Monthly Archives: January 2020

Into the new decade, Garden Work Day

Our last workday of the 2019 year was one of the best with a workforce of twelve gardeners. BAUUC is on the Prairie Pollinator Pathway, which means we will be planting pollinator plants in two of our garden plots to attract bees and other pollinators. Patrick Ferrell arrived early and installed a Prairie Pollinator Pathway sign and one of his bee houses.

Bee House

Patrick installs a bee house in one of our plots

Bruce Meltzer weeded his bed after loaning it out for growing donated sweet potatoes. Both Bruce and Patrick have been members since 2012. Robert and Susan Strahan worked on their bed that has a variety of greens and snap peas. It was a pleasure to welcome the family of Kimberly (Kimi) Clark, her two children and her parents, Kelli and Larry Travis, as volunteers. They made short work of pulling a lot of grass roots from the plot where we will be planting Prairie Pollinator seeds. Anne Bechard is another new volunteer who also helped with this task. Beatriz Perez-Sweeney worked on her beds and helped out with weeding the donation beds. We appreciate Ivar’s efforts in the garden as well as all the other jobs he does around our church.

Although the sky was threatening rain, our gardeners showed up on our first workday of the year. A number of interesting and pretty plants are growing strong: snap peas with purple blooms, Swiss Chard, and Mexican mint marigold, whose leaves and flowers are edible and taste like licorice.

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Article & photos by Nathan

January Garden Blog – 2020

Thanks for a Great Year!

The highlight of the 2019 gardening year is the gardeners’ continuing contributions of their time and effort.

A sincere thank you to:

George Becker, our plumber, who installed new water spigots and poles with hose hangers that make it possible to mow when everyone coils the hoses after use. He also brought his battery powered hedge clippers to trim back the grass at the end of summer so we could till beds more easily.

Jane and David Malin who graciously shared their plants and growing tips. We have really enjoyed the yellow tomatoes.

Siok Hong Chen-Sabot introduced us to new plants and tastes from different countries.

Bruce Meltzer shared his bed with us so we could have a great crop of sweet potatoes that produced enough to share with the ICM Food Pantry and our resident rabbits.

Susan and Robert Strahan were always the first to arrive every workday and try new plants in their bed.

Beatriz and Liam Perez-Sweeney supplied herbs to local farmers’ markets.

DeAndra Newcomb always had a smile and a helping hand when needed.

Ivar Larsen and Laura Dean were a big help with weeding and harvesting vegetables.

Patrick Ferrell for regularly mowing between the beds.

Terry Garner and Urban Harvest for providing plants, seeds and Micro-Life fertilizer for our donation beds each season.

And especially Emily Savino, our long-time editor who posts on this blog.

It is a pleasure to work with all these folks in our Community Garden!

 

Our next Garden Workday is on Jan. 18 from 8 ‘til 11. Volunteers are always welcome. Comments or Questions: nveatch@gmail.com, or bauucgarden.org

Nathan Veatch, Garden Administrator