July 22nd - Volunteer Day

Hello all. We were busy this Wednesday, with five people showing up to take care of our gardens. I didn't get any pictures this time. Anne Knoll took care of the sidewalk garden and shade garden, Jill Chen and Lois Falconer weeded by the west fence on the West Side (and boy did it need it), Michelle Crandell and her boyfriend cleaned up the overhanging trees and the entrance area on the West side, and I ran around tending to the raspberries (I also gave them a new soaker hose) and the compost.

Next week we should give the East side some attention! It does look pretty good, though: someone has put some landscaping fabric and mulch down on some paths, and I saw Ingrid pulling weeds. The pergola is really looking great right now, it's worth a walk over to the East side to see it. Volunteers built it last year, and then planted flowers in the planter boxes they built around it.

Several of us who stayed late saw bats and a hawk moth the size of a hummingbird feeding on the nectar in the daylillies. It could have been a tomato hornworm moth, although I saw stripes not orange spots on the abdomen. It was really fabulous, but I hope I don't find any giant green caterpillars defoliating my tomatoes and peppers! According to Wikipedia, "They can also be found easily and picked off the plants at night with the use of a blacklight, since they glow under the ultraviolet light." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manduca_quinquemaculata

My compost is cooking very nicely now. It is almost done - it looks like compost but it still smells a bit like a catbox and it is still quite warm inside. It should be ready to use next weekend. The compost in bin 1 is ready to be used.

Yellowstone is amazing

I'm back from my trip to Yellowstone and finally catching up on the blog. We got caught in a buffalo-jam while they crossed right in front of our car. They were close enough to touch. Boy, are they big and fast. I was so glad no one did something dumb to get them upset like honking or touch the babies.

I have a couple of Workshare days to catch-up on. The first weekend Michelle Crandell and her boyfriend flipped the compost for the first time - yeah! - This is really tough work - thank you! On July 8th Brett Sloan and I flipped it again. It had cooked down a little, but it really had a terrible ammonia smell - the smell of valuable nitrogen escaping. Next time I will put in far more dry brown matter. Brett, you are a trooper! Lynn Siverts, Enid Van de Walker, and Anne Knoll weeded. Paulina Mundkowski worked in the orchard. The next week Lynn and Brett came again and Brett turned the compost with me again! It had definitely cooked down, and the smell was far more bearable, but still bad. It was hot to the touch. David Pinter tended the current compost by adding brown leaves on top of the green vegetable matter. Tim Towns tended the bees.