Friendship Farms & Gardens: Dirt Diary April 2009

Goings-on relating to the Friendship Farms & Gardens project. Here are links to other months in the Diary.

April 2009

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Mister Parsley was all sprightly early this morning and fared well through the day. By late afternoon, however, many of the tomatoes looked like stressed-out officeworkers at the end of their shift. Watering continues.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Melissa was in the demonstration garden in South End early in the afternoon and planted the collection of donated seedlings: peppers, tomatoes, squash, watermelon and herbs. She put out some seeds too. And then inaugurating the hose she donated to the cause, she watered down all the plants.

A man from an adjoining warehouse came by and said he'd seen rabbits in the area. So the pressure mounts to fence the entire area, or at least protect the raised beds. If you can help with that, please call Lucy Bush Carter at 704-333-9229.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Jason Loseke got our Pest Patrol up and running before the anticipated onslaught of critters begins.

And there were a number of visitors in the garden today. From left are Lucy, Bruce, Donna and Thom.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Joanne returned Saturday to the site of a neighborhood garden in Southside Homes near Friendship Trays and I-77 south of downtown. Her report:

"The Southside garden is alive and well!

"It is on Chicago Ave. & Toomey, right across from the Humane Society entrance. That little street has not changed a bit. As I drove by, an older woman... was locking the gate after having worked her plot....

"She was very proud of her garden. She did not know of Friendship Trays but when I explained what was going on she said she'd be glad to share. 'Last year she had squash coming out of everywhere.'

"Seems like it would be cool to get those gardeners and Wilmore gardeners connected to Friendship Farms. They might make great volunteers with the eventual students. They could learn the marketing end, too, and perhaps improve their livelihoods! They could have a farmer's market over on that side of town to rival Simpson's! I'd sure shift my dollars to that location for the community development component!"

For ground-level pictures of the Southside garden, click here.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Six volunteers loaded the raised gardens with dirt today. Then they left the dirt to settle until Monday, when planting will continue. Sweating in the garden today were Bill, Lucy, Debbie, David, Marvin and Linda.

Linda, a veteran gardener in Florida, admired our dirt, but said the gardens will need some worms to aerate the soil. So let us issue a call here for a donation of earthworms. We'd be happy for you to deliver them right into our raised beds, or we can dispatch our WRV (Worm Relocation Vehicle) to your site. Call Steve Johnston at 704-408-3348.

There is still dirt left over, so we'll see about making some more raised beds. Do you have materials we should experiment with that you could donate?

So far in the garden we have four beds made of 2x8 untreated lumber and two more made from goods salvaged from the site: bricks surrounding one bed, another bed surrounded with bags filled with mortar or 24-inch lengths of the branches cut from the site.

If you have a donation of raised bed building materials, please call Lucy Bush Carter at 704-333-9229

Jason has volunteered to be our Pest Control Adviser (Dirt Diary, April 21). We'll be sending him pictures of our pests, and will pass along his control suggestions. Loseke writes:

"Now, I can't say that I'm an expert bug man, nor gardener, but I have had a few years experience getting my hands dirty in the yard. I'm an organic gardener and if I don't know the answer, I love to do research until I find the answer....

"[Snails] nibble holes from the middle of leaves with little other damage. They also leave their tell-tail slime trails, so be on the look out. Remove their hiding places, like leaves, larger stones or branches that stay moist underneath…in your brand new beds, they probably hitched a ride in the seedling's planter cup. Pick 'em off early morning or evening (yes, use your gloved hand or tissue paper, but really I meant 'pick off' as in assassinate!), or use a saucer of beer. I like to use an old ceramic dish, set low in the soil so it's easy for them to climb in. Beer attracts them, then they drown.

"My main form of attack is with God's tools – my hands. Aphids will certainly be an issue for you this spring and, yes, attracting beneficial insects is a must. But I find that keeping a close eye on the garden and using two fingers will allow you to squash early infestations and thus will keep their populations at a manageable level. A less savage approach may be to use a strong jet of water to spray them off the plants. To me, though, this just dares them to come back.

"My practice is to try and live with a few bugs, not eliminate them. After all most of them are harmless, or even helpful."

Friday, April 24, 2009

WBTV sent a videographer to mark the arrival of dirt for the raised beds. The dirt was donated by Wallace Farm in Huntersville. Here are links to the WBTV video and to the text on their website.

