Let Yarducopia Use Some Space

You do have an "urban" lot that you would like to mow less often or maybe not at all. There is an organization that can help you with that. Let's say you would like to provide produce for some organization like Lutheran Social Services Food Pantry, the Gospel Rescue Mission, or maybe Bean's Cafe. You don't have the time. You suspect you don't have the talent to do a garden from start to finish. Yarducopia uses your property to help people learn organic gardening practices and raise food. The food is split between the people doing the gardening, the home owner, and a nonprofit organization of the homeowner's choice. This is a method to use your property for gardening, help someone else learn gardening, share your bounty with others and have wonderful fresh produce grown on your property to enjoy during the harvest season.

The organization is now taking signups now for the next planting season. Check them out. You might just strike gold right in your own yard.

A Special Thank You

I wish to thank ELCA World Hunger for their Domestic Hunger Grants. I applied last week for a $500 grant for the garden. They were kind enough to approve the grant. They also asked me to put up a fund raiser to see if I could get a match for the $500.

Thank you to everyone who has made or will be making a donation. As of this morning the campaign for the garden has raised $750 in just a single day. Many as well have asked where they could mail a check. If you are interested in sending a check the address is on the right hand margin of this blog post.

If you wish to pay by credit card click here. 100% of the funds will go to the garden. You can do this through April 15. After that please send a check to the address on the right.

Thanks to all of you for your monetary donations, your time, and your talents. All are very useful to the garden each day of the year.

April, In Like a Lion

Fire Pit

Here it is April 3rd and we got about 3 inches of snow last night at my house. It's certainly not the biggest April snowstorm I have seen but it's still depressing. With still about 20 inches of snow on the garden I haven't done much there. My seeds haven't arrived yet but again that's no big deal. As long as they are here near the middle of the month I have no concerns. With all the social distancing there wasn't much I could do with others for the garden but I'm still working.

Bare Ground

 Two days this past week I burned a bunch of brush that had been stacked up for a couple of summers. Some of the pile is still buried in the snow but probably 85% of it is gone, up in smoke so to speak. I will probably do some more of that next week as well. There are multiple brush piles. Will also be washing some more seed starting equipment next week. When the seeds come will have to plant them into something.


I'm going to try a new variety of peppers this year as well. They are called Aji Rico. They were developed in Peru. I picked this variety because it's supposed to have a  50-55 day maturity from the time of transplant. If things work well at home I might try to plant it in the main garden next year. They haven't arrived yet and will be trying to grow them in the house this summer and next fall. I will keep you apprised of the progress or lack of progress in this space.

That's all for now. Stay safe!

Celebrate the Small Victories

Leeks

We have been away for some time, nearly two months. The virus has put a cramp in going out to check on stuff. My wife and I quarantined ourselves on the return from our 6 week vacation in South America. Two more weeks together. At least we like each other.

As you might recall we planted chili peppers and leeks before we left. The leeks are doing fine but the chili were eaten to the dirt by some critter, probably a shrew. They are resourceful little buggers. Once the quarantine is complete I will set some traps and see if I can get it or them.

Pepper Redo

Will probably have to transplant the leeks as they get larger. The peppers have already been replanted, thanks Dan. I will wait patiently or not for them to reappear. We should not worry about the small stuff and it turns out that almost everything is the small stuff.

On the bright side, I did order the seeds for the garden today. Hopefully they will arrive in time to get the broccoli and cabbage started the middle of April. I will be working on get the stuff ready while locked up. Plan to start the zucchini about the 1st of May. That worked very well last year.

Stay well, more later.

Beginning 2020

Winter in the Garden

On February 1, 2020 the garden planting has begun. I would normally wait until the middle of the month to start the peppers but I will be gone until the end of March so must get things going now. We also planted leeks on the first. I was planning on putting leeks in the ground the first of March but again I won't be here. The peppers this year will be jalapeño and Hungarian yellow wax. Both have been successful in the past and will be planted again this year. I started the leeks in April last year and that was too late. So will see if we can do better in 2020. We did run out of seeds so Bonnie and I went to Alaska Mill & Feed and bought more yellow peppers and more leeks. Different seed brands but should work just fine.

Washing the Containers

Planting

While I am playing in South America two ladies and a gentleman from church will be taking care of the plants in my absence. I profusely thank Jennifer Wardell, Donna York, and Dan Bollerud for taking time for the plants.

Now an Award Winning Garden

Quilt and Ribbons

I not sure if I should say and award winning garden or an award winning gardener, but either way works for me. Last summer (2019) I finally entered some of the produce from the garden in the Alaska State Fair in Palmer, AK at the urging of Kathy Liska a Master Gardener and the Queen of the Veggies at the fair. I entered carrots (2), purple cabbage(2), leeks, beets, and Brussels sprouts. The awards were as follows: 2 firsts for the carrots, a first and a third for the cabbage, a second for the leeks, a third for the beets, and a first for the sprouts. I was told by a CES horticulturalist from the Fairbanks office that I should be especially proud of the blue for Brussels sprouts. I'm very proud of all of the awards. Not bad for a first time entrant. You too should consider entering your produce in the fair competitions.

The quilt was done by a neighbor. Donna Dooley is a wonderful seamstress and a good friend. Love here gardens around her house. I enjoy them each day during the warm seasons, whether I'm walking or driving by they always look lovely.

Thanks for 2019

July in the Garden

It seems I've been very neglectful over the past year. I haven't done a post in some time. I hopefully will remedy that in the near future.

The harvest for 2019 was a new record. There was almost 4150 pounds given to Lutheran Sccial Services (LSSA) Food Pantry, Bean's Cafe, and the Tudor Road Gospel Rescue Mission in 2019. The bulk went to LSSA.

2 Volunteers

The harvest included more than 800 pounds of potatoes and more than 800 pounds of zucchini. There was nearly 550 pounds of turnips. The carrots and cabbage were nearly nearly 500 pounds each. There were nearly 200 pounds of apples and more than 100 pounds of peas. The rest was filled out by harvest of many other crops.

Gang of Volunteers

I wish to thank all of the volunteers that have worked in the garden. In 2019 there were more than 50 people that spent anywhere from an hour to countless hours planting, weeding, and harvesting. The work could not have been done without them.