It’s Not Over Yet

We have two weeks left in our growing season at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden. We were rained out this weekend, so that’s pretty much put a nail in the coffin of our fence straightening project for the year, even though we made amazing progress last weekend.  We are likely to end the year with reaching our average goal of donating 500 pounds of produce to area food pantries, which is not bad considering that we had a plot out of cultivation for most of the summer because of our water project and lost a lot of kale and collard seedlings with careless volunteers earlier in the season.

Our frosts surprised me this year.  One day we are sweltering in the high 80’s and the extended forecast did not show frost until November and two days later, the temperatures were dipping into the low 30’s, even in town, three separate times in a week.   My backyard is super protected, so I was not affected, but we lost some plants at the SACG.  Amy and I stopped by on the Wednesday of the first frost to salvage our peppers, basil, zinnias and beans, etc.   On the following Saturday, I salvaged the rest of the peppers (except for one poblano plant that seemed very hardy) and donated them.   In some ways, I am grateful for the killing frosts.  I HATE to pull out healthy plants just because we are closing for the year.  Some years, I waited until the last minute and it was miserable because the weather had turned considerably colder.  This way, we have a few cold days to kill the plants and then a slight warm-up to clean out the plots.

Because it has been extremely cold on our last two closing days, I thought it might make more sense to give the gardeners the option of putting in their last three hours of work equity over the last four Saturdays, instead of just the last Saturday. So, starting October 20, the gardeners have had the option of coming to help clean out the Garden for the season instead of waiting until our last day on November 10.  Alyssa and Taylor always want to clear out early because they always seem to have out-of-town plans for that weekend.  The Hackensack twins came on Saturday, October 20 and hacked and sacked (i.e., bagged) the exterior raspberry brambles on BOTH the south and north sides of the Garden.   They also performed chores of watering our new apple trees and mowing the lawns.

Sabrina also came, but not to put in her work equity.  She cleaned out more of her plot, harvested the rest of her peppers, helped me to hack and sack my zinnia forest, cleared out the food pantry tomato plants growing up the west fence, composted piles that I had left around, saved marigold and cosmos seeds and watered the food pantry plots.   I cleaned out the summer neighbor bed, cleaned out the pepper/eggplant food pantry beds, harvested for our weekly food pantry donation (this time to the Apostolic Church a block from the Garden), disconnected the tall rain cistern, pruned back weed trees growing in the fence line, cleaned out more of my plot and zinnia forest, and watered some flowers.   We still have bees and butterflies visiting us.

I had hoped that we still might be able to finish the fence straightening project on the south side of the Garden at least.  However, we were rained out yesterday and I think will be hard pressed to finish the rest of our tasks in the next two weeks.  But who knows?  If extra hands show up, we might get it all one and have enough time to dig a few more post holes and attach a few more braces.  Although Phil, Amy and I will be starting an hour later than usual on Saturday, November 3, we will start at our regular 9 a.m. time on Saturday, November 10 so that we will definitely be finished around noonish.  Many hands make light work, so the more the merrier:

November 3: We will be cutting back interior brambles in the food pantry plots; hacking and composting dead annual  flowers and bagging dead perennial flowers.  (We won’t hack any flowers still in bloom or the coneflowers until closing day because we still have bees and finches visiting us and they need to eat). Then, we will be cleaning out the flower bed behind the shed and mowing the lawn if it needs it, watering the food pantry plots and neighbor bed for the very last time this season and emptying the rain tanks without creating a pond at Kimball Farms.

November 10:  We will be finishing up whatever we failed to complete the prior week before then pruning back all of the remaining flowers, roses and the native bed at the corner of Main and Stoddart., harvesting the rest of the cold crops, raking out plots, organizing the shed, mowing the lawn, consolidating and tidying up the lumber and supplies, taking down the sign, and whatever else needs to be done.  If we have time, then and only then, we will be able to consider putting in a few more fence posts and braces along the south side of the Garden between where we left off this Spring and the shed.  I will keep my fingers crossed.  Unlike last year, the weather is supposed to be nice. 

We are less than 15 pounds shy of our annual goal of donating at least 500 pounds of fresh produce to area food pantries.  While it will not set any records for us, it is not bad considering that we had a plot out of cultivation this summer because of the water project and a couple of volunteers who killed most of our kale and collard seedlings earlier in the season.   We still have lettuce, turnips, radishes, kale, collards and cabbage growing, I have my fingers crossed that we will end the season on a respectable note. 

In the meantime, if any readers have an extra bench to donate or would like to build us one (or repair one of ours), we need your help.  One of our volunteers over the summer broke one of slats from our benches (which I know was not hard to do because it was already old when it had been donated to us).  We have sanded and stained the benches over the years, but the slats were wearing thin and breakage was just a matter of time.  Nonetheless, they are extremely handy for us so that we can sit when processing materials and to store personal items while at the Garden.