Spring Dreams

It's been a while since we posted.
Much has happened, including a couple of major hurricanes passing through the region, though not so directly impacting our area of the Piedmont, except for some flooding here and there.
But our garden is still alive, and we're making plans to get started.
Checking our conditions at present-- the weather has been mild, but with a lot of rain.
Our garden is located on high ground, so we have fairly good drainage. Checking the beds this weekend they seem to be fairly wet, perhaps too wet to begin planting just yet.
We're making plans and getting ready though. First up is some maintenance needing to be done after the winter storms. We'll first be planting some snow peas and onions next month. Possibly putting in blueberry plants on our slope, which has been a long-term goal.
Starting in February we're resuming our work times, which will be Saturday afternoon from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Stop by for a visit if you're in the neighborhood. 

Spring garden progress is happening

Snow peas!

The spring has brought its share of challenges, beginning  with earlier than normal warm weather in February, drought, and killing frost in March.
 
 Lately we've been so busy in the garden we haven't had time to post.

 


Overall the weather enabled us to clean
up the garden and prepare the beds. We harvested  most of the winter onions as green, leaving some to mature along with garlic which we had also planted last fall.

The first spring crop to be planted was snow peas, and we built an improved pea support using bamboo. Working with bamboo was another challenge, but it did go up and is serving its purpose.

Snow peas support

Red and Green Kale

The drought slowed germination and growth of crops. Timely rains have finally arrived, and now that frost danger is past we'll have our irrigation on again. We have an abundance of greens and have begun harvesting lettuce, spinach, kale and snow peas. We are grateful for the abundance of early produce.

Our current challenge is cabbage loopers which are raising havoc with some cabbage, but we are working to limit the damage using BT a biological control.

                                                                   There is never a dull moment at Koinonia Community Garden.

Opening Day

It was a bright, cold--32 degrees at 9:00am this past Saturday March 4, official opening day for KOINONIA. Winter trash lay against the deer fencing and flowering broccoli sheltered cabbage moths. Weeks earlier, in anticipation of this day, supplements had been added to the soil according to soil samples taken late last fall. Our little field had been tilled and composting will ramp up in the coming weeks.
 
With 7 participants on Saturday the trash was cleaned up, old cole plants composted, cabbage and broccoli transplants planted, kale seeded, onions harvested, mushrooms soaked and all was watered.  

We also harvested our winter onions, to make room for spring crops.

In coming weeks we will continue to plant cool weather seeds such as swiss chard, beets, lettuces and others.

--PAXPLH

Looking Back at 2015

2015 was an amazing year at Koinonia Community Garden. In October we celebrated our garden with a dedication service. 

Dedication Prayer

"The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg. Dreams are the seedlings of realities."-- James Allen

This past Sunday afternoon a group of people from two congregations came together on a brilliant October day to dedicate the Koinonia Community Garden.  The ground where we stood overlooking beds of kale and collards was a wooded area one year ago.

Honey bee visiting flowering buckwheat

Much was accomplished by many people who worked together over the past year to bring this day into reality. There were many gifts and donations given by generous, caring people in our churches and community. It could not have come about except for the efforts of many who joined together, youth and adults.

Youth work day installing deer fencing

But it all came about because of a vision that one woman had thirty years ago. Pat Horton is a local gardener who shares much of her own garden produce with others.  But Pat was concerned
about those in our area who are living in a "food desert."
 One purpose is to provide fresh produce for the church food pantry that serves persons in a food desert.  Yes, hard to believe in 2015 but one in four households in our counties are lacking enough food.  One of five children in our schools are hungry. Just google "hunger in North Carolina" to get an idea.

"But he (Jesus) answered, 'You give them something to eat.'" --Mark 6:37

Thanks be to God for the bountiful harvest, the blessings of our working together, and the opportunity to serve our community. Koinonia is a labor of love and the witness of our faith.

Bok Choy and Chinese Cabbage

Raised beds

Cucumbers and Spinach