First Harvest of 2011

 The "off-season" is officially over and the gardening season has begun for 2011.  We had our first work day on Feb 17th.  It was a great day as you can see.  After our morning breakfast session with the Seniors, it was off to do some garden maintenance.  The mini-composters we had established in the tomato cages were emptied and the contents moved throughout the garden beds.  The composting was not really complete, but we wanted to spread it all so it would mulch the open beds, and get rained on in the next week or two.  The contents of the 10 cages filled nearly every bed.  

The best news of the session was welcoming several new volunteers to our crew.  Marcia enlisted a Rogersville gardener to join us for the breakfast and the work session and Judy Penley brought another master gardener, Connie to join us for coffee.  Christine B joined us for the garden work a bit later.  With the weather in the 50's it was time to get growing. 

There are a few signs of growth in the garden and in our area.  The spinach we planted last Fall looks very happy in 2001.  Judy and Christine picked some leaves for a salad.  This year's first harvest was THREE months earlier than last year. 

The garden has been adopted as a project for a Church Hill Boy Scout as he works to attain his Eagle Scout badge.  I met with the Scoutmasters and Scout last week and we have a second meeting to finalize the project on Monday.  More on this next blog.

We have also received a Blue Bird house for the garden.  Carl will receive our first new Thank You card collage.  He has also volunteered to make a bench for the garden. 

The epic tome about establishing the garden, From Dirt to Dinner, The Art and Science of Producing a Garden, has been finalized, uploaded and is now for sale at www. Blurb.com.  Marcia has purchased some initial copies for review and presentation to the library and some of our major donors.  The Church Hill Library has also scheduled a Firends of the Library meeting that will discuss the process of writing, editing and publishing a book.  Brian will do the presentation on May 12th.  

It has been less than a year since this whole process began.  While we have had some frustrations, we have also had some very remarkable achievements.  With so much of the infrastructure in place, we can build on our seccesses and focus on our 2011 goals and growing. 

From Dirt to Dinner

The blurb book, From Dirt to Dinner, The Art and Science of Producing a Garden,  is in the very final revision stage.  Since the last post, all the text and pictures have been funneled into the Blurb software.  The formatting that was lost has been restored.  Marcia has been diligently correcting my exuberant use of bold and underline and we are now finalizing the remaining 50 or so pages.  With the Appendix, the book totals 114 pages.  The format is a pocket book size with a color cover.  All inside pages are  black and white.  The illustrations we chose were from the CHSC garden, victory garden posters from WWI and WWII, and  Fred, a handsome garden toad.  It was a very engrossing project that might even prove useful to others.  As insane as it sounds, we have been collecting quotes for Vol 2.

We have been working on our 2011 goals and have contacted the local school principals about including the garden in the school lesson plans.  The intermediate school has forwarded our letter to the science teachers.  Perhaps a bit more followup will be needed with the elementary principals. 

 

 There is an interesting development in gardening called High Tunnel beds.  We are considering requesting a grant from the USDA to erect a demonstration tunnel for farmers in our local counties.  Since we are an organic garden we seem to be on a very fast track for approval of 90% of the construction costs. As often is the case, our reservations are about the amount of available help for a project like this.  We would need lots of bodies not only for construction, but ongoing gardening work to plant, maintain and harvest.  There would also need to be quite meticulous records about tunnel temperatures and humidity levels.  The tunnel would also have to be opened and ventilated nearly warm day.  The tunnel extend the seasons considerably and provide farm income from late/early salad crops, berries, or flowers.  It would be a very exciting adventure, but may be too much project for the amount of labor we can attract.  The application needs to be completed in early March and there is much to be considered and completed if we are going to try to qualify for the money this year.  

Our first garden work day is scheduled for Feb 17th.  We are going to do a bit more cleanup and then spread the compost from the mini-composting stations (tomato cages) and tackle the big bin as well.  By spreading early, any material that is not fully composted can be exposed to the weather and finish in place.  Our winter has been unusually cold and snowy (for Tennessee).  It will be interesting to see how the piles have "worked" over the last few months.  

