From Jill
Below are 2 corrections to the calendar of events posted in the newsletter:

1) There will be a workshare this Sunday May 16 from 12 - 4. Several key tasks for this workshare are:
-laying fabric for the squash bed & getting squash seeds planted
-removing debris from compost bin construction
-removing old pallets from compost bin construction area

2) The July potluck brunch will be on *Sunday* July 25 (not Saturday)

We will need volunteers to sign up to water and weed the squash bed. Especially when it gets hot, we will a different person everyday. (Of course, you can stick a finger in the dirt to make sure it is not already soaked.)

We had a fabulous workshare day today. We had a fantastic turnout for the new-gardener meet-and-greet! Thirty-seven people! I got to meet many new gardeners and hang out while eating pizza in the sun. We cleaned up the garden and freed our perennials from debris. A big shout out to the people who helped rip out the old compost bin on the east side and pour concrete for the new bin. That was hard work! Please let me know right away if you do not want your photos taged with your name (children's names are not published online for security) . It's a good way to connect names with faces so that we can get to know each other. And you are invited to add photos and comments to our Facebook site, as a fan. Talk to me if you want to contribute to the blog.

The volunteer day was postponed due to weather. (Yes, it snowed on me when I went running today.) Rescheduled for Sunday, March 28th at11 am. Hopefully it will be a little warmer and the ground will be dry enough to dig holes for the compost bin.

I will be more timely about this blog in the future! Any gardeners who are really tuned-in to on-line posting can volunteer to add to this blog (talk to me) or can add content to the Facebook page as a fan. Also, the newsletter is always looking for cool stuff, like Paul Weiss's photos of the winter garden.

New Gardening Season

Happy Spring, Gardeners!

From the Newsletter:

Orientation & Workshare Reminder

Our 2010 Orientation will be Saturday, March
27 at 9a.m. at the garden. All new gardeners
are required to attend. Returning gardeners
are encouraged to attend as well - come get to
know our new gardeners!

The first workshare of 2010 will follow the
orientation: March 27 from 10a.m. to 2p.m.
Our first big project of the year will be
rebuilding the East garden compost bins.

This pile of wood is the new compost bin, ready to be installed in place. Paul Weiss and David Pinter worked all day Saturday cutting the wood, shaping it, and attaching it together. Thanks, guys!

Compost

Not hot anymore!

Our big pile of stuff has cooked down into some nice compost! Thank you so much to Brett and to Michelle and her friend, for turning this compost with me. It sure was a lot of work, but compost is the heart and soul of the organic garden. It provides organic matter and beneficial microbes. I don't think we will be doing this very often, so get this compost while you can. We need some volunteers to top up and to turn the compost on the East side.

This compost was a hot compost, done California-style. We turned it every three to seven days, three times. I layered brown and green matter, then finished it off with our leftover sheep manure. I should have used quite a bit more chopped leaves to balance all the fresh green garden clippings and manure. It was a very hot compost - we could feel the heat radiating off of it as we turned it. (Thank you, Mike Monell for all those leaves as well as the manure!) Every layer of green matter should have a bit of manure or finished compost and a covering of dry brown matter like leaves. The manure or compost adds a little ecosystem of live microbes and the leaves balance the carbon/nitrogen ratios. (Also they make the compost less attractive to mice and flies.)

So please use leaves to cover your additions to the compost pile and chop everything up. Do you see all the sticks and things in the compost? Even a hot compost like this cannot digest big items.

Wednesday, August 5th Volunteer Day

Several people took advantage of the last mid-week workday this summer, and we all enjoyed some watermelon and a chance to rip up lots of weeds. The next opportunity to volunteer is Saturday the 15th at 6pm. I think it would be fun if we all brought snacks to share on Saturday as the next potluck is not until August 22nd. Thank you to Arvind Sridharan, Andrea Weeks, and Silvia, Joey, and Christian Lancaster!

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.