Sometimes you have to improvise

Our garden is a work in progress.  This year warm spring weather arrived in February.  It has been quite dry, so we took advantage of those conditions to begin planting.  We have planted a variety of seeds to date.  So far only the snow peas, which were planted first during February, have germinated and started to grow.
The first week of March we harvested our winter onions and started planting more seeds as well as cabbage and broccoli transplants. The next week the weather changed, as a winter storm was forecast to hit on the next weekend.
On the following Saturday we went to the garden and found the cabbage and broccoli plants for most part getting established with some signs of scorching from frost.  We were concerned they would not be hardy enough to withstand the winter conditions in the forecast. We had not foreseen this possibility, and so didn't have any covers available to cover the beds.
So, we improvised by using plastic shopping bags to place over the individual plants, with dirt around the edges to prevent them from blowing away.  During the next five days, we were hit with winter cold and strong winds that dropped the temps into the low 20s.
Fortunately our plants survived under the bags. After we took bags off, we experimented with some home made cloches made from plastic bottles and covers.
The next day the plants under them seemed okay, but we took them off as we were concerned they might get too hot under the strong sun as temperatures were climbing into the upper 50s.
Lesson learned: improvisation is okay, but preparation is better.
Cloches need close monitoring and work better for a back yard garden. We will need to get proper covers to have on hand for the beds.

Inspiring examples: balancing individual plots and communal beds in one community garden

Community gardens share many common purposes, but achieve these using diverse approaches. At the Dig-In, I learned about three gardens that combine the best features of the two most common types of community gardens, plot garden and cooperative garden. In this way, they are building community while providing harvest for both gardeners and for those with limited food access.

The availability of individual plots is attractive to some gardeners, allowing diversity of methods, crops and working hours. The gardeners share methods, harvest and participate in group activities. Communal plots provide an important option for those who don’t want the responsibility of their own plots and/or want to garden alongside others. Both strategies can provide harvest for the needy. 

One of these hybrid gardens, the community garden of Asbury United Methodist Church has many features in common with Koinonia Garden. It is located on church property, which impacts appearance requirements and working hours. It is entirely volunteer run. Similar to Koinonia, their gardeners receive produce, but from their individual plots. In contrast to Koinonia, they harvest their donated produce from both the individual plots (50% of harvest) and 100% of common plots.

This garden began in 2011 with 37 5' x 20' raised beds constructed at the site of a former baseball field; all plots were leased the first year. The next year, they built additional raised beds (due to demand; there is a waiting list for beds) and communal beds. So the Asbury garden became a hybrid garden of both individual and common garden beds. The yearly lease contract requires that gardeners donate 50% of harvest, meet appearance requirements and provide their own seed, supplements, compost, etc. The leasing fee ($25/plot) pays the water bill. Those leasing individual beds participate, with other volunteers, in garden workdays and harvest teams.  These teams gather harvest for the needy twice weekly.
-- Kris Weigle

Relevant links:
Dig-In presentations
Asbury Community Garden
Hope Community Garden
Camden Street 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

Spring in the air

Hi,
Today was a great day to garden. Despite short notice, 5 gardeners came to the garden and got started preparing the soil for spring crops.
Cover crop of oats cut down, and snow peas were planted in Bed 16 (former pepper bed) and plans were made to build a support using bamboo so that peas can grow up strings.
The clover cover crop that had been planted in the former corn bed and our winter cover crop was mowed and plowed under and left to rot.
Lots of weeding and weed suppression (using paper and mulch). Broccoli harvested. 
--Kris

Creation Care

"the land is mine...you are but aliens and tenants... you must provide for the redemption of the land."-- Lev. 25:23,24

As the Koinonia Community Garden, we are called to be partners with God in caring for creation in this place, being good stewards of the land, taking care to replenish and preserve it.

To that purpose, as the seasons turn, and the harvest of our summer crops is nearing completion, we planted some new crops for fall and winter-- carrots, kale, broccoli and onions.

As we clear out the summer plants from the beds, we are adding composted leaf mulch and planting cover crops to the beds for the winter. This will prevent erosion of the soil while adding humous and a green manure in the spring.
--DG

Got okra?

What's so great about okra!

 First it's from the north east of Africa and fits in perfect with our hot humid southern summers, having not problem producing it's green lady finger pods right up to the first heavy frost. The plant easily grows over your head no matter if you are 5 foot or 7 foot! Once the green pods start to form they literally grow over night!  Optimum picking size would be that of your little finger. When sliced a mucus like liquid is produced. This mucus combined with the fiber of the pod make great digestives. Okra is also high in folic acid, vitamins A and B with healthful minerals zinc, and calcium.

Favorite preparations are to slice into coins or spears for gumbo, soups, and fritters or leave whole for your best pickle recipe. I like to cut up the pods, soak in sour milk, batter in cornmeal/flour/salt/pepper and fry in oil. I can't eat this way all the time, it's a real splurge! So while the okra's fresh we indulge!

 --Pat H

Garden experience: getting your hands in the dirt...

 I have a cousin who lives in Maine, and often I can hear a phrase resonating from him to me--
"You gotta get your hands in the dirt".
He has been growing things his whole life; most of them are legal too. Anyway I am just getting acquainted with his phrase now. I have recently become a member of the Koinonia Garden, which first attracted my 12-year-old daughter when she passed the sign on the road. "Mom we should go check it out this week what do you think?"
Well all I needed was that invitation from her, and soon my nine-year-old boy chimed in ..."sure I'll do it too mom."
For the last several months we have tried to come each Saturday morning, and I have alternated time there with each of  my children. They have participated in the planting from the very start, helping to prepare the beds, setting up the hydration system, planting the seeds and now getting to harvest the wonderful bounty.
I don't know who has been more excited to see each of the seedlings sprout and grow every week and see the final product of everyone's labor.
For me I have always loved to be outside and working. I recently lost my mom in January, and I have found that being outside in my yard connecting with nature has been the most therapeutic thing I could ever imagine. I have also planted my own garden, of course with much guidance from my noble comrades from the garden who have guided me with their wisdom.
Not to mention I have loved getting to know each and every one of them and working side-by-side with them. For me I have had several moments of Zen just being there-- I even enjoy the sound of the cars passing by and different sounds coming from the garden tools clanking and voices about comments of the new week's activity, feeling welcomed every week by friendly kind faces who want nothing more than to see me happily existing in the garden with my family and to share as much as they can of the harvest already.
So now I know a little bit more at the meaning of getting my hands in the dirt, which too can cleanse the soul.
--A.S.