Corn, Lettuce, and Swiss Chard ready to share!

Hi everyone,

The bigger portion of our community garden is ready to start harvesting.  The items on this side are for everyone to share so please help yourself (but be sure to leave some for others!).  The first round of sweet corn should be ready any day now as well as the popcorn so be sure to check for some next time you’re there.  The corn that is shorter is the regular sweet corn and the taller variety is popcorn.

There is also some green lettuce and swiss chard ready if anyone is interested in those.  The lettuce is near the Sparks’ plot and the swiss chard is hiding in between some of the younger corn and the sunflowers.

I made a diagram so you all know what’s what.  Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or aren’t sure about anything.

Hope you’re all enjoying your harvest!

Things are Growing!

Hi everyone,

I know I haven't posted here in a while, but I was at the garden watering this morning and snapped a few photos that I thought would be fun to share.

On our community side, the corn is getting high and the potatoes are looking good.  I'm not sure we'll get any berries this year, but the strawberry flowers are pretty!  There's also a row of lettuce and swiss chard coming up.  Right now, it looks like the lady bugs are enjoying the chard, but in a few weeks it should be ready to harvest for anyone interested in trying it.  Also, the sunflowers along the fence are about four feet high and almost ready to bloom!

Everybody's individual plots are looking great too!  Erin and Greg have the cutest little watermelon as well as a delicious smelling basil plant growing strong in their plot. 

 

While I would normally make a joke about the baseball sized zucchini's growing in the Sparks' plot, I noticed that they also have the biggest green pepper growing in their plot. 

Kevin and Sarah have some amazing looking tomatoes and I was especially excited to see their first tomatillo growing today!

The Edgars and the Browns are looking good too.  I'm amazed at how green everything is despite this recent heat wave!

Although everything is getting to be huge, the Mauro's corn is winning the race.  It's taller than I am now!

And finally, Katie and I picked our first spaghetti squash today.  We've had so much zucchini lately, it's nice to have something new!

Okay everyone, now that we're harvesting some different things now, let's share some recipes!  What are you cooking with your produce this weekend???

I'm planning on trying this vegetarian lasagna that uses strips of zucchini in place of noodles!

Pictures

We have about four or five plots still available if anyone is interested but hasn't paid yet.  Just let us know.  If you have paid, feel free to head on down to the garden and get started!

Here's some pictures from our work days this past weekend.  Thanks again for everyone who helped!

 

The Garden is Open!

A big thank you to everyone who helped out this weekend! Sarah F., the Brown family, the Sparks family, Chris C, Pastor Art, and (of course) our wonderful husbands Ryan and Levi. The fence is up, the pathways are mulched, the water system is in place, and the plots are staked out.

Once you've paid for a plot, feel free to head down, pick a plot, and START PLANTING!!!

Call or email with any questions and check back later today for some pictures of all the work we did this weekend.

Happy Memorial Day!
- Jen and Katie

Almost time to plant - sign up for your plot this week!

Hi everyone – our garden plans are underway!

We are hoping to collect the rest of the money for garden plots this week so we can purchase some fencing. If you have already paid…thanks!  If you are still interested in a plot but have not yet paid please get that into either Katie or myself by this Sunday (we’ll have a table set up in the foyer).

We are also planning a few workdays to get us ready for the planting season.  We’d love to get as many people involved in this as possible.  We scheduled two times to help accommodate people’s schedules. 

            On Thursday, May 26^th we will be staking out the individual plots and starting to put up some fencing.

            On Friday, May 27^th we will be mulching the pathways between the plots and finishing up the fence.

Plan on helping out at the garden site anytime between 4:00 and 6:00 on those days.  Then Saturday, May 28^th is the official GRAND OPENING of the garden.  Feel free to start planting and tending to your garden anytime after the 28^th.

We will be installing 4 ft. snow fencing around the perimeter of the garden to keep the deer out.  I’ve been informed that rabbits and other small critters can chew through that fencing.  We’re planning on spraying the fence with a Tabasco sauce mixture to try and deter them.  The individual plots will be marked off with twine.  If you are concerned about smaller animals, you are more than welcome to purchase and install 1 or 2 ft high chicken wire fencing around your individual plots. Since this is the first year we’re gardening at the site, I’m not sure how much trouble we should expect from critters.

Also, keep in mind, we are trying to maintain an organic garden, which means not using chemical fertilizers and pest control methods.  We are putting together a list of approved and non-approved products that can be used in the garden.  If you have particular products that you are interested in, feel free to contact us and we’ll look into it for you.

As always, feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

-       Jen (magnusonjd@gmail.com 603-508-7149) & Katie (katieholland07@gmail.com 585-506-6196) 

Reserve your plot by 4/30!

For those of you who have not seen the garden space yet...here it is!!!

We had about 50ft x 300ft of the land tilled in the fall and are planning on tilling again this month (as soon as we get some fertilizer spread).  A big thanks to October Rose Farm and Daniluck Farm and Stables for donating composted chicken and horse manure to use as natural fertilizers.  Katie and I tested the soil this week and are very happy with the results.  The soil's pH level is right around 6.0 and the fertility estimate is high!  We've also seen plenty of worms working in the soil which is always a good sign.

