The Well Sprung Garden

This is The End...

2009-10-18T15:10:00.000-07:00

...my Dear Old Friend, The End.

For anyone who may still check this blog from time to time, I'm sure you're surprised at any posting at all, much less one showing nothing but weeds and no garden (there's a little bit of Swiss Chard visible to the right of the walkway in the background, and a bed of Carrots to the right of that). But I felt that it was necessary to mark this point in time, and to say some things that need saying.

First, some thank yous and expressions of gratitude. The garden could not have even been started without the generous support of the folks at Home Depot, and especially our friend David from the Commercial Desk at Lowe's in Spring Hill. David was very patient as he worked with us through all of the delays and changes in plans, and was instrumental in helping us keep our expenses to a minimum. We also had generous donations of money and supplies (remember the wheelbarrow?) from individuals and local businesses which were greatly appreciated and well used. Also, to Grace Episcopal Church for supplying the bulk of the funding, the Spring Hill Garden Club for some helping hands and more funding, and to The Well for providing the land. All these contributions of money, supplies and dirt were needed to make this thing come together.

However, as anyone still following this blog may have noticed, there was one big missing piece: a dedicated volunteer workforce. This garden was able to produce a lot of vegetables for those who needed them--but easily 50% of the season's yield rotted on the vine because there weren't people willing to come out and harvest, and that is a crime. What's more, there was a complete breakdown in communication between the staff at The Well and the people they serve. We repeatedly asked for the staff at The Well to let their clients know they could feel free to harvest vegetables at any time of the week. This message never got through. I can't tell you how many times I would be talking to a client, and they would say they had no idea that the garden was even there to provide for them, much less knowing that they were free to harvest any time they chose! Granted, many of the clients had serious health problems (one of the things that we hoped fresh produce would address in some small way), but there were just as many who could spend five or ten minutes picking vegetables for those who were unable, if they had just been given the information. This is unfathomable to me.

We did make a point through the season to thank the volunteers who did come out and work--especially during the hardest part of setting up the garden. However, the majority of volunteers only worked once or twice and then we never saw them again. There were a dedicated few (Frankie the Hammer, Dave, Bill, Ann, and Walter in particular) who put in way more than their fair share, but in the end having such a large burden of work put on them, myself and Jane was just too much. Now, The Well did put some feelers out for volunteers (some showed up--most didn't), but when we were standing in the field in April, talking to the Executive Director of the Well, and the President of the Spring Hill Garden Club, they both made commitments of providing volunteers who were ready and willing to get to work. Eventually, we came to learn that those promises were overblown. What we learned later was this: originally, The Well was going to plant and work the garden themselves, with the guidance of the Garden Club, before we ever came along. Without our bringing Grace Episcopal Church into the mix, The Well never would have broken ground.

Here is one example of what we're talking about: One day, Jane was alone in the garden struggling to construct trellises for the tomato plants when the parking lot began to fill up. Families from the WellSpring Church gathered to take a field trip to the creek--maybe forty people--and they stopped to take a look at the garden. They did not go on to the field, but instead observed from the safe distance of the parking lot. Jane said she felt embarrassed at being the center of the exhibition, and at being a visible reminder to people of what they are not doing.

We had to look at our disappointment with both churches in this mess. Yes, our church provided the vast majority of funding for the garden, but besides Jane and myself, only Frankie and Walter actually came out to help. On top of this, The WellSpring Church, which founded The Well (before it spun off as it's own organization), and which owns the land, willfully refused to offer any helping hands. The entire motivation behind getting our church involved was to actively minister to others in need through growing fresh food and helping people learn how to do if for themselves. The fact that both churches washed their hands of the whole project is an embarrassment and a failure of their mission to provide, among other things, community outreach, evangelism and stewardship of God's gifts. The fact that both churches repeatedly refused or ignored our direct requests for volunteers is a shameful expression of blatant indifference towards the very people that we, as Christians, are called to help.

Now, while I'm taking everyone else's inventory, it's only fair that Jane and I take our own. Could we have done a better job communicating with the volunteers? Probably. We started communicating via an email list, but it quickly became too cumbersome to keep up with, which was one of the main reasons why we started the blog. We believed that it would be a good, central means of providing information, and it had the added benefit of not clogging up people's in-boxes every time we needed to put the word out. However, blogs require people to be interested enough to log on, so we don't know if we were reaching people or not. Our friend Dave even went on a local radio show, a number of times, to plug the garden and ask for volunteers. We also attempted to put a list of general upkeep chores in the mailbox at the garden so that anyone could come out at any time convenient for them and be able to do something on their own. Sure, we could have made a point of being in the garden every single time a new volunteer wanted to get started...but like most people, we have full time jobs. If we had to wait for people to start until we were able to coordinate with their individual schedules, then the chances were that nothing would get done.

What we eventually learned was that no one was coming. No one had been to the garden between the times that Jane and I had been there. No work had been done. If you check all of the posts where we specified needed tasks, not a one of them has a response telling us that the job was done, and the deteriorating state of the garden proved that. So, I got discouraged and felt that keeping up with the blog was a pointless exercise. The fