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.