New Volunteers Help With Irrigation

 

I was supposed to have a group come out to help with my irrigation this morning,  but for the first time ever I had a no-show no-call group.  Bummer.  Luckily, however, my SOS request for help with spreading compost last week turned out two new volunteers and together we set up the drip tape lines for all my short rows.  Doesn't the above photo look like a braided mess of black?  It wasn't, thankfully!

We quickly ran the drip tape up and down all 15 of my short rows and set up irrigation for my renters and for my crops.  Pictured here is a rented row that was planted by 3 generations while we set up the irrigation.  I love when gardening is a multi-generational activity!  It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Unfortunately, the water is still not working correctly out there.  The folks at Brighton NC Machine were working on it all afternoon and still were not able to fix the problems.  Apparently they are calling in The Experts to fix it.  ...does not sound good to me...  But, though a series of special buttons and tricks, I can operate the small garden  hose and hand water.  Since many of my renters planted their rows already, and their transplants need some TLC while young, I took the time to set up my  newly donated sprinkler (talk about timing for that donation!) and hand watered all the rows that were planted.  I think I will have to do this for a while still.

Not being one that can sit idly by doing nothing, I spent the time trimming the over-grown grass that has grown along the flower entrance, around our shade structure, compost bins, and a few other places.  It looks so much tidier now that the grass is trimmed.  I also weeded some of the peas and dug out some of the grasses and clover that has grown along the main walkway. 

Things are taking shape, and next week I have three days schedule with groups to plant the garden.  So excited to finally get things in the ground!

Brighton Garden Club & More Irrigation Work

Its not all boring work and veggies out here in the Victory Garden.  A few summers ago I met with members of The Brighton Garden Club and asked if their club would like to help beautify the garden.  It is awfully industrial out there, and I felt it needed some beauty.  They agreed, and thus was born a fantastic partnership where they plant and maintain a corner of the garden with beautiful flowers.

Each spring the members add some more plants to their corner, making it even more spectacular.  And today they came out to work on the garden and add a few more plants. I expect this to be a lush flowery heaven this summer!  Above you can see a line of day lilies along the diagonal walking path.

They also added a small cluster of lilies (I think they are lilies - if you can't eat it I really have no idea what the plant is!  Sad, but oh so true!) in this edge of the garden too.

And this small green splotch is a rose bush!  That should be a sweet smelling treat out here!

 

After they left, I proceeded to finish working on my irrigation.  The above patch will now fit my old 2" hose to my new 3" hose.  Its not pretty, but it should work.  Still no water, so I can't test it, but I see no reason why it won't work.

 And finally, I added the connectors to the new lay-flat hose.  See the small green dots?  That is where the drip tape will connect.  Tomorrow we shall begin phase 2 of the irrigation set-up.  We're getting so close to planting; I can hardly contain myself!  It is gardening time for real folks!

More Donations!

I received an email earlier in the week from a member of the community stating she had some donations for the garden.  We made arrangements to meet up today, and look at all the new goodies she collected from her neighborhood!  A few different seedlings, including some herbs, kneeling pads, a sprinkler, gloves and varrious clipping tools, stakes, and a garden fork in the background.  Fantastic!

She said she learned of the Hunger Council Garden Network at Bordine's Spring Garden Expo.  She picked up a wish list and asked her neighbors if they could  help too.  Great idea; and thank you to all who donated these wonderful items!

Setting Up the Irrigation

The water pipes in the pump-house froze and burst this winter, so right now we have no water at the garden, but the folks at Brighton NC Machine are working on it and we should be up and running soon.  In the meantime, I plan on having all the irrigation set up so I can just turn on the water and go.  (I'm optimistic that there will be minimal problems!)

Last year we had so many water leaks where the connectors were inserted into the lay-flat hose that I decided to use new hose this year.  I only needed to purchase one new hose, but when it came in I noticed right away that it was blue, rather than green.  When I asked about the difference I was assured this was a compatible hose, just a different manufacture.  However, it did not take me long to realize that this blue hose was definitely NOT the same size hose!  Not to worry, I can make it work.  It just means a trip to Northwest Pipe Supply in Brighton to purchase some different couplings.

In the meantime, my three volunteers helped me roll out and set up the lay-flat irrigation hoses, and we began inserting the connectors to attach the t-tape/drip irrigation lines. (Which will be cut and attached on Sat. May 31st when a youth group comes out to volunteer.)

And this year I am expanding the garden by 4 rows.  If you look carefully above you will see some darker mulch at the top of the garden; that is my expanded area.  I will have to work around a pine tree in one of these new rows, but it will give me additional space to grow pumpkins for a fundraiser this fall.

Tomatoes and Peppers, Oh My!

