2016 Garden Season - We are currently accepting members for the 2016 gardening season!

We hope everyone had a great winter and is now enjoying spring and all the growing opportunities! We set some important dates for the start of the 2016 garden season. There are signups to be completed, direct seeding to take place, signs to be painted, compost to be spread and 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 always we will try to limit emails and rely more on our website and Facebook to relay more detailed info on plants, to do lists, and other fun tidbits. Start checking the garden website on a weekly basis to keep up with the latest! Also, "like" us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/GJ-Main-Street-Community-Garden/150874234966542)

Sign ups & Expectations:
We will once again be limiting the garden to 40 participants. Cost will be $50 per household for the season.

We are holding our next sign-up day on Tuesday, May 3 from 5-7pm at the garden.

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 better track of their participation, there will be a sign up sheet located on the side of the tool shed. 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.

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 already started all of our transplants (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! 

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!

Harvesting How-To

Harvesting is one of the most satisfying parts of gardening and if done correctly will help yield a seemingly unending supply of produce.  Generally, it's best to harvest only ripe produce, allowing the newer veggies to grow to their full potential over the next few days.  In the Garden we harvest  ripe stuff together as a group every Tuesday and Saturday, and then encourage people to harvest individual portions of greens (chard, kale, arugula, mustard etc) and herbs on their own. Below are a few tips to harvesting in the Community Garden, with some photos of ripe produce.

Carrots: Pull carrots very carefully to avoid pulling of the tops. You may want to gently loosen the soil around the carrots with a garden fork then wiggle and pull them out. A carrot is ready when you can see a little bit of it above the soil, or when the soil is brushed away you can seen the top orange part.

Basil: Basil shoudl be harvest regularly every week. Simply snip off the flowering heads, just below the two big leaves as shown above.

Beans: So far we only have fresh eating green and purple string beans. These should be harvested regularly 2x per week. The beans are ripe when they are firm, a few inches long, and BEFORE they turn woody. Once a bean has bumps (where the seeds are developing) the bean is likely a little too ripe. These can still be eaten, but aren't choice. When harvesting beans, pick the older woody ones as well and throw them in the compost. If the plant isn't cleaned of beans, it will start putting it's growing power into developing seeds in the old beans instead of producing new yummy green beans.

Beets: We have traditional purple, yellow and white nad pink striped Chioga beets. They are all ready around the same time. Generally you can see the top of the beet and they should be 1-2" in diameter before pulling them. If, as illustrated above, there are a group of beets growing together, pull the one in the middle, aka thinning, to allow the others to mature.

Chard (& Other Greens): Feel free to harvest 1-2 leaves per plant. These should be fairly decent size when harvesting- at least 8-12" long. If the plant just has small leaves, then move onto the next. Arugla, spinach, lettuce and mustard should be harvested when they are smaller 2-5" long.

Cucumbers: Harvest these when they are starting to look smooth, but still have slightly visible ridges. They should also still have a few prickles on the skin. Though the leaves may not look prolific, we have a LOT of cucumbers this year so make sure to look through the leaves thoroughly.

Lemon Cucumbers: Harvest these when they are starting to look smooth, but still have slightly visible ridges. They should also still have a few prickles on the skin. Lemon cucumbers may turn a bit yellow prior to harvesting- this is OK and they are still delicious!

Eggplant: These round eggplant should be harvest at once they reach 5"  across, and NOT earlier. If they look close, allow them to mature and grow until next week. Cut the stem off with scissors or a knife about 1/2" away from the plant.

Eggplant: These long Thai eggplant should be harvested once they reach 8-12"  long, and NOT earlier. Cut the stem off with scissors or a knife about 1/2" away from the plant.

Kale: This dinosaur looking kale should be harvest when the leaves are over 12" long. Snip off 1-2 of the outer most leaves per plant when harvesting.

Kale: This curly kale should be harvest when the leaves are over 10" long. Snip off 1-2 of the outer most leaves per plant when harvesting.

Peppers: Peppers come in many shapes and sizes! Read the following notes carefully and be aware of which type you are harvesting. All peppers should be snipped at the stem. Note that peppers can take a couple of weeks to grow, so harvesting them early is NOT advised. Green chilies- harvest when over 8". Green and Purple Bell peppers- harvest when the peppers are at least 3-4 inches long and are shiny, if still dull chances are they are not ripe. Poblanos- harvest when 3-4" long and they start looking plump, if they still look concave or skinny leave them until next week. Jalapenos' harvest when plump, 2-3" long, and shiny. Hot peppers- harvest when you need some serious spice, many will turn red when totally ride and ready.

Pepper: turn red after being on the plant for awhile, these are still wonderful to eat and cook with.

Tomatoes: We have many kinds of tomatoes in the garden, and some ripen when bright red, others purple, some yellow or orange, some even green. The best way to tell if a tomato is ripe, gently press on it and it should be just the slightest bit soft. At this point they should come off of the vine fairly easily. Make sure to lift up vines and search around for tomatoes as they are often hidden. If you find any rotten ones, please pull them off of the vine

Tomatillos: harvest these when the papery shell starts to split and make way for the green or purple fruit inside. When ripe these fruit are very easy to pick by hand as they will fall off easily. Lift up the vines when picking tomatillos and look for fruit that may have fallen naturally.