Summer Solstice – Garden Party

Last weekend, we had our annual Children’s Art Hour and Garden Party. It was a delightful and magical moment of sharing, made special by the wonderful company.

We started the day with 2 families and their children, who painted fun decorations to put around the garden to invite in the fairies and the “little people” who protect and care for us. Look at how dedicated they were to their work!

Zinnia was very intense with her artwork…!

And proud Sarah made a piece or two to share, as well!

The best was watching the young ones explore the garden!

When they were all tired out and the sun was hot and high… it was time to prepare the food!

Some pesto with basil and garlic from our very own Garden!

And the whole table of food was a FEAST!! Pure abundance!

Grateful for a crate of peaches from our musician friend…we made some peach cobbler!

It was very popular! Especially with ice cream!

We were lucky to have some musicians create sacred space for us while we ate…

And everyone had a delightful time sharing, laughing, and eating in the beauty of the flourishing garden.

And the music continued….

We had a wonderful ceremony to bring us together, a simple moment of thanks and celebration marking the Summer Solstice. Each one of us participated in our own way, adding to the circle.

Ann

Steph

José

And so, a little something of each of us stayed there in the garden, adding to its light and life.

A special thanks to José for most of the photos!

Help Save our Garden!

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

Garden Party! June 23rd

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

Solace in Solitude

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.

June in the garden

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!