Update from Beth & Angie

We fertilized everything in both plots yesterday...thanks to everyone who helped weed!! The garden is looking great. We will water again today and refill all empty water jugs, there are about 10 jugs total...if everyone could bring more water this week that would be great!!

We need to weed!!

I was there on Fri and Sat to weed...woah..still lots to do. DV's, could each person commit to weeding just one row this week? I refilled all water jugs on Saturday (there are 20+ sitting there)...and everything is still looking great!! PS. Our first microgreen harvest last week made for some yummy side dishes at Yellow Door. Thanks to the harvest crew..Krisha, Mully, Janice, Sydney, and Ozzy!! :-) ~Angie

He followed me home. Stalk no more, Al!

Sniff... Must kill Al. Al is bad. Wahhhhhh.

Onions and Al

I went to the garden today to find, yet again, several moats! There was so much rain that our rows were being protected by several inches of water... again!

I decided to start at the front, where I would likely not get sucked into the earth, with onions. Bad move. Have you ever tried to separate baby onions from grassy weeds??? It took about an hour to get 1/3 of a row done. But, I am so happy to see our little friends popping up. Tom gave me hope :D

Then it happened. Close to the beets I came upon a snail (the first living snail that I have ever met - sans shell). I call him "Al" the snail. Al was happy to be snuggling the rows of beet leaves but I get completely grossed out by squishy stuff like that so... I evicted him. Linda and Chris were in the garden then and I was feeling so bad for Al that I felt compelled to confess.

I didn't want Al to go it along so I had two trolls, naked as him, escort the squishy guy into the tall grass to live happily ever after.

All is well in our soggy garden! ~ Janice

Looking good!

Saturday morning update..

I watered all rows again yesterday and will fill jugs and return them to the garden this morning. Lots of activity in the garden. The tomatoes looked great yesterday, healthy and back to life!! Weeding is probabaly needed soon, it's hard to tell what is a vegetable and what is a weed at this point so I didn't do much of that. ~Angie

Thursday HOT

Hot and steamy at the garden today, but the beans are planted, everything is watered...lightly, wasn't sure if others were going later so I just did some light sprinkling over all the rows...my regular water day is tomorrow but because it was so hot things were looking a little wilted. I will refill all the jugs I used and bring them back tomorrow. (Btw, there are still about 5 full jugs sitting there if anyone is going later). Oh, the best part...while I was there...I was so excited to see....our "hoe!!" Mully and Deb were tending their own garden and Mully graciously took the time to show me some very minor things she was concerned about in our plots. She showed me how to thin the lettuce and we talked about a pea pod trellice. Thanks, Mully!! ~Angie

Weekend plans

Jen & I (Denise) stopped by today...too wet to plant (as Angie noted in an email earlier). We dropped off full water jugs & Jen has some plants...peppers & cukes...still need to find lemongrass plants; tomatoes shouldn't go in for another week or two. The question came up (and perhaps our "hoe" could answer this:) how many tomato plants? We guessed about 8. Not sure how long our rows are, and the spacing needed between plants.

If you have time to join Jen on Sunday, get in touch with her about planting. The garden is looking muy bonita...not much work yet, just a bit of minor weeding. Of course, come July, that will change ;)

Um, about that... Denise did the work today. - Janice

New boots and visitors...

I was there this a.m. and finished planting seeds...dill & cilantro. Oh, left the zucchini and butternut squash seeds as our garden notes say not to plant these until June. There's no longer ponds between rows, just squishy mud, which baptized my new garden boots this morning.

LOVE our little rainbow-haired garden guardians, BTW...hope they just scare away weeds, not faeries...LOL.

--Denise
p.s. let me know what needs to be done on Friday, if anything. I can be there after 11a.

Finishing Planting this Fri?

So excited to see the garden this week!! Denise, did I see an e-mail that said this Fri at 11 works for you to finish up planting? That works for me, too. Anyone else want to meet up?

Jen does this sound good to you especially since you have the plants in your care?? :-)
~Angie

Hey girls. Just to clarify, we planted all of the plants that Janice brought yesterday. Fun times, fun muddy times!

Muddy Feet

Well, Nichole and I went out tonight to do our planting, without seeing the later emails that everyone said it was just TOO MUDDY. It was! We had to get ankle deep in sludge water in the valleys. We underestimated how muddy it would be - Nichole wore dress shoes, thinking she'd be able to take them off, but it was like a swamp with hills. (Nichole, you should send me a photo of those shoes - I hope they came clean!)

We planted swiss chard, pumpkin, and basil seeds. Janice brought out broccoli and cabbage plants, and one mystery plant that someone will have to identify (hoe?).

