Take the GroGood Pledge

I know we are all donating garden veggies, but I thought this was interesting.

http://www.scotts.com/smg/brand/grogood/?campaign=rdggdotcom

I haven't been to the garden all week since we have had rain. I plan on making the trek on Saturday and can't wait to see how things are doing. Hope everyone had a good week. Tracy

Flowers and Veggies
Deer netting and Water pumps
Purple Martin house, metal markers w/ tennis ball covers
Composting bins for refuse
Photos from Leisure World member gardens.

Other Gardens to Learn From...

Hi Everyone,

I am up in Maryland at my Aunt's, who lives in a retirement community. They have a very large community garden for residents, and I am coming back with a ton of ideas and some 'long bean' seeds. A few things this garden has, we should work toward:

* Purple Martin house for catching insects

* All plots have a barrier of stone or landscape timber around the base to build up soil

* There are compost areas and areas where sand is brought in once a year

* There is water piped underground to a spigot every 30-40 feet. 

* Grass grows (fescue) between the plots to keep the dirt down.

* Most have plastic fencing to keep the deer and rabbits out.

* They are using metal posts covered with old tennis balls to permanently mark plots.

* Sheds have been installed on the perimeter for storage of equipment so everyone doesn't have to lug theirs out to the garden each time.

Of course, a picture is worth a thousand words. I hope the weather will cooperate and I can get out there again before I leave to take photos.

Lyn

Pickle buckets & Pantyhose

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I picked up four 5-gallon pickle buckets from a Firehouse Sub shop nearby. They are now just beside the wagon that Laurie left for us to use., they are upside down as not to collect standing water. The lids are there as well to help contain the water as you wheel them out to your plot in the garden. I will take them home and store them for use next year (I'm hoping there will be a garden next year!?!) over the winter or donate them to the church if they would like to store them for use in the garden and/or another church project.

Also, I've read that women's nylons (aka pantyhose) make great ties for staking plants in the garden. So, if you have some old pairs of nylons laying around, try re-purposing it for staking your plants. I am required to wear nylons as part of my "uniform" for work (yes, the CEO refers to our business suits as a "uniform"), so I was excited since I have tons of old nylons and would love to re-use them if possible. I would suggest washing them before you use them to stake out your plants though :)

Desi

Watering issues

Of course we would get our crops in and then the rain would start missing us!

Did you all see the "key" I left for the water spigot right be the hose? Hopefully it will stay there. Also, I believe Bill Ross is looking into the water we used to have coming across the road that Ernest had rigged up two years ago. What about the idea of building a box to hold an elevated Rain Barrel? I think we can get a 50-60 gallon barrel for about $70. If we make a spigot for it and run drip emitters from it, we can all water with Mother Nature's help (when it rains again) and do it MUCH easier.

Sorry I am out of the loop for a few days, but promise to get on this mid next week...

I hope everyone is ok with the change of settings I made so you can see blog posts in your Email in box. Tracy suggested it, I thought it was a great idea, and I think I made that happen - Desi did it?

Lyn

Adventures in Watering

So I trekked out to the garden this morning with my 4 month old. After a rather long stop at Home Depot for mulch and the "key" for the hose at the church we finally got there. It was long because I couldn't find the key thing and the home depot helped had no idea what I was talking about. A call to the church revealed that pliers would work so I picked up a pair so I didn't have to go back home. Well the good news about the key, is that one is left by the hose. Hallelujiah!! Thank you Lyn if that was you! I would suggest everyone take a pair of pliers with them or bring your own water, just in case the key goes missing!!

The wind was still blowing today and the plants were very dry and many pretty wind blown. The squash and zucchini seemed to handle it the worst. To make it through the summer I would suggest that you create wells around each plant with dirt. This will keep the water from running off as you water. I would also suggest that you mulch around the plants. This will help the plants retain the moisture. I was shocked at how dry everything was even with the big rain on Sunday and Lyn watering yesterday.

So it was an interesting trip for us. I purchased 3 of the 5 gallon Home Depot buckets and lids and used those as my water transporting devices. The baby was not thrilled about being there and I am sure I was a sight filling buckets and holding a baby, then putting her in a front carrier and carrying 2 -5 gallon buckets of water to the garden from my car. I used close to 15 gallons of water on my plot today and probably could have soaked them so more. I plan on bring 25 gallons of water with me each time. If I need more I can refill at the church, but hopefully I won't. The good news is that with the wells around each plant and the mulch you can water from the buckets and you do not have to transfer to a watering can. It saves a bunch of time. I watered in about 15 minutes with the buckets.

Hope this all helps. The wind definetly dried things out the last few days, but hopefully we will get some good soaking rains over the weekend. Tracy

Bush Beans

Tracy, I saw a sprout already just below the dirt on the ones you gave me Sunday!!!

