Looking for a New Garden Coordinator

Tracy and I are going to be farming a 1/4 acre incubator plot with the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project in Lowell this season.  As a result, we won't have the time to run the 200 Foot Garden this year.  We're actively searching for a new garden coordinator.  (Just to be clear--there's no pay--the whole garden operates on a volunteer basis.)

The coordinator would:

• decide what gets planted
• buy seeds/seedlings or arrange volunteers to grow seedlings
• lay out the planting plan (in terms of placement and timing)
• deal with fertility issues (order compost or get bagged fertilizer)
• set up planting and work days (for watering and weeding)
• communicate with volunteers for the planting and watering schedule
• oversee the signage
• update the blog  (VERY easy)
• communicate with the management company that owns the property.

This sounds like a lot, but it's not super complicated because the garden is small and quite self-contained.  In the past, we've ordered a couple yards of compost, but it might be all right without that this year, just put in some bags of composted manure.  The planting is usually done over only a few short sessions.  (Lots of hands make it go quickly.)   The signs are already up, though some will needed updating. 

The position doesn't require a huge amount of gardening experience--just someone who is energetic, organized, and a good people person.

Having done this for the past three years, I can say it's a tremendously rewarding project.  I'm going to miss it.  I've done a lot of work that generates public feedback (I'm a playwright for my day job), and I have to say this is one of the projects that comes with the most positive response.  Every day we work in the garden, people come up and tell us how grateful they are for the garden, not just for the vegetables to eat (though they do like to eat them), but also for its beauty and for the way it adds a bit of vitality to the neighborhood. 

If you're interested, I hope you'll send me an e-mail at pat@gabridge.com.  If you know someone who might be a good fit, I hope you'll pass along the info.

Thanks!

Garden to Bed

I was just looking at the blog and realized that I never posted that we did indeed put the garden to bed for the season.  Tracy, Hannah, Yvonne, Noah, Keff, and I all worked to pull up the last few plants, scoop up the leaves, and close up shop for the year.  We had a great season and very much appreciate all the help.

There are some big questions about the garden for next year.  I'll be in a farm training program in Lowell, MA, over the summer, growing a small 1/4 acre farm and selling to a cooperative CSA and at some farmer's markets.  So I'll be looking for someone else to take over management of the project.  With any luck, it will continue over this next season and for many years after that.

Winding Down (not quite)

We didn't have our regular Tuesday work day last night, because we just don't have enough daylight left at 6:30 anymore.  Plus, the fall is so busy with back to school, it's hard for anyone to find the time.  However, Keff and I did hit the garden yesterday around lunch time.  It was such a gorgeous day, I couldn't stand to be at my basement desk for one more minute.

This late in the season, we don't worry much about watering anymore.  Instead, we spent time weeding and pulling down the old cucumber vines and fallen leaves that are starting to collect.  The series of 40-degree nights we had a couple weeks ago put a definite end to most of the cucumber and watermelon action.  The tomatoes are actually doing better than I would have thought.  I did find a cucumber buried in the leaves, and it was still lovely.  Here's neighbor and 200 Foot Garden supporter, Pearl, with the cucumber.

Though we planted a lot more tomatoes this season, it seems like we never got to see many red ones on the vines.  I've gotten reports (from Pearl and others) that people have come to the garden to pick green tomatoes by the bag full.  I'm not entirely pleased about this.  Though the garden is meant for everyone, it's also meant for everyone to share.  And I really, really want to see red tomatoes on the vines.  I'd hoped that planting more tomatoes would make it so no one person would take too many.  (That said, the late season weather was also kind of weird for tomatoes.)  Maybe the solution is to plant more cherry tomatoes.  We tried putting up signs encouraging people to not pick the fruit until it was ripe, but I don't think it helped. 

The good news is that there are still some tomatoes on the vines, and some might ripen.  But I noticed about a week or two ago, that all the big fruit had been stripped from the vines in just one or two days.

The tomatillos are producing, but having a hard time due to damage from Hurricane Irene.  Still, I picked a couple pounds yesterday and plan to make some green salsa this weekend.