We have also been talking with our local scoutmasters and have a scout that would like to assist the garden as his Eagle Scout project.   We are still finalizing the details, but hope that a garden bench and flower bed surrounding the sign might be part of this project. 

Finally, the Fiskars Orange Thumb grants will be announced February 11.  All we know now is that our submission was accepted and received before the deadline . 

2011 Gardening Season Begins

2011 began with our family growing.  Our second granddaughter, Ashlyn Mary was born January 1st.  As we are sorting our our plans to go and visit, we are starting our garden activities.

We have completed our grant proposal for Fiskars.  There was a lot of hard work devoted to the proposal, but we did manage to resolve two nagging issues during the process.

1. We received a positive response from First Utility and will have water at the site this year.  They will re-establish the connection when the ground warms up.  One of our projects early on will be to make sure we can securely lock the connection and obtain hose, nozzles, soaker hose for the watering chores.  We will be looking for donations from the Seniors and put the Clothes Closet on alert for items that may come to them.  
2. The Second issue was a solution to the land use question.  After talking to Mayor Deal and the City Recorder, the garden was described as a Civic Asset located on property owned by the City of Church Hill.  As such, the length of tenancy, like the City Charter, is perpetual.  

For the Grant and also our continuing relationship with the Master Gardeners, these were important steps.  Organizations want to make sure that a project has a reasonable prospect for success and longevity before funding takes place.  If we are selected by Fiskars, the garden will receive $3500.00 in cash and $1500.00 of Fiskars tools.  The announcement date is February 11.

At our December evaluation session, in addition to adopting our 2011 goals and objectives, we listed a series of projects that we wanted to consider.  The list went out to our Garden Directors and others for their comments.  This week we will prioritize the list and complete things as funds become available. 

Project Description

Information Center  Posting info at the garden.  Make with recycled materials. Old window on box frame.  Attach to existing sign and make roof to keep rain out of the box.  

Manufactured Sand for Rows Needed for weed control in between the rows.  About 4” depth would be enough for adequate control

Additional Compost Bin We have good manure supply and want to expand the amount of compost available for the garden and eventual Community Garden

Additional Raised Beds For eventual community garden and expanded production at existing site.  We would expand flowers grown and herb beds. Fit some for season extension with row covers.

Soaker hose, Hose for watering  Water connection has been approved by 1^st Utilities.  Will make transplanting and watering in dry times easier

Produce scale Needed to record production on a consistent basis.  A dietary scale is fine if it can handle 20+ pounds.  Don’t need Legal for Trade and calibration

One or Two Bluebird Houses Way to encourage birdlife at the garden and provide insect control.

Bat House  Way to provide shelter for bats and to provide insect control

 We have cost estimates for each of the projects.  After the meeting the prioritized list will be posted.

Also at the meeting we are beginning our outreach to the area schools.  The educational component of our objectives needs to be addressed soon so teachers can incorporate the garden into their lesson plans and we can think about times and projects that are age appropriate.  There is some presentation material available, and we want to develop a list of teachers and administrators to contact. 

The Blurb book has also had nearly daily attention.  While the grant proposal took front stage for the last 10 days of last year, there are over 15000 words written for the book.  We are using Google Docs to collaborate on the writing and editing--the program is not very user friendly at this time.  Selecting artwork and photos is much more difficult and time consuming than word processing software.  We can all see the various versions and make suggestions and changes in real time.   Once we have settled on the text, it will be exported to MS Word and the final tuning and image placement can take place.   Our goal is to publish before the end of April.  At this point, we seem to be ahead of schedule.

Our December weather was some of the coldest on record in the Tri-Cities.  The end of the year has given way to better weather and temperatures in the 50s.  The snow has disappeared and the effects of the weather on the remaining garden plants will be assessed early in the week.  The kale pictured above is usually tough enough to easily brush it off and continue growing.  It will also be a good time to see how the compost piles are progressing.  The bacteria and fungus are like people, they slow down in cold weather.  There was some rain at at least two different times in December.  Warming weather should stimulate the pile to heat up considerably.  We should be able to soon put down the seed catalogs, stop dreaming and get growing.
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A Progress Report

 This is a fairly uncommon, though by no means rare photo of snow in Church Hill.  This photos were followed by a real treat, a combination rain, freezing rain and ice storm.  Under it all there are still signs of life in the beds.

