I visited with Curley this afternoon and met two new guys, Cory and Richard. Nicole and her daughter Nora and a friend stopped in to help brush curley too. We walked the garden and found that it is only about twice the length of the horse pulling the cultivator. It will be a good challenge to "stay in the lines" when we are cultivating. I will also not be able to avoid disrupting existing mounded beds on the gardeners' side.

I brought some seaweed that I'd collected in Rockport. There is not a big pile in easy reach at Winter Island. Jonas and Mika came and helped me spread the seaweed.

I let Curley mow the grass on the front lawn while I pulled up all the black barrier cloth in the circle bed. Now that bed needs some serious raking help before the daffodils and daylillies get much taller. Hopefully the crew on April 9th will comb out the gravel and rocks that the winter plowing pushed into this bed.

Dinner & Produce Delivery

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful meal on Sunday. After we started a tomato sauce in the kitchen, all went out for a final garden clean up. Carol arrived with decorations and some of our kids helped set the table. Homemade pies arrived, tables were set, and food was served family style. We sang a little grace and enjoyed a delicious meal. Wonderful!

On Wednesday, Stacia went over to Milk N' Honey with Calvin and Johnny to deliver produce. Our first delivery, yeah! We delivered 5 large unusual greenish pumpkins from seeds of last season, 5 smaller pumpkins, several carnival squashes and about 30 gourds. Sharon Driscoll, the proprietor asked if we have a logo (great winter project), so I am going to come up with a temporary one. I am thrilled to have accomplished this; and I am looking forward to a great season next year!

Tomato madness!

Dear everyone,

This past Saturday Mika and I went ahead and rescued as many tomatoes and basil as possible from the boys and Carols garden as announced in our last posting.
Over 2 evenings we fumed our apartment with the scent of fresh tomato sauce with basil. We ended up with 13 pounds of sauce for the boys. The sauce and all the tomatoes seen in the picture were delivered tonight to the Plummer Home.
Saturday we gave the kitchen a huge bag of fresh basil to use for pesto, sauce etc. When we made our delivery tonight we saw the bag left untouched in the kitchen. After talking to the cook we took the basil home and intend to make pesto for the Harvest Dinner.
We still think the idea of the Harvest Dinner is really good. Why don't we try to come up with date? We will put up the first suggestion for date: Tuesday September 28th in the late afternoon
Please respond ASAP!
Mika and Jonas

September 14th

This afternoon Mika and I did another garden session at Plummer. Things are pretty much the same as last week. We did a lot of harvesting from the boys garden and delivered it to the kitchen. As this point we started to take the mini pumpkins and gords since some of them show signs of going rotten.
The calender does not show more garden sessions, but there is still a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans etc. that needs to be harvested over the next couple of weeks.

We noticed that the garden next to Stacias ( Carol & Chris ? ) has a lot of over ripe veggies. Tomatoes, egg plants, basil etc. seem to have been untouched for some time now. A suggestion might be to donate what can be saved of the crops to the boys? Especially the tomatoes need to be taken now or all of them will go bad.
Mika and I will go this weekend to dig out the rest of our potatoes. If we have not heard otherwise we will rescue the tomatoes. Please respond to this ASAP !

The front circle looks okay and there are still some pumpkins coming.

Great idea with a final Harvest Dinner with the boys!

Hope everyone are doing fine - lets talk soon!

Mika & Jonas

LAST DAYS OF SUMMER

Well, Jonas and I were at the garden last Tuesday picking tomatoes. There is still much to be harvested.....and always pesto to be made! I am putting my many tomatoes in freezer bags for the winter. This is the first time and it couldn't be easier: wash, plop, zip! I think we should plan on a clean-up plan: how our gardens should get cleaned out; clean up the front gardens for winter; plan a harvest meal; what's the status on gourds and pumpkins; arrangements for Farmer's Market??? Looking forward to your ideas.

good results come from faithful watering

Tuesday the 17th saw some happy people harvesting in the garden.

