Happy September Gardeners!

What a productive and beautiful summer we have enjoyed on Main Street. The newspaper and mulch really helped with the beds this year, keeping the garden looking neat and orderly. Generally the plants have done well and are in full production: tomatoes, green beans, peppers, beets, carrots, chard, kale, you name it!

We did harvest the potatoes a bit early last week as the plants had all shriveled up.  Garden members that were present last week each took some home, the rest will be available in the shed tonight, feel free to take a few home.

For the rest of the season we need to focus on getting weeds out. With fall approaching weeds start flowering and going to seed- and if they are not removed they will seed out into the garden and next year will be filled with lots of baby weeds. Whenever you are at the garden, please spend a chunk of time weeding, and put any flowering weeds or grasses into the trash (NOT compost). I know harvesting is more fun, but if everyone pulls weeds for a bit, then everyone can enjoy harvesting too!

As per usual, the garden will go through the first fall freeze, so plan on showing up every weeks until it's really, really cold- which hopefully will be mid-late October. We will then have a work day to clean up the garden, turn over the soil, pull the drip lines, and get ready for winter. Look out for announcements about this in a couple months.

To celebrate the beginning of September, we will be having a potluck next Tuesday, September 8th. Plan on working in the garden and then sharing a dish with your fellow gardeners!

Tonight we'll be weeding (yay!), and harvesting all of the flowering basil tops (regular and thai), ripe tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and tomatillos, picking all of the green/purple beans that are ready, and picking your own greens and herbs.

Enjoy this beautiful weather!

Work session tonight 5:00-7:00PM

Please join us for our weekly Tuesday work session! Our focus tonight will be on weeding. First priority is pulling weeds in the rows and next is between the rows. If you are unsure whether a plant is a weed or something that we planted, please ask someone.

Also harvest some strawberries, radishes, spinach, and garlic scapes (just the top part of the plant)!

HUGE Planting Day: Saturday, May 9th, 9-10:30 am!

Good Afternoon Gardeners!

This Saturday, May 9th from 9-10:30 am we are holding a HUGE Planting Day! We have a bunch of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, chard, kale, tomatillos and basil that are ready to go in the ground and need all hands on deck! The past few days of rain have really soaked the garden adn teh soil is prime for pulling weeds and planting.

It will be a fun way to get to know new members this year, reconnect with old friends, and enjoy some sunshine. Ilana may even bring some treats!

Please wear your sturdy shoes, hats, gloves, bring kids, family and friends, and get ready to get grubby.

See you then!

Great Story in the GJ FreePress

 This week we got great coverage in the local Free Press! Read on about the garden, our history, and the great community it fosters. We still have a few slots open for new members too!

http://www.gjfreepress.com/news/16144942-113/growing-a-community-garden-new-members-welcome-at

2015 Garden Season

We hope everyone had a great winter and is now enjoying this glorious spring and looking forward to of all the growing opportunities! We set some important dates for the start of the 2015 garden season. There are signups to be completed, direct seeding to take place, signs to be painted, compost to be spread and hand-tilled, and fun events to be planned. Dates and details are below.

We really want everyone to ENJOY their time being part of the garden and feel like the garden is their own backyard.  Like last year we will try to limit emails and rely more on this website and Facebook to relay more detailed info on plants, to do lists, and other fun tidbits. Also, "like" us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/GJ-Main-Street-Community-Garden/150874234966542)

Sign ups:

We will hold two sign-up and work days on TUESDAY, MARCH 31st, 5:00-7:00pm and TUESDAY, APRIL 7th, 5:00-7:00pm.  Please plan on attending as this year we will once again be limiting the garden to 40 participants. Cost will be $50 per household for the season. Cash or checks accepted.

Expectations:

Our weekly work sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 5-7pm and Saturdays from 9-11am.  Throughout the season all members will be required to participate in a beginning of the year event and an end of season event as well as 15 hours throughout the season. In order to allow everyone to keep track of their participation, there will be a sign up sheet located on the side of the toolshed. Every week there will be a garden leader who will be responsible for helping direct the activities, weeding, planting and harvesting for the evening.  Please let us know if you want to be a garden leader this summer, these are critical to keeping the garden going! 

Keep in mind our garden is all natural and herbicide and pesticide free!  (This means more manual weeding and sometimes creative ways to address bugs!)  For those of you that are new, we plant the garden together, meet on Tuesdays/Saturdays to care for the garden and harvest once a week.  Everyone present on Tuesdays/Saturdays is encouraged to take home a share of veggies. For people that can't make Tuesday evening work sessions you should plan on working and harvesting at a time that works for you, and remember to log your time on the sign up sheets.

We will be creating garden committees this year to tackle some individual projects so let us know if you are interested in a specific project or becoming more involved

• Compost: creating/installing a better system and turning compost weekly
• Irrigation: maintaining the system and improving as necessary
• Art/Information: create more informative bulletin board/kiosk, signs around the garden
• Other ideas?

If you cannot make it on Tuesday, we will be accepting members until we reach 40. We will also develop a wait list-if necessary-after the sign-up day.  We will do an assessment of participation in mid-June, and if some spaces open up then we'll invite people from the wait list to join.  

Plants & Plantings:

We have already started all of our transplants in the greenhouse in Palisade (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, kale, chard, herbs). We also encourage all members to start their own seeds and bring the starts to the garden to plant, especially if there's something different that you'd like to see in the garden, a certain variety that you'd like to try growing or just want to start your own seeds but have no garden of your own to plant them in! 

Upcoming Dates:

• Tuesday, March 31 - Sign Up Day/work day - remove rocks and weeds, spread compost, organize shed 
• Tuesday, April 7 -  Sign Up Day/work day - remove rocks and weeds, spread compost, organize shed 
• Tuesday, April 14 - Work day - finish spreading compost, set up new compost bins
• Tuesday, April 21 - Work day - build beds, lay drip tape/weed mat, direct seed greens
• Tuesday, April 28 - Work day - continue to build beds, lay drip tape/weed mat, prep for planting
• Tuesday, May 5 - Planting Day 1!
• Tuesday, May 12 - Planting Day 2!

Tuesdays/Saturdays- from then on every Tuesday from 5-7 and Saturday 9-11 we'll have garden sessions!

Fun Things:

Since we want this to be a fun year, we are thinking of having more potlucks, perhaps a couple talks on various ag related subjects and show a movie or two. Let us know if you have any ideas! These would probably be on Tuesdays after the garden session. We know there are quite a few kiddos that come to the garden, and if there's someone out there who wants to organize a small kids' plot, or even a coordinated dirt pile for kids to play in during work sessions, let us know! If you have other ideas on how to make the garden more fun, interactive and community oriented, feel free to share your ideas in the comments section of this website!