One of the Row Renters at the Victory Garden donated quite a few tomato and pepper transplants!  There are also a few kale and Brussels sprout plants in there as well - Bonus!  This should help us tremendously out in the garden!  Thanks Judy!

Did you know we rent rows out at the Victory Garden?  Each year I  have about 5-8 rows available to the general public.  Rows are aprox. 4' x 40' and we supply drip irrigation. Our rental fee is simply 5 volunteer hours a month in the big garden.  Most years I have rows available through early June, but this year all my rows were spoken for by early May.

Adding 20 Yards of Compost

Remember this huge donation of compost we received earlier this spring?  Today is the day to move it all!  The garden was tilled up yesterday and now it is time to begin adding this to the rows.  I did have a group that wanted to volunteer today,  but the Memorial Day weekend got into the mix and they canceled. I put out an SOS to my wonderful volunteers and had three that were free to help.

So my father brought one of his tractors out and scooped up bucket fulls of the compost.  We tried to help with wheelbarrows, but the dirt in the garden is so fine (all that sandy loam) that it was like pushing the wheelbarrow through quick sand.  And the compost is so wet from the deluge of rain we had all last week, that the wheelbarrow weighed about 200 pounds, so even pushing it on grass was a challenge.  We gave up quickly - and were very thankful for the tractor!!

 

Slowly my father backed down the rows and we used our muscle and oomph to rake out small quantities of the compost then spread it out fairly thinly on top of the rows.  The rows are 4-foot wide, and the bucket was 5-foot, so we tried our best to keep the compost contained to a 4-foot wide area.  Sometimes we succeeded, other times it became a bit wider.  All in all went pretty well.

It took the three of us 4 hours to spread it out.  We got 6 rows out of it.  I have to go back next week and use the wheelbarrow to move one large pile at the end of a row.  But it can wait.

Now I just have a big black spot where the compost was dumped.  I might get some grass seed to help encourage re-growth.  The folks at Brighton NC Machine did not seem concerned about it.  They really are a great bunch of people out there.

Compost Bin #3

Today I tackled the 3rd and final compost bin.  This one was the fullest, and I had no volunteers to help me.  It was almost to the top with fairly composted materials.

I removed the top layer of half composted material and added it to bin #2.  But after only a few shovel fulls I realized that the top 3-4 inches were semi-composted, and the remaining 3-feet was well composted material!

Look at how well broken down this is.  I used this to top dress my short rows some more.

I got about 12 wheelbarrow load out of this bin, and then called it a day.  I can continue adding this compost to the rows once planting begins.  I tell you, I am always amazed how composting works.  I just seems like magic.

Quick Look Around

Took a quick look at all my plants today.  It looks like the Sugar Sprint peas are coming up fairly  nicely.  I'm pleased with the progress.

Some of the radishes my girl scout troop planted are coming up nicely too.  Although, I need to pull a few weeds around the area. And probably think them out a bit too.  I expected as much for radishes.

 I see a few spindly shoots in the spinach. You have to know what your looking for, but trust me there are a few shoots in this image.

My Snow peas are looking a bit sparse.  My volunteer yesterday took a break from shoveling compost and planted some additional pea seeds for me.  I also am noticing quite a bit of grass and other large weeds at the head of the row; I need to get a garden fork out there and take care of that before it becomes a major carpet of grass.

 Beets and chard are starting to pop up.  It is hard to see among the weeds popping up too, but again, they are there.  Next week I'll have to spend some time weeding the rows once the tender shoots become a bit bigger.

But my strawberry plants are looking really good and healthy.  Lots of flowers on there finally.  (The new honey bees should love these!) It has taken awhile for these plants to flower, with our extremely cold winter and spring!  But they are finally budding and I bet we'll see fruit by mid June.

I need another volunteer to come weed this too.  The grass is bad in my strawberries since it is so close to the edge of the garden. 

Compost Bin #2

 Today I had a volunteer helping me and we quickly emptied and spread the contents of the #2 bin.  Now you see it...

 Now you don't!  Isn't that a thing of beauty?  All that empty clean space inside the compost bin!

Yea, it never lasts for long!  (I moved all the dry, uncomposted debris from bin #3 into the bottom of my clean empty bin #2.)  Like I said earlier, nature abhors a vacuum!

Thanksgiving Donations

Last August I was asked to be the guest speaker at the Brighton Optimist Club breakfast.  I met a nice bunch of people, and learned about an organization that I had heard about, but knew very little about what they stood for; that type of networking is definitely an added perk to my job.

Anyway, one woman said her family always chose a charity to donate to over the holidays, and at Thanksgiving they would supply the name of the charity and at Christmas they collected donations.  Really cool idea!  Well she put The Victory Garden on the list this Thanksgiving, and collected all the donations above - hand tools,clippers, gloves, hose sprayer, watering can, and recycled produce container.  AND a $15 gift card to Home Depot!

