Ok so I am proving to myself that I am not a blogger as I never managed to get a second post in last year. However now that I am getting ready for my first full season with my community garden I realize that it is so helpful to keep records and photos and so much better for it to be in one place. Let's see what I can pull from memory of what we accomplished since late October....
Harvests
Given that I didn't get plants in the ground until August I was pleased with my harvests.
I didn't have enough time for the tomatoes to redden or some of the produce to get to full size but I did get a lot of basil, fall lettuce, snap peas, tiny but delicious carrots and a ton of green peppers.
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| Globe artichokes grew wonderfully but never flowered |
Amazingly, the plants were still flowering in November when I finally put the beds to bed...
Season Extending
I used PVC hoops secured to my raised bed by the wooden dowels in the interlocking sides of the bed. Unfortunately many of the dowels broke off at the end of the season and many times I had to put the PVC into the soil to secure. Next year I will tamp longer metal dowels into the existing holes so there is more for the PVC tubing to "hold on". I bought
garden quilt fabric so that I could protect from the early frost. This turned out to be effective but messy. The fabric came in 6 ft or 12 ft wide rectangular options. The crossing hoop made with PVC over my 4x4 raised beds required the 12 ft in order to cover the sides. Unfortunately it was too big and had to be cut down both length and widthwise. Given my curious tendency to cut at an angle even when trying to cut straight I ended up with a very awkward system. Even folding and holding down with stakes it still was messy and blew off in the wind.
I long for an
easy pop up system like the one at Gardeners but they have it in 3 ft increments. I need 4x4. The rectangular fabric would have likely worked better if I had the PVCs as a hoop instead of the crossed bars but the conventional size I bought cheaply was too long for the hoop and I was too lazy to cut them down. This year I will have vertical frames on each box so I will need to come up with a new solution. Whatever it is I want it to have elasticized or velcro bottoms to fit snugly on the box so I don't need to bother with the staking. And it has to be easy to fold up and store away for winter.
Preparing the beds for winter
The community garden stops providing water after the first frost in October and it is "closed" during the winter months. In early December I pulled out the remaining tomatoes, peppers, and the non-fruiting artichokes. I stored away the PVCs, my two large garbage cans with compost and Mel's Mix, and my supplies against the fence under a cover. I covered all of my beds with cocoa husk mulch to keep the weeds down, provide nutrients, and help with warming come springtime. I'm so curious to see what it will look like when all the snow and ice melt.
Making an entrance
I am a sucker for flowering vines and arbors. I decided to mark the entrance to my plot with an arbor adjoining my gate.
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The naked gate
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We are very limited with height restrictions at FVG and I am limited on budget. I decided on a lattice approach so that the vines would have easy climbing and found cheap wood lattice at Home Depot that I framed in and covered with cedar planks on top.
I enlisted my mother to help with this project. She had the patience of a saint as I measured, remeasured, cut wrong, and remeasured again. It is still crooked but I am hoping that the vines will cover all sins. My plan is to grow sweet autumn clematis up the left side which will bloom in August and John Clayton Coral honeysuckle up the right side which will bloom in June and train them both to grow over the other side.
Landscaping
My parents have an adjoining lot to mine. While my garden is all about the vegetables, their garden is so much more: seating, pond, and FLOWERS. They had some existing structure so this season we have mostly cleaned up overgrown weeds, invasive vines and roses. We moved existing azalea and hydrangea bushes.
We also started a patio and set up table and chairs. We still have more bricks to lay and edging to do. Depending on how wet the spring is we will need to relay and sand the patio. Hoping it dries out early enough to get this tackled before planting weather.
We dug out the existing pond liner as it was leaking and cleaned up the growth around it. Come spring we will add a fountain and vegetation.
We repurposed an existing shed and planted wild flowers on top. I bought the wood to reinforce the roof of the shed and give more room for planting soil so that the wildflowers can do their thing come spring.
First snow in December and I haven't been able to get into the garden since. Looking forward to seeing how things thaw out.
Overly excited to report almost 100% germination after only a few days. I think having them near the hot water heater for the last 48 hrs really helped them take off. I now have them under lights. I have not needed to water them since I sowed.
After exhaustive internet searching, wringing of hands, excessive time spent in gardening stores and Home Depot my mother and I came up with a solution. So far we have a 5 shelf (36" x 16" x 72") utility cart, multiple cheap closet fluorescent lights (the shop lights only came in 4 ft and the grow lamps were expensive), and full spectrum T8 fluorescent bulbs. I will buy a few of the Hydrofarm JSV2 2-Foot Jump Start T5 Grow Light System when I save up, but in the meantime my system is 1/5th the price. For the actual seedstarting I have a collection of Burpee's seedstarting kits whose trays are made from plant materials and organic dot pots and organic seedstarting mix. 
I used PVC hoops secured to my raised bed by the wooden dowels in the interlocking sides of the bed. Unfortunately many of the dowels broke off at the end of the season and many times I had to put the PVC into the soil to secure. Next year I will tamp longer metal dowels into the existing holes so there is more for the PVC tubing to "hold on". I bought garden quilt fabric so that I could protect from the early frost. This turned out to be effective but messy. The fabric came in 6 ft or 12 ft wide rectangular options. The crossing hoop made with PVC over my 4x4 raised beds required the 12 ft in order to cover the sides. Unfortunately it was too big and had to be cut down both length and widthwise. Given my curious tendency to cut at an angle even when trying to cut straight I ended up with a very awkward system. Even folding and holding down with stakes it still was messy and blew off in the wind. 
The community garden stops providing water after the first frost in October and it is "closed" during the winter months. In early December I pulled out the remaining tomatoes, peppers, and the non-fruiting artichokes. I stored away the PVCs, my two large garbage cans with compost and Mel's Mix, and my supplies against the fence under a cover. I covered all of my beds with cocoa husk mulch to keep the weeds down, provide nutrients, and help with warming come springtime. I'm so curious to see what it will look like when all the snow and ice melt.
My parents have an adjoining lot to mine. While my garden is all about the vegetables, their garden is so much more: seating, pond, and FLOWERS. They had some existing structure so this season we have mostly cleaned up overgrown weeds, invasive vines and roses. We moved existing azalea and hydrangea bushes.
