GRAND OPENING PARTY

THANK YOU ROY!!!

A Great big thank you to Roy Benner for making and installing this fantastic board at the garden!! Roy has been insturmental in getting so many goals acomplished with the garden. My appreciation for all he does goes beyond words! Thank you for everything you do, Roy! Thank you also to all those involved and working towards the grand opeing of the garden. We will be having an opening day Garden Shower Party March 31. More to come on that soon.

GREAT STRIDES!!

Although my blog presence has been lacking we are still working very hard on growing the garden. I am so excited at the beautiful fence fellow gardener Roy and Terry erected!! It is beyond anything I ever imagined and looks beautiful. THANK YOU gentleman! Roy has also been insturmental in arranging and managing the BGE/power progress. Cross your fingers for a working well in the spring.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Bounitful Harvest

Before the nasty buggers got my plants I was able to harvest some pumpkins and watermelon. The tomatoes are coming in by the basketful, and so delicious! Now that I have 10 less plants to water I have graduated to buckets with holes in the bottom for watering. They hold more water and the plants are already showing an improvement. The top picture of the watermelon is one that grew between the slats on the pallet and grew into the shape of an 8. It was ready the day I took this picture but had nothing to cut the slat with to get it out. Unfortunately I had missed my window of opportunity, when I returned the next day the watermelon had burst or been broken by someone or something. We were able to get one of these varieties that had orange flesh, it was delicious!

Sad News

 The heat, lack of nutrients in the soil, vine borers and squash bugs have claimed the lives of 3 Zucchini plants, 4 pumpkin plants, and one Watermelon plant :-( Although we were lucky to get a harvest from each plant before their demise, I am very upset about this garden defeat. I continue to remind myself this is a test plot and a learning process for next year.  This heat, lack of water and lack of soil nutrients made these plants vulnerable to the attack. I have learned a lot about farming and pesticides, the more stressed a plant is the more susceptible to bugs, therefore the more we use pesticides. Apparently the squash bugs and vine borers are a common malaise of cucurbita family in this area. Part of the planning for next years garden will involve their prevention and management. Any suggestions, tricks and advice is welcome.

Time Flies and Weeds Grow!

I can't believe it's already mid July! The garden is doing great, unfortunately so are the weeds around it. With the use of newspaper, paper bags and straw I have been able to keep weeds out of the garden. The surrounding area is another story. They weeds have shot up in the last few weeks from being a few inches tall to a few feet tall! The best way to combat these bothersome plants is to pull them by hand or cut them down. Before I can do that I need to have enough paper and straw to cover the cleared area. This will keep them from growing back and create some much needed raw material to roto-till back into the soil in the fall or spring. If anyone has paper, grass clippings, leaves or anything else to suppress weeds please drop it off at the farm. THANK YOU!!

Our First Meeting - July 2nd 9am

The Goshen Farm Community Garden - Get Dirty Eat Fresh - will have its first group meeting tomorrow July 2nd 9am behind the farmhouse at the garden. It will be an informational meeting to discuss plans, ideas and suggestions. Please bring a blanket or chair to sit on. Feel free to email me if you need directions. I can email a packet from the meeting to those who can't attend but are interested.

Watching a happy Bee at work on the sunflower.

Our first watermelon  to emerge

A baby pumpkin

The first tomato to turn red!

A delicious Zucchini from the garden ready for the grill.