So Much Has Happened!!

  So much has happened!!   Time and circumstances has not let us get to the garden as much as we would like, but Look at what has happened!

First of all thanks to Linda, Annette,  Terry, Donald, Sarah and  all others that have helped us water and weed! For a while there it looked like the weeds would win, but we conquered for now.   We are so proud of being named Garden of the Month.  We are blessed with an awesome team who God uses in a mighty way! 

The has been much speculation about the almost five foot tall flower in Bed 33  We think it is a Sunflower, but it looks like something out of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  If it starts dropping pods, I'm gonna RUN!!!!!!!

Our FIRST Purple Cherokee tomatoes!

The garden is doing really well.  We have fruit on the tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet and hot peppers and squash.  Our lettuce is still going strong!  We are all enjoying salads.  Our fellow gardener, Andrew watered our lettuce for s for the few days we could not get to do it.  Thanks Andrew, and I hope you enjoyed your lettuce!!
 

Our FIRST Green Zebra tomatoes

Our FIRST cuke!!

Linda "accidentally" ate our first cherry tomato yesterday.  She said it was the sweetest tomato she had ever had!  She said  we need to plant more Sun Gold tomato plants.   I will swing by Woodley's and get a couple today.

Look at  the size of those squash leaves?  They are HUGE.  We have lots of blossoms, and we fear the squash will be squished.  Linda will be thinning them out today, replanting some of the smaller squash in one of our other beds.

Bush beans and beets

Bed 5 on April 26

Bed 5 on May 18

We will be planting our last bed today.  Small yellow meat watermelons and Crimson Sweets, and carrots!  We have a plethora of seeds, so will also plant a little bit more of this and a little bit more of that. 

Well, I think we caught up on everything, more pictures will follow (can't find my camera cord), will post more tomorrow.

WLTX Meets Gordon's Gardners!

Lauren Talarico, WLTX Producer,  came out to the garden last week and did an excellent story on the community garden.  A 'breaking news story' prevented it airing that night, but it did air yesterday.  She took lots pictures and interviewed several of the gardeners.  

Auntie Karen and Gordon's Garden got some air time too!! Here is the link to the interview,  WLTX News Story            

Our First Harvest, Gordon's Lettuce Mix

Annette, Sarah and Joan hauled two 40 lb bags each of mushroom compost and peat moss to prepare Gordon’s fifth bed on yesterday evening.  We raked all of that organic material into the soil along with plant food to get the bed for planting.  Annette and Joan planted a half row of white cucumbers and a half row of bush beans while Sarah was a weeding Wonder, weeding the entire lettuce bed.

Linda joined us and we all took a final look at the back half of the green and beet bed.  The general consensus was that we either did not plant anything there or, what we planted was NOT growing.  So we turned to soil over and re-planted it with Lima beans.  Linda and Annette re-staked some of our tomatoes, they are growing taller everyday!

Weeding Wonder, Sarah continued her prowess and weeded the tomato bed.  The basil is sprouting up all over the tomato bed and Sarah  planted the marigolds n the tomato beds as well.   

Annette harvested our first lettuce.  We picked a little of each, Winter Density, Black Seeded Simpson, Buttercrunch, Red Romaine and Tatsoi.  If we keep the bed watered, we should have lettuce through May!

SIDEBAR:    Linda dropped a bag of Gordon's Lettuce Mix off for Karen.  When I talked to Karen she raved about how good it was!  

 
I had a Gordon's Lettuce Mix salad for lunch today.  I added some spring onions (from Azeeze's organic farm), feta cheese, grilled salmon and I topped it with a homemade, Strawberry Vinaigrette dressing (see recipe page)  The homemade dressings are so flavorful.  They make a perfect topping to our fresh picked lettuce!

We ended our evening by watering all of the babies and toddlers.