Come by tomorrow to the GANG, Monday June 18th from 6-8 pm for some much-needed WATERING and tending of our garden. No rain as of yet, and only a 30% chance of some yet on THURSDAY!!
We will be there, like every Monday evening, to share the care together.
see you then
JOIN US!!
Green Acres Neighborhood Garden is holding its annual summer garden party and everyone’s invited! We’ll be celebrating the joys of gardening in such a wonderful community while indulging in tasty garden treats and friendly libations. Don’t forget about the Children’s art hour at 2pm where we’ll be painting and making charms to invite the fairies in!
2 pm: Children’s Hour
6 pm: Garden Party
I went to the GANG early this morning. Like, really early.
Before 8 am.
On a Saturday!
And it was lovely.
Forecast was for hot, hot, humidity but the morning was still fresh and dewy. The garden was still shaded so the sun didn’t burn down on me, and I did my usual walk through the garden to see how everything was doing.
The cucumbers and carrots are looking strong!
Peppers and basil coming along!
Tomatoes need stakes, they are growing growing gone!
The peas and the beans crawling up the teepee…
And there it was: the first berry on the brambles starting to turn from white to pink.
As I weeded around the perimeter of the teepee
getting rid of encroaching plants and clearing the space for our lovely veggies
I heard the pond, so alive!
I kept turning around, thinking someone was coming up behind me,
only to find….
it must be the frogs!
When I went to wash my hands off in the pond water
I bent down and
there he was!
Staring up at me with his ooogly froggy eyes!
“hello friend!” I said
and he jumped PLOP into the pond.
A wonderful way to start the day.
Mighty things are happening…
Today is the full moon
tomorrow is Venus’ travel across the sun
this must mean good cosmic energy!
At GANG the plants are growing strong and we have some new ones to be proud of!
Here we are planting Peppers, Tomatoes and Basil. But this was last month already… you should see them now, especially after the delicious rains today!
First we prepared the beds by weeding a bit…
Then it took a little bit of planning, where to put what…. 
Steph and Sarah decide…Here and there!
Ok, we got the hole dug and some amendments mixed in with the soil for extra fertility and strength (it’s all natural stuff with different minerals to help the soil be more rich for the plants).
Now Sarah shows off the beautiful tomato plant ready to spread its roots.
And here she is planting it. Go, go, GROW!
Alexandra is equally excited about the pepper plants. Thanks to the Bloomington CHILE WOMAN at the Farmer’s Market, we have 11 different kinds of peppers, including from Peru! This means we can make our sorely missed Peruvian food really authentic now! Come by in a few more months and we’ll share some recipes!
Sarah finished up with watering this bed, a good practice after a fresh planting to get those little babies on their way.
So that is the “Pizza Bed” full of basil, tomatoes and peppers. YUM! These three crops grow really well together and we look forward to many delicious pizzas and more!
Jon helped us out by mulching around a lot of our new and delicate plants. This helps to protect them from the elements, retain moisture and prevent weeds!
We also planted some potatoes. As you can see here, they grow in trenches. As the grow, we take the soil from the pile in the middle and make a mound around the plants, and they keep casting roots as they grow. Eventually there will be some potatoes in there too. Continuing with our Peruvian theme, our potatoes include Peruvian purple potatoes! Never had them? They are REALLY purple!
In this bed we got some cukes and some carrots. As of now they are doing well and going strong. Wish us luck on the carrots, we’ve had difficulty with them in the past because of the clay-like soil here which packs them in too much. Hopefully this year there will be more carrots that survive! And there’s Ann, preparing the beds for the plants, getting rid of those unhelpful weeds.
So that was our May work day, despite the late update. Stay tuned for a photo update on plant growth so far!
And GANG is growing!
Come join us Monday evenings, from 6-8 pm in the garden every week. Help us cultivate, tend, water, plant, and harvest.