Ridgecrest Community Garden (RCG) May 2022 Newsletter
What’s new at the garden?
On the morning of May 7th, from 10:00 to 12:00, Tyrone Ledford will be leading an event on Herbal Teas and Tinctures at the Ridgecrest Community Garden, located at 231 W. Haloid. You will receive the full experience of learning how to work with herbs to create teas and tinctures. Specifically, we will go through the process of harvesting herbs and preparing them for use, working with dried herbs, and creating herbal tea blends in the tincture making workshop.
On May 10th, the Ridgecrest Library, located at 131 E. Las Flores Ave, has invited us to speak to the community from 5:30 to 6:30 in the evening. Merrie Giles and Kristen Lemon will attend representing the Ridgecrest Community Garden and Merrie will talk about spring gardening in the desert. Please join us to hear the different tips and tricks that can be implemented with desert gardening beginning in spring to set us up for a successful summer.
Join us on May 21st from 10:00 to 12:00 for our next planting day, along with a plant swap. Bring what plants you have to share, both house or garden plants are welcome, and/or take what we have available. A DIY Olla demonstration will be occurring simultaneously. Ollas are self-watering systems that were invented in ancient gardens to ensure water was available to desired levels. The event will be held in the garden at 231 W. Haloid in Ridgecrest. Ridgecrest Community Garden T-shirts will be available for sale ($25 each) at the event with proceeds going toward the Herbal Zen Garden funding efforts.
What’s the news from the garden?
Grocery Outlet graciously provided compost materials to the garden for us to use in the various composting methods in play throughout the garden. We currently have three different methods in use: official composting bins, DIY compost piles using wire and landscape fabric, and passive composting pots. This will allow us to provide nutrients to our soil in several different timeframes as the material breaks down enough to be incorporated with our raised bed soil, and in some cases providing nutrition to the soil while it is breaking down through passive composting.
The weather has been quite the factor this year as those of you that live here can attest to. Tuesday, April 12th we experienced up to 60 mph wind gusts and our greenhouse was blown apart. We were able to get it cleaned up and removed prior to our spring planting event.
Our April spring planting event and plant swap was held on April 16th. Even though winds were still at an all-time high, we welcomed a dozen community garden supporters to the event. During this event, we had the opportunity to look at the bright side of the greenhouse being forcibly removed by the wind as a blessing in disguise… more room for plants to swap, container plants, and movement without worrying about the heat being magnified in the greenhouse or the building taking up space in the garden. We were able to exchange plants and fill in some empty spots in the raised beds on the Community side of the garden.
Subscribers who attended added wood chips, and new plants to their beds, along with receiving a demonstration on the “Passive composting” method of composting recently set up in various beds within the garden.
On April 22nd, an Earth Day event was hosted at the Ridgecrest Regional Hospital for their staff to take a hand at gardening. Tyrone Ledford and Tera Moorehead attended on behalf of the garden and Tyrone did a great job educating hospital staff on planting and gardening.
As of April 24th, the probability of additional freezes has dropped to 10%, allowing planting seeds directly in beds to be a safe endeavor for getting your garden’s started or moving out your seedlings from your favorite nursery or greenhouse into your garden beds. (Frost dates provided by https://morningchores.com/frost-dates/).
Please visit this link https://www.holisticdivineinnovations.org/subscriber-program for additional information, to sign up for a bed, or sponsor someone else that may not have the financial resources to pay, but would still like to garden. If you are a subscriber and would like to see your bed featured in a future newsletter, along with an interview on your “why” for gardening, please send a message via Facebook messenger to Ridgecrest Community Garden.
We are continuing our crowdfunding campaign for the Herbal Zen Garden. We are going to need your help to build a complete garden that will be aesthetically pleasing and will serve as a space for peace and healing. In 2021, we raised enough funds to pay for the concrete foundational work and now in 2022 we have raised enough to pay for the pergolas. We are still raising money to install solar water features, benches, a picnic table, plants and trees. You can donate using the link below. Thank you everyone for helping use bring agriculture, health and wellness to Ridgecrest. The work continues. At this link, you can see the plans, donate for specific items or to give a general donation https://www.holisticdivineinnovations.org/crowd-funding.
We have recently added a volunteer coordinator to our team. Please welcome Alvano Calvillo to the Ridgecrest Community Garden team. He will be working with volunteers as needed for planting, watering, cleanup, etc. Thanks so much for your support. If you are interested in contributing or volunteer opportunities, you can email us at communitygarden.ridgecrest@gmail.com.
Zen out, Ridgecrest 😊
