Lexington Interfaith Garden

Harvested and delivered to the Lexington Food Pantry:

2 ½ pounds of asparagus and smaller amounts of scallions and radishes

Fertilizing and Planting

Some of the things we got done today:

• Planted:  cantaloupes, bok choy, marigolds (anti-bug) and probably more vegetables that I didn’t know about
• Mulched and made more paths around the garden
• Transplanted stray volunteers like cilantro and dill from middle of beds of potato, melon, etc to edge of garden where they can continue to grow.
• Weeded and then fed weeds to chickens
• “Hilled” potatoes

More from the garden

Hilling

What is “hilling” potatoes?  You start potato plants by settling them into a dug-out trough. As the plants grow, you move dirt from the sides of planted trough to cover the base of the plant.  Doing this regularly means that by the middle of the season, the potatoes are growing in dirt mounds, with troughs on either side from where you kept getting dirt to cover the bottoms of the potato plants…thus the “hilling”.

Did you know there are such things as good weeds?  Carla had us leave one kind of bushy weed.  Aphids are attracted to this weed and so become another natural defense against pests.  But beware; I almost left one of the bushy weeds only to be told to take it out since that one was the toxic nightshade!

New asparagus shoots look amazingly like dill!  So if you are sent to weed the asparagus bed, leave them.  In that location, they are unlikely to be dill needing to be transplanted.

Remember me writing about garlic and how to know when it is ready to be harvested?  The “tell” was in the leaves.  They need to spiral and then un-spiral before you want to pick.  Well, one of the plants started to spiral.  Here is what it looks like:

Garlic Frond Corkscrews

Working:  Hancock, Redeemer, St. Nicholas

Weather:  Warm and a bit humid

by Amy Swanson

Volunteers:  First Parish & Hancock

Weather:  Light rain with sunny dispositions

Yesterday was great!  It’s been a month since the last time I was there and now I see the fresh promise of what is to come.  A month ago it was all about prepping….clearing out the remnants of last year, spreading mulch, creating new garden space.  Now when you arrive, there is a clear sense of what is to come–rich dark dirt, quadrants of neat beds, that unique pretty green of young plants, and tidy paths.  Having worked at the garden the first 2 years, I know that this early phase gives ground before too long to riotous growth and crowded beds demanding attention.  But right now, in the quieter phase, while much has been planted (and some greens already harvested), there is more to plant in the upcoming volunteer days.  Yesterday our crew added squash, peppers, cucumbers and more.

Here is what I learned yesterday:

Asparagus—Carla’s beds are 32 years old!  Talk to any gardener and they will be surprised that these asparagus beds are still so productive.  Most would say that 20 years is a long time for plants to stay productive.  Some of the plants have gone right to seed.  They are readying themselves for next year.  But there are plenty that are delivering the tasty spears we recognize.

Garlic—Garlic gets planted in the fall…ideally after the first hard frost so they don’t start growing too soon.  You want them to lay dormant over the winter and start really germinating in early spring.  Do you know when garlic is ready for harvest?   The “tell” is in the greens.  You know when it is ready to harvest by watching the green fronds.  First the fronds have to get to the stage where they start to spiral and curl up.  Then you wait for  them to uncurl.  After that, they are ready to harvest.  Carla would normally expect that to be around July.  However, with our warm winter and lack of snow cover, we might see the garlic ready sooner.

Garlic

We are all dependent on the pollinators.

Volunteers from First Parish, St. Nicholas, and Pilgrim met with Carla at the garden this morning.  There had been no frost, the sun was quickly chasing away the chill (36 degrees at 7 am), and Carla had already decided that since it was too windy to plant seeds, we would clean the barn!  It would have made a wonderful photo with all the hoes, shovels, rakes and rolls of wire fencing leaning against the wooden garden rails outside.  There were also wheelbarrows, tables, and containers (baskets, trays, boxes) scattered about on the lawn.  But we had no CAMERA!   So you will have to imagine it.  Inside, the barn was swept, seeds were sorted, and small items were returned to their proper places.  It looked quite nice when we were finished.

In other news, the new rabbit fencing looks quite competent, and Carla has seen no evidence of nibbling in the garden.  Around 10 am Carla, Pam (St. Nicholas) and Amy (First Parish) were separating some of the new little sprouts that had come up too near to each other.  They prepared some seedling trays with a soil mixture, and placed the sprouts in the small sections of the tray.  These will be allowed to grow to 6 or 8 inches and then will be replanted in the garden.  If someone remembers what these little sprouts were, please let us know in the comments section, because I have forgotten.  Please add any other comments as well.

It was a delightful, sunny, cool morning and we were all happy to be outdoors and at the Interfaith Garden.

Barbara Munkres
Pilgrim Church

Hi Interfaith Garden volunteers—

The garden will be opening in 2 weeks and so the planning crew is busy getting organized and laying out a schedule for all the participating faith communities and others.  I need to do a bit of housekeeping myself.

For starters,  let me give you an update on our hours.  We will keep the schedule of working on Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings.  Tuesdays will be from 4:30 to 6pm and we will start this season working Saturday mornings from 9 to 10:30am.  (Later when we have crops to harvest and deliver, Saturdays will move to an earlier start time.)

 The first day of work will be Tue, March 20^th.  There’s lots of good prep work to be done–like spreading compost and installing a new rabbit fence.  Those wily critters took way too much of the lettuce and broccoli last year and Carla thinks she has the solution! 

I am looking for a few people to help on the following days… (Could be very educational to those who also are looking for ways to foil rabbits in their gardens!) :

Tues, Mar 20^th

Sat, Mar 24^th  

Sat, Mar 31^st

Please let me know if you are interested and available to work on any of those days…especially on both Saturdays.  After I sort through the responses, I’ll get back to you as to whether I still need your help.

Looking forward to another productive year!  Thanks.

Amy Swanson