Month: May 2013

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Columbia Falls Community Garden Photo Essay – End of May, 2013

It has been forever and a year since I last posted.  Turns out, May is a ridiculously busy month at work, at home and at the garden.  Who knew?

I don’t have too much time to write…I have to finish knitting an end of the year teacher gift, but I wanted to show you what has been going on in the garden.  If you are not a fan of pictures of garden plots, emerging vegetables, and the like, this post may not be for you.

Remember when I mentioned that River’s Edge Park, where the garden is located, was closed for two weeks?  This is what they were working on:

The new entrance to River’s Edge Park

There are cool trails that the little kids just love…and there are big rocks to climb on…

So, ultimately, it was worth having to adjust our gardening hours.

Here is a nice shot of the Garden sign with some of the new landscaping:

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And another shot:

ImageThe rocks are so much better than the ugly barbed-wire fence that used to be there!

Now for a garden tour.  Everyone has been doing such a fabulous job prepping their plots.  For those of you in other parts of the country who are worried that we are getting a late start, rest assured that gardening in NW Montana is a late May, early June kinda thing.  We had about 2 inches of heavy wet snow late last week…lots of branches down, but luckily no garden damage.

First, the community beds:

Our herb garden against the backdrop of the new landscaping

Chives in the herb garden

Gorgeous oregano

Majoram. I’ve never used this herb before…what do you use it with?

Raspberries

Community potatoes–looks like they need a little weeding!

Onion and garlic beds. The onions look great–but I think we put too much straw on the garlic over the winter. Always a lesson to be learned.

Kyle planted corn–another plot holder asked if the corn knows to come up through the little holes in the plastic. I think it does!

Strawberries

On to our plot holders’ gardens:

Tasha’s plot

Ken and Leslie’s plot is looking good!

Ken and Leslie Plot #2

Janina and Brian have some onions and potatoes going

A long shot of Marlene and David’s 2 plots. They have been working hard!

I think Kyle and Erin have a thing for onions. Look at those beautiful rows!

…and their sweet hoop house

Another shot of Erin and Kyle’s plots–I have a tinge of gardener’s jealousy going on!

Master gardener Robbie’s plot. She is growing it entirely for the food bank.

The dedicated CFCG Food Bank plot is coming along

Adam and Kristen’s plot

Natalie is getting her plants started in Wall O’Waters. Great idea!

Naomi and Arnold are experimenting with potato “structures” and they have some things flourishing in their hoop house

Lucy and Andrew’s hard work is paying off

Staci and Craig have been attacking that pasture grass every weekend. It will pay off, I promise!

Ric and Jenna’s plot is cleared and ready to go

…as is Karissa’s

Long shot of Erma and Gary’s plots. I am jealous all summer long about how meticulous their plots always are!

Rhubarb in Daniel’s plot

I always watch what Kyle does in his plot very closely…his peppers were amazing last year. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to make salsa–my peppers just never produced.

And finally, if you have made it this far, this is what is growing in my personal plots.

Pallet radishes

The beginnings of lettuce and spinach…not entirely sure the pallet was the best way to go with these, but it is always an experiment!

Kale

Tomatoes and peppers. I went with the “red mulch” this year, and wow…the soil really is so much warmer underneath. Even more so, I think, than under black plastic. I may put it under my peppers too, since they are so sensitive to cold. A little research, first, though.

Squash of all flavors

Long shot of my plots…note the wheat growing in my straw.  Weed free doesn’t mean seed free.

Baby sugar snap and snow peas

French marigolds

Broccoli Lane, with a few cauliflower at the end. My youngest insisted on cauliflower. Seriously.

Pretty potatoes in a pretty crooked row.

Newly emerged bush bean

Cabbage and garlic

I just realized I forgot to take pictures of the hops being grown by Desert Mountain Brewing…I will edit the post to include them tomorrow.  This is our wonderful community garden.  We still have some work to do, but I am so very happy with what we have accomplished.

Happy gardening!

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A Crazy Week In and Out of the Garden

I was pretty happy to see the end of this week.

I try to make a point to never wish time away…but quite frankly, I wanted to get to the end of the week so I could do the work in my garden plot that I have been planning in my head for months.

The increasingly dry and very warm temperatures made it imperative that the water be turned on in the community garden…but being new to the management side of things, I wasn’t really certain how it worked.  I emailed Holly at Biggy’s, the landscaping company that installed the spigots, to start the ball rolling.  After various emails, the water was turned on, but the city then needed to do its part, so we waited some more.

This took more time and energy than I expected.  Now I know.

Complicating matters is that the City of Columbia Falls has closed the park for two weeks where our garden is located in order to have a brilliant company called Forestoration redo the entrance.  Gardeners have permission to go in after 5pm and on the weekends–making it tough to be on top of the water situation.  We cannot park in the gravel parking lot–instead we park in the street and walk in, which is not a terrible hardship unless you have to haul in water brought from home because the water inside the garden hasn’t been turned on.  It has been so dry that we just couldn’t wait any longer.

On Tuesday, the water was finally was flowing, and I stopped by at 5pm to water–quickly, because I had to be back at the school to give a speech at the National Honor Society induction ceremony.  That was a bit stressful–the watering and the anxiety about the speech.  My speech seemed to go okay…notwithstanding the coughing fit I had in the middle of it.  Of course, no one is going to tell me my speech was horrifyingly dull, so I’ll never really know.  Phew!  That’s over!

