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
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!
Thursday Alexandra, Sarah and Stephanie had a productive working meeting at the GANG with the help of fellow neighbor José.
Alexandra, Stephanie and Sarah awed by the seedling-baby growth
We were thrilled to see the seedling so bountiful… but wanted to thin out some of the ones that really sprouted up, like the cilantro and basil, so we cleaned out some potters with herbs and re-planted the little plantlings. We also put some into the garden tower (more on that to follow!) With the recent frost warning, Ann had been taking the plants in overnight, so they are still alive and kicking. Now, we have been covering them with plastic overnight to keep them safe.
Happy gardener weeding the bed for the arugula.
Then we decided the pouty, wilty arugula was ready for a re-planting, having outgrown its little container. So Alexandra and José weeded out a bed in the garden,
Doing the dirty work... José with the bucket of manure
then José got a giant bucket of manure
and together we spread the nice, mulched horse manure over the bed.
Spreading the love...
Stephanie went to check how far apart to plant the arugula (about 6 inches) and together with Sarah, we re-planted the arugula plants in this bed.
Planting the arugula.
Sarah also had fun planting and trimming the Garden Tower.
Sarah planting herbs and arugula in the Garden Tower.
Stephanie added some amendments to the raspberry bush, from a mixture of liquid fertilizer (all natural, of course).
We hope these changes make the plants happy!
We made a final circuit around the garden, and Stephanie showed us the successful results of our de-weeding experiment:
Clear boundaries from where plastic was pulled up - no weeds underneath! It worked! A quick, easy, and efficient way to weed large spaces.
in March, we had put black plastic over a bed with a lot of weeds and clover that needed to be er one bed that was completely covered in clover and weeds that needed to removed before planting there. The black plastic, held down by rocks to keep down, would kill the weeds (with the help of the sun!) to free us of weeding. Stephanie lifted up the black plastic, and we could see the effect! Here you can see, too, the clear line where the plastic left off, and how nice and weed-free the soil is underneath the plastic! We left the plastic on, and will remove it when we are ready to plant.
Come out and help us share GANG with the neighborhood! We have printed flyers on pretty spring green paper to hand out to our neighbors. Meet at GANG (Ann Kreilkamp’s home, 2601 E. Dekist, corner of Overhill and DeKist) at 10 am. You will pair up with a partner and take a bunch of flyers and a few streets, knock on those doors, meet your neighbors and tell them about GANG and how to get involved!! Come join the GANG!!