Wood for the raised beds, two wheelbarrows, dirt, seedlings – it's all been donated.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Three more 14-foot-long raised beds were hammered together today, so the garden is ready to receive Friday's delivery of dirt. Friendship Trays Board Chair Skip Gribble briefed his colleagues on the project during today's board meeting and received an enthusiastic response. Board members toured the demonstration garden after the meeting.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

More mowing. More bushes removed. And an orphaned piece of fence has been set aside. The blue tarp is down in preparation for Friday's delivery from Wallace Farm of a load of dirt that the Farm has donated to the cause.

And Wednesday brought this little surprise, pictured at right. Just above yet another brick debris pile at the back of the garden, surrounded by deadwood and intertwined with honeysuckle, a persistent dogwood beckons the bees in its annual spectacular show of blooms. People have jokingly asked whether we've harvested anything yet from the demonstration garden. Nothing's been harvested except this reminder of the will to life.

A follow-up on Tuesday's comments about pest damage: A closer inspection of photos taken Monday showed that the pepper plants had already been eaten a bit before they were planted in the garden. Perhaps even slightly chewed-on pepper plants can thrive in the Friendship Garden.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

WANTED: Pest Control Adviser. In the overnight hours, the pepper plants planted Monday sustained leaf damage. This project could really use a volunteer willing to advise by phone about how to control pests in the demonstration garden. If you're willing to volunteer, come visit or call Lucy Bush Carter at 704-333-9229.

And on a happier note, Lani learned that Wallace Farm in Huntersville had agreed to donate and deliver 17 cubic yards of soil for the raised gardens.

Monday, April 20, 2009

After the rain it became a beautiful day to launch a garden. So we did.

In the demonstration garden area, the grass got mowed. The weeds got mowed. The poison ivy got mowed. Then the bushes in the middle of the garden area got cut to the ground. The branches cut down were later cut up and bagged to experiment with another use of "found" objects – as "sand bag" edging for raised beds.

The bricks in a debris pile (below) were cleaned of their mortar and became edging material for raised beds. The mortar was bagged with pieces of brick to use as edging for raised beds as well.

Then Donna and Otis drove up in the Friendship Trays truck with a load of donated untreated 2x8 lumber. The lumber will make several 4x14 beds in the coming days.

What's next? We need a truckload-sized donation of dirt good for growing vegetables. If you'd like to sponsor such a gift, call Lucy Bush Carter at 704-333-0229.

Helpers in the garden today included Leigh, Lani, Donna, Otis and Lucy.

Saturday, April 18, 2009:

In the picture at right, a newly installed beehive was spotted today near the new White House Kitchen Garden.

Speaking of Gardens, we have scheduled our first Garden Party for Monday, April 20, at 1 p.m. It's a work event and you are invited.

Our garden won't be looking like the Obamas' bed for a long time if ever, but we intend to begin a demonstration garden on a weedy plot near Friendship Trays. And we will begin making it a less weedy and chaotic place on Monday afternoon. Rain date is Tuesday, April 21.

Facebook folks. You've been invited and all the details are in your invitation.

The goal is to reclaim a weedy plot near Friendship Trays and by mid-afternoon Monday, to have peppers and tomatoes donated by Renfrow's Hardware in their permanent summer location in a raised bed.

Health note: Please do not come if you have severe reactions to poison ivy or oak.

To go from chaos and weeds to order and the beginnings of a harvest, we will:

Mow the weeds down in a plot about 70 feet by 50 feet.
Cut to the ground several volunteer bushes.
Tap mortar off a hundred or so large bricks.
Haul cardboard from Friendship Trays to cover some ground.
Build the first one or more raised beds and fill them with soil.
Plant the donations and water the beds

If you're coming, please brings gloves.
Bring a bag of your favorite enriched dirt for growing vegetable plants.
Bring a small trowel.
Bring a length of hose.
Bring a gas-fired weed-whacker. (No electricity is close.)
Bring a gas chain saw. (No electrickty is close.)
If you have experience cleaning brick, bring your tools to remove mortar.
Do NOT bring shovels. We'll explain why we are building on top of the ground, rather than digging in it.

This is the inaugural month of the Diary. There are no previous months to read.