One of our concerns at this point is maintaining an sufficient water source.  There is a small pond a few yards away from the garden site.  We're looking into testing the quality of the water and finding out if it is a sustainable source of water for us.  We'd also like to get a few rain barrels to add to our water supply.  Does anyone know of a place that might donate a barrel or two to the garden project?

In other news, we are planning on holding a work day to get things started for the season.  Mark you calendars for April 16th around 1:00.  Our plans for this day include bringing in trucks with the manure, getting started on the fence, and building a compost bin out of the pallets donated by Green Planet Grocery (thanks Kevin!).  If you're interested in seeing the garden or have time to lend a hand feel free to stop by.

Also, I wanted to pass along this great resource that Sarah shared:

hey hey everyone! Getting uber pumped for the growing season. Here is a handy tool that lets you plan out your plot, see what families of plants are good to rotate together, get all the info you need on individual veggies and fruits and see the growing cycle for all in a handy chart. It comes with a free thirty day trial!

Check out the site here: Interactive Vegetable Garden Planner

And finally, don't forget to contact Katie (katieholland07@gmail.com) or me (magnusonjd@gmail.com) to reserve your plot soon!  We asking for a one-time donation of $25 for a 10ft x 10ft plot for the summer.  Our season will run from Memorial Day to Halloween so there's plenty of time to grow a variety of plants.

• If you think you'll need more space than that we can combine two plots into one for $45.
• If you think you'll need less than 10ft x 10ft let us know and we'll try to work something out for you too! 
• We've had several people already request a plot so email us soon to reserve your spot before we run out of space!

Hope to hear from you soon!

Composting, Eggshells, and Bruschetta

Despite the colder weather this weekend (spring is coming right???) preparations for the Community Growth garden are under way.   Our to-do list for this week includes finding a source of fertilizer (does anyone know of a horse or chicken farm that would be willing to donate some manure?) and contacting local businesses to get supplies to build a fence and compost bin (anyone good with a hammer?).

While we hope to have a large compost bin available at the garden site, this summer, I wanted to start a bucket of my own at home to help get the process started.  So all week, I collected my veggie scraps, eggshells, and coffee grounds in a container in my kitchen.  Since I’ll have a garden plot this summer I have no need for the buckets that I grew my tomatoes in last summer.  So, this weekend my wonderful husband took a drill to one of my tomato buckets and turned it into a mini-compost bin for me.  And since my buckets still contained the dirt and old tomato plants from last summer, I have a great combination of “ingredients” to get things started.  So currently, my bucket contains layers of old tomato plants and dirt, dried leaves, and a bunch of kitchen scraps (no meat or dairy!).  Here’s hoping it turns into some great compost!

I also finally got around to planting a few seeds this weekend.  Katie already has a head start on this one as her tomato plants sprouted weeks ago.  If we’re lucky, she might post a picture of them for us!  Inspired by this article, I decided to try planting seeds in eggshells this year.  Not only is it a cheap and easy way to start seedlings, but when its time to plant you just plop them into the ground, shell and all (the shell provides calcium to help enrich the soil).  My only concern is that the seedlings will outgrow the eggshells before its warm enough to plant them outside.  Has anyone tried this before - Any suggestions???

Speaking of seeds, from our friend Kevin at Green Planet Grocery:

"We've got seeds on the way, if anyone is interested, let me know. All are organic, most are heirloom. wax beans, pole beans dark red beets, broccoli, rainbow chard, eggplant, kale, snow pea, spinach, delicata squash, tomatoes (brandywine, yellow perfection, cherry, san marzano paste) corn, jalepeno, sunflower and calendula."

So if you’re looking for a great source of organic seeds and want to support a great local business, stop into Green Planet located at 3514 West Genesee Street (across from Target).

And finally, settling in tonight for a lazy Sunday evening, I decided to forgo cooking an actual dinner and instead made this yummy bruschetta out of some homemade bread.  While delicious, it really only made me miss the taste of fresh, off-the-vine, sun-ripened tomatoes. So while I only made a simple bruschetta topping out of store-bought tomatoes, I’m pining away for one day this summer when I can pull a tomato off a plant I’ve grown and make this! 

Garden plots are still available!  If you’re interested reply below or email Jen (magnusonjd@gmail.com) or Katie (katieholland07@gmail.com) for more details.  

SPRING!

The sun is coming out and the snow is disappearing ... this time last year, I was getting ready to plant my "garden" in buckets on my back porch.

 

This year is a whole different story though.  This year, I have the SPACE to plant a garden that doesn't involve buckets (or lugging heavy bags of dirt up to the porch on my second floor apartment)!

Half an acre of land has been cleared at the Christ Community Church in Camillus, NY so that members of the community may come together and plant their gardens.  Individual plots are available for people or families interested in growing their own produce this summer.  Space has also been reserved to plant a larger garden to raise crops to donate to families in our community.

We are currently taking reservations for 10 x 10 garden plots for this summer.  Rental cost for one plot is just $25 if you reserve by April 30th.  

Comment below or email Jen (magnusonjd@gmail.com) or Katie (katieholland07@gmail.com) for more details or to reserve your spot!