How is Growing There?

What a gift for the garden  visitors. The day is pleasant, with soft wind, sunny, the lady bugs, butterflies, bees and even the bad guys can experience such pleasures. 

This morning I stopped by my spot, right in the Healing Garden, a project of the VT Extension Master Gardener Program in Windsor, VT to check if all is in order.

The rainy days have left nice wet soil... we know that the flowers, herbs and even weeds love that. My task for today was to clean the main paths and to cut dead flowers.

 Weedy zone.

 

 After weeding.

 Stevia, doing very well, after being transplanted by Sylvia. 

The Saint John's wort herb is in bloom, feeding some bees, no doubt that these will be relaxed after sucking its nectar. 

Within this relaxing crop, the Lobelia inflata amazes me! The transplanting was definitely a success! Now, the two Lobelias plants are in bloom, and I cannot wait to see the seeds popping up around, as it was described previously by herbalist Sylvia Newberry in my old post. 

time  spent: 2.5 hr

Mulching, Sowing... Enjoying

My favorite bunch is displaying its beauty in my basket, which can carry repellent, sunblock, pencil, notebook, gloves, scissors, seed packs, iPod ♫♪.. Plants love music, so I do.   

Rev. Jill Robinson and Dianne Langley were mulching the paths and labeling plants

The moderate summer weather was perfect to work outdoors. Our organic garden now is looking different, plants are vigorous, flowers and fruits are predicting a good harvest. 

Tomato Fourth of July 

Fourth of July tomato plants are one of the earliest varieties of non-cherry tomatoes. They will continue to produce tomatoes until late summer to early fall, and in some ideal weather conditions they will produce up to the first frost.

Isaiah, pastor Jill's son helped to harvest this ripened tomato and some beans.

Sweetie Chelsea walking through the paths. How easy doing this without disturbing the plants.

The bed were lined in accordance with the plants that were placed there earlier.

Raised beds can be supported, which is our case, or supported by woods, stones, cement blocks, or any other material. Our garden now provides two kinds of space - space for plants to grow and space for gardeners to walk avoiding compacted soil.

 Mulching the paths with straw keep the moisture from evaporating and provides walking and working areas while protecting the soil of the crops.

We are collecting for disposal all sorts of glass, wire, plastic that were found in the garden .

Challenging Days in the Garden

The heat has been a challenge to work outside! 

But I am glad to move on with the garden project.

Work day - Wednesday, July 20

Late in the summer afternoon I set some raised beds, dividing two specific spaces: one for plants to grow and the other for a gardener to walk. 

This small garden bed will provide plants roots more room to grow, keeping moisture from evaporating. Stepping on garden soil will compact the area. 

Work day - Thursday, July 21

We decided to start working in the garden earlier, at 8am this morning, because the forecast for today was predicted to be one of the hottest days of the summer, about 95 degrees here in Lebanon, NH

I was very lucky to share the tasks with the New England Climate Summer team.

Tasks done:

- Identifying the composter bin

- The paths along the crops were nicely finished

- Stakes were placed beside the tomato plants

- Radish, carrots, beets and flowers seed were sown

- Watering and some weeding - to keep plants happy and healthy

- Glass, metals and other materials were collected in a container

- Flowers bed was weeded

- Basil seedlings transplanting

- Added composted manure.

Van, sowing carrot and radish seeds

Almost at the end of our work and talking with the team leader, Van, he asked what else he should do before sowing the seeds in the open rows.  He was standing there holding the seeds in his hands.  I said, “Just be you!  Put love in what you are going to do and nature will take care of the rest.  Just be connected!”

Transplanting basil seedling 

Work day - Monday, July 25

The tomatoes are looking great among the sweet peppers, eggplants, squash, green beans. The transplanted basil seedlings survived the heat. 

Looking at these seedling popping up, make me think that what Van did on Thursday, took effect, because now the these seeds are emerging happily from the ground.

More stakes were brought for cucumber and squash plants.

Pastor Jill planted a special variety of seeds, cabbage Earliana, ideal for small garden they grow fast and their heads are big orange size [5-6"], she tried too a succulent mix of lettuce, too. A corner of a bed was used to plant some cilantro seeds.

It started to pour in the right moment!

A thank-you card from NH Climate Summer Team

Summer-Fall EMG Project

After recently receiving my Master Gardener certification from the Vermont Extension Master Gardener Program, I decided to lead a garden project at LUMC church.  A couple of months ago, the Staff Parish started inviting members of the Lebanon United Methodist Church, Lebanon NH, to volunteer in a garden project at the church parsonage.
We decided to wait until early July, for our new Pastor, Rev. Jill Robinson and her family to arrive and settle into the parsonage, before starting the project. The exciting day arrived July 14, 2011 when the garden project was approved by the VT Extension Master Gardener and we were ready to get started.

My first step was to take a look at what was already planted in the garden and then I decided to teach the volunteers how to improve the garden by organic standards. With my new-found knowledge learned through the Master Gardener Program, I am eager to share that knowledge with the volunteers and help them learn to enjoy the pleasure of working with the earth.

Work Days:  Thursday July 14, Saturday July 16 and Sunday July 17 

The meeting began identifying what is in the garden, where the compost bin should be located, what weeding needed to be done, what garden tools were needed and making a list of items needed such as compost manure, fertilizer and seeds.

Diagram of the garden

The following were found in the parsonage garden:

- 8 tomato plants [big boy, sweet cherry, sun gold varieties]

- 6 mix of sweet pepper

- 12 green beans

- 2 squash

- 2 cucumbers 

 Weed were overtaking and burying the vegetable crops. 
So, the next plan was to start weeding. 

Weeding started changing how the spot looked.

It was then time to plan how to build raised beds using the soil. The idea is to have some paths to go through rather than having a flat area where stepping in every everywhere can be disturbing to the vegetable crops.

Some calendula flowers, sunflowers and parsley were transplanted. 

Work Day - Healing Garden

Saturday, July 9, 2011

The volunteers of the Master Gardener began to work at 9 a.m. with the coordinator of the project, Christine Barney, and herbalist Sylvia Newberry who made a delicious infusion of petals and some berries, while Jody Grablewski brought blueberry bread, no doubt that our break was enjoyable!

Some weeds were pulled out. Christine or Tina, as she loves to be called, found in the compost bin a treasure: rich compost. This was mixed into the garden soil.

We worked hard cleaning the overgrown flower garden. 

time worked: 2hr.

Filling the Rain Garden Bed

 Thursday July 2, 2011

Cindy Heath, the leader of the Rain Garden project and I started to mix the compost and soil. We filled the rain garden bed with the mixture. Our next goal was to plant shrubs and flowers. 

Thursday July 7, 2011

The weather today was just outstanding!

We have planted the following shrubs and perennials: Clethera, Hakuru Nashiki Willow, Daisies, Echinacea. Coral Bells and Cleome.

Now the bed looks in this way. 

I am below taking pictures of what we have done today.  We will continue placing engraved planter markers with the Latin name to identify the plants. 
Cindy and I went to the Longacres Nursery to buy mulch for the bed site. 


Now we are thinking about recycling plastic flower pots. On July 16, there will be a second PLASTIC PLANT POT RECYCLING, the next ones: August 20 and September 17

Saturday mornings, 8-12  (3rd Saturday of the month) at LONGACRES NURSERY, Miracle Mile, Lebanon.

Sustainable Hanover Recycling Committee and Longacres Nursery Center are co-sponsoring this ongoing collection. We are saving now our cleaned pots.  They will need to be tapped free of dirt, no metal staples /hangers. To facilitate collection, please stack according to size and shape 

Time worked today: 3 hr