This is also a rare photograph it shows the slow march of 10 compost bins, FKA tomato cages, to Spring Planting. The composting action was evident in the warmth of the outside boards on the big bin.

The year-end garden evaluation was held December 9th.  After we worked and ate, the conversation was distilled and recorded.  After it was submitted to the Garden Directors and some suggestions incorporated, this is the lump of work that we would like to do in 2011.

Church Hill Senior Center Garden

2011

Goals & Objectives

Goals

1. Increase senior/public participation in planting, harvesting and maintenance of the Garden
2. Find a long term solution to water availability at garden site
3. Develop and prioritize list of projects requiring funding
4. Continue to expand raised bed and compost bin infrastructure
5. Implement effective partnership between garden facilities and Church Hill students
6. Obtain a long term agreement on continued use of garden site
7. Develop short/long term solutions to path weed control
8. Increase production by 10% in 2011 by more effective use of space, earlier planting, additional beds, greater soil fertility, and increased composting.
9. Implement liability waiver policy and establish garden rules for all participants
10. Publish Blurb book by 4/30/2011 about 2010 garden

Objectives

• Meet with Seniors to discuss garden and need for additional member participation
• Continue to publicize the garden through blog, television and press coverage
• Talk with Elementary School leaders and teachers about including garden in curricula
• Build message center for participants at the garden site
• Include garden activities in Senior Center monthly newsletter
• Contact FFA leaders to ask for participation by raising plants and assisting with bed construction labor
• Talk with Boy/Girl/Eagle Scouts about participation
• Continue conversation with 1st Utilities about water at site. If necessary, seek alternative water storage alternatives
• Talk with Carter Valley Elementary leaders/teachers about garden by late January 2011and present logical plan for their participation.  Ask for their assistance in planting, Sunflower project and offer to supplement their lesson plans about seeds, gardening, photosynthesis etc.
• Schedule and conduct at least one public session about raised bed gardening, sustainable or organic practices, and or composting in conjugation with Master Gardeners.
• Form list of prioritized projects requiring funding, develop costs to implement and raise money to complete at least 2 projects designated as “significant”
• Finalize and submit Fiskars grant proposal
• select and implement Waiver of Liability forms and procedures and develop Garden Rules
• Provide for uniform collection of volunteer hours, weighing produce and reporting of production
• Develop recognition system for Donors
• Continue with organic policies

Well there you have it.  Perhaps too broad, and perhaps too  optimistic.  


We have received a positive reply from 1st Utility.  They will rehabilitate an old connection in the garden parking lot and have water available in the Spring.  They have capped the rates and given us a rate similar to the area churches.  This is a significant step forward for the garden and also in our effort to obtain a grant for the garden.

The work on the Blurb Book has shifted into high gear.  The show and ice storms provided a convenient excuse to stay inside and write.  We are using Google Docs to co-author the tome.  At this point we have over 11000 words, and a reasonably bad opinion of Google Docs.  There is going to be some considerable dancing before the thing is ready to hit the presses, but the text is coming along quite well and starting to sound somewhat coherent. The book has helped me focus on some of the issues that need to be completed and changed for next year.  

Work to finish the Fiskar's grant proposal will restart next week.  We are waiting for an answer from Mayor Deal regarding a long term usage arrangement for the garden.  The "last Call" email was received last week and the submissions must be received by year end.  We are not spending the money until received, but the $1500 worth of Fiskar's tools would be wonderful.  

Thanks to all who helped during 2010.  Merry Christmas and Good Growing in 2011.

Season Statistics

This is the point where we compute the statistics and start evaluating the 2010 garden.  There is some Kale and Turnip greens that will survive the typical Tri-Cities winter. So there will be some additional items to add to the production for this year.  But for all real purposes This Is IT!

