Frenchtown Garden Report - 2-2-12

Hello All,

I have a treat for you all today. Pictures! My daughter was the official photographer until she went off and started playing. The Center crew - Jake, Jamie, and Kurt - came out. Marcus and Robbie joined us later on. KJ, Markel, my kids, Sequoia, CJ, and Jarmel helped out as well.

While the kids played after munching on veggies, the big kids played with the mulberry tree. We got some good branches off today thanks to my father-in-law's extension ladder. Some of the kids helped me break it down to size for the garbage trucks.

We ate a good amount of carrots, radish, lettuce, spinach, and broccoli. Jake took home some mustard greens and CJ and family took home some collards.

Enjoy the pictures. Have a great weekend.

Mark

Markel pulling on a carrot.

Jake working on the infamous mulberry tree. I always get Bob Marley's "Small Axe" in my head when we work on that tree. If you are a big, big tree / I'm a small axe / Ready to cut you down / To cut you down. 

The collards.

One of the lettuce beds with mint in the foreground.

A strawberry flowering amongst sorrel - a.k.a. candy leaf - and betony.

A close up of our radish bed.

The broccoli! These are the side shoots that have come up after eating the main head.

A lettuce, spinach, radish, broccoli wrap! I bet you could get rich selling these fancy wraps in New York City.

The spinach and radish bed. The bare areas are where a new batch of seeds are beginning to sprout. The walls are where the carrots grew. We also grow the mint, oregano, dill, parsley, chives, basil, and sometimes even flowers in the walls.

A lady bug. Orange!

CJ and I working hard at cutting up the large mulberry branches. They love getting to use the saw. Don't worry, we're very careful!

Lichgate - 1-28-12

What a beautiful Saturday, and a perfect day for a garden party! We had over 12 people show up to help prep our garden beds at Lichgate, including Madison and Kacki, two of our regular FSU work-study volunteers. After a brief tour of the grounds we all got busy raking off the mulch, weeding, turning the soil, and adding compost to four of the existing beds in the garden. Plus we even prepped a new area beside the strawberry patch. Thank you to the FSU Kiteboarding Association for all your hard work and to everyone who showed up to help out. Can’t wait to get some new starts and seeds into the ground!

~kristi

Lichgate Garden Volunteer

Frenchtown Garden Report - 1-26-12

Hello All,

I failed to get a report out last week. My apologies. Our friends from FSU's The Center are coming back out. Jake is leading the crew and last week he brought along Jamie. This week it was Jake, Jamie, and Kurt. Last week we also had Amelia, Robbie, and Kayla come by and help out.

Besides munching on carrots, broccoli, radishes, and spinach, weeding has been a top priority the last two weeks. With all of the helping hands it goes by fast and enjoyable. The compost pile has been growing with all of this weed pulling and I love it! Today, CJ and I worked on flipping all of our piles. Two of our piles are pretty much ready to go and man does that soil look good. I had everyone feel the heat in the middle of our freshest pile as all those critters cook down and magically turn weeds into soil.

Today I was wonderfully surprised to see some of my old friends - Dericka, Simone, and Terisha. They are some of the original gardeners but have moved and haven't been by in probably over a year. I got a nice hug from Dericka and it was great to see them all come in and feel right at home. I could tell that they haven't forgotten their gardening skills as they headed straight for the carrots and picked a nice size one. Hopefully, we'll see them again next week.

Next week we're going to try to get some more carrots seeded as they are disappearing more and more every week. Last Sunday I drove past the garden and saw Sequoia, CJ's sister, in there getting a snack. Who says kids don't like their veggies! We're also going to start hacking at the mulberry some more before it's leaves come out and block the wonderful sun. We'll also get a bed or two ready for some potatoes.

Have a great weekend,

Mark

p.s. The FSU kiteboarding club will be at Lichgate this Saturday afternoon working on the gardens there. Everyone is welcome to join them. The more the merrier!

Frenchtown Garden Report - 1-12-12

Hello All,

As usual, we had a fantastic time in the garden today. I was able to persuade my kids to come with me with the promise of fresh carrots. Works every time! We also had Antia, Jamel, Sequoia, Nadia, Diamond, Nevaeh (Heaven backwards!), KJ, and Markel. Students from The Center, I've just heard, will be back next Thursday. All the kids will be excited to see them.

Today we ate some, planted some, and I weeded a lot. I brought some yummy ranch dressing and we munched on carrots, spinach, and a head of broccoli! The carrots were a big hit but the broccoli got the biggest reaction out of them. I walked them over to the plant, the head of yummy, baby flowers hidden down below, and then pulled the leaves back so they could see it. A big "Wow" was heard across the playground. We drizzled some ranch on top and it was gone in a minute or two. The squirrels were nice enough to leave us another broccoli plant so we'll be able to eat some more soon. We can also keep nibbling the small shoots that grow back on the plant we munched on today.

We planted spinach seed to keep up with our appetite for fresh spinach. All the kids helped clean out the weeds, add compost, dig furrows, drop in the seed, and cover them up. I watered them in and worked on the weeds, mostly chickweed, that has invaded the strawberry patch. Speaking of the strawberry patch, our crazy weather is confusing them. They flower and start to set fruit and then we get a cold snap that kills the baby, baby fruits on the plant. We inspected some of these dead, baby fruits and moaned that it wasn't a nice, red, ripe strawberry.

Quote of the day was when KJ, Markel, and I were cleaning off some carrots and KJ said "I like being in the garden. You all treat me like family." That led us to discuss how we should all should be treating each other like were family, because, in a way, we are. See, there is way more than just gardening going on.

