Cherries Jubilee

  This was a quiet and short day at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden.  We received less than .25 inches of rain last night, but it rained hard enough to put some water into our second rain tank.  Because we were anticipating more rain today, I started extra early.  However, it’s already 2 p.m. and there’s not a drop in sight.   I was pretty much alone all morning, except that Charlie stopped by for some light weeding and a basil seedling.  He also checked out our cherries and shocked me by bringing me some ripe bing cherries from our trees across the street.  We don’t have much of a crop this year, but we planted the trees in May 2012, so I am thrilled.  We also have some sour cherries ripening as too.  I had not anticipated them this early in the season and had hoped to space out our fruit crops a little more.  We are currently harvesting strawberries as well.

Today, I weeded our flower beds, planted some cosmos and sunflowers, weeded the food pantry plot, neighbor bed and my plot, thinned the food pantry carrots and turnips, planted some basil, beans and eggplant in the food pantry plot, repaired some damage in the boys’ plot, checked on the other kids’ plots, moved the tomatoes from Hope’s plot, transplanted some lettuce and kale, and checked on our tanks.  Then I harvested for our first weekly food pantry donation and a bit from my own plot before heading over to the Lutheran Social Services food pantry.  I actually arrived just before it opened at 1 p.m.  Luckily, they have their own scale, so I no longer need to stop by my house first to weigh our donation.  Yea!

Of course, just because today was relatively short doesn't mean that other work was not accomplished this week.  We were facing a water shortage a few days earlier.  Without any measurable rain since May 10, our tank was running dry and we were facing a week of very high temperatures.  I had to bring water from home, water our germinating seeds almost daily and research ways of getting our tank filled.  Luckily, we still had our free fill-up coming from Rain Brothers courtesy of the City loaning us our second tank.  So, they came and refilled our large tank on Thurday.   Frank and Cassie then helped me water about 90% of the Garden.

The police also arrested a suspect in last week's shooting death half a block down the street from the Garden.  The Dispatch reported that he has posted bail.