Houston Community Garden

Houston Community Garden update

May 24, 2012

Hello Garden Friends!

May has been a very busy month, so I wanted to take a few minutes to update you on the the happenings at the garden:

Laurel Oein and Roger Meyer did a tremendous amount of work early on in spring, removing all the spools we had been using for the old water tank and “tables” around the garden. The garden looks so much nicer without them cluttering up the perimeter!

They also built a wonderful little open door shack for the log book and information about the garden. We still need to put another coat of paint on it and hang up all the garden info, but it is such a welcome addition! I hope that it will provide better communication between the garden and visitors and volunteers!

On May 12th, a handful of cub scouts spent several hours, planting two apple trees (yeah!!!) and staining the benches. We also attached some spindle/posts to each box and are in the process of numbering each box for better identification and to provide information about what is in each box! Thanks much to Tricia Runningen and her dad, Terry Angst, who created the little number panels for us to attach to the wooden posts.

On May 14th, 36 2nd graders from Houston Elementary ventured out to the garden to plant, plant, plant....and eat watermelon. (Which tasted sooo good after working in the hot sun!) Many thanks to Matt Schutte and Heather Martin for using their classrooms to grow the tomatoes and peppers we planted, and to Kelsey Solum, Cardy Lewison, Deb Stilin and Joan Redig for helping out with the kiddos and planting that day. WHAT WE PLANTED: Lots of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots,watermelon, cantaloupe, butternut squash, radishes, basil, cabbage, lettuce, strawberry sweet corn, peas and beans.

On May 17th, Brenda Polhman taught a class on composting to a small but very interested group of folks. We made a visit out to the garden to check out our very own composting pile. Brenda was impressed.

This past Tuesday, Cardy Lewison and I planted the sweet potatoes in the last two empty beds. These are my big experiment this year, so I have no great expectations. They didn’t look like much when I received the slips in the mail on Monday, but they supposedly come back with vigor. We’ll see!

We continue to improve the garden with each visit, it seems. Roger has been so reliable in keeping the garden mowed so that it looks nice, and I can’t thank Steve Skifton and the Houston Fire Department enough for keeping us in water. We really couldn’t exist without them, especially when is it as dry as it is.

Marilyn Frauenkron-Bayer has kept our herb garden looking beautiful and the Forget-Me-Not Garden Club, (at the suggestion of Jean Collette), has donated $100 toward the purchase/building of a new picnic table for the garden! Thank You!!! We hope to have that up in the next several weeks, probably completed by the Money Creek Livewires 4H group. The table will be a valuable addition to the garden and allow more space for visitors to sit, help the volunteers as they count and weigh harvest. I’m sure Kelsey will appreciate the extra sitting space with the kids gardening class this summer... and we always need places for the kids to sit and save seeds in September when the 3rd graders come back for a visit.

Whew! (I hope I haven’t missed anyone!)

Looking ahead:

*Lots of garden classes and activities!

*We are still in need of folks who can commit to stopping by to water when it’s dry and help harvest for food shelf (especially in July and August).

*Watch for “Pop-up” garden COOKING programs this summer with Kelsey Solum (and possibly me). We plan to watch what is ready to harvest and plan a seasonal cooking class using what is ready. There would probably be only a week or so notice for any of these, so keep your eyes and ears open!

What’s ready to Harvest:

*With the early spring, Garlic may be ready before the usual July timeframe. We’re watching it!

*We don’t have much lettuce this year (as the school starters didn’t take as well as I would have hoped and Featherstone didn’t have any extras to offer us), so our past bounty of early crops won’t be as plentiful. If it’s not storming this afternoon (Thursday) I plan to harvest a couple dozen radishes and a bit of argula and lettuce that’s ready and take it to the food shelf. In June, we’ll begin regular work days on Thursdays from 3 - 6 pm and take what is available to the food shelf.

I realize this is a dense little note, but please pass this on to anyone you think would be interested in helping out with the garden or who may just want to keep up with all our busy-ness.

Have a happy, healthy, sun-filled weekend!

Audrey