With a wetter-than-average May behind us, we can’t help but get excited for what the gardening season will bring. In May, our donors and volunteers delivered a phenomenal 550 nutritious and delicious ready-to-eat meals and $2658.50 in dry goods and produce. We are so tremendously thankful for all your help. 

As temperatures rise, a small cooler of water bottles in the car can be helpful to a neighbor in need as well as small tubes of sunscreen, chapstick, wet wipes, and aloe. Living without shelter can be dangerous in warm weather, so please keep an eye out for those in need. Small efforts can make a big difference!
Board of Directors
We are proud to announce the formation of our official Board of Directors. As an organization, when we started in October of 2020, we strived to do everything we could to immediately help the community members and neighbors that we saw were being affected by the pandemic and support those experiencing food insecurity right in our neighborhoods.
As we grow in our mission, we know that many challenges that our community will face in the future depend on our ability to combat climate emergency through sustainable living. With this in mind, we have invited a group of board members to join us to work together to cultivate programs that lift up community members, educate on sustainable living technologies, and offer assistance in home farming set-ups. Our long term plans of a sustainable eco-living community are becoming more within our reach and we cannot thank our friends and donors enough for their support.
Please welcome our board members:Co-Presidents – Cass & Teresa Ripley
Vice President – Amber Peterson
Treasurer – Peg Sunday
Secretary – Bridget Sunday
Director – John Sykes
Director – Susan GoeklerIf you have any ideas or proposals that you would like to have reviewed by our board, please feel free to reply to this email with your thoughts and they will be reviewed at the next board meeting with minutes available upon request. 

Porch Gardens 
A big Thank You to theFirst State Resource Conservation & Development Council for the award of a $500 grant toward our Community Garden Advancement Project. This award has allowed us to begin providing community members with everything needed to start their very own Porch Gardens. The shortest supply chain is surely the home gardener. The more produce we can supply ourselves at home, the less carbon footprint we participate in without trucks or supermarkets. We hope to educate our neighbors on the importance of what goes into our food and set them up for success with all the tools they need to grow productive crops. Any excess produce will go to supporting our ready-to-eat meal service with nutritious and delicious home-grown ingredients. Thank you RC&D!

“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.”
 -Claude Monet
 

We all love tomatoes. But anyone who has grown a home garden with more than three tomato plants had better know lots of friends and family who really love tomatoes too. A little bit of pre-planning in your garden assures you that you won’t be buried under more squash than a human person could care to eat. It can be very tempting to pick up whatever starter plants are on sale at the hardware store, but a quick consideration of what you will actually eat is so, so important.

I realize that sounds silly, of course you will want to eat everything in your garden! You are going to subsist on pure, organic, home grown fruits and veg all summer long like the green god or goddess you are! But I promise after the 5th stuffed pattypan squash dinner in a row, you will be questioning every gardening decision you’ve ever made. Unless you know that you like something a lot already and have a variety of well loved recipes, it’s probably best to not grow it for the first time. Uneaten vegetables from the garden are just a waste of water, soil, and most importantly, your time! 

Before you buy any seeds or place an order for garden supplies, start by calculating how much sunlight is available wherever you’re hoping to place your plants. A good general rule of thumb is to go with leafier plants like kale, spinach, lettuce in shadier spots because they don’t need as much sunlight to grow and produce as hot crops such as peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, squash and corn which need at least five or six hours of direct sun a day. 

If container gardening makes more sense for your space, just be sure to use containers that offer sufficient depth and drainage. For larger-scale plants such as tomatoes, squash, eggplants and peppers, we recommend a planter that’s at least two feet deep, both for stability and to give the roots enough space. Even the color of your container can affect plant health and productivity. If you have a container that’s black, that’s actually really great for your hot crops like peppers and eggplants, because black absorbs the sun and creates more heat for those heat-loving plants. Whereas if you plant greens or cooler crops in it, that additional heat actually might damage them or lead to bolting, where plants start to send up their flowers or seed shoots earlier than they should. 

If you have room for just one plant pot, we recommend growing either beans or tomatoes in it. Beans with some cucumbers that can trail over the side of the pot, and the beans can grow upwards on a stick or trellis – they are happy growing together! If you want to grow one tomato plant, plant basil around it. If you plant onions around your tomatoes as a companion plant, it may actually stop critters from munching on your harvest due to the smell – plus you’re already halfway to a delicious spaghetti sauce.

Keep in mind too, that container gardens tend to dry out a lot faster than regular ground gardens. Whatever watering needs are, they usually go up when we grow in containers so we have to water more often. That might mean watering at least once a day… or two! Whereas in a regular garden, you might water every other day or every three days depending on rain. If you are in an area prone to drought, also remember to consult your local county ordinances for possible water restrictions, this can effect your garden tremendously! 

All in all, a little planning of your garden can go a long way. Minimizing food waste doesn’t stop at the dinner table. Consider getting the neighborhood together and combining your efforts to a larger space where everyone can grow their favorite produce and water waste can be minimized. Whatever bounty your garden gives you, we wish you happy planting all Summer long! 

Categories: News Updates

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *