Happy Winter everyone!
I hope you have plans to spend time with family and friends in the coming weeks. The rains have been well-spaced with mild, sunny days in-between. Our winter veggies are doing well- the rodents aren't nearly as bad as last year (fingers crossed it stays that way!), and we've been able to continue harvesting every other week or so for the restaurants. I've been spending time cleaning out summer crops (tomatoes, zucchini etc.) and weeding our beds. We've planted favas, peas, kale, lettuce, chard, mustard and leeks in the past few weeks.
Things will be quiet around the office over the winter break, but the weeds are growing quickly. Don't forget to visit your garden plot at least once in the next few weeks to get the first flush of weed growth under control- it will make a huge difference in the amount of work you have to do later on. I've noticed some plots are already quite overgrown. Also consider an application of Sluggo to reduce the snail and slug populations- I've seen plenty hiding in our vegetables, under damp leaves, and in wet corners.
Program changes- this year we are in a transition period with our intern program. We don't know yet exactly what the new program will look like, and whatever it is, it won't get rolling until June of 2019. So in the interim, I'm going to have to scale back the services I can offer to you all. I'm sorry to have to do this, but I just can't do the work of two people! Interns have been crucial in helping with a lot of the behind-the-scenes prep work and garden maintenance . Looking ahead, I'm going reduce the number of times compost is available and the number of Saturday resource days. We'll see how things go and I'll adjust the schedule as the year progresses.
*Compost is still one of the most important things you can add to your garden bed to make it successful- organic gardening is all about feeding and enriching the soil so the soil will feed the plants- so I recommend purchasing compost from outside sources and amending at least every time you plant, if not monthly top-dressing. Another key to healthy plants in what are essentially large containers is to aerate (fluff) your soil- dig almost all the way down and turn the soil at least 2-3 times per year (when you replant), then add compost to the top and plant.*
2019 dates: January-July (all dates and times subject to change)
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Winter Plot Checks-- garden beds must be weeded + no over grown/flowering vegetables**
January 15: Plot Checks for Ft. Scott, West Washington and Lendrum Ct. gardens
January 22: Plot Checks for MacArthur and Portola gardens
January 29: Plot Checks for Baker Beach and South Baker Beach gardens
**Summer plot checks will happen in mid-July. Dates TBA**
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Garden Resource Days are held at the Ft. Scott Community Garden from 10am-1pm and open to all garden members to get supplies for use in their garden plots. Shovels are available to borrow. Compost and seedlings, if available, are first-come first-served.**
February 9
March 9
April 13
July 13
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Evening neighborhood garden visits: each garden is visited once in the evening between the beginning of daylight savings time 3/10 and the Spring Planting Cut-off on 4/16. During these visits, I will have some buckets of compost and any seedlings that are ready to share. I'm available to answer questions and have a quick garden plot check-in with you.**
March 19, 5-6pm Baker Beach #1, 6-7pm Baker Beach #2
March 21, 5-6pm Baker Beach #3, 6-7pm Baker Beach #4
March 26, 5-7pm MacArthur garden
March 28, 5-7pm Portola Garden
April 2, 5-7pm Lendrum Court Garden
April 4, 5-7pm South Baker Beach Gardens
April 9, 5-7pm Ft. Scott Garden
April 11, 5-7pm West Washington Garden
SPRING PLANTING CUT-OFF
On April 16, all garden plots will need to be weeded and planted for the season if you wish to continue to use the garden plot assigned to you.
This means that there needs to be visible, NEW plants growing in the plot, there are no or minimal weeds, and the plot needs to be obviously used = more than 75% of the growing space planted (with appropriate spacing for plants to have room to grow. see below).
If you intend to grow from seeds, plan to plant those on April 1 so you will be sure that something new is growing and that I can see it. Please make this easy for me! If you sow seeds two days before the planting cut-off, there won't be any visible new growth and I'll have to assume you didn't plant. Let's work together to avoid that :)
Planting suggestions for early spring:
- Plants in the Brassica family do well in our climate. Each individual broccoli, cabbage, or cauliflower plant needs about a 12" diameter growing space. (i.e. you could plant 32 in a 4'x8' bed)
- Radishes are fast growers- you can have a crop from seed in 30-45 days and each plant needs 3-4". (i.e. you could plant 288 in a 4'x8' bed)
- Carrots take a while to germinate and need to be thinned afterwards so that each carrot has about 2" of space. Don't be tempted by pre-germinated carrots sold in 6-packs at the garden store. Carrots do best when directly sown into the soil.
- Peas are easy, but they need supports! Tie them to the trellis you provide- they aren't great climbers at first. They prefer to be 4" apart.
- Leafy greens are reliable growers and allow you to harvest over a longer time period: lettuce, kale, chard, arugula, mustards, and spinach are all wonderful additions. Give these plants 4-8" spacing. (i.e. you could plant 72 in a 4'x8' bed)
January plant list: cabbage, carrots, chard, collards, favas, leeks, lettuce, mustard greens, onion seeds, onion sets, radish
February plant list: arugula, beet, bok choi, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, chard, collards, favas, kale, leek, lettuce, mustard greens, onion seeds, onion sets, peas, potatoes, radish, spinach, strawberry plants
