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.