Have a great weekend,

Mark

Frenchtown Garden Report - 1-5-12

Happy New Year Everyone!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. The family and I were taking it easy in South Florida. We went to the beach and swam on Christmas! I love Florida.

First, let me catch you up with the end of December. On the 15th, I was at the garden with my kids and my guitar. We didn't do any gardening but we sang Christmas carols in the center instead. It was pretty fun. KJ, Markel, Eliah, and Leia were my accompaniment. Ms. Donna even played along on the keyboard and sang!! She has quite a voice! A wee little girl and her mom joined us but she was too shy to help sing.

A big thanks to Nathan Ballentine (aka Man in Overalls) for helping keep the garden watered while I was away swimming at the beach.

Today at the garden was a great introduction to the year. I was the only adult and there were a total of nine or so kids that made their way over. It was Jamel, Sequoia, and CJ who made it a special day. The three have been out in the garden before but today we were able to really bond. I think it was because of the small size of the group. Jamel, especially, was a big help and wanted to do a little of everything I was doing.

We clipped the fence that has been beaten down by basketball players, rabbits (aka kids that want to eat fresh veggies), and who knows what else. I'm going to have to get some new fence for that side of the garden. (If anyone has some extra field fence - about 30', please let me know.) We then pulled up the peppers, who weren't happy with the freeze the other night. They had a great run though - all the way to January! We cleaned out the bed, added fresh compost, and planted lettuce starts. Sequoia came in while we were adding compost. It was her first time planting anything! She did great. Then we watered everything real good.

The whole time we were working we were also talking. They talked a lot and really wanted to share a lot of information - the holidays, gardening with grandparents, seeing dad, going to the zoo, farting, work, family health problems, the family tree (Jamel and Sequoia are cousins and CJ is Sequoia's brother). It was fun.

We were also eating in between activities. We had spinach, radish, and carrots! The carrots are so good. Thanks to the Commissioners, Mayor, and City Staff who helped plant them. You all are welcome to come back out and pick some! I love the look on the kids faces when we pull carrots. A smile mixed with wonder and excitement. KJ and Markel took some carrots and spinach home so, in their own words, they could "... make a special salad for mom". Sounds good to me!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Mark

Frenchtown Garden Report - 12-8-11

Hello All,

What a great day it was at the garden! We had lots of folks and interaction. It was wonderful!

FSU's "The Center" group was there when I arrived. Today there was Lauren, Jake, Melody, Britney (I think I called her Breanna last week), Dillon, and Josh. Unfortunately, this is the last week at the garden for the semester and Lauren, the long-time, awesome, sweet coordinator, has a class on Thursdays next semester. She's going to work on peer-pressuring Jake, who's been coming with Lauren for months now, to take over the coordinator spot. He seemed up to it. This group of college students is amazing. They're all interested in the gardening thing, get along and play with the children at the rec. center, and are just fun to talk with. I hope they all have a wonderful holiday season.

Today we had a group of seniors that got a tour and taste of the garden. They were at the rec. center helping Ms. Donna and Ms. Dee prepare for Soul Santa and decorate. About four women came and got to hear about how the kids help plant and eat everything, organic gardening, compost, and recipes. The interaction of several generations was great. The seniors talked about growing up in the Tallahassee area with gardens in their yards and picking okra. The college kids and I shared recipes for the less traditional Southern veggies like arugula, bok choi, and basil. The little kids helped pick wrap ingredients and pecans for them. As I was shelling a pecan for one of the ladies, she looked at me, smiled, and said she knew how to shell a pecan and wanted to do the shelling herself. She was a pro! After we picked each of them a bag of greens - mustards, collards, and turnips - they retreated to the warm rec. center. We all shared some lettuce, arugula, and radishes with the group.

During all of this, some of The Center kids were weeding and others were playing tag with the kids on the playground. Some more friends came by - Marcus, Wes, Jules, and a new freiend, Blake - and we discussed all sorts of gardening topics, but mostly worms and compost.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Mark

Monday 12-5-11

Greetings all!
   Hope this blog finds everyone in great spirits for the holiday season.  It was another productive day at Lichgate thanks to Esposito Nursery who donated more starts for us to plug in the ground.  We revamped the small veggie patch by the Shakespeare garden and added Swiss chard, broccoli, and violas.  Also, we created a small herb patch on the other side of the wall.  We seem to have an abundance of mustards in the garden.  The carrots that we planted have turned out to be mustards and just about every garden patch has mustards in it.  I think a mustard faery came and sprinkled her seeds everywhere.  Thanks to Raven, Bessie and Christi who are the core of Lichgate volunteers.  We will miss Christi who is going back to Canada but who we hope returns to get her masters degree.
   I was able to distribute some starts to the garden at the YMCA and to the Enrichment Center.  But was saddened to find a tray of dead starts that I brought to the small garden at Astoria elementary school a few weeks ago.  We may need to find a new liaison there. 
   On another note, Damayan Garden project needs a new garden manager!  I have been trying to keep up with Lichgate and the other gardens but it has been challenging when I live in a different county.  We need someone in Leon county who is enthusiastic about gardening and wants to take on the challenge. Please put the word out there, we need all the help we can get.  I will always hold Lichgate in my heart and will continue to come volunteer with Damayan Garden Project but feel that I need a change. 
PS please come support local artists this Friday Dec. 9th at the community center at MLC from 4:30-9:00.  For more info call 671-2232...I will be selling my pottery!  Also, check out the Alternative Christmas Fair on the 10th to help support Damayan Garden Project.  More Details on our website...
Respect and Love, Mary Rault