Dripping Success!

Success in the garden is a drip system that is working and even on a timer. Rick has accomplished the impossible! We have a working drip system, which is watering the garden, the north sloping bed (flowers and tomatoes), the raised bed, and the pumpkin patch (including the sunflowers)!! It is even on a timer - set to drip for 2 morning hours (7-9 am) and 2 evening hours (7-9 pm) . Thank you, Rick, for your perseverance through digging up, repairing, replacing old with new where needed, mapping and laying out a new workable design, reconnecting the lines, and then adding in and setting the timer. Thank you for your dedication and tenacity!

Watering volunteers: please continue to go to the garden this week to monitor the drip system and make sure that it is indeed watering at the approximate times indicated and report any problems to Rick or Joan. By next week, we ought to be assured that the drip system is working properly. And VERY IMPORTANT - DO NOT turn off the main water valve and DO NOT turn off the valve that goes to the drip system - BOTH must remain ON in order for the drip system to work on the timer.

Hand watering of the herb bed may still be needed. The sprinklers on the grass side may be reaching them - but I am not certain how well. Waterers and weeders - please take a look at the herb bed each time you visit the garden. Water the herb bed if it looks dry. Report any problems to Joan.

Weeds continue to surface everywhere, but great progress has been made in covering areas with straw to reduce the amount of weeding required. One of our Julies (there are 2 Julies working in the garden, and a 3rd following its progress) has been weeding, planting, and spreading straw in the herb garden. Our herb bed now includes chives, sage, lavender, parsley, thyme, mint, basil and a number of flowering plants. It is truly (Julie) beautiful. Another Julie has been working on weeding the spaces between the flagstones - quite a job! [Have you noticed: our Utah flagstone yet?] Come by and admire Julie's work.

Allison planted the ashtray - this picture was taken at night - a work of art - for sure!

Stephanie planted sunflowers along the west fence behind the pumpkins. This should be fun as the season progresses. Our vegetables are growing - I have seen signs of edible items - have a look at the pictures below.

Thank you, thank you, one and all. Keep up the good work!
And, of course, work is still needed:

• Monitoring the drip system this week. Report problems to Rick or Joan.
• Checking the herb bed and watering if needed. Report problems to Joan.
• Weeding
• Garden, raised bed, pumpkin patch, herb bed
• Sidewalk - slope (both sides) and parking strip
• Dandelions from: house lawn, church lawn, RE lawn, garden lawn
• Seems like some celebration is also in order -- suggestions?
  

Drat!

Be careful when working in and around the west compost bin (next to the irises).

I am sorry to have to report that a rat has been spotted traveling between the west compost bin and the irises. Please be EXTRA careful if you work in that area. Better still - for now - just avoid that area in the garden.

If you have recommendations about how to get rid of the rat, especially an environmentally friendly, yet effective way, please let me know as soon as possible.

Garden safely.

Watering the Garden - Spigot Repair

The water spigot in the garden is in need of some serious repair – it broke in several places today creating a most impressive geyser. Fortunately, the weather forecaster says we are due for some rain – Tuesday and Wednesday. So, for the next few days, we will need to depend on Mother Nature for watering while Layne makes the needed repairs. Hopefully, by later in the week, we will be back to our regular watering schedule. I’ll let you know, when I know more.

Saturday in the Garden

Today was a great day for dandelion digging. And although a lot of dandelion digging time was spent, there are still LOTS of dandelions left. Come one and all … they’ll be there waiting for you on the lawn of the house between the garden and the church, as well as on the church lawn, the playground lawn and the garden lawn.

Rick has been working on the drip system (today he had some help from Brian). They are in need of about 4 hose clips – 1 inch in diameter. If you have any and are willing to donate them to the garden effort, please let me know.

Lots of weeding is still available in addition to dandelion weeding – garden weeding, flagstone weeding, and south side sloping bed weeding (we have now weeded the full north side of the sloping bed!! - of course, that means that that bed is ready for digging and flower planting).

Next Saturday, June 14^th is the first day of the Downtown Farmers’ Market – an event I never miss. So my gardening will again be in the afternoon on Saturday, around 1:00-3:00 pm. Hope you can join me there.

Signs of Spring

Margie and Rick have been very busy in the garden.

Margie has been putting up signs labeling the plants so that we know what is planted where. The signs are great.

Rick is working on the drip system. He has connected hoses to the water source and has laid out hose throughout the garden. Still remaining are connections to the raised bed, pumpkin patch, and the sidewalk flower and tomato bed plus a timer. But he is getting very, very close to having the drip system completely in place.

Thank you to ALL our great garden volunteers!

Dandelions -- They’re Everywhere … They’re Everywhere!

The dandelions are taking over the front lawn of the house between the garden and the church.

We have an opportunity to keep herbicides off the church lawns by weeding dandelions this weekend. Weather permitting, please join me on Saturday afternoon, June 7^th from 1:00 – 4:00 pm weeding dandelions. We will start on the house lawn and move south around the church property, including the CCNS/RE/playground lawn and ending with the garden lawn.

I know that some of you have dandelion recipes. Here is one source – but if you have dandelion cooking experience, please share your recipes with us on our blog. Note: I have never tried any of these, but there is always a first time. To the best of my knowledge, no herbicides or pesticides have been applied to our church lawns since before the winter snows this year. This is information I would personally want before cooking up any dandelion recipes. I will do my best to verify this information in time for our dandelion weeding effort.

Nurturing Ourselves and Our Garden

On Sunday we watered and weeded and planted tomatoes donated by Judy and flower seeds donated by Melanie.

Julie, Joan, and Jane (the three J's) did some weeding before the 10 am service. After the congregational meeting, Melanie, Joan, and Gene weeded grass from the northeast corner of the sloping area along 1300 East. Melanie made the job easier by having watered the area just before the 10 am service.

Melanie applied her fantastic liquid organic fertilizer (made from fermenting vegetable/fruit scraps and Dr. Earth's organic compost starter) to the already planted vegetable plants - testing the organic fertilizer produced by the apartment composter donated to Environmental Ministry. So, no need to fertilize again for awhile.

Melanie dug down 4-5 inches on the north side of the sloping plot on the west side of the fence to turn over the soil and rid it of left over weeds and rocks. She also created a rock ledge to try to keep the soil from eroding down the hillside, and another one to keep the water around the new tomato plants. Cynthia and Melanie then planted flower seeds (Cosmos Bright Lights Mix, Nasturtium - Double Dwarf Jewel Mix, Tithonia Torch, Marigold - Happy Days Mix; and Celosia - Forest Fire). They hand watered all the new tomato plants, and then hose watered the newly planted flower bed, and the whole garden.

Jane volunteered to water on Saturday mornings. Sonia will water on Tuesday mornings and possibly one other morning - Joan will update the schedule.

ATTENTION ALL WATERING VOLUNTEERS: Please water ALL the rows including the row next to the playground, the tilled rows on the grass (south) side of the garden area, AND the tomatoes and flowers planted in the sloping bed on the sidewalk side of the fence. Here is the watering schedule.

And just in case you now think that there isn't anything left to do, we still need:
- watering on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
- weeding dandelions from the church lawn, house lawn, and RE lawn
- weeding grass from the rest of the sloping flower bed on the sidewalk side of the garden
- weeding the garden
- putting the weeded weeds and cut grass into the compost pile
- removing weeds from between the flagstone (garden walkway)
- planting some more herbs and/or flowers

See you in the garden -- and remember -- you don't need to be invited. Come work in the garden when YOU have the time, when YOU want to get "down to earth", when it works for YOU. And so you know, you will probably find Joan working in the garden on Saturdays and Sundays.