July 27, 2009

Hello Everyone!



Hot weather is upon us...Yay! Water, water, water!

I was foraging in the gardens this evening for my dinner and noticed that the saskatoons are ripe. And huge! Help yourselves everyone. We have two trenches - one on the inside of the front chainlink fence to the right of the gate if you are looking at the garden from the street (in front of the greenhouse) and the other is on the outside of the wood fence on the other side of the lilac hedge. Small containers please so that there is enough to go around. Some raspberries are ready and the rest are not far behind.

Workshop dates as promised...

The Weed Workshop July 29th 6:30-7:30pm
Weed identification. What grows where and why. What's edible and what's not. Weeds can tell us a lot and so can Randy Lamb, DUGS board president, when he hosts the workshop.

The Taste Tour August 5th 6:30-7:30pm
Ever wonder what that interesting thing is growing in the bed next to yours is? Well here's your chance. Tour the garden. Check out what's growing. Nibble like rabbits. Don't worry, everyone's beds are safe. There'll be very little visible damage...:)

Come one, come all. Tell your friends. Tell your families...all the cool kids will be there...;)

On that note, I will see you all on Wednesday!

July 14,2009

Just a few quick notes.

Gardens are looking great! Make sure to keep up on your watering. Your plants are going to love you if they can get heat AND moisture. Also if your job is watering any of the perennials (raspberries, saskatoons, etc) please make sure you are doing that as well.

On that watering note, I'm finding that my plants are loving me a little too much and I'm having a hard time keeping up eating what they're producing. That's why I'm going to participate in the Plant-A-Row program. What is it you ask?

Typically, you plant an extra row of whatever in your garden bed for eventual donation BUT it is also very helpful when we find our beds are producing more than we can handle. We don't like anything to go to waste in the garden so if you find you can't keep up, put one of the purple markers (inside the shed) at the end of the row you'd like to donate and someone (probably me) will come by and harvest it for you. I won't take the whole plant, or row for that matter, especially if it's still capable of producing more.

We've started our drop offs to the Food Bank. YAY! A very good thing. They don't always have fresh produce available to them to put in the hampers so anything you'd like to donate is greatly appreciated.

A couple of things that you can look for coming up in the garden...

The Weed Workshop

Weed identification. What grows where and why. What's edible and what's not. Weeds can tell us a lot and so can Randy Lamb, DUGS board president, when he hosts the workshop.

The Taste Tour

Ever wonder what that interesting thing is growing in the bed next to yours is? Well here's your chance. Tour the garden. Check out what's growing. Nibble like rabbits. Don't worry, everyone's beds are safe. There'll be very little visible damage...:)

Dates for both these are TBA. I'll keep you posted.

Last but not least, I will not be able to attend the work bee on Wednesday (July 15th) as my presence is requested elsewhere. If anyone would still like to show up some of the tasks to be done are:

-Water the compost pile (old and new)

-Add to the compost pile (the new pile please. Do not add to the old pile)

-Water any perennial beds needing it (don't forget the saskatoons on the outside of the fence)

-Weed to your heart's content

-Water the big donation beds in the south garden

...click to enlarge any of the photos.