Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Spinach!

On June 16th, we picked and donated to the Greylock cafeteria 4.8 pounds of fresh spinach leaves! This was our first donation of food from the garden.

Judy Richardson used half to make a delicious spinach quiche and the other half to put out as loose leaf spinach for salads. The photos are below.




"Where Are We?" Day

Many thanks to all who helped out on the Williams Center-organized "Where Are We?" Day in the Garden workshop. We had fun and got a lot done! We installed a new drip irrigation system, planted the two garden flower beds with zinnias, amaranth, and cosmos, did some weeding and haying, and tested the soil in certain beds. I posted some photos below. Mr. Payne and his son Finn even stopped by to help pick rocks!









Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Tasks: Week of May 31st

Garden Tasks for the week of May 31st:
(To be performed by Patrick, Katherine, and Y.E.S., as well as any volunteers who stop by)


1. Weed everything (but primarily the 6 raised beds)
2. Spread mulch hay around the tomatoes and peppers
3. Water everything (especially on rain-free days)
4. Rake the isles in between potato rows free of rocks so the rototiller can get through.
5. Start weeding the two flower beds in prep for the June 9th flower planting.

Garden Update

Thank you to all who attended the orientation meeting on Saturday!! We're hoping to hash out a more solid weekly summer schedule starting in mid-to-late June. To see what weeks are already taken, take a look at the calendar (link on the sidebar to the right)

Here's an update about what's planted in each row/bed and how it's doing. For a diagram of the garden layout, see the sidebar to the right. There you can also find a chart of all plantings (with dates and notes) thus far.

Bed 1:
A: Cucumbers (4 in one row). Growing nicely but need trellises!
B: Parris Island Romaine Lettuce (planted in 2 rows). About 1 inch tall currently, but healthy.

Bed 2:
A: Carrots (danvers 126, in two rows). They've all sprouted for the most part and are battling the weeds.
B: Freckles Romaine Lettuce (in two rows). A bit sparse, but the ones that have sprouted are quite healthy. About half an inch tall.

Bed 3:
A: Carrots (two rows). Hardly any have sprouted. Odd, as they were planted only one day later than the ones in bed two and with the same level of compost and watering.
B: Cherry Tomatoes (alternating red and yellow) from Gr. River Farms. Planted sideways and doing well.

Bed 4:
A: Spinach (Bloomsdale Long Standing, two rows). Spinach is up and thriving, largely due to the generous dose of compost added while planting and the Reemay sheets to keep off direct hot sun.
B: Heirloom Red Onion Set (two rows). Growing beautifully

Bed 5:
A: Spinach (Bloomsdale Long Standing, two rows). This spinach was planted one day before bed 4 and without compost. The leaves are noticeably smaller and thinner, and the plants are more sparse.
B: Heirloom White Onion Set (two rows). Growing beautifully.

Bed 6:
A: Cherry tomatoes (alternating red and yellow, one row). Donated fr. Green River Farms. Planted sideways. Doing well
B: Green Revolution Bell Peppers (one row). Doing well. Loving the heat.

Excess cherry tomatoes and peppers were planted along the North side of Otto Wied's subsection of the garden.

Row P1: Purple Majesty potatoes. Planted a few days before the rest and growing like crazy, far faster than the other potatoes. More weeds by far in this row than the others as well. Planted in the trench of a small hill.

Row P2: Adirondack Red Potatoes. Planted to the right side of a mound-row of soil. About a foot apart. The plants are starting to pop up. Some are a few inches tall, some have just come up.

Row P3: Green Mountain Potatoes. Planted in the trench of a small hill. Results largely the same as p2.

Row P4: Mixed Potatoes. The remaining GM and AR potatoes. Results largely the same.

Row P5: Blue Lake Bush Beans. The crows ate the first round of beans, so we replanted and covered with Reemay to ensure a smooth germination. We'll see what happens.

Row P6: Four "Cucumber Volcanoes." Mounds of soil with large basins in the top. Two cucumber plants are planted on opposite "slopes" and water is poured in the basin to irrigate the plant.

BACK HALF: Buckwheat. Just starting to sprout.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Current Garden Layout

Below is a drawing of the current full garden layout. You can click the link below it to enlarge. This can also be found under "garden layout" on the sidebar to the right.



After doing some research over April vacation and talking to a few gardeners and farmers, Katherine and I decided to make a raised bed system for the majority of our vegetables. Raised beds offer improved soil conditions and a more manageable workspace. We also decided to plant half of the 40 by 80 foot plot with Buckwheat, a simple soil enricher, to create prime growing conditions in that half of the garden for next year.

After manually moving the soil around for a while, we came up with 6 large raised beds for vegetables and two thinner raised beds for flowers, all in one corner of the plot. We also decided to plant potato rows in the adjacent corner. We physically crafted the beds and then put hay down in the new "isles" to suppress weeds and ensure ready access to the beds.

We planned each raised bed to include rows of 2 separate plants, utilizing companion planting to get the highest crop yeild. More information about companion planting can be found on the sidebar to the on the "Helpful Planting Information" page. Essentially, certain plants grow well together because the take up different nutrients from the soil and complement each other.

As of the week of May 24th, here's what's in the ground:

1. Romaine Lettuce seeds (two different types) in beds 1A and 2B
2. Carrot seeds (Danvers 126) in beds 2A and 3B
3. Spinach seeds in beds 4B and 5B
4. A white heirloom onion set (donated from Laura Bentz) in bed 5A
5. A red heirloom onion set (also from Laura) in bed 4A
6.Cherry Tomato seedlings (donated from Green River Farm) in bed 6A
7. Purple Majesty potatoes (also from Laura) in bed P1
8. Adirondack Red potatoes (also from Laura) in bed P2
9. Green Mountain potatoes (you guessed it, from Laura) in bed P3
10. Mixed Potatoes (from Laura) in bed P4

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Welcome to the VeggieBlog!

Hello one and all -

Welcome to the MG Vegetable Garden Blog! Here you'll find the latest garden updates, records, and task lists. On the side bar to the right under "Garden Links," you'll also find a link to the garden volunteer scheduling calendar, a garden photo slide show, the current vegetable layout, and other useful links.

Enjoy!

--
Patrick Madden