Tuesday, Hancock and Temple Isaiah sent a few members to help Carla at the Garden. Remember that weird snow last week? Carla got out enough ahead to cover the lettuce up against the cold and snow. We saw firsthand that it did survive. Got to love those cool weather crops…and Carla’s quick remediation!
A primary task Tuesday afternoon was to create paths. You might wonder why they are important. Yes, they are great for weed suppression. But as long-time volunteers know actually are important signals to where it is OK to walk. In the early days as seeds are planted you have to keep a sharp eye not to step on newly planted beds or young seedlings that might be mistaken as weeds. In later days, when the Garden is fully planted and vegetables are flourishing and spreading their greenery, it is hard to find one’s way. The paths are critical at that point.
Step 1: Weed the path
Step 2: Lay down thick layer (6 pages?) of wet, absolutely sodden newspaper. Carla set up buckets of water where we let the newspaper sections soak and get appropriately wet.
Step 3: Cover with a blanket of straw
Step 4: Water everything so they don’t blow away
BTW, there are plenty of path making opportunities ahead for the rest of you. We just got a start on creating them. The timing was terrific for our team–the weather cooperated. As we finished, it started to rain. And the forecast was for more rain the following day. Keeping the straw and paper wet in the first days makes them far less likely to blow away later.
Check out photos from this week, this year and seasons past in our Photo Gallery!