 PM. new beds were laid out with stakes and twin and six 4ft x25ft beds were formed by digging and moving dirt form the aisles to the beds.

On December 24th, Mark, John and Bruce formed the remaining 5 beds by digging and moving dirt form the aisles to the new beds (three @ 4'x43', one @5'x43', and 1 @5'x16'.)  Miki and Maya weeded beds B4 and B6.

Ron and Bruce worked on three occasions in December to build 3-compost bins, two of which are completely lined with 1/2 wire cloth to isolate newly formed compost piles containing produce trimmings from rodents and other animals. A little work remains to finish the bins (should be completed in the first week of January).

Bruce made arrangements with Dave to have dry leaf and new grass trimmings dropped off for use in the composting operations. About 2 cy from Asbury grounds and an additional 6 cy were stacked in the area east of the Garden beds. 

Master Gardeners Judy, Peg, Diana and Bruce weeded, cultivated and composted beds B3 and A5. Wire trellises were provided for peas on bed B1. mulch was applied to aisles between the new N-S oriented beds.

Master Gardeners Diana and Emily Weeded beds A1, A3 and A5, Bruce and Diana applied mulch to the remaining new aisles. The following produce was harvested:  1.5 # brocholli, 1.8 # Swisschard, 3.2 # collards, 2.5 # arugula. Bruce delivered the produce to the Open Heart Kitchen at Holy Cross Lutheran Church.