by Amy Swanson
A few folks from Hancock, First Baptist, First Parish, Lex Methodist and one friend from the neighborhood worked at the Interfaith Garden this morning. We couldn’t have asked for better weather! If you want to hear about an alternative use for tobacco in the garden, read on!
About 7 pounds of produce and herbs were cut and delivered to the Lexington Food Pantry this morning. This is the time of year when the garden is on the brink of greater and greater productivity. Next week, Carla is expecting quite a bit of produce to be ready for harvest…especially the peas. So for that reason, starting on Sat, June 30th, Saturday garden hours will move earlier to 8am so we have enough time to do all the cutting, cleaning and delivering to the pantry before it opens. Here is what was delivered this morning:
- Asparagus (still!)
- Swiss chard
- Kale
- Snow peapods
- Peas
- Plus a delightfully aromatic mix of herbs… mint, cilantro, parsley and dill
The garden scarecrow is back
Discerning volunteers picking peas
There is a learned skill on picking peas. And with at least 2 varieties planted, the “doneness” looks different for each. For one variety, you are looking for fatter pods (these are the peas that you shell.) For the other variety, you eat pod and all, so you want them fattish, but not too fat, which means that they are overly mature. So good luck, next week, to the volunteers who will have many more to pick!
In the marvelous life cycle of the garden, once a crop is exhausted, out it goes and in goes another. This morning I planted carrot seeds where recently the last of the bok choy in this bed was harvested. The carrots will be ready in about 75 days.
Broccoli seedlings
And incubating in the sun on the bench inside the garden is a large flat of tiny broccoli and cabbage plants that are maturing from seeds. About the time that the pea patch is all picked out, the broccoli and cabbage will be ready to go into that space. And of course, the dirt will be re-energized with all the nitrogen that peas put back into the soil.
Who knew that tobacco has good uses? Before planting the carrot seeds, Carla sprinkled natural tobacco on the dirt and had me mix it into the soil before planting the seeds. Apparently it inhibits wireworm (a beetle larva), a pest that loves root vegetables like carrots and radishes. In the past she has not had much success with carrots, but ever the optimist, she tried again and she pulled a young one to see how they were faring. Wonderfully! No wireworm damage to be seen. And chickens loved having a little bit of carrot for breakfast!
Garden Beehives are thriving
New beehive colonies are back at the garden. They are thriving back behind the barn. As you may recall from last year, someone who heard about the Interfaith Garden arrived one day late in the season and asked Carla if she would be interested in having some bees if she did all the work of installing them, etc. It seemed like an offer too good to turn down. Unfortunately, the colony had not sufficiently settled in and made enough food for themselves before the cold came so they did not survive. This spring, this same friend of the garden came back and asked about a re-do. Two new hives were installed and there’s lots of activity. Carla put up a small fence so there would be respectful distance between their home and the rest of us. But we are hoping that the bees are doing a lot of visiting in the garden.
Thanks to all the volunteers who have worked in the garden. The space looks wonderful. It is so obvious that lots of hands have helped in the weeding, mulching, and general maintenance of the garden.