Fall

And yes, we all get so busy with gardening that we forget to write about gardening or take pictures of our gardens.  I did snap a few this fall as plants were just starting to hit that fall neglect stage of growing.
Most gardeners have put their plots to bed.  There are still a few loose ends to tie up and we will be doing that next month.

Saturday, November 9th. 2013

1-3 pm

Join us for a garden clean-up work party

and 

a short meeting to follow

At the garden on Bradford Street

Now that we've had our killing frost, the garden won't be quite this lovely until next year.  

Looking Back

Despite a Memorial Day frost, inches and inches of rain, and temps in the 90's, people still got out and planted their summer gardens.  The garden is coming alive again, slowly, but with plots filling up every day.  As usual, weeds are growing faster than vegetables, and slugs are basking in the glory of saturated ground and dripping grass. 

The compost heaps are filling up with weeds as fast as they can grow.  We'll see who wins.

 In other news, our shed, built last year, has been waiting and waiting for a makeover.  We finally got around to it this weekend and this is the result:

A prosperous week, I'd say.

Growing

We came out of days and days of rain with the most glorious sunrise and the most perfect day for planting.  The garden is showing signs of life.  Many plots are planted with new seedlings and flowers and others are tilled and waiting to nourish whatever grows there.
Weeds are also prevalent after such an enormous amount of rain.  The dandelions were up to my knees and some of the crab grass was taller than me.  An afternoon of mowing, weeding, and painting and the garden is ship shape again.  Sunny days are in the forecast.  Time to get planting.

Compost, looking good!

Our garden compost system supports 48 garden plots.  It is made of recycled pallets and has been around for five years now.  We never thought it would last that long and I do think it will have to be replaced next year.  There are 6 bins, a row of three back-to-back with another row of three.  The bins are at various stages of decomposition.  Right now we have three bins of finished compost, black and crumbly and ready to be added to the soil.  We have two half-full bins that gardeners can put their garden waste into, and one bin that if totally full and cooking.

I have to say that it's not exactly "cooking."  We use a cold compost system.  That means that it decomposes slowly over a long period of time.  This method was chosen mainly because of it's ease.  We have very few compost-turning volunteers.

Every spring and fall we dig everything out and consolidate it.  We completely empty one bin, fill it with larger weeds, straw, and veggie waste.  We dump finer compost on top and the "almost finished" compost last.  As we're digging, we usually find finished compost at the bottom of the bins.  These get shoveled into the empty bins to be used in the gardens.

And the results are awesome...

Spring

Welcome to Morgan Spring Community Garden's new website and blog.  On these pages you will find everything you need to know about gardening at Morgan Spring.  The tabs along the top of the page will direct you to registration forms, garden guidelines, and contact information.  This main page will contain periodic posts and photos of garden happenings.  Please browse through the pages and make comments or suggestions.  This site is very much a work in progress.  Thanks for stopping by.

Seeds

It is pushing the end of January.  The thermometer nailed to the garage siding is hovering just below zero.  The seed catalogs have been coming in since well before Christmas.  This seems like the perfect time to sit down with a cup of tea and plan the garden.

I am a chronic list and chart maker.  Every summer I wander around the garden making notes in my journal.  Notes about which tomatoes taste the best, which snap peas came the earliest, which lettuce refused to bolt.  Occasionally I will write across my page in big bold letters, "Do not plant Belstar Broccoli!"  Come winter I won't remember why, but I will listen to my own proclamation and order something else.

I save my seeds from year to year in an old shoe box that I've decorated and fitted with dividers.  This helps me to figure out what I need from year to year.

 I have used many seed companies over the years.  Now I generally browse through three catalogs.  The first, High Mowing Organic Seeds.  They are a Vermont seed company specializing in veggie and herb seeds.  Because they trial all of their seeds in their northern Vermont gardens, I know the seeds will grow in Bennington.  I start out with High Mowing, and then move on to Johnny's Selected Seeds.  Sometimes Johnny's has seeds that I can't get any where else.  The catalog offers lots of growing tips and the seed packs are large.  Finally, for smaller seed packs and almost all of my flower seeds, I use Pinetree Garden Seeds.  Pinetree's small seed packs and low prices make it easy for me to try something out without breaking the bank.  My favorite flower from Pinetree?  The Tithtonia Torch or Mexican Sunflower.  It is big and bold, with orange flowers that the bees love.  

I know there are oodles of seed companies out there and everyone has their favorites.  These are the ones I swear by.  What about you?

By Tara Schultz