June 1st - Wednesday Night Work Bee

Tomorrow's work bee is going to involve pruning raspberries. If you have a pair of pruners, please bring them. As well, make sure you have a good pair of gloves.
I'd also like to get the greenhouse levelled and possibly painted. I'm not sure I'll have time to pick up paint tomorrow before I come, but we can at least get the structure levelled.
We have rhubarb to shore and the Plant-A-Row bed to plant before the evening is out and the "gopher fencing" needs to be reset and braced in the two large beds in the South Garden.

Busy, busy, busy! So I can use lots of help. Of course, I realize most of you will be at home watching Game #1 of the Stanley Cup finals. I'll forgive you...only if you're cheering for Vancouver :)

See you tomorrow.

General Notes...

Weeding has begun at the garden. If you notice an area that has been recently cut and have a few extra minutes, please rake the clippings (grass only!) and place them in on the compost pile which is now "cooking" under the tarp. We have a lot of coffee grounds percolating in the pile and the nutrients which the clippings would provide will help to improve the mix. Thanks for your efforts.

If you drive to the garden, please park parallel to the raspberry trench, aka the fence. This somewhat limits the exposure of the raspberry bushes to engine and exhaust fumes. We plan to expend a great deal of time and energy reenergizing the bushes this growing season by adding additional soil, thorough weeding, careful pruning, lots of water and "infill" planting where needed. Thanks in advance for participating in this project. The raspberry crop is one of the defining and unique elements of the garden which always brings praise and appreciation from the public.

After using garden tools, please return them to the areas which are labeled for storage of that particular tool. At a glance, we can tell if any are missing or need replacement. If a tool needs repair or gets broken, please place it off to the side by the water hoses so that they can be repaired or replaced. Definitely hang the pitch forks and don't place them in the storage barrels. The prongs are just about eye height and could mishaps could easily occur.

Lastly, always put away hoses away in the shed after using (with the exception of the South Garden hoses). Be sure to make sure the shed is locked when you leave the garden. Be aware of any other gardeners in the garden who may still be using it. It never hurts to ask!

Water

The water at the garden has officially been turned on. No more hauling water from across the garden! Thank you to Alphonse, from next door, for keeping the three barrels at the north of the garden full for us.
Unless someone has done it already, I will be down at the garden tomorrow a.m. to fill the rest of the barrels.
If you haven't got your garden cleaned out and planted yet, please be reminded that gardens not planted by June 10th will be reassigned to the hopefuls on our waiting list unless, of course, you've already notified me of your absence.
I should have all the individual tasks sorted and assigned by the end of the weekend so until then weed, weed, weed away!

Have a great weekend!

'Tis the Season!

After this weekend of rain, and sun now in the forecast, the dandelions (among other weedy culprits) will be out in full force. A reminder to all gardeners to keep a 2-3' perimeter around your plot reasonably free of weeds. If you have a plot that has grass growing up and around the box, please try to keep the grass trimmed as well. Getting that close with the weed eater is really hard (costly) on the weed eater wire.
Below is a clipping from a magazine I thought you might find interesting (click picture to enlarge) ...

And for those of you daring to try a little "weed eating" yourselves, click here for a link to a great set of dandelion recipes!

Welcome!

Hello Everyone and welcome to a new, and hopefully fruitful, growing season at the Whitehorse Community Garden!

I'm sure everyone is anxious to get going in the garden so I'll get straight to the details. First off, many of you being new gardeners have asked me what is good to plant in your garden. You can plant whatever you want, short of anything illegal, but the real question is what should you plant to get a decent yield. I'm including a link to a previous post, here, that should answer your questions on that. As well, I will be holding a workshop/information session on Wednesday, May 18th on "Getting Your Garden Started". It's an informal affair at the garden and I'll touch on what to grow, tips for planting, soil preparation, using compost, planting techniques, etc. It would be a good time to ask any questions you may have before the long weekend which is generally the date we (in the southern Yukon) use (loosely) use for getting our gardens planted. The workshop starts at 6pm and is followed by our weekly work bee at 7pm.

On the topic of work bees, we have a work bee every Wednesday night from 7-9pm, rain or shine, unless it's really shine-y and hot and in that case I usually won't show up. Our hot days are so few and far between, I'd rather be out and about enjoying the sun instead of digging in the dirt :) Rainy days on the other hand are great for weeding! ;)
I will be holding an additional work bee this Saturday, May 14, from 9-3pm. Feel free to show up whenever and for as long as you can. All and any help is appreciated. All hours worked at our work bees go to your 16 volunteer hours in the garden.

On the topic of 16 volunteer hours in the garden... As your Gardener's Contract states, all gardeners are to "contribute 16 hours over the course of the season for volunteer communal work ...". We're finding that many gardeners are not holding up their end of this important part our philosophy as a community garden and many are doing far more than their share (Bravo!) and so we have a new rule this year: Any gardener, returning or otherwise, who has not fulfilled their 16 hours of volunteer communal work will lose the privilege of returning to their plot the following season and first choice of their plot will be given to new gardeners and/or returning gardeners looking to change plots. In other words, your plot will be up for grabs.
Something else I will be doing a little different this year, is that I will be assigning every gardener a small manageable piece of the garden to take care of. This should eliminate the rather large tasks (mostly weeding) that gardeners are faced with when I ask them to take care of a complete section of garden. There will be a few extra tasks (mostly watering) that will be assigned as well.
All hours are to be recorded on the monthly chart in the shed. I will have the chart up this week.

In other news, the outhouse is now on site and, as usual, use at your own risk.
I expect the water to be turned on this week sometime, if it hasn't been already. Those of you in the south garden will need a demo of how to turn the water on and, most importantly, off once that happens. If you can understand it, I did do a post a while back on the steps and you can see that, here. If it doesn't make sense, I can show you how when I see you.

I think that's it for now. I hope to see many of you at the work bee tomorrow night. Stay tuned to the blog for any updates in the garden.