notes from the garden

This past Saturday was another perfect weather day at the garden. 

At hand were many of our regulars including Solange, Mark P., Els, Barbara, Lenore, Hilary with her son Sasha, and Milbia and her two girls. Together we were able to weed all the beds and planting areas; water all the vegetables and herbs;  cut the grass around the beds; place wire cages over the tomatoes;  trim some of the trees within the garden; get rid of some poison ivy outside of the garden fence; and turn/churn the compost bins.  

MJ from Roots and Wings was able to come by and bring some extra vegetable plants donate by one of her friends. We received about a dozen new tomato plants, plus a few cabbage, squash, eggplant, broccoli, and artichoke plants.  We have a few extra tomato plants in small plastic pots near the strawberry patch which anyone is welcome to take.

We'll need to continue with the weeding and watering.  To reduce these tasks we will try to cover the areas between the plants with newspapers and hay this weekend, which should reduce the number of weeds and keep the soil moist. It was also mentioned that we can cover the inside flooring of our greenhouse with a cloth type cover to also prevent weeds from growing there.  Due to the amount of rain this week we didn't have to do as much watering but as the days get hotter we will need to water the garden daily. 

So far this is our watering schedule:

• Monday: Barbara
• Wednesday: Marc T.
• Friday: Els
• Saturday: Gardening group

We still need a few more volunteers for the missing days and for the times the regular watering crew is not available.  Let us know if you can join the watering rotation and we can tell you what days you may be needed.

We are happy to hear that the Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry was able to use some of our kale and herbs.  Our strawberry patch is also giving some fruits and there are two lettuce plants ready to be harvested along with the kale leaves.  Herbs such as mint, oregano, sage, thyme, and lemon balm are also ready to be harvested.  Within the next few weeks we should be seeing our first peppers, eggplants, Swiss chard and perhaps tomatoes. 

movie taken by Nicky

I will try to be at the garden a little extra early this Saturday, from 9 am on, so please try to come by and join in the gardening experience.

Regards,

Marc and Solange