Garden (and life) updates!

Hello!

Life certainly gets crazy at times.  What started as a kitchen refresh since we had to address a plumbing problem turned into a full gut downstairs remodel.  There were a couple of structural issues found that resulted in removing almost all the walls on our first floor.  I keep telling myself that it's going to be beautiful when it's done...we just have to get to 'done'.  

We ended up having to stay at our lake place for almost a month.  Normally, I have no issue with staying at the lake but when you're well over an hour from home and your home has serious issues, it's a tad stressful!  And all I could do in the garden was watch it via the cameras!

My poor gardens!  Thankfully, we did put down weed barrier fabric so the weeds are just crazy at the edges.  Although it rained for days, we have great drainage in this garden as we're on a hill causing it to dry out a bit at times.  Even so, the garden is doing amazing!  

Check out these tomatoes!  I am almost 5'6" tall, that tomato plant is about TWO FEET taller than I am!  The tomatoes this year are so big and loaded with fruit that some of them are actually bending the larger tomato cages over!  I think next year I am going to plant them right up on the fence to help support the cages that are supporting the tomatoes!  LOL

Here are a few more random pictures from the garden!

Zuchinni

Tomatoes

Sugar Baby Watermelon - the squirrel let this one get big...he better continue to leave it alone too! 

Eggplants

Corn - a new variety I'm trying, it's designed to grow shorter and can even be grown in containers on porches...or so they say!

Cabbage, I used a row cover and am pretty impressed with the results. 

Beets

Cantaloupe, or the start of one

Peppers.  My garden book got packed, I must find it to see which variety these are, I planted several!  Note, it got so big that I had to put a tomato cage on it.

Tomatoes.  Hiding in the shade.

Acorn Squash, the first time growing it.

Cantaloupe, can't wait to see these ripen!

Cucumbers!  The first time growing them on the cow panels.

Green Beans, we're about to be overrun!

Spaghetti Squash.  A great substitute for spaghetti and it gets additional vitamins and nutrients in too!

You'll notice some of the leaves aren't perfect, but what garden doesn't have a bug or two? I've also planned some things to encourage the good bugs and bees too!  I intentionally moved some oregano to the openings in the cinder blocks of my raised beds away from the other herbs, and let it go to seed for the bees.

I even planted some flowers to attract bees in little pockets in the garden where plants didn't quite fill in.

So even though it was neglected for a few weeks, the garden is still doing well.  I am experimenting with cow panel trellis, MI Gardener has a great YouTube video on making one here.  We got the panels and T posts at Tractor Supply, they were very reasonable to purchase.  We were able to put six cucumber plants in an area that is roughly 5' x 6', the area where we would have had one *maybe* two plants vining on the ground.  This year we have these trellises for the Acorn squash, Butternut squash, Spaghetti squash and cucumbers.    Here's your laugh of the day, I have another one...I planted yellow squash around it.  Yellow squash does NOT vine.  I'll call it a blonde moment.  Next year that trellis will be for the pickling cucumbers.  LOL

The Eagle scout project was great in that all the infrastructure was put into place for the handicap garden.  We found a couple of issues that we will adjust.  The raised beds weren't built deep enough so we'll take those apart and correct that.  Minor in the big picture.  

It's about time to start our second round of planting.  Once we pull the rest of the beets and carrots, we'll plant another round in those raised beds.  We have one raised bed that is currently empty and I'll be planting more salad greens in that one.

So far, we've had 2 minor and 2 larger harvests and our donation amounts are up to 164 pounds of fresh produce and herbs.  We look forward to being able to do more.  

Remember to check on your neighbors! I know it's not winter time but when it's as hot as it has been, we should still check in on them to ensure they're ok!

Gram's Gardens...and so it begins!

 

For those of you who may not know, I was chosen as one of the Marion County Neighborhood Food Champions for the 2021 cohort!  I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about this.  

I kept telling myself that I needed to get back to writing in my blog but I believe I've shared before how much I struggled during my pandemic lockdown.  As one of my students said, I am seeing a light at the end of this tunnel and I'm pretty positive it's not the train!  I am fully vaccinated, my doctors are approving cautiously reentering public, I'm loving that I'm going to get to see my grandkids in person...those are some of my short people in the picture above!  In a few weeks, I'll even get to go to my new office on campus...I haven't even seen it yet!

Let me tell you about Gram's Gardens!  When I wrote my Food Champion proposal, I had broken the plan into four parts that would happen over multiple years until the plan was fully in place. 

*Phase one was expanding the donation garden.   

*Phase two is to create a handicap accessible (including wheelchairs) gardens.  There will be seating areas and accessible pathways.

*Phase three includes community plots that will be available to those without an area to garden (or want to learn from/with others while doing it), the donation for these plots will be low cost and we have supporters lined up who will help cover that donation if someone is in need of that.  The goal of this phase is that those who want to garden, can regardless of budgets.  

*Phase four is multi-faceted.  It includes an educational area so children from schools, scouts, etc. can learn about how to grow things.  It will also include volunteering so that elderly or shut ins who are unable to get to a food pantry/distribution can have it delivered to them.  This will allow volunteers who need community service hours to get them, an example of that being my son's school requires students to complete so many community service hours in order to graduate.  As a non-profit, we can sign off on those hours.

I'm so happy to share that we've expanded the donation garden to between 2000 and 2100 sq. ft.  Last year we donated over 500 pounds of fresh produce (less than 24 hours between picking and in the hands of the recipient) and our goal this year is 1000 pounds!

We're also able to announce that our timeline on the handicap accessible garden which will include the educational area has been moved up!  There is a Boy Scout who had his Eagle Scout project cancelled because of CoVid restrictions who is now taking this project on.  If you are so inclined to help him, please watch for a fundraising link for this as he has to do some fundraising as part of the project requirements.  We've been able to expand on how this will look as well.  There will be a raised bed (on the ground) that will be for flowers as I really want to include fresh flowers in the deliveries to the elderly and shut ins just to brighten their day.  We also have an artist friend who is going to help us include art in this garden, whether that is a changing art installation/exhibit or even a little library type of set up with art kits for children...watch for pictures of this!  This area, once it is available, will be experimental this season to work out any kinks in the set up.  We plan for it to be fully functional next season!

One major roadblock we are currently facing is in the form of a giant tree.  This tree is becoming the bane of my existence right now....

I'd like to point out that my husband is 6'4" tall.  I really, truly, honestly, dislike this tree!  If shading my garden area isn't enough, it's now been hit by lightening and really needs to come down before any more damage happens to it.  We'll be looking at possible grants to help with the removal of this tree.  

Anybody want any wood?  LOL

We'll be setting up "work days" to help get the garden ready and planted.  Sunday, we're finishing the building of the final three raised beds in the donation garden for lettuces, spinach, and peas, filling them and laying out the weed barrier fabric over the rest of the garden.  I'll keep y'all posted about work days if you'd like to join us for planting or harvesting as the season progresses!

Thank you to those who've helped and supported my idea to do this.  I can't wait to see what we can accomplish!

Please, feel free to hold me accountable for writing more consistently and to provide updates on Gram's Gardens!

Dee 🎕