Repurposing with a purpose

We had a super busy day at the garden on Saturday, with people working hard from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m and a lot was accomplished! If I remember correctly, our crew was Judy, Laura, Marcelo, Andrew, Els, Donna, Jonathan, and me.

We removed the kale from the Oak Street bed. We were able to harvest some for the food pantry. The kale left behind many small white flies in the spot where we were planting tomatoes. We tried spraying with the BT from a couple of years ago (recommended then by Natalia the farmer), though we aren't sure it is still viable. We planted at least 13 tomatoes--many donated by Fable Farm and some that I had grown from seedlings my neighbor donated to us. Andrew spoke to Tom (of Fable Farm) at the CSA pick up the next day about the white flies, and Tom gave him a spray that he says will help. (Thanks, Andrew and Tom!) We spread straw around the tomato plants to help the soil stay moist and to keep down weeds.

Building on our love of repurposing items that would otherwise be thrown out, we made two structures for viney plants to grow on in one of the center beds and at the sunny end of the lasagna bed. We planted two cucumber seedlings that Laura and Blanca had grown in the center bed and two carnival squash seedlings in the lasagna bed.

We harvested and enjoyed some strawberries and noticed that the raspberries are starting to come in. Donna planted a tomato and cucumber in Sam and the kids' bed.