Buggin’ Out
Man, Oh MAN have these bugs been NASTY this year! Anyone else get devastated by the squash bug? We know we sure have! Did you know they also like watermelon, cantaloupe, and pumpkins? We’ve had a busy time protecting crops this summer. So, what can we do, other than NOT planting a garden. It’s best to go after them with soapy water and wash off eggs and pick off the bugs and toss them in the soapy water to kill them. This have been very effective for us, and we’ve managed to keep them from destroying our plants.
What’s happenin’
The month of August treated us well. Even in the hot climate, we’ve been able to grow tons of fruits and vegetables. We’ve been producing a lot of Armenian cucumbers, watermelons, Guatemalan squash, and some cross-pollinated watermelons and cucumbers. We even came up with a name for them, “water cumbers”. They looked like a watermelon, but had a cucumber-dominant taste. Awesome! Right?
This month has been a volunteer heavy month. We’ve had 3 different groups to volunteer at the community garden. We’ve given out tours, and of course, tons of organic produce to the community, and volunteers.
What’s Next
We have some BIG announcements that the community will be excited about. First, we are approaching our 1-year anniversary on September 19, 2021. This has been ONE glorious year. we can’t believe we are sitting on one year of establishment. We can remember sowing our first seeds. Those seeds have blossomed in to a beautiful sustainable garden. We are planning to have an event on September 25th. The time and details of the event will be posted on our social media soon.
Another BIG announcement is… we will be building the herbal zen garden on the lot next to the community garden. There are no permits required to start building which means we can start building as soon as NOW. We were able to raise 10k to build the herbal zen garden, thanks to you. The money was originally being raised to pay for a water meter on the lot we were going to build the garden on. Due to more money that would have to be raised to contract someone to actually dig in to the street to hook up the water, we have decided to build the herbal zen garden on the lot next to the community garden. The lot already has all utilities installed, which means that the 10k raised to install water will be used to actually build the herbal zen garden. That is GREAT NEWS. We are extremely excited to get started.
We have an exciting, downer message. Starting fall, community members will not be able to grab produce whenever they want. This change is happening because we want to start tracking how much and how many pounds of food we are giving away at the garden. Tracking how much food we are giving away will help our garden align with grants that are designated to community gardens. Produce will still be given away daily when our team members are at the garden, and we will have larger food give away days. We will keep everyone posted on the new changes as we approach fall.
Than you everyone for your support