I'm Back, More or Less!

Went back to the garden on Monday & also this afternoon. We have a lot of tomatillos ready & more to come, also a bumper crop of tomatoes. There will be zucchini soon, I picked one nice one, and some of the onions are looking good. Most of the onions need to be thinned-can that be done at this time? Carrots & beets struggling but still hanging in there.

I would like to plant some things for fall harvest, but we will see how it goes.

I got some worm castings from the farmers' market and that is supposed to be great stuff. I will add it & see what happens.

Work Days:
Tuesday Mornings with Laureen, 9:30-10:30A: harvest produce & bring to food pantry
Friday Mornings with Deb, 8-10A: harvest & weed!
Sunday Afternoon with Sara, 4-6P: weed & water

I will most likely get over there a couple mornings a week, before work, to water. Even when it does rain the soil over there is bone dry & needs more.

Tomorrow Morning 8am

Deb will be out in the garden tomorrow morning at 8am if anyone cares to join her! Weeds, zucchini, and tomatillos!
This week Sunday work day cancelled, Sara P is out of town.
Everyone have a great 4th!

Changing Work Days & Other Updates

We are changing our work days right now, so bear with us and check the blog/facebook for current days.

• Sundays 4-6P
• Mondays 4:30-5:30P with Chef Alan and groups from RCLC

We still have spinach and the lettuce is holding on. If anyone can make it to the garden on the days when the food pantry on ND Avenue is open, please harvest and deliver what you can! They have two full sized fridges and are ready for us.

• Food Pantry Hours: Tuesdays 9-11A and 2-4P, Wednesday & Friday 2-4P

I will be taking a physical break from SB Avenue for a while, but am still available to answer questions or work on resources etc.

Growing Update
All the tomatoes got transplanted and staked or caged this past Monday, and the tomatilloes are starting to bear little fruits (or are they vegetables?). When they start to produce, we will have a bumper crop! The beans are working their way up the poles, the corn/squash/bean "sisters" are flourishing, and the carrots & onions are doing great. Zucchini, cantaloupe, watermelon, and yellow squash are doing well also. Only the peas are not so happy in their spot-not producing a lot and they don't taste so great... ah well, maybe they like something we are not giving them! :) I think the only thing that still needs to be done is to thin the onions. They are pretty close together right now, so if anyone wants to take that on, it would be welcome! They can be spread out in the middle area (with the 2 bean teepees) or moved to where the peas are.

Weeding & Watering
If you visit the garden and are not sure what to do & no one is there, weeding & watering are always good about now. Most of the plants are big enough that you can tell they are supposed to be there. If you really want to learn about weeds, here is a great publication by Purdue: http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/4H/4-H-247-W.pdf
Watering is important, even if it rained two days ago, the soil at 741 is so sandy & dry that it needs it. If you do, please be careful with the hose hook up on the house-it is a little old and not the sturdiest. Remove the hose from the spigot after watering, always.

Thanks Everyone!

Spinach, Chard, & Radishes, but no Peas :(

Another long stretch since the last post. Here are our updates:

Beautiful delicious spinach! Also have some collard greens but the mustard greens have gone to seed already. Swiss chard is just about ready and we have had a couple batches of radishes.

The corn/beans/squash plantings are looking good; there is one corn plant that has had the topped nipped off, so hope the rest are safe! Why is the corn growing sideways?

This Monday we had a big group out to the garden from Robinson Community Learning Center. They will be coming on Mondays in June from 4:30 to 5:30 and my friend Chef Alan will be working with

them on growing community and staking up tomato plants!

Work days are changing-Wednesdays 5:30 to 7:30 and Sundays 4:30 to 6:30. No more Fridays.

Thanks for the tomatillos!

It has been a while since the last post-lots of rain interfered with my work days, but was good for the plants trying to grow in the heavy sand soil at 741 SB Ave.

Since last time, we

have:

*put up the sign & planted flowers around it-sunflowers, zinnias, marigolds, dark purple iris, pink mystery ground-cover flowers, and some wave petunias. Also planted behind the sign is a red flowering crabapple. It has cute little leaves on it & is doing well.
*gotten a truckload each of mulch & compost (thanks Pat!) and spread it around the peas, kale, chard, spinach, onions, radishes, beets, and carrots. I was very anal with one row, layering newspaper under the mulch & compost, but then ran out of time. I bet we won't fight the grass half as much in the places I put the newspaper!
*welcomed Julie, Laureen, Wendy, Judy, Marguerite, and Timmy into the group of people who have visited or worked in our garden.
*planted about 30 tomato plants, 15 jalapeno plants, 15 tomatillo plants, 4 canteloupe, about 5 really ugly dirt mounds for the 'three sisters,' (squash, beans, and corn), 6 zucchini plants, and some sunflower, parsley, and nasturtium seeds. Crossing my fingers for those.

I won't be at 741 SB Avenue this afternoon, Friday, for the regular work hours, but will be there on Sunday. It is supposed to be really hot within the next few days!

Somebody Likes the Kale!

Well, we have a creature that has been nipping the tops of the kale starts we planted last Wednesday. I hope it doesn't move on to the peas-I put some onions spaced between the peas, so maybe that will help!
Thanks to Deb for the stakes & the red crabapple tree. We planted it today where the sign will go, on the corner. The sign is almost ready. Next time I decide to hand letter a fancy schmancy art deco lettered sign, I hope I remember this occasion as it is not as easy as I thought it would be! Still, kind of fun in a tedious way and it is almost finished, so...enough complaining!
Planted some beets, carrots, and radishes on Sunday and the radishes are already poking through. Radishes always amaze me with their eagerness to get out into the world. I read that its a good idea to put radishes in your rows of carrot seeds, because carrots take a longer time and the radishes not only mark the rows right away but they also help loosen the soil. Boy does our soil need loosening! :)
I still need to find a truck to go get more compost and mulch. The grass in the planting beds will surely win the war without some mulch. Someone told me today that certain grass, when you chop it up with a tiller, will sprout new roots from each little piece. EEK! I hope it isn't all grass, just the super dominant kind.
Next on the agenda: keep fighting the grass battle, put up the sign, plant flowers in front of the sign (I have started zinnias, marigolds, and sunflowers at home), and then when it warms up plant the warm weather stuff.

Meeting Tonight at Community Center

Tonight from 6pm to 7pm we will have a meeting for the NEN Garden at the NEN Community Center. Sara Stewart will show the Unity Gardens slide presentation and we will talk about what to plant. Tom Bull, who runs the food pantry at 803 Notre Dame Avenue (the Community Center), will try to be there to talk about their needs/how to get them the harvest. Hope to see some neighbors there!

This is what our sign will look like when it is finished. Thanks to Jeff Vitton of South Bend Heritage/City of South Bend for designing it. I just need to get some wood and posts and get started! It will go on the corner of the lot and we hope to plant lots of flowers around it. Even though Unity Gardens is about FOOD, this sign & the corner need some flowers!