A Gardener's Retreat

Community Gardening Hour
Sundays at 1:00 &
Wednesdays at 6:00pm

Hello Fellow Gardeners:

Would you like gardening time to double as a social event?

Would you like a chance to ask others about their gardens in person?

Or a chance to ask for others’ advice?

Community Gardening hour could be all that!

Let’s see how it goes for a few months.  Your feedback (positive & negative) will help determine what phase 2 of community garden hour should look like.

Should the time change? Should it be once a week?

Please post an email message, or a note on the bulletin board.

Cheers,
Lisa Kuneman
for the Leadership Team

New community gardener HB sent this helpful post for the benefit of fellow gardeners:

Hi fellow gardeners! Lisa asked me to put together some tips for growing successfully in sandy soil. So here they are.

A little bit about me: My name is HB and I’m a farmer (though currently working an off- farm job). I started out farming in Maine in 2003 and since then have spent time growing food in Southeastern Washington; Portland, Oregon; West Oakland, California and then spent last season back in Freedom, Maine.

One thing I’ve learned (and that I love about farming/gardening) is that no one ever knows all there is to know. Below are some things that I’ve found to work but I’m excited to learn with and from all of you too.

Additionally, it’s really nice if you are a beginning gardener (or beginning in anything) to have some immediate successes. Hopefully what follows will help you grow some delicious and beautiful things.

Big Picture
When I think about growing in sandy soil, there are a two large picture things I think about first:

1) Sandy soil drains faster than other soils, and

2) sandy soils tend to not hold on to nutrients as well as other soils.

These are not hard and fast rules, just suggestions…

1. Tend away from those plants that are total water hogs.
   • Celery comes to mind
2. Tend away from those plants that need a ton of nutrients
3. Add soil amendments when you can
   • this is true for most soils) adding things like bone meal, manure, compost, alfalfa are great slow-releases of organic matter/nutrients into the soil.
   • things like fish and blood meal will help plants grow big and strong but contribute less to the overall health of the soil over time.
4. Root veggies (beets, carrots, parsnips…) can have real success in sandy soils!
5. In order to reduce the effects of water leaching nutrients from the soil, keep the majority of soil covered with plants the majority of the time.
   • This is a great general rule! it helps prevent evaporation/erosion
   • In sandy soil it’s really great because it helps keep the water that is in the soil in the soil.

**What’s that saying– there’s more than one way to skin a cat? I’m sure for every tip mentioned above, each person you ask will have several experiences in direct contradiction to my words. Take it as you will and don’t be afraid to try some exciting things! You can always feast on the community rhubarb that’s already coming up…hb

First garden orientation gets started

A Gardener’s Retreat Community Garden hosted its first orientation session for new gardeners this Saturday out at the garden site.  Despite threatening weather, around 20 gardeners, most of them new this year, assembled at the garden circle to learn more about the garden and receive their plot assignments.  They were even patient and good-humored with our “Garden Hose Pantomime, ” cheerfully traipsing through the meadow in silence to observe me acting out getting water from the cottage next door.

Our new gardeners are a diverse group, with more than a few very experienced gardeners, including several with degrees in agriculture.  Everyone seemed ready to go although the cold wind and imminent rain kept all but the hardiest among us from doing much more than surveying our domains.

The second orientation is Tuesday, April 19 at 6pm for those who missed the Saturday session.

And finally, a quick reminder: if you haven’t signed up for your garden job yet, please submit your first, second, and third choices by email to: agrcg1@gmail.com, or, if you don’t have email, you can let Lisa, Sandy, or Carole know your preferences.

Gardeners chat and explore after the orientation

New and returning community gardeners — please join us at the garden for a kick-off orientation meeting.  Two orientation sessions have been scheduled for April; see below for dates and times. Gardeners can attend either meeting to learn everything they need to know to start off the 2011 gardening year at A Gardener’s Retreat Community Garden.

April 16 2011 at 12:00 PM

April 19 2011  at 6:00 PM

All new and returning gardeners are required to attend a garden orientation meeting.

The meeting will be held at the garden and should last about 45 minutes.  Bring a seat if you’re worried about wet grass and benches.

With the help of its founders at Post Oil Solutions, a group of gardeners are working to take the community garden at Upper Dummerston Road to a new level. First, a name: A Gardener’s Retreat Community Garden.  Prior to this, the garden had not been officially named, making it difficult to refer to.

Not unexpectedly, gardeners have drafted a new set of policies and an application to boot.  Please download the attached Policies and an application, if you’re interested in gardening.  Garden plots continue to cost $25 a season for a 10X20 foot plot.

Gardener’s Retreat Community Garden Policies

Gardener’s Retreat Community Garden Application

Not too many people showed up for the July workdays which was unsurprising given the weather.  Dora reported that no one was around for Thursday morning while on Sunday afternoon, there were four of us.  Not a problem.  We had fun.

