Happy New Year!

Happy 2007! Things are still quiet in the AHS demonstration garden. The chilly weather is upon us, finally...I thought we would never get winter! I will be figuring out what kinds of activities I will be conducting as well the varieties of plants to carry them out. Any suggestions? I will be haveing a Teacher Training here at River Farm on February 24. I am very excited to get the teachers excited about the upcoming growing season. We will talk about the logitsics of the garden, possible activities so teachers can leave with a plan! next time I check in here at the blog I will have a plan for my own garden here. Looking forward to a fruitful season. Shooting for 500+ pounds to donate in 2007!!!

Closing up shop~

We have started to clean up the garden of the remaining warm weather crops. Cutting down the stems, removing the fertilizer strip, the large root clumps from the dirt, topping of the dirt creating the mound so water rolls off and placing a new plastic cover over to protect it for the winter. We will be keeping our 70+ boxes outside for the winter. They fare quite well over the winter so no worries. I will keep you posted on the results of the cabbage...

438 pounds!!!

We have donated a total of 438 pounds of food to the Capital Area Food Bank!!! What a success it was this year. We still have some cabbage coming along, but the caterpillars are having their way with them :( Maybe next year we can hot over 500 pounds!

Things are coming to a close

Well, the light freezes have started and touched on some of the plants, like the pumpkin. SOme of the boxes are still hanging on but the end in near. Next week I will be harvesting all of the warm weather crops for the final time. Okra, eggplants, peppers, and green tomatoes... The cool weather crops are doing great, so there will be some color in the garden for a while longer. An interesting note, the red cabbage is not affected by the carterpillars while the green cabbage and collard greens are being nibbled away. I wonder why they don;t like the red cabbage? Anyone know why?

Fall Has Arrived!

The weather is breaking and the cool weather crops are on growing! There is Broccoli, Collard Greens, Lettuce, Brussel Sprouts and Pumpkins growing in the garden, among the hardy eggplants, okra, peppers and tomatoes that are still fruiting. Our trusty scarecrow is watching over the garden to be sure all stays nibble-free from the critters. The next major endeavour for the garden will be replacing the fencing to be sure we do nothave any intruders next year.

Summer is quickly coming to an end~

I can't believe that it is September all ready! The weather has broken some for the time being, it has actually been quite pleasant in the 70's. I have been doing some clean-up in the garden, emptied the cucumber and bean boxes, removed some of the dead leaves from the tomatoes hoping to get a few more out of them, and keeping up on the harvest of the eggplants and peppers. I have 3 types of eggplants growing, Fairytale ( ~3-4"), Classic (~8") and Twinkle (~3"x3"). The 'Twinkle' variety has performed great in the Earthbox, very high yields. I highly :) recommend it! I started some cool weather crops a few weeks ago, Red Sails lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, spinach and some pumpkins. I hope to continue with a large harvest through the fall. Check out the Sept/Oct issue of The American Gardener to see the article on The Growing Connection.

Giving back to the community~

We have donated 144lbs to the capital area food bank so far!!! The tomatoes are starting to have a better yield than when they started and the melons are doing good. The pepper shave seen better days but the 'Hungarian Hot Wax' and the 'Super Banana Supreme' are doing really well! The cukes are holding on but the squash are all done. We planted 3 varieties of pumpkins in their spot. Should be ready just in time for halloween~