Sunday, April 24, 2011

Lettuce & other vegetables offered on Easter to Asbury community

On Easter Sunday, 24Apr11, approx. 50 heads combined of romaine, green and red salad bowl, and red sails lettuce, some Russian Red Kale leaves, about 12 primary broccoli heads, about 6 Bull's Blood beets, and 6 turnips were harvested from the GOG and offered to the church community after the service.  Donations were accepted.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Lettuce & Kale delivery to Interfaith pantry

On Saturday, 23Apr11, approx. 80 heads of romaine and red salad bowl lettuce were delivered to the Interfaith Pantry, which were grown in the GOG auxiliary 1.  In addition, 3 large Winterbor kale plants, about 1.5 lbs of leaves, were also delivered.  This completes the lettuce harvest from GOG aux 1.  The pantry staff stated that half or more of the lettuce would be refrigerated until Monday when they reopen after Easter.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Lettuce & Radish delivery to Interfaith Food Pantry

On Friday 22Apr11, 44 heads of romaine and red salad bowl lettuce were delivered to the Interfaith Food Pantry at St Bartholomew's Episcopal Church on Enos Way.  About 2 lbs. of radishes were also delivered.  This produce was grown in the Garden of Grace auxiliary 1.  This pantry has two full refrigerators for storing produce, but bin space is limited and large plastic bags are used for bread, etc.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Saturday, 4-16-11 work day

Diana and Judy weeded bed E2 and hand watered the Garden. Afterward they and Bruce assembled 28- T-Tape manifold components consisting of (tubing with end blocked with "figure" 8 termination, 3- regular T-tape couplings, 2- couplings w/valve.) 

The two components assembled Friday and today will be joined on the garden beds (attached at one end to the PVC supply line and at the other end to the T-Tape runs along the length of the beds.

Friday, 4-15-11, 4:30 PM

Jennifer, Liz and Bruce put together 28 T-tape manifold components; the elbow, valve and tubing end that inserts into the PVC line adapter.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Tuesday, 4/12/11

Tuesday at 9:30 PM Bruce harvested the following produce from the Garden of Grace for the Open Heart Kitchen (the Garden s located about 200 feet from the kitchen in the Asbury UMC Fellowship Hall):

Broccoli:
10 primary heads (4 lbs) of Goliath Broccoli were harvested from B2 (5 heads were 3" to 4" in diameter and the rest were from 2 to 3 inches in diameter (the primary heads from the harvest the prior week were larger (from 4 to 5 inches in diameter). (3 lbs) of secondary heads and a few leaves were also harvested from B2.  In beds AB7 and AB8, 6 primary heads of Goliath broccoli from 2" to 3" in diameter (1.5 lbs), and secondary efflorescences from 8 plants from 1/2" to 1-1/2" diameter (1.3 lbs) were harvested.

Spinach:
2 grocery bags of spinach leaves (5 lbs) were harvested off the small patch on A5.

Lettuce:
33 heads of Red Sail Lettuce (10" to 12" in diameter) and 18 heads of Romaine Lettuce were harvested from the Auxiliary Garden at Marks home. The Romaine lettuce was a miniature study in the effect of micro climates and demonstrated: 1) edge effect (smaller plants, 2) full sun (large heads), 3) adequate shade (largest heads), 4) too much shade, (smallest heads).

Pictures taken of lettuce protected under row cover show healthy plants unaffected by frost.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Tuesday, 4/13/11

8:30 AM, Mark and Bruce harvested 45 Red Sail Lettuces (about 16 lbs) from the Auxiliary Garden of Grace. Heads ranged from 10 to more than 12 inches in diameter and were pest free. Seedlings for the lettuce were planted February and were transplanted 35 days prior to harvest today. 

It was raining at 10:00 AM when work was to begin at the Garden of Grace. Judy, Janis and Bruce harvested the following: 2 lbs of White Icicle and Easter Egg radishes; 10 lbs of Southern Giant Mustard greens from B3 and B4 (a large plastic bag full); 2 grocery bags full of White Ribbed Chard (roughly 8 lbs from A2 and 4 lbs from B4 (several of the A2 plants are bolting); 2 grocery bags of Vates Blue Curled Kale about 12 lbs (axial buds were visible on most of the plants which may prove to be the first sign of bolting) ; about 20 lbs of Goliath Broccoli (mostly secondary florettes and broccoli leaves from beds AB7 and AB8.

In general, the Goliath variety has provided large primary efflorescences and fairly heavy secondary (6 to 10 ea.).  Also in general, the broccoli in beds AB 7 and 8 are smaller than those in B2.   

Note: This contrasts with the winter crop harvested in late November which produced very large primary efflorescences (4 to 5 inches) and hardly any secondary. Winter Diplomat were harvested in December about 2 weeks after the Goliath and were giants at 5 to 6 inches in  diameter.

Seed planting: Tomatoes, Peppers, Watermelon

On 11Apr11 (day 101), the following seeds were planted:

  • Tomato: Margold #204 (18 pots)
  • Tomato: Ace #205 (18 pots)
  • Pepper, Quadrato d’Asti Rosso #140 (24 plts)
  • Pepper: Canary Bell #206 (54 plts)
  • Pepper: CA wonder #17 (12 plts)
  • Pepper: Emerald Giant #141 (6 plts)
  • Watermelon: GA Rattlesnake #58 (6 pots)
  • Watermelon: Sugar Baby #208 (6 pots)
  • Watermelon: Moon & Stars #57 (6 pots)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Watered Garden, Report on plants

Bruce watered the Garden by hand Sunday, 4/10/11 starting at 11:00AM. Small tomato plants in C1 were apparently killed by frost damage Saturday morning, 4/9/11 where the KCALIVER19 Wunderground station (located about a mile north of the Garden near Mark's house) showed a low temperature of 35.2 degrees F at about 7:00 AM.  None of Mark's potatoes showed any signs of frost damage which supports a conclusion that the micro cliamte at the Garden of Grace is colder and perhaps windier that the micro climate At Mark's front yard (close to the KCALIVER19 Wunderground station). The combination of sleet and hail that fell between 7:00 and 7:30 PM Friday night might have also been a factor.  All of the recently planted tomato plants in rows A1 and B1 under row cover were not damaged and looked healthy.


All of the potato plants in Rows ABC3 and CD10 where also frost damaged but all of the plants appear to have survived. The Lasota Russets were the smallest plants and appear to have sustained the greatest damage (blackening of about 40 to 50% of the leaves and stems (uppermost apical meristem tissue was killed but lower shoots/meristems appear to have survived.


It appears that someone from the Asbury Landscape team cut the grass/weeds near the compost bins and all along the East fence next to the parking lot.  This was very helpful since the Friday volunteers had started to weed this area but quite a bit still remained.