Week of June 8 - the Plan

Plant corn in Beds 2,4,5,6,7,8.
Plant potatoes in Beds 15, 16.
Start to plant Beds 17 - 28.
Load soil from parking lot into Bed 29.  
Make sure cardboard and soil is at Riel House for parking lot work bee next Saturday.

The Kentucky Blue is Gone!

Finally, the Kentucky Blue grass in the parking lot is gone. Above are a couple of pictures.

Why Raised Beds?

Improve soil health. Improve drainage.

Less weeds since the beds and the paths are heavily mulched.

Better soil structure (friability, bacteria, fungus, worms) since soil in the beds is left undisturbed and uncompressed.

Less watering since rain pools in the paths and then is slowly released under the beds. Mulching helps to keep moisture in the soil.

Compare soil in the raised beds (Beds 1-16) to the flat beds (Beds 17-26). Also, compare these soils to that in Bed 27. Beds 27 was created in the Fall of 2014. Beds 1-16 were built in the Spring of 2015.
See Produce Garden for what is in this year's beds.

Gardening @ Riel House on Thursday & Friday

Hi Team,
If it isn't raining we'll be at Riel House both days doing some easier seed planting.  The potato planting was hard work (Sue, Madeleine & Judy did an amazing job!!!) - the soil was like cement.
The Road Garden is looking great.  The plugs and plants are settling in very nicely.

If anyone has cardboard boxes they don't need - bring them over as we needs to collect LOTS of cardboard for our Saturday events coming up.

Enjoy the day!

Dawn

Potatoes in the Produce Garden

Planted potatoes in Beds 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, along with companion beans.

Wednesday, June 3 @ Riel House

Hi Team,
First of all - fantastic work yesterday!!!  The Road Garden looks beautiful!!
John & I were over today and finished the beds in the kitchen garden and planted the beans in the kitchen garden.
We spread some more thach over a bed in the produce garden (got a bag yesterday from one of my neighbours) & one of the locals brought us their grass cuttings today.
We did some trimming of some 'tree' stuff along the road access to the parking lot.  Then we called it a day.

If it isn't to soggy or raining tomorrow we'll be over to continue planting.  Bring a knife to cut the seed potatoes if you have one.
Hope you can join us,
Dawn

The Road Garden is Planted!

It took just over an hour on Monday to plant 370 plants. Before and after:

See plant list and plant layout.

Plant the Road Garden

Today, we're planting False Sunflower, Wild Bergamot, Giant Hyssop, Yarrow, Prairie Dropseed, Coneflower, Heartleaf Alexander,Showy Goldenrod, Purple Prairie Clover and Three-Flowered Avens. All plants come from Prairie Originals.

Kitchen Garden Beds 1 -5 Ready to Plant

Onions, peas lettuce, carrots and beans ready to plant.
Here's Bed 1 waiting for onions.

Road Garden

Good Morning Team,
We have Plugs & Plants for the Entrance  Road Garden - picked them up on Saturday from Prairie Originals (they were at the St. Norbert market).  They're really cute in their trays - all anxious to move on to their new location!  If it isn't raining on Monday we'll have a planting blitz.  If it's raining we'll change the date to Tuesday.
Hope you can make it,
Dawn

Week of June 1 - the Plan

Plant the Road Garden
Finish edging the last three paths in the Produce Garden
Finish the last three paths in the Kitchen Garden
Start planting Produce Garden (corn and potatoes) and Kitchen Garden

Road Garden

We will start planting the Road Garden the week of June 1.

2015 Produce Garden

 

Click Produce Garden for 2015 to see the layout for 2015.