Gardening in December

Ah, December, my sweet friend. You froze our plants, broke a few water fittings, locked vegetables in the soil and then to add mess to anxiety, doused us with rain. But I know your game. I know its all a strategy to make us truly appreciate the few extra milliseconds of sunlight you bless us with each day. Thank you. I look forward to the day when millisecond becomes minute. The dark is leaving us.

This month I partnered with a local high school art teacher to have a sign painted for our gate. He has four students interested in painting in exchange for community service hours. I found a board and paint, and delivered both to the high school before winter break. The colors are to be a jumping off point as I gave the girls artistic freedom after that. I look forward with excitement to see their creation.

A volunteer and I cleared out the wild weed patch between the garden and the store in anticipation of a communal herb patch in the spring. Blackberries don't look so big in the middle of winter.

Additional Gardening Info near PT

I recommend these groups for up to the moment gardening info in East Jefferson County.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ptcommunitygardens/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JeffcoFoodandGarden-Forum

(No worries if you're not inclined to subscribe, I share relevant info here at The Green Bean.)

Winter Crops: Tasty Morsles

Winter Crops: What do I do with them?

Composting Basics

Helpful Titles for Gardening in the Northwest

The Maritime Northwest garden Guide by Seattle Tilth

Winter Gardening in the Maritime Northwest by Binda Colebrook

The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food by Tanya L.K. Denckla

Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman

The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman

Organic Gardening by Christine and Michael Lauelle

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon

Food Bank Plot Plan

This is my tentative schedule for our Food Bank Plots.

Gardening Guide Example

In my plannings for the Food Bank plots, I put together this handy guide of Northwest hardy plants with an emphasis on late harvesting. I divided it into sections (brassicas/roots/other) for a simple crop rotation guide.

Sow Inside: Start seeds inside your house.
Sow Cloche: Start seeds in a cloche or under Crop Cover.
Sow Outside: Start seeds in the ground.

Most of this information came from Seattle Tilth's Maritime Northwest Garden Guide. Its $15 at The Food Co-Op, or I have a copy to lend.

Leader Article October 16, 2009

Here's our article from the Peninsula Daily News.

Cider Press Success!

We chopped, we pressed, we drank apple cider! There was talk of bobbing for apples, but it was too cold. A big thanks goes out to Brad and Mary Jo for letting us use their cider press (and for to their son for taking the first shift of pressing). Also in attendance were Bonnie, Buzzy, Cali, Carl, and Gail. In this picture, Brad and Gail feed apples into the grinder. After grinding, the pulp is pressed and the cider drains out the bottom. Don't worry, the left over apple pulp isn't attracting deer to our garden. It was all taken away by two local farmers, Nina and Alexa, to feed their pigs.

Listen about Community Gardening!

Tom Allen of WBCS, the community radio station of Bellevue Community College traveled to Port Townsend to interview gardeners about the boom of community gardens in our area. The broadcasts are available as free downloads at http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2968
Happy Listening.

October in the Pea Patch

It was the best of times, it was the, well, not the worst of times; it was October. The temperature dropped and daylight receded. Our garden received its first frost of the season on October 6^th, which spelled the end of tomatoes, peppers, beans, and other sun loving plants. Unfortunately, it hasn’t yet taken care of our little black and yellow flying friends, and they are getting aggressive as tasty plant things become scarce.

With the expertise of fellow AmeriCorps Volunteer Michael Bowe, I constructed a small cloche over plot B6 to keep things going over winter. The lettuce is especially pleased with the new arrangement. A garden volunteer is planting lettuce starts to be transplanted in the next few weeks. Wind has been by biggest challenge with the cloche, as our first few securing methods were scoffed at by Mother Nature. Wobble was also a concern since the plastic sheeting pulled against the plastic hoops (especially when heavy with rain) and I didn’t have space to anchor a guy wire on the North end. My final decision (well, final October decision) was to move the last hoop to the front end in order to run a guy wire to connect all five hoops, thus forming a spine for the ribs and preventing rain from sagging the plastic sheeting. I also used an extra section of fishnet to anchor the plastic sheeting to the legs and at each end. We received a windstorm towards the end the month (with gusts up to 35 mph) and the cloche survived. Some of the beet starts that were under cover are now exposed, and I expect they will continue to grow, though simply slower than their covered compatriots.

B6 is home to some little Swiss Chard plants which I transplanted from a self-seeded patch outside the North gate. Speaking of gates, Michael also coordinated the construction of our entry gate, so we now have a proper wooden entrance to our garden.

Many media events took place around our garden in October. We received a feature article on the front page of the Peninsula Daily News, as well as were part of a WBCS radio program about Community Gardens(http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2968).

Bye, Bye, Beans!

We received our first freeze of the season in early October and that meant the end of the beans in plot D1. Garden volunteers Stormy and Zane helped me rip out the plants and prepare the bed for winter. This mulch will be turned under in spring.

Our New Gate

On Monday, October 12th, the Boeing Blue Bills built our new gate. Thank you guys, you're awesome! Pictured left to right are: Jim, Myron, Michael and Dick.

Green Bean News : Oct 9th

Our October Newsletter. Click for a bigger image. Enjoy!

Carrots and Kale and Broccoli, oh my D2!

It started with carrots. Then the Romaines came, triggering a flood of lettuce and broccoli and kale and cauliflower.

C1; A Story of Peppers

First there were six. One from each plant. Then the second crop came, and then there were more.

The Broccoli of A2

I've begun harvesting the main broccoli heads in plot A2, and the side shoots are starting to develop. This variety will continue to produce through the winter.

The Beans of D1

From itty-bitty to reaching for the clouds, the beans in plot D1 had a good summer.

September

Here grows our garden.

Grow! Sorghum, Grow!

By the middle of summer, the sorghum field in front of the garden was growing strong.

In the beginning of 2009

First it was a field. A simple field. A field of Quack Grass. Then came the tractor.