Lyn

Bush Bean Seeds

I have some bush bean seeds if anyone wants some. The beans don't crawl like pole beans and produce most of their beans at one time. I can leave them in a baggie at the garden if anyone is interested. Tracy

Watering

Hi Everyone,

I am going up this morning and will do some watering. I will check your dirt and throw some wet stuff on there if it appears dry.

FYI - High winds REALLY dry the plants out more than usual (their natural transpiration disappears before they can use it). We should probably be hitting it almost every day when there are winds like this.

Favor, I will be out of town Fri am - Wed am. Could somebody hit my spot between Sun & Tues please? Thanks!

Lyn

Page two of the Vegetable Guide....

Hello fellow gardeners at CUMC!

General clean up of my office area Sunday yielded some interesting collections I had misplaced. Attached to the blog is a planting guide for Georgia vegetables from the GA Extension Service.

Also, Georgia Organics publishes a quarterly newsletter called The Dirt. You may want to check out their website at:  georgiaorganics.org

Finally, my aunt sent me the recent catalog of Gardener's Supply. While I prefer to 'find, fix and recycle' as opposed to buying, sometimes there is something new you just gotta have! Click here to view: Gardeners.com

See you in the garden,

Lyn

Greetings/Intro from Laurie! :)

Thanks for the kind welcome everyone. It was great to meet Desi and Joel yesterday.

If you've been out since last night, you might have noticed I got the square foot garden boxes up and ready for planting. All of this great rain is doing exactly what it's supposed to do: puff up all the little moisture-loving components in the soil and make it nice and moist, for this week, we plant!

Lyn asked me to post info about Square Foot Gardening (SFG). This was something my mom tried when I was younger, and from what I remember, it worked well. Although my mom is no longer with us, when I mentioned to my dad I had a community garden spot this summer, he said, "First, go get that book your mother had about square foot gardening." So I did. :) It's fascinating reading - the things that Mel Bartholomew, the "inventor", proposes are both common sense and innovative. We'll see how it goes. I love it in principle, particularly for the promise it holds as a garden practice for those less fortunate - once set up, it becomes pretty much self-sufficient, only needing the periodic addition of more compost now and then, which, of course, you can make at home from what you have grown in your garden. In his book, Mel discusses how this vision has gone to places like India, where the poorest now have gardens to help sustain them. A beautiful mission, I think.

I put together a photo journal of how I assembled everything. I'll add photos as the summer goes on, hopefully showing an amazing harvest, God willing.

Here is the link to the photo journal: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauriegray/sets/72157618290136624/

Here is also a link to Mel's SFG website: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

Finally, I plan to bring some mulch in from my backyard, where I have 3 truck fulls waiting to be distributed around the yard. I will use it to cover the weed mat in my garden area, but I can bring as much as I can so we can cover the aisles and any that anyone else may want, as well. Please let me know if you think you'd be interested in this so I know how much to try to bring.

Happy gardening, everyone!

Thanks, CUMC, for letting me play in your dirt!
Laurie

The Garden is Blessed!

Sunday, May 17, our garden was consecrated and blessed by Rev Keith after church. And it rained! (Sort of like a baptismal :-)

Interested in growing potatoes? Here's an option

These neat potato bins help you grow lots of potatoes in a minimal space:

Potato Bin from Gardener's Supply

I've also heard of people using old car tires to grow potatoes in a similar manner. Not sure if the use of car tires for planters would be permitted by the church, though. Please check with Lyn before planting veggies in car tires :)

I have a potato bin and grew some potatoes last year. They are so much fun to dig up at the end of the season. It's also a great crop to grow if you have kids as they will enjoy digging for the potatoes at harvest time!

It's okay to use tires, if you'd like. (they must be removed when your plot is cleared by October 15th)

Desi

One option for charity donations

I wanted to post some resources/options for donations of our garden harvests to charities helping needy families. One great charity that helps needy families in the North Fulton county area is called North Fulton Community Charities (NFCC). I just called their office to verify that their food pantry does accept garden vegetables as donations

Their facility is located on Hwy 9 (Alpharetta Hwy) just north of the Roswell Toyota dealership. There is a light where an old Sonny's BBQ restaurant used to be - it's now a used car dealership. Turn left there (if heading North on Hwy 9) and the NFCC office is immediately on your left.

Plot Layout

The following document outlines the plots in the Christ UMC community garden and who is assigned to which plot. Once you have picked out your plot, please notify Lyn so that we can label the document properly and keep the document updated.

Garden Plot Layout

Thank you!

Welcome to the Christ UMC Community Garden Blog

This blog is intended to become a resource for gardeners of the Christ UMC Community Garden in Roswell, GA. We will post updates regarding the garden and gardening tips for all to share. We can't wait to build a community around the garden and spread God's love and work through the gifts He has given to us!

Thank you and happy gardening!