Dora and Chris whacked grass with scythes, clearing walkways all around the right side of the garden and some of the front.  I did not do community sports but weeded our own plot of endless tiny grasslets.

Chris took pictures and we admired everyone’s gardens.

Birds sang, Tom showed up and we chatted for a bit, then we harvested a few things and went home.  Very quiet, peaceful and pleasant.

See you next time!

The garden looking scenic

Beans and a blue sky

Members met out at the garden on June 24 to kibbitz, compare notes, and talk about garden matters. Among our accomplishments, we narrowed down the list of possible garden names and decided to request votes by July 10. We also set garden workdays for July and a July meeting date. Read on for the straight dope:

Voting On A Garden Name

The group narrowed down the list of names to four possible choices that most people were amenable to. Those names are:

• Horse & Goose Community Garden
• Community Garden At Upper Dummerston Road
• Green Meadows Community Garden
• Green Goose Community Garden

Workdays and Meetings

The group also decided on dates for next work days and garden meeting.

July 8, 2009 – 9-11 AM – Workday

July 12, 2009 - 1-3 PM – Workday

July 22, 2009 – 5:30 PM Meet and Greet, 6:00 PM Meeting

According to Dora, the biggest maintenance issue right now is grass which is growing everywhere with great vigor. There will be need of weeding in the perennial plot. And Carole wants to put in a cutting garden in Plot 1 by the water barrels so she’ll need help clearing that bed. (Carole rec’d a plant donation from Walker Farm on behalf of the garden.)

_+_

Attending the meeting were Dora, Nancy, Lise, Francis, Chris, and Heather.

The following are the minutes for the May garden meeting, which took place May 27, 2009.  Note that the meeting date that was scheduled below was never announced to we still need to set a date and time for the June meeting.  Look for an announcement on that soon.

Topics for Meeting 5/27

A lot of discussion and here are the major topics:

1- Committees: developing committees to aid in the running of the community garden
A. Finance committee to handle:
-budget
-purchasing
-fundraising
**as well as discussion for an appointed “treasurer” to handle taking of money for manure, hay etc…
B. Organization committee
- developing processes for making decisions regarding the community garden

2- Composting discussion
A. Are there different ways we can explore?
- hot composting
- cold composting
B. Necessity of having a decided system so we can all participate and all be responsible

3- Some important decisions that need to be addressed this gardening season
A. Lawn mower
B. Garden shed
- it is in the lease that we can have a 6×6 shed on the garden land
- this led to the discussion of a greenhouse/hoophouse as well
- need to acquire materials to build a shed
- donations?

4- The unused/unclaimed 1/2 garden plot
A. use as a community flower cutting garden

5- The use of the existing community herb garden as a means of fundraising
A. allowing herbalists to cut herbs in exchange for a donation

6- Next meeting date and work date
A. Meeting : June 8th (location?)
note: this meeting is postponed, date tbd

B. Work days : Sunday June 14th 3-6 p.m.
Thursday June 18th 9 a.m. -12 p.m.

Come one, come all, to one of two garden workdays scheduled at the community garden for the month of June.  This is a great way to work off your hour a month chore duty while enjoying the camaraderie of your fellow gardeners.  The June workdays are scheduled for the following dates:

• Sunday, June 14, 2009 – 3:00 – 6:00 pm
• Thursday, June 18, 2009 – 9:00 – 12:00 noon

Be there or be square (I’ve got all the clichés today)…But really, last time it was fun.

Assorted short and tall members of the community garden assembled for another “workday” on April 30 to put up the deer fence. Fortunately, the call for tall gardeners was heeded and there were plenty of people of sufficient height to staple deer fencing to the poles. Work commenced at 4pm and was finished by shortly after 5. Which was good because just about then it started to rain.

There were so many gardeners on hand that some of us were freed up to do other things. Dora and Carole enlarged the rhubarb plot and transplanted two healthy specimens from an empty plot. The new rhubarbs are huge so hopefully they’ll like being with the others in their new location.

Joe got out his trusty human-powered push mower and mowed more of the perimeter. We expect to get a lawn mower this season so gardeners will be able to mow whenever the mood strikes them.

Over in the herb garden, me and new gardener Ian weeded out grass. We found that grass likes to throw out roots close to the surface making it relatively easy to weed. That said, we only managed to clear about 15 square feet of garden so the project will continue. New plants are welcome but respect old plants. Hopefully, the weeding process will make it more apparent where the old plants are.

So there you have it. A lot of work was accomplished in a short time, and everyone seemed to enjoy the camaraderie of being there, working together toward a common goal. Meanwhile, the garden is the better for it.