Want to get in on the fun? We'll have plenty more to do over the next few weeks, so come hang out with Green Chillis on Wednesdays at 3:30 pm, or join us for our "Pot 'em Up!" workshop on April 12 @ 3:30 pm.
The Green Chillis were busy this week with potting up a few of our brassica and tomato seedlings that had developed their true leaves and were growing too tall for their initial cell pack. Soon, the extra seedlings that we won't use in the library garden will be available for adoption to good homes!
Want to get in on the fun? We'll have plenty more to do over the next few weeks, so come hang out with Green Chillis on Wednesdays at 3:30 pm, or join us for our "Pot 'em Up!" workshop on April 12 @ 3:30 pm.
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It was a busy week in the world of the library garden! We had our first official community work day, yielding many wheelbarrows full of old weeds with seed heads and plants we don't intend to compost (such as spent tomato vines). We also got a good start on weeding (grass is so tenacious!), and admired the new jewel-like growth emerging everywhere we looked. There's a lot more to do, but we made great progress! Just in time, too, because the next day, we had a delivery of beautiful compost, generously donated by Better Earth Compost and transported for us by the marvelous folks at the City of Chillicothe Public Works Department. We are thrilled and look forward to seeing our garden grow all the more lush for the addition of this "black gold." And the sun sets majestically over compost mountain. Goodnight, sweet world.
(And now for some dry weather, so we can get this distributed!) The Green Chillis, that is! We're Chillicothe's hottest garden club, open to ages 10 and up (with occassional exceptions for especially precocious younger gardeners...). Join us, and you’ll get your hands dirty learning about where food comes from and exploring the exciting world of the garden. This club is largely based on practical projects and much of our time is spent tending the library garden (planting, weeding, harvesting, etc.). This week, we started out by learning about various "-tropisms." Tropos is Greek for "a turning," and plants have the ability to turn toward or away from a variety of stimuli, such as light, water, gravity, and temperature. Then we tended to our seedlings, which demonstrated very definite phototropism. We rotated the flats, watered them, and thinned each cell to one or two plants, so the best ones could grow free of competition. Finally, it was out to the garden to plant radishes -- four kinds (White Icicle, Cherry Belle, Cherry, and French Breakfast)! We expect to see them sprout as soon as the weather gets just a bit warmer, and we look forward to their colorful crunch!
Last fall, I neglected to plant out the garlic until late in the season. Usually this is a task for early-to-mid October, but time got away from me, and suddenly the forecast threatened temperatures in single and negative digits. So I ventured forth one blustery afternoon with a hoe and a box of last year's garlic harvest to make a desperate attempt at tucking a few cloves in the soil before it froze solid.
In one area I had selected for planting, the soil had become rather compacted, and after a time of being enthusiastically thwacked into the ground, the hoe decided it had had enough of my style, and broke. Even so, I managed to get a row or two of each of four types of garlic into the ground, scattered it over with a minimal mulch of straw, and crossed my fingers. Would it survive the winter, not having had a chance to start getting established before the freezes came? I started eyeing those beds in February, but wouldn't letting myself hope too much. By the time my garlic was starting to come up at home, no brave points of green had yet emerged at the library. Time passed, and finally this week, inspired by the perky sprouts of our new seedlings, I snuck outside... and discovered rank upon rank of handsome garlic shoots, already a few inches tall, standing straight in the sunshine. I guess sometimes even a tardy and last ditch effort is worth a shot. Even if spring hasn't arrived officially yet, it was certainly in the air on February 20, when we celebrated Hoodie-Hoo Day, launched our brand new seed library, and anticipated the season to come with a seed-starting workshop. Many thanks to Geiger's True Value -- our wonderful neighbors who donated potting soil for the workshop. Within a few days, the first brave little seedlings had pushed their way out of the soil (brassicas -- broccoli, cabbage, kale, etc. -- leading the way, as usual). As of this writing, there have also been sightings of baby tomatoes, basil, torch sunflowers, summer savory, and thyme. If you can't wait to get into the garden, come check out some seeds from our seed library! Seed Savers Exchange granted us the seeds and resources to launch it, and we are excited to share it with you.
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June 2017
CategoriesMany thanks to our generous sponsors:
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