Volunteers from Hancock, First Baptist, First Parish
Harvest Produce in the garden's new cart
Today’s cartload included: onions, garlic, radishes, cherry and regular tomatoes, red potatoes, basil, cucumbers, eggplant, crooked neck squash, yellow squash, eggs, peppers, flowers, parsley, and acorn squash.
Over 45 pounds were picked and delivered. Included was almost 3 pounds of tomatoes, basil, peppers and cucumbers that was contributed from a giving garden being tended by Hancock Nursery School summer participants.
Since I haven’t been at the garden in a few weeks, there were a number of things that looked different to me:
– The degree of “lushness”. So many beds are thriving in this good growing season that it is hard to find the walking paths.
– The bunny fence in the small garden. Carla had to get a special bamboo fence since her wire fence was proving too easy for the rabbits. The big garden still has fences within fences to ward off the assorted voles, rabbits, chipmunks, etc. (A particularly audacious or stupid rabbit came to visit while we were weeding this morning). There is still an issue of the most recently planted broccoli and cabbage being eaten…but by animal or bug?
– At the end of the asparagus season, the remaining plants are let to go to seed and they go WILD! Carla has bungee-corded the plants to give clearance to the paths. It’s hard to reconcile this 6 ft high hairy wild plant tall to the orderly soldier-like stalks that we have grown to recognize.
– Did someone report on the honey bees? There is a new hive in the back of the barn, thanks to a friend of the garden. For the first 2 weeks they feed on sugar water as they get used to their new home and find where to feed. But could they be in a better spot? They complement the chickens perfectly (which by the way couldn’t have been happier with all the weeded greens we threw their way.)