I'm very thankful, and I really love her idea.  I might steal that to use with my extended family this year.

Carpet Donation

I was very excited to receive a phone call earlier in the month from someone wanting to donate their carpet.  And today my husband and I were able to pick it up and drop it off at the garden.  It may sound like an odd item for a garden, but I'm always looking for old carpet to use in The Victory Garden.  Our walkways are rather large, to allow our large garden cart to go up and down them and to leave plenty of space for volunteers of all ages to comfortably walk between plants without damaging the plants.  And because no one wants to spend time and energy weeding walkways, we use carpet between our rows to keep the weeds at bay. 

Girl Scout Bronze Award Work

A Brighton 5th grade Girl Scout troop contacted me stating they wanted to become involved with the Victory Garden.  They were working on their Bronze Award and the subject they chose was Community Gardening and Hunger Awareness.   Today the girls came out and got a good tour of the garden and introduction to hunger issues in Livingston County.  Then, after the rain stopped, they helped me plant some spinach, lettuce, and carrots.

 I know have yet another row planted up.  Its always so exciting to watch the garden take shape each spring.

Compost is Mother Nature's Magic

 

I never cease to be amazed by the way time turns weeds into something so rich and wonderful.  The photo above is just one of many, many, many, MANY, wheelbarrow loads full of compost that was created last summer in our compost bins. The very first year I was hired as on as the Community Garden Coordinator I put the word out that I had a great Eagle Scout project.  Shortly after making a few Boy Scout connections I was contacted by Brian Weber who was interested in my project.  And he built me a ginormous 3-bin composting structure.

Today I began the job of emptying out the 3 bins.  I have not quite developed a schedule to properly turn and maintain the compost, but it does a fantastic job of breaking down all on its own.  Here you have the before shot.  Well minus about 6 wheelbarrow loads already.

 And here is the after.  One empty bin ready and waiting for more garden waste to occupy it.

 And here is the next bin waiting for me to tackle it.  That is a lot of compost to remove!

Unfortunately, nature abhors a vacuum, and I already found some unfinished compost and added it to my empty bin. But that's OK, because soon this too will be rich compost ready to be applied to the garden.

Short Rows Are All Ready!

 

 In the spring I till up the short (50' as opposed to 150') rows to plant my spring crops, and I also "rent" these short rows out to individuals that would like to garden but do not have the space at their home to garden.  Or rental fee is simply 5 hours a month volunteer time; we aim to make it accessible to everyone regardless of their income.

  

This year I have all my short rows accounted for.  Six of these rows are rented out, and the remaining 7 are accounted for in the overall garden plan. The Brighton Garden Club also has a corner of the garden planted up with their beautiful flowers and herbs.  (Well, right now things are just starting to green up, but soon it will be beautiful!)

 

The rest of my rows will contain 2 rows of Strawberries, 2 rows of peas and one of beets and swiss chard as mentioned earlier, one row of random spinach, lettuce, carrots, and radish; one row of onions, and one row of pole beans.  I found some purple pole beans in my stash of donated seeds from last year.  I'm excited to try that this year!

Welcome Honey Bees!

I've been working on hosting a hive of honey bees out at the Victory Garden for 2 years now.  And it FINALLY happened.  Only, I have not one, but two hives out there!  Thanks to fellow Gleaners employee Mike Schram we are hosting two hives.  The bees should love the flowers planted and maintained by the Brighton Garden Club, and they will help pollinate all our plants so we have a lot of produce this year.

2\42 Community Church Group

 I hosted the first group out at the garden today; 2\42 Community Church.  It was one of their ServeFest days where small groups go out into the community and do community service.  I really enjoy working with this group.  It has families with children (and I love kids in the garden) and they join in the fun helping and learning, and the group in general happily does anything I ask of them.  Weed my strawberries?  No problem.  Add wheelbarrows full of heavy, wet compost to the rows?  No problem (see the wheelbarrow in middle right edge of the photo?)

Some of the children helped me plant two rows of peas.  I have Avalanche snow peas and Sugar Sprint snap peas planted this year.  The group also helped plant Boldor golden beets, Merlin red beets, and one of my personal favorites, Bright Lights rainbow swiss chard.

Shovel more wood chips on the paths?  No problem we can do that!  Fix the roof that lost its shingling materials this spring?  We can do that too!  Lots of odds and ends jobs were tackled this morning by a wonderful group!  Good spring garden day.  And the rain stayed away for the most part!

Just some of the 30-plus volunteers that helped out today.  Thank you 2\42 Community Church!