Bed AB8 map

2011 August 5-6 garden work

On the evening of Friday August 5, and in an impromptu session Saturday
morning, August 6, Bruce and Lance worked on various tasks.

The main effort on Friday was to plant carrots and parsnips in the
west end of bed B4.  We are attempting succession-planting with carrots,
planting every three weeks or so in order to have a more continuous
harvest.  The only crop previously grown here was radishes,
so the soil should be fertile.  This is the only area prepared
for carrots and similar crops (deeply double dug, rocks removed, clods
broken up) and not already used for carrots.  Five rows of seeds were
planted, one variety per row (except for the north row).  From south
to north: "New Kuroda" carrots in the southern row, "All American"
heirloom parsnips in the second row, "Babette" carrots in the third
row, "Gladiator" parsnips in the fourth row.  In the fifth (north)
row, "King Midas" carrots were planted starting at the west end
until we ran out of seed, then "Long Imperator" carrots finished the row.
The parsnips are in middle rows to reduce exposure, their greens can cause
irritating rashes.  This is the first time the garden has grown parsnips.

Most of the summer squash planted on July 16 looked unhealthy, so
they were given some compost tea.  More bindweed was pulled from
tomato beds.  This is difficult because many tomato vines are still
partly sprawled on the ground, making it hard to find and reach the
bindweed stems and roots.  Some of the weeded areas were given more
mulch, to make it harder for more weeds to sprout.

The first female butternut winter squash blossoms were observed Thursday,
August 4.  On Saturday, 10 were seen.  It begins to appear that we will
have some to harvest.

More tomatoes were tied to their trellises.

We observed lodging (falling over) of the Painted Mountain corn.
This corn variety has lodged in a private garden also.  We are
hoping that this is not a serious problem.

2011 August 2-3 harvests and work

On Tuesday, 2011 August 2, Bruce, new volunteer Kathleen, Lance, and
Terri (grandmother of Kathleen) harvested 18 summer squash, 8
cucumbers, tomatoes (22 cherry-size, 23 small yellow pear, 13
larger red), about 7 pounds kale, about 4 sweet yellow banana
peppers, 11 weedy purslane plants, and some collard greens.

All of the collard plants (which were in bed B3) were pulled
after the harvest because they had many aphids.  The only
ordinary greens still growing in the garden are chard (half
of bed E2) and the Vates blue curled kale (in most of bed A6),
which has been productive much longer than expected.  Purslane,
usually regarded as a weed, is edible and can be used in salads
or cooked, so we took some to Open Heart Kitchen.  Some of the
kitchen staff have eaten the purslane, but we are told that the
customers object to it.

Other work included removing gravel from four planned raised beds,
removing weeds from a pile of dirt that is planned to fill those
raised beds, pulling some particularly unpleasant weeds near
the garden area (puncture weed and star thistle; both can be
painful), noticing more damage to lettuce (blamed on wild turkeys),
observed and attacked bindweed flowering within tomato beds,
and other weeding.

Open Heart Kitchen is the single important customer of the garden.
In an informal talk with Open Heart Kitchen, we learned (or re-learned)
that they can always use lettuce, garlic, red and green peppers,
tomatoes, summer squash, winter squash, and other greens like
kale.  We have begun to think about forecasting harvests to help
the kitchen with planning and were told that one-week forecasts
will help a lot, since menus are planned about a week in advance.

On Wednesday, 2011 August 3, Bruce, Diana, Lance, and Ruth (listed
alphabetically) harvested 13 summer squash, a tub of chard,
16 onions, 138 sweet yellow banana peppers (these are small),
8 cucumbers, 3 red tomatoes, 7 small yellow pear tomatoes,
a couple gallons of basil greens, and about 10 squash blossoms.

The onions are large but some are starting to rot at the bottoms
(they share a bed with tomatoes and are receiving too much water),
and will be finished within a few weeks.  The banana peppers are
probably starting to produce in large quantity.  Other pepper
varieties do not yet seem ready for harvest.  We could, but do not yet
plan to, harvest immature fruit; first we want to learn how large
the fruits of various varieties grow.  This was the first time we
picked much basil; several people in the kitchen were ecstatic.
Some of the people in the kitchen want squash blossoms; we picked
them after the rest of the harvest, by which time they were already
quite limp.

Other work included weeding and tying many tomato vines to their trellises.

Work done Friday-Sunday July 29-31

On Friday-Sunday 2011 July 29-31, there were garden work sessions.
Friday's was at the standing time, the others were impromptu.

The major efforts were to complete inventories of some of the crops
and to begin moving the fence as the first step in expanding the garden.
Weeding (surprise) was done all three days.

On Friday, Bruce, Jennifer, Lance, and Mark (alphabetical)
* watered volunteer unidentified crops in the far-eastern bed,
  these seem to be squash and melons;
* completed the pepper inventory in beds A7 and A8; and
* began mulching the younger peppers in those beds.

The garden had received another pile of grass clippings that we use to
mulch.  All three varieties of beans planted in the "three sisters" garden
in beds F1 and F2 have sprouted.

On Saturday, Bruce, Jennifer, Lance, Mark, and Ruth
* planned first steps for moving and expanding the garden fence,
* completed mulching the younger peppers, and
* removed some large rocks from the garden expansion area.

Squash bugs were found on one Raven zucchini squash plant in bed B3,
both adults and nymphs.  The ones that were seen were squashed.

On Sunday, Bruce, Lance, and Mark
* tied a few sprawling tomatoes to their trellises,
* began watering a pile of dirt that is nearly rock-hard and is
  intended to be moved into raised beds, and
* continued moving and expanding the fence.

We observed that many of the new lettuce plants have been damaged,
almost certainly by a local flock of wild turkeys.  A protective
cover, which had been removed to make weeding easier,
has been put back in place.  It is big enough to protect about half
of the lettuce plants.

Three cultivars of summer squash were planted in western bed AB10 on
July 16.  Two cultivars sprouted within a few days.  The third,
Benning's Green Tint, was first observed August 2.

Bed C2 map

Bed E1 map

Bed E2 map