Another Spot Transformed!

This spot, one of serveral adopted by Ken Koerber, was formerly occupied by a trash barrel and an overgrown yew.

Former Lawn in Bloom

Quite a transformation from lawn to a productive place of mid-August beauty. Even the grass is green, thanks to what seems like nearly daily rain.

Pantry Garden Producing

.

.

.

.

.

Cheryl and Jane tend to the Pantry Garden in this August 7 photo (left). In June, church attendees who were interested in helping to weed and water the pantry garden signed up to be responsible for checking on the garden once or twice during a particular week.

Cheryl and Chris brought loads of sea grass which washes up on the beach at Plum Island to the garden to use as mulch to retain moisture and reduce weeds. See July 8th photo (above right) of sea grass mulch around pepper plants.

Flower Bed Looking Lovely

Adopt-a-Spotters have been hard at work, planting, watering, and weeding. On the left is a July 8th photo of carefully tended flowers in a bed between Fellowship Hall and the Sanctuary.

To keep flowers and vegetables watered with maximum efficiency and minimal damage to hoses has required some experimentation, and has resulted in signage (see photo of blue sheet - "Use and Storage of the Garden Hose" - above right). Instructions for hose users boil down to kindergarten type common sense rules: keeping the hoses and people safe, keeping things neat and cleaning up after yourself.

Blueberries!

Blueberry bushes appear to have survived the trauma of transplanting. The proof is in the picking -- here a young picker shows off a ripe fruit. We may need years and many more bushes before we have quantities for pick your own, but it looks like we're off to a good start.

Potato Beetles and...Purple Potatoes!

Here's Lea with the first batch of purple potatoes from the former-RE-now-pantry raised bed garden she has been tending.

When we were out Tuesday morning, checking out all of Ken & the VFPers good works, we noticed that Colorado potato beetle larvae were going to town on the raised-bed potato foliage. These rust colored larvae with black spots look rather innocent as larvae go, but they can defoliate potato plants fairly quickly. Without the beetle exoskeleton, they are soft and squishy, and as Lea warned, when you're hand picking them and squishing them, sometimes they squirt. Yuck. One of the joys of organic gardening.

Plans for the Pantry Produce

If the potato beetle larva decimate the raised bed pantry potato plants, is it best to leave the potatoes in the ground until August 12, or harvest them sooner and figure out how to distribute them to area food pantries or to the Friendly Kitchen?

A New Garden & a First Zucchini

They came 1000s of miles to garden
The Volunteers for Peace (see link on left side-bar) participants spent Monday, July 7, working with Ken on the UU gardens. They picked up the omnipresent stones that the lawn apparently spits up, mowed, weeded, and watered. They even made progress on a new water distribution system. Everything looks fabulous!

What is this? A New Garden?!
Hmm. A new garden has appeared on the northeast end of the lawn. Well mulched, with tomatoes...The Volunteers for Peace are pictured above in front of this new garden that they helped create.

First Zucchini Given Away
Cheryl reports that on Monday (July 7) she gave away the first zucchini from the pantry garden!