 Crop                   Pounds or Units                        

Beans	20.25
cantaloupe	7.00
corn	112.00
corn stalks	47.00
cucumbers	113.00
cushaw	229.50
eggplant	1.00
feed corn	21.50
floral arrangements	34.00
kale	1.00
lettuce	1.00
mustard greens	26.50
okra	17.50
peppers	22.50
plum granny	7.50
puff ball	2.00
radish	19.00
spaghetti squash	39.25
sunflower heads	103.00
tomatoes	162.50
turnip greens	6.75
watermelon	21.50
winter squash	11.00
yellow squash	61.75
zucchini	53.00
	1141.00

In addition we have about 250 cubic feet of compost in process.  This is comprised of 14 truck loads of  shredded leaves and horse manure.  The big central compost bin holds 120 cubic feet and the 10 wire tomato cages have a total of 105 cubic feet of material.  There was one bed that was empty, so it was filled with the same material.  This would be another 25 cubic feet of material. 

In the Spring, there should be enough compost to fill all the existing beds to the top.  We limped along with the basic soil fertility( as found) and only had about 50 cubic feet of compost for soil amendment. With enough strong backs next year, we can do an instant replay and fill the big bin again for some compost to use in the fall and to fill any additional beds that are constructed.  We still have a good supply of leaves that will be available and there should be large amounts of horse manure available by Spring.

The Garden Evaluation meeting will be held December 9th.  Many of those invited have responded positively.  We are hoping for a good turnout and a productive session.  A letter has been prepared asking First Utility District to donate a water connection and water to use for the 2011 season.  We shall see.

Last work session

 Brian and Judy are loading one of the Truckloads of horse manure at the secret compost location .  A week earlier, we had loaded leaves and manure.  During the week, additional leaves and manure were transported and placed in the compost stockade. 

 Brian, Judy and Marcia enthused and effused loading the first of an additional two loads of manure. 

 

Only crazy committed gardeners can get excited about shoveling a truck or two of manure and be all smiley in the photos.

The bin is finally full.  There are a total of 9 truckloads of material in the bin.  We had some small amount of material from the garden.  However, the tomato vines corn stalks were taken to the landfill to prevent the spread of powdery mildew, and  southern corn rust.

The compost bin measures 6 feet x 4 feet and is 5 feet high.  Doing the math, it contains 120 cubic feet.  Since the manure was already "hot" we expect the pile to heat quickly.  It has been rained on several times during the loading process.  So we have all the ingredients needed for a treasure trove of Black Gold in the spring.  The leaves are not very compact and the pile will settle to about half the current height.  We are also using the wire tomato cages as mini-composters.  About 1/3rd of the height has been filled with manure.  Additional leaves and manure will fill the height.  We will see how much composting will take place since there is not much volume in the cylinder.  The material can either remain in the cage or be scattered in the bed. 

There are post holes already drilled and enough treated lumber has been purchased to construct a bin like the one already filled.  If the weather cooperates, we may have an additional bin before Spring.

composing and composting

On November 11th, the composting bin received its first large deposit. Two truckloads of partially shredded leaves and horse manure were picked up and placed in the bin by the "usual suspects".  Only gardeners can really get excited about locating a prime deposit of horse apples.  One of the Senior Center members provided the hot tip and we were off.  The manure was at a farm quite close to the garden and was steaming when we loaded the truck.  It was very clean and did not contain the detritus that sometimes accompanies the barn run stuff. Because of the garden's location we needed to be careful of the appearance and odor of compostable materials. 

It is preferable to know the types of trees when you are composting leaves.  Certain trees and their leaves (such as black walnut) contain toxins and can inhibit growth of certain garden plants. The leaves we used were mainly maple, tulip poplar, gum, and pecan.  If grass clippings are included in compost, it is preferable to use clippings from lawns that have not been treated by lawn services. 

Another composting session is scheduled for Nov 18th.  The weather hopefully will cooperate in placing another truckload of leaves and manure.  This will probably be the last gardening session of the year.  We plan to harvest the remaining mustard, radishes, and other greens.  The volunteers are all scattering for the Thanksgiving holidays and we want to gather and distribute as much as possible before a killing frost.