(Tomatillos.  The actual fruit is inside the paper shells.)




Being out at lunch gave us lots of chance to talk to passersby, who had many questions about tomatillos, peppers ("Did that big plant come from just one seed?").  For me, half the fun of this garden is getting to talk with people about the garden and how vegetables grow.

For now, we've got the garden cleaned up a little bit, so it looks nicer.  And we've still got a month left of veggies to harvest.  The greens--chard, collards, dinosaur kale, and mustard--are all still going strong.  There are peppers yet to come, along with a few tomatoes and tomatillos.

It even looks good

The other day, Keff and I were harvesting from the 200 Foot Garden, and he put together this basket from what we picked, to give to the folks who own and manage the property that we use, as a way of saying thanks (and to show them that we really do produce veggies from little speck of land).

Now the tatume squash are all about done, but cucumbers are still producing, and the tomatoes are teasing us.  There are hundreds of them, waiting to turn red.  We just need a little bit more patience.  (Though there are some ripe yellow perfection tomatoes in there, if you hunt a little.)  The Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes are turning red, but getting picked so fast, I almost never even see them orange.

The watermelon vines are longer than we've ever seen, but no fruit yet.  I don't know if we'll see any or not.  Maybe next year.

The basil and chard and kale seems to be getting picked regularly, which is good.  They like it.

harvesting and working (and those darn SVBs)

We lost yet another work day to thunderstorms last week, but Keff, Noah, and I did get some work time in on the garden on Wednesday.  We weeded, trimmed yellow leaves off tomatoes, cut off leaves with powdery mildew, tied up drooping tomato stems with twine.  I also discovered that our tatume squash have squash vine borers (SVBs), which are one of my least favorite pests.  The SVB moth lays her eggs on the young plants, and when they hatch, the larvae promptly burrow into the stems and grow there.  You can cut them out, but the cure often kills the plant anyway.  We lost about half our squash plants to SVBs.  We'll have to try harder next year to keep them away (it's not easy).

The good news is that we did manage to harvest a bunch of squash and cucumbers.

Here's a photo of the cukes:

The lemon cucumbers are simply fantastic--crisp and light.

The tomatoes are just starting to turn red this week, and I think this rain we're getting with both the tomatoes and the cucumbers (and keep people away from the tomatoes long enough to let more of them turn red).  I picked a lovely red tomato on Thursday from the garden, and it was delicious.  The tomatillos are also starting to set fruit--I love their little paper lantern husks.

Tomorrow is our regular Tuesday workday (maybe the storms won't rain us out), and we'll put up some new signs and keep tying up tomato plants to give them some more support as they sag from all the fruit.

rant from YA author John Green about lawns

I love this video blog from one of my favorite YA authors, John Green, about the silliness of lawns and his desire to have lawns converted to vegetable gardens.

good work day

We had a good work day at the garden this evening.  Keff, Yvonne, Tracy, and our daughter, Kira, were all there.  Lots of hands helps spread the work around nicely.   We did some weeding, watering, and I spent more time tying up tomato branches and trimming tomato plant leaves off the ground (we want to avoid blight).

The garden looks truly amazing.  All the plants are vigorous at the moment.  The squash and the cucumbers are reaching up towards the top of the fence.  We've had a little bit of powdery mildew, but not too bad, and some blossom end rot, so we put down some crushed egg shells around the tomato plants. 

I think people have already picked the first tatume squash and cucumber.  I had my eye one one of each yesterday, and today they were gone.  Neither was quite ripe--I'm tempted to put up a sign that says "please don't pick the cucumbers until they're round at the bottom."  The cucumbers are blooming like mad--if a good fraction of them set fruit, there will be plenty of cukes to go around.

The mustard is enormous.  I'm talking to a group of senior citizens at the 99 Kent Street apartments tomorrow, so I think I'll pick some mustard greens and bring them with me to hand out.  I wish I was going to have more to give out, but the big stuff isn't quite ready yet.  I think we've got at least one more week until the tomatoes are ripe.  The good news is that there are easily more than 100 tomatoes on the vines right now, and with 7 cherry tomato plants there will be lots of snacks for passersby.