Our hardworking SACG volunteers |
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I turned Susan loose on pruning the front flower bed, Sabrina on harvesting the remaining produce in the Garden while Tom and I turned to relocating the knockout rose bushes. While I pruned back the rose bushes, Tom dug their new holes and then dug out the bushes (which is much easier said than done). I brought an ax to disconnect the deep tap roots (based on prior experience in relocating rose bushes). I helped to plant one and then watered both of the bushes in.
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Barb contemplating a rose bud |
Rayna came with Joseph and Audrey. They brought candy and donut holes. I turned Rayna loose pruning the raspberry bushes. Susan joined the task on the south side of the Garden. Lea and Joseph bagged and bagged and bagged. Tom trimmed and bagged. Audrey dug out Rayna’s giant carrot crop and bagged kale. I emptied and disconnected the rain tanks and pruned some brambles and bagged. Then, I turned to harvesting. Susan helped me harvest and compost.
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Cathy came (because class let out early) and brought some plastic bags for our food pantry harvest because I ran out a few weeks ago. (Luckily, Sabrina had also brought me a lot of bags). Urban Connections donated a giant turning compost bin to us and delivered it yesterday. I never realized how big it was, but it is as tall as our shed. Its door is missing, but her father will be fixing that.
We have three stationary compost bins and two turning bins. We put most things in the bins, but we can’t put certain garden waste in the bins because they do not generate enough heat to kill everything bad. For instance, we don’t put tomatoes in the bins because their seeds would create volunteer tomatoes when we eventually spread compost. We also don’t put sunflower seeds or cosmos (or other seedy weeds) in the bins. I also discourage putting sick tomato plants or sick tomato straw in the bins to diminish changes of viruses being transmitted later. So, if a tomato plant died back early from any number of viruses that tomatoes get (like wilt, blights, etc.), we put those plants and the straw that mulched them into bags instead of into our bins. We also do not compost things that will not decompose within a year – like thick stalks of our sunflowers or corn. That being said, all of our bins were full.
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Going in the Out Door at LSS Food Pantry |
Then, we caravanned over to the Lutheran Social Services food pantry on Frebis. My gardeners thought I was exaggerating about how popular our fresh greens are. I rarely get to this or the St. Vincent de Paul pantry without getting stopped by someone wanting a bag. Sure enough, they were stopped by departing patrons (since we go in through the out door). Told you so. We seem to be one of the few gardens donating kale and collard greens. I would devote our entire food pantry plots to greens if it weren’t for the fact that aphids wiped out our entire kale and collard crop during 2013. So, I tend to devote about a third of our space to tomatoes, a third to greens and the rest to peppers, beans, and squash.
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LSS's Infamous Gene hard at work |
Gene hadn't seen me in a few weeks because I've been busy with auntie duty at my nephew's JV football games. He usually pesters me with lawyer jokes (when I'm least in the mood and suffering from low blood sugar). However, today he was a bit distracted and barely noticed that I brought helpers for the first time in four years. (Betty Weaver used to make our pantry deliveries before I started growing greens that need to be delivered within an hour or so of their harvest).
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Faith Mission's Kitchen Door |
Since it was rather late in the day and we had a lot of herbs, we caravanned over to Faith Mission to deliver the second half of our last harvest of the season. I explained to the kids that this in the only place in town serving three free meals every day of the year. The cooks were also very excited to receive fresh greens (kale, turnip, collards and beets) and fresh herbs (i.e., sage, parsley, dill, chives, and oregano).
Of course, I have a yard of my own to rake and laundry to do, so I’m pretty wiped out. (Thank goodness I put my heated mattress pad on my bed last night). Again, I failed to give my annual report (but I’ll circulate a summary of it among the gardeners and the Board this week). I gave Susan her awards for being our Volunteer of the Year AND our tidiest gardener (which comes with a travelling gnome trophy). More on this later. She’s such a sweetie: she gave me (and my kitten) a gift, too. Sigh.
So, the SACG is looking pretty empty right now – just in time for the upcoming frigid winter nights. We always close on the second weekend in November and we always have great weather. We considered closing a week early this year, but it didn’t work out. Good thing; it was a lot colder last weekend and is supposed to be even colder next weekend. Clearly, we have a Guardian Angel in the weather department.