by Amy Swanson
Bonding with basil
Volunteers from: Scheduled from First Baptist, Pilgrim, Lexington Methodist, St. Nicholas and others helping from Hancock, Follen, and Lex Catholic Community
Weather: Not raining!
Delivered today: 163 pounds including green beans, Romano beans, cucumbers, eggplants, corn, potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, kale, chard, mint, cabbages, onion, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and basil.
With lots of the garden waiting to be picked, it was nice that the forecasted rain never arrived! Fortunately an advance guard had been at work and done some harvesting ahead of Saturday. For instance, beans which should not be picked if the plants are wet, had been culled before yesterday’s rain arrived.
Pulling the stalks to make room for the next crop
Corn– Knee high by the 4th of July and history by 8/11th. The last of the crop was picked and delivered today. That which wasn’t pantry acceptable was served up as a treat to the chickens. The remaining cornstalks were pulled, cut up and delivered to the compost bin (left side bin). The bed was then hoed, cultivated and a layer of compost from the right side bin was spread and lightly worked into the soil. Corn takes a lot out of the soil and so the compost will help add back before the next crop of lettuce and cooler crops get planted in the same space.
Cabbages—This is another crop that is almost through its cycle. Between last week and this week, 33 pounds of cabbage were picked and delivered. This morning Carla had Cindy and Isaiah pull entire cabbage plants out, slowly emptying the bed. The cabbage got cut free of the plant and the greens fed to the chicken. By next week, likely the whole bed will be ready for replanting.
Chickens feasting on garden leftovers
Potatoes—The first of the potatoes were dug up this week. Two of us helped cultivate the now-emptied row, prepping for replanting. (I believe bok choy is the plan.) If you recall, potatoes are planted in trenches and as the plants mature you push more dirt back onto the plants to keep the bottom of the plant covered by cool dirt. In the process you create “hills”. So today, we un-“hilled” the row. In the process I found what looked like miniature green tomatoes. Turns out that they are potato seeds, growing from the plant blossoms. Carla uses an alternative way to plant potatoes, namely cutting (seed) potatoes into chunks with at least two eyes per chunk and then embedding them into the soil. So I collected the “mini green tomatoes”, adding them to the compost.
Cleaning the potatoes
“Un-hilling” the potato row