H2O

Yes...we now have water on-site! As of yesterday evening, the garden has 2 hydrants to draw upon for plant-giving, life-nourishment.

Thanks to Larry Van Andel (Whatcom-Skagit Trenching) for his donation of time and equipment plus professional services, our North City Community Garden has water. Thanks so much Larry!

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Larry


Kindness

Entry Arch is UP!

Thanks to our dear friends, Gerrit Starkenburg and Jay Hafford, we now have our "Entry Arch" installed.

With a little elbow grease here, and a little there, these two fine chaps worked 1/2 the day on this project. With their great help and all of the equipment and machinery used to pull this off...wow what a deal for the community garden. Who would have "thunk-it", that so much would be needed to put 5 pieces of wood together and stick it in the ground. I have a hugely increased appreciation for all the telephone and power folk - now.

Next we will explore putting up our sign. Jay has some really nice rough-sawed cedar that could look all the "part". Gerrit suggested a routered out lettered concept. Could be real nice!

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Gerrit and Jay











Patience

Sunday Garden Scenes

A good day of rest it is, this fine Sunday. Now we can step back and view the new start of life in our garden.

Here are some scenes from our garden on this day of rest - May 17, 2009.

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Gentleness

Sun Brings Out Green-Thumbers

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Today - the sun was out, it's around 70 degrees, light breeze...it's just plain or simply wonderful. Aah that explains why there's a growing crescendo of our NCCG GreenThumbers decending upon their cherished plots. Sweet!

With all the good rain the last week, with more sun and warmth...stand back and watch our garden grow NOW!

Shalom

Demo Garden

A demonstration garden plot has begun in our North City Community Garden.

Yesterday we created a "Sheet Mulch" or "Lasagna" garden plot. This 5' by 10' plot will be maintained to grow vegetables, while at the same time significantly reducing labor and energy with tilling and weeding.

This approach also greatly enhances the ecology of soil organisms by reducing disturbances, and by building up the organic base of the soil.

You will see below the sequence of steps that were employed to build this particular plot.

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The existing 6 inches of topsoil was removed to be used later.

Next, 4 inches of grass clippings were added.

Next, 2 inches of Smit compost was added.

Next, 1-2 inches of oat straw was added.

Next, 4 inches of more grass clippings were added.

Next, some of the topsoil was returned to the plot.

Next, more straw.

The remaining topsoil was added.

Final step, added 4 more inches of Smit compost.

Now we will start to plant.

Here, 2 days later, we planted all but 15% of the available plot space.

Some call this "intensive gardening"...where a variety of vegetable plants are co-mingled and in close quarters. Not only will this provide greater production, but will help shade out areas where weeds would ordinarily pop-up, keep the soil cooler in mid-summer with less evaporation, and it just looks nice.

One of the benefits with intensive, sheet-mulch gardening is that when one plant or group of vegetable has matured and then harvested, you simply replace that spot with another plant or variety for later harvest. Thus you have this ongoing rotation of vegetable production, where the soil bed is rarely vacant.

By next year, all the grass and straw will have completely decomposed. The current layers of mulch and compost will stabilize and provide a extremely healthy soil community that will provide a nutrient fertility that is balanced and sustainable.

Stay tuned for how this will all work out through this summer.

BTW: There is another "Sheet Mulch" or "Lasagna Garden" over on BC Avenue in Lynden.

Joy...