My 4 year-old, Isaac, wanted to help, so I let him walk over, thinking he'd love the mud and could set a broccoli plant in. He freaked out when his feet suctioned down with his crocs up to his ankles, stepped a huge footprint in one row and other 2 stomps in another (actually, now i think those rows weren't planted yet!) I was holding him up, but my feet were suctioned down too, and I was laughing so hard I may have peed my pants a bit. I had to throw him to Janice over the row of pumpkin seeds.

Janice gave all the kids trolls to placate them, and we bribed Isaac with the extra watermelon seeds to leave the gardening to us "experts" and plant seeds at home. We forgot cameras, so I took pictures of his crusted yucky feet when we got home.

Jessica and Nichole

SUNSHINE ON MY SHOULDERS

Good Morning Virgins-

Yes I have to admit I not even attempted a drive by( the garden) since last Thursday. The big grumpy rain clouds have dampened by garden visits this week. But, today I am feeling fine, and I am ready to do some serious planting and digging. So just to recap, I have not DONE DITTY.

I will join the sunshine and visit the the garden today, Friday.

P.S. I have talked with Heather Hopkins. She is still ready and willing to help. I have forwarded her the contact info and our dirty virgin tips....

Writing, no planting

Well, I have to admit- I really was going to try and plant today but couldn't get there when it wasn't raining. I really, really plan to go tomorrow and check it out and plant my row. I'm ready to get my hands dirty, I am a Dirty Virgin afterall. Looking forward to seeing how the garden is progressing!

Yummy breakfast at Yellow Door this morning- I can't wait to see our veggies grow so I can see them on my own plate!

All for now- hope to blog again tomorrow with some proof that I planted something!

-Jen

Commandment 2

(...the first commandment being "don't plant carrot seeds when windy)...THOU SHALT NOT SKIP THY WORK DAY...because the Rain Gods will send torrential rains for the next 3 days, so that when one thinks it is safe to go plant seeds on an "off day," the ground will be waaayy too soggy to plant more than 12 inches into your chosen row...That would be my giant footprint, smooshing the dill seeds I just mixed neatly into the ground. That would also explain the note "1/4 row" (more like "1/6 row") done on the planting chart.

I did think of taking off my shoes & socks, and just straddling the rows in standing water, but I'm glad I didn't...my car thermometer read 48 degrees outside, and that is hypothermia weather right there. Next stop: waterproof rainboots. And wool socks, just in case the boots aren't waterproofed as advertised.

So yeah, marking my territory right here: dill, lettuce, and basil will be mine! Mwahahaha...as soon as the weather dries up, and warms up. Just a bit. Because Monday is not far off, and that is my work day.

On another note, I did find evidence of fairies at work. Must be easier to plant when you can *fly* over soggy ground....

--Denise

Planted

To date we have carrots, beets, onions, pea pods, and parsley seeds in the ground...
DV's: don't forget to update the blog when you plant something so that others know what to water on their day...thanks!!

DO NOT PLANT CARROT SEEDS WHILE WINDY!!!

Okay, okay, this is a learning group so not as bad as it might sound. Err, umm well, maybe I should have known. I was responsible for one row including carrots, beets, and onions. I got to the root of our garden... get it "root of our garden"...???

Anywaaayyyy - Todd helped get the rows lined up and he planted the onions. I did the beets which were small, but nothing like carrot seeds. Beets were fun, a good first seed.

THEN..

LET ME TELL YOU - I think I saw Aunt Em's house fly thru the air over Timbertown but, since the downpour stopped I thought it was safe. Um, no.

As I was leaning over to do my last section, carrots, a huge wind guest came behind me, flung my coat up over my head and all the tiny seeds went flying. If you have not seen a carrot seed, let me say - forget finding them. My only wish is that the neighboring gardeners have a sense of humor with my renegade carrots taking over their neat rows. Please don't vote me off the garden. I will try harder, honest! ~Janice

The Plan

Well, the 7 Dirty Virgins (DV's) are off to a great start. There are actually 10 of us, not 7, (it's a Yellow Door thing). We are so excited to have a garden plan in place! After a fabulous meeting on Thursday night with Mully (our "Hoe"), we talked about what to grow and how to grow it. We have 2 plots prepped and ready-to-go at the Chelsea Community Garden (thanks to all the DV's who tilled and weeded and raked last month!) These plots will soon be overflowing with organic vegetables & herbs to be used at Yellow Door breakfasts. Planting was supposed to begin this morning at 8am...but Janice, Beth, and I decided the high winds and rain were telling us to get an extra hour of sleep instead :-) Some DV's may still head to the garden later this afternoon, and some will head over at different points this week...our goal is to have all of our planting done by next weekend. So happy to be a part of this fun & dedicated group of ladies. Oh, and Janice bought really cute garden gloves today! :-) ~Angie

Digging in!!!!

Cheers to Tom for the rototiller lesson! ~Angie