Friday, 5 June 2015

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.



Thursday, 4 June 2015

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

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Potatoes in the Produce Garden

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