High summer at the garden

It's the end of July, and the garden is hopping, literally. We have had a few baby bunnies that have gotten trapped inside the fence, and kids and grown-ups have scared them half to death by chasing them. I think they are too big to fit in now as I haven't seen any for awhile. I found a papery snakeskin in my tomatoes today, evidence that we still have critters inside the garden (glad I didn't see the snake).

Here's a picture of the garden from the beginning of the season:
And here it is now. That patch with the grass mulch is now full of zinnias and sunflowers, decorations for a gardener's upcoming wedding.
Here are some other photos from the garden:

The entrance sign and sunflower wall from the Art & Ecology students' service learning project

One of the tipis made for morning glories, also by the Art & Ecology class.

Kale in Karla and Nathan's plot

A pepper plant in one of Mark's many plots

No fear, these are from my garden, not the wedding decoration plot.

Like a sunset in flower form

So much tasty produce is growing in these little plots.

Hurray for the ripening of the tomatoes!

The sweet potato stacks workshop

A few photos from the sweet potato workshop:




The stacks are pretty easy - 3 tires filled with a 75/25 mixture of sand and soil, planted with sweet potato starts. The sweet potatoes like to have a sawn-off milk jug placed over them for a few weeks, then a shade (an old wood shingle is the best), and plenty of water. At the end of the season, you remove the tires, and the potatoes are easy to harvest from the mound of sand.

Sweet potato planting workshop are Saturday, May 21 at 9 AM, with a rain date of Saturday, May 28 at 9 AM.
Run by Marcia Widmer's dad, Mr. Ever. If you wish to participate, please email Marcia and Todd Widmer and let them know that you plan to attend and how many sweet potato towers each person wants.

Supplies needed for the workshop:

3 tires/tower (Todd and Marcia will procure, but your assistance with rolling them out to the garden would be appreciated)

Sweet potato starts (Todd and Marcia will pick them up)

Sand, to mix with the dirt (About 1 bushel sand/tower - we are still working on procuring the sand. If you can help, please let them know.)

Shovels (we have some at the site)

Trowels, if people want

Buckets for transporting water from the rain barrels to the towers (BYOB)

a shingle or a milkjug with its top cut off to shield the young plants for the first week or so.

If you have questions, you can also contact me (Katherine), but Marcia knows more about this event than I do. Cheers.

The First Mennonite Church youth group and Karla Stolzus-Detweiler came out to lay mulch paths on Saturday. Thank you so much for all your work. The paths look great, and you did major combat against the weeds. There were also some of Art & Ecology students out constructing trellises and refurbishing the sign, and gardeners mulching beds, a preemptive strike against the weeds.

Iowa Planting Guide

Early Rose Potato, sprouted. photo by Matthias Karlsson

The ISU extension has put out a nice, easy-to-read planting guide, downloadable as a PDF.

Here are some items you can plant right now (mid-April):
beets
broccoli
cabbage transplants
cauliflower
onion sets
spinach
sprouted potatoes
Swiss chard
turnips

Art & Ecology students at the MOCG workday

We are very lucky to have students from Sarah Kanouse's Art and Ecology class at the University of Iowa working on a service learning project at the garden site. Many hands really do make light work, and we are grateful for the energy and time they spent helping tidy up the garden site on April 2nd. The students came out in force and helped rake leaves, trimmed trees back so that we can mow, picked up trash and detritus, and gave us a huge assist with the rabbit fence. They will be designing and installing signage and plantings on the east side of the garden. Stay tuned to see the results of their work.

Spring Kick-off Meet'n'Greet this Saturday (4/9)

Do you like to dig in the dirt? Grow flowers? Eat vegetables? Meet new people?
You can do all that, right here in our neighborhood. Come find out more.


MOCG Meet'n'Greet
Saturday, April 9th, 1-3 p.m. (raindate 4/16)
815 Orchard St. (located on the lot next to Dental Ceramics)

This is a great time to scope out the garden site, meet some of the current gardeners, and sign up for a plot ($10 for a 10'x10' plot). We will also have a brief demonstration on how to make a very easy raised keyhole garden bed.

Next events: 4/14 Roosevelt Family night, plant starters, 4/30 seed and starter swap.