The garden is a Memorial Garden, a garden of benevolence, a garden of love. It is a gift to our community from the God of Love, Jesus the Christ. The first “seeds” for our garden have come from members of the congregation and a designation from the congregation’s memorial funds. These seeds have brought us to the beginning of a journey that will last for many years. Guided by the Holy Spirit we will plow forth until row upon row of our work is accomplished and our community is better nourished. The Lord invites you all to be part of His work on earth strengthening and feeding His children. The garden is made possible by generous donations from the community, and grants from the ELCA Domestic Hunger Grants, the Alaska Food Policy Council through the Municipality of Anchorage, the Alaska Women's Giving Circle, The Alaska Master Gardeners of Anchorage, the generous support by the congregation of Lutheran Church of Hope, and support from the Alaska Synod of the ELCA.

Food from the garden in 2019 was sent to Lutheran Social Services Food Pantry, the Tudor Road Gospel Rescue Mission, and to Bean's Cafe.

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

2020 Over?

  

This is a post I wrote at the season end in 2020 and never published. So will do it now and put a few more out about 2021. Sorry for be so neglectful of this blog. I will try to do better in the future. If you are interested in helping with this blog please let me know.

As 2020 comes to an end I have been once again neglecting this blog. Seems July was only yesterday but alas it was four months ago. The garden did flourish this year. The goal of 4500 pounds did not happen but with nearly 3800 at the Lutheran Social Services Food Pantry I would call the season a success. Next year hopefully we will do better. Since the gardens inception in 2015 we have grown more than 8.4 tons (16,800+ pounds) of produce. With a little luck we can go over 10 tons in 2021.

The biggest crop for the year was turnips coming in at more than 1100 pounds. The biggest surprise of the year was dill. That harvest was nearly 26 pounds, that's a lot of dill. We did have some vandalism this year that effected the harvest. With the location I guess it's to be expected but is was still distressing.

There won't be any fava beans planted in 2021. They have not be very successful for 2 years now so they are going to go by the wayside. Next season pole beans will be tried in there place. We will have to sacrifice some of the pea space for the beans. We will see if the substitute works out okay. I'm also going to put in a horse radish patch. Haven't decided where to put it yet but it will be enclosed so the roots don't escape into the rest of the garden. I will be changing the cultivars of carrots and beets in 2021. This change is based on results from some tests done by the Cooperative Extension Service in 2019. The change could increase the yield by as much as 20% with no sacrifice and quality or taste.

I'm also thinking about building two more elevated boxes. The elevated boxes are much easier to maintain than the main garden so the increment of work is not appreciable. They work really well for some of the crops and having 8 will allow for more "rotation" of the things that get grown in them. The onions do much better in the boxes than being direct seeded in the garden. The soil is probably too cold for good germination. The boxes are also every easy to make into a mini-greenhouse. All you have to do is put some hoops on and cover with plastic.

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