Farm and Schools Blog

Hi Everyone! Plantland just donated 10 flats of plants for the garden. I will be at the garden tomorrow morning, Friday, at 8am to put them in. If you have time, I would love the help! Thanks!

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone has had a great start to the summer! 

There have been some concerns about there not being enough room in the field.  Please make sure that you look at the stakes marking the rows on the Eastern side of the field for family names.  Any stake without a family name is open for that crop. 

The winter squash patch has some room in it.  If we need to open some of the outer rows up there to other crops we can do that.  Let’s try to keep the squash together as their vines will get into other crops.  If you do plant something other than squash there, just keep an eye on the squash vines around it; you can carefully move the vines away from your crop.  Please don’t damage someone else’s vines.

The western side of the acreage may not be planted in.  That side is being left fallow so that we can prepare it for next year as it was full of sod and thick grass this year.  If you plant there it will be tilled under.

Thanks to Rich from AgGrand Fertilizers for his display last Saturday.  This Saturday, Bill Coyle from Plantland will be out at the garden (see attached flyer).  And thanks to our Master Gardeners for their displays each week and their wonderful enthusiasm and help!

See you at the garden!

Lynette

Thanks to about 15 EVMS sixth graders, we now have 130 tomato plants in the ground.  Plants were donated by The Family Greenery and the YMCA Greenhouse.  Greenacres Plant Food donated 400 lbs of great fertilizer to get the plants off to a better start. We will have some rainy days and hopefully the sun will come out as predicted and all our crops will start to really take off.  

Just some reminders:    Please don't water between the hours of 7:30pm and 7:00am as this is the time that the water pressure is needed to water all the fields at EVMS and EVHS.

Please don't be tempted to use a weed killer or harsh chemical pesticides.  There are some regulations regarding chemicals and pesticides and your neighbors may not want their veggies contaminated.  For natural weed control, bend over and pull them out; for the bugs, talk to our Master Gardeners or go to the WSU website link on our homepage for ideas.

We all appreciate the fence and how it is keeping the deer out.  Just remember to shut the gates behind you.

See you around the garden!

Irrigation lines for the field are currently being assembled and will be done in the next day or two.  We have one sprinkler line set up and the chk, chk, chk sound was fantastic to hear!!!!  Eldon has really outdone himself in getting us on track and set up with donated pipe.  Thank you, Eldon. 

A big thank you to Dennis and Michelle Weitman and Dale Richards for donating irrigation pipe!  Another big thank you to Dickerson Pump and Lynn Humphries of C&L Farms for their generous donations and wonderful help in getting us set up to make those pipes work. 

We have some wonderful Master Gardeners that will be involved at the garden.  This Saturday between 10am and noon you can visit with them at the garden and have your gardening questions answered.  I'll have more updates about the MG's plans soon. 

One last thing:  an article was written a while ago and was posted in theSpokesman Review's Down to Earth section. The link to it online is
http://www.downtoearthnw.com/stories/2010/may/22/grassroots-education/

See you at the garden!

Well, Thursday night's cool temps did not do great things for our community garden.  Many things faired well, but some did not.  The beds looked to be better off than the field, but the field crops did not fair well; mostly the High School’s starts.  I know most things are looking very sad and even dead, but the botany and horticulture classes are still going to use the starts for another week to study the effects of frost; it’s all part of the process. 

 We have lots of good news though.  We have three Master Gardeners that will be helping out.  You can meet with our MG’s on Saturdays from 10am to noon beginning next Saturday.  Elizabeth, Karen and Jan are a wonderful addition and are looking forward to helping you all.  Elizabeth and Jean Oglesbee gave us several flats of tomato and other starts that still look good despite the frost.

 Chuck Goodman of Dickerson Pump & Irrigation has been very generous in donating 15 sprinkler heads and risers for the irrigation pipe that was donated by Dale Richards and Dennis and Michelle Weitman.  I am waiting to hear back from a local farmer who has offered some assistance in fixing our donated pipe.  As soon as he looks at it and we make the repairs we will have the field irrigated.  Until then, we just have to hand water with hoses and buckets.  I am so sorry for the delay, but Eldon and I are on it and are doing our best to get it running.

Shawn from the Family Greenery is donating 100 tomato and other various plants on Monday.  John Savage has already arranged a group of students to transplant them.  We have accepted offers from other local greenhouses to donate their unsold starts to us.  We live in a great community!

Again, the kids at the high school have been so great in helping; they are fantastic!  This summer I am hoping to have local Youth Groups from churches and 4H come out to the garden and help us with weeding and other farm related stuff.  I have talked to a few groups and have had a good response.  If you are connected in any way to a youth organization that would be willing to help, please let me know or pass on my contact info to them.  Many hands make light work!

 See you at the garden!

 Lynette