Ian and Penny worked with Jeff to pick over 20 cucumbers, and quite a few yellow squash. The first tomatoes are coming in too. We had help from JR, whose recently planted pumpkin patch is growing quite nicely. At the end of the evening, Penny looked over the circle garden and the work needing to be done out front there, and she discovered.....

the pumpkins I had planted with Andrew in June have been quietly growing with no help or watering at all. They are about the size of basketballs. Farm stand, here we come!

August 10, 2010

Penny, Ian, Ruth, Nick, Matt, Eddie, Patrick, the new cook Brian, me and my son Oskar were all in the garden this evening. The boys picked veggies, while Penny, Ian and I explained the garden to the new cook. He had been receiving the veggies, but didn't know where they were coming from!? (Yesterday, I handed Diarra some very large okra from my garden) I planted some bumpy pumpkins in the third row....about five mounds; we all did the redundant weeding. Things are looking pretty good considering the dry summer we are having.

Brian, the cook, was excited about the herb patch that we have, so we need to get a list from him for next season.

I am reminded that it is always good to yell in to ask if anyone wants to join the gardening. The boys are a little shy, but love to come out with us if asked !

Yesterday, the weather was perfect for gardening. A strong sea breeze kept it nice and cool along the coast. When I arrived, Mika was sprinklering and weeding. The weeds NEVER had a chance against Mika. The final score was something like Mika 200/Weeds 0. I couldn't tell if JR and Alex planted the pumpkins that they had talked about. We picked a bunch of beautiful cucumbers, a yellow squash, two gourds, and the first ripe tomato from the garden. I took them inside and some of the boys were there and they got excited about seeing the freshly picked veggies. One of the boys asked if we could make pickles. What do you think? I did a little weeding in the front circle, but it's so overrun I wasn't sure what needed to be done. There are a few pumpkins coming-up. I was also at the garden in the morning and talked with Jeff. He mentioned that they have hired a cook with experience and they're also looking forward to the farm stand. By the way....don't forget to check the calendar and write down your gardening dates.

Tuesday July 27th - no more weeds !

5 gardeners met at 5.30. Jonas, Carol, Chris, Penny and Ian joined forces and let all the weeds in the boys gaden have it. Water got sprinkled, edges got trimmed, sunset was adored - perfect evening.
Unfortunately no boys joined us, but we got a lot done anyway.
I am not sure exactly who the new cook is, but both cucumbers and yellow pumpkins are ready to be harvested.
Since Mika and I have had little luck this season we could plant pumpkins if needed at our plot.

Best
Jonas

Weeding Buddies

Tuesday evening in the garden was a cool respite after a long heat spell. You can see the effects of the boys' helping out with watering though. The tomatoes are holding their own, and the summer squash was pushing out little baby squashes in a most encouraging display. We had the company of Alex, who had come out to re-wed an area that will be planted in pumpkins. J.R. was to bring pumpkin seeds later in the week. They are hoping for a cash crop!
Jeff, Chris and Tim and I (Ruth) were encouraged to have Alex really need our help for a specific goal, and between all of us, the pumpkin plot is ready. It is on each end of the second third and fourth rows, between the peas and the tomatoes. The Hubbard squash on the seaside end of the garden is rearin' to go. It is trying to obliterate what few green bean bush plants that have survived the heat. I marked them with some little bamboo stakes.
I planted some chard in the very first row, where the lettuce crop continues to be assaulted by the woodchucks. I covered the new chard seed area with a little row of rocks since I didn't have a garden marking stick.
Jeff was ebullient at the harvest of his first cucumbers- victory!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Tuesday was a beautiful day at the garden. Ruth and I arrived at 5:30 followed shortly thereafter by Chris and then Tim. A special "high five" goes to Alex. Alex is a tremendous help and he's been watering the garden daily. Yesterday, Alex showed us what we needed to weed so that he could plant pumpkin seeds. We weeded an entire row and made a square bed for the pumpkins. JR is bringing seeds so they can be planted today. We also tied the tomato plants to the stakes. Chris is going to check and see if she has other seeds which we can plant for the boys. Has anyone seen or heard from Jonas? He was scheduled on the calendar for 7/13 and 7/20, but he was m.i.a. He's also on the calendar with Penny for next Tuesday, 7/27. Hope everyone is having a great summer! -- Jeff