As I am getting out of the shower the next morning, my phone rings.  It is a fellow gardener, letting me know that a spigot is broken and there is three feet of water around said faucet.  I rushed to the garden to shut off the main valve.  No apparent water damage, but the spigot was completely detached.  I ran back to get ready for work–my hair never looked quite right for the rest of the day.

More emails.  Throw in the usual rides to karate practice, shopping for garden items, buying Mother’s Day cards, making dinner, etc…it was a full week.  Incidentally, it was also the first week that my husband was back to work for the season.

By Friday, the spigot was reconnected, water was flowing once again, and life was running more smoothly.  Beer me!  After work on Friday, my husband and I went to our watering hole, the Desert Mountain Brewing and Draughthaus.  I was so been looking forward to it…the weather was stunning, the beer was tasty, and we got to see our friends Craig and Staci (also plot holders in the garden).  Coincidentally, I finally actually met Holly from the Biggy’s Landscaping–you know, the one I had been emailing all week.  Small towns are great that way.  After a couple beers, Staci and Craig joined us next door at the Three Forks Grille where we had some dinner and then walked back to our house.  It was a good time.

Today, after a trip to a local gardening center, I was able to finish mounding my plots, and piling straw in the walkways (always looking for ways to keep the pasture grass at bay).  I brought all of my vegetable supports down, and had to walk them the distance from the car parked in the street to my plot which is the furthest away from the door.  At one point, arms filled, I noticed movement in my peripheral vision, and was startled to see a very large spider crawling out of the “shelf” of my tank top.  In my panic, I flung all the support structures I was carrying.  Ugh.  Shudder.

I planted kale, a few more garlics, leeks, parsnip seeds, bush bean seeds, broccoli, marigolds, and nasturtiums.  I decided to try the “red mulch” permeable plastic under my tomatoes (which won’t be planted for a couple more weeks).  I pulled more grass, set up my cucumber and squash support trellis and placed my tomato cages in the appropriate rows.  The I watered the entire plot, and realized that I was really sunburned.  I came home, and sent an update email to the plot holders (which, retrospectively reads like a “don’t don’t don’t” list–not quite what I intended–hopefully they won’t feel too brow-beaten).

Looking down the length of my garden plot(s).

Looking down the length of my garden plot(s).

I love the plot holders in the garden this year.  We have 20 families, of all sizes, ages, belief systems, and garden expertise…and it is fascinating.   Every time I go to the garden, there are plot holders working hard, battling pasture grass, getting dirty and planting vegetables.  We are sharing ideas and plants–which, as I’ve stated before, is what a community garden is about. They are quality people.

My plots from the other direction...

Wider shot

It feels good to know that I did everything I set out to do this weekend in the garden (except plant the first flush of carrot seeds…I will do that tomorrow).  Tomorrow morning I will mow and trim the garden, and then come home to tackle my own yard.  Perhaps because of my spider experience, I still feel like I have things crawling on me.  And my back feels rather as if it is on fire.  You’d think by forty years old I would learn to use sunscreen.  Nope.

The work never ends…but I love it!

Look! Radishes!

Look! Teeny tiny radishes!

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Today at the Columbia Falls Community Garden

Another busy day!

I went to the garden at about nine, which is pretty early for me, especially on a Saturday.  Other gardeners were coming to help me with some projects, but they hadn’t arrived yet, so I set to work smoothing out some pathways and filling in low spots in the garden.

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A bit hard to see, but we have swallows living in our Garden birdhouse! The parents were yelling at me a bit when I came too close, and occasionally swooped around my head. I tried to keep my distance.

My next task was to use stakes and twine to cordon off Potato Place and the Strawberry Patch.  Then I finished laying the landscaping fabric that outlines the individual plots.  I also had the opportunity to speak with some nice people in the community who were walking by and put them on our waiting list.

While I was doing that, Lucy and Andrew and their beautiful children showed up, and Andrew immediately got to work digging out the grass in Raspberry Row.  (Thank you thank you thank you!!! I was dreading having to do that).

Raspberry Row

Raspberry Row

The kids had fun digging in the dirt and finding worms.  And it is so much nicer to pull grass roots when you have someone to chat with!

Adam arrived, and helped finish digging the Row, and then Andrew planted the raspberry canes.  My husband and eldest son put the plastic on our homely but useful greenhouse.

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It is already getting toasty in our homely little greenhouse

Eric, my husband, then organized the garden shed.  He took a lot of garbage out, and hopefully did not contract hanta virus.

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Thank you! This was another job I wasn’t looking forward to.

Plot holders were in and out of the garden all day.  Adam worked on his plot, Erin and Kyle came down to pull grass (a never-ending chore) and to plant potatoes in nifty chicken wire cages.  That is something I am loving about this season in the garden–everyone has so many cool ideas to share.  Janina and Brian worked in their plot for the first time.  Marlene and David and their children arrived as I was getting ready to trim and worked to eradicate grass from their plots, too.

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It was a gorgeous day.

As for me, I planted strawberries, weed whacked the garden,  and watered my seeds and new plants.  It doesn’t look like much when I list it that way, but I am exhausted and just a little bit sunburnt.

Tomorrow I will go back to replant a few onion sets that didn’t survive the cold weather, and to perhaps plant a few things in my own plots.  The 10 day weather forecast is looking good–highs in the 60s and 70s with lows in the 40s.  Works for me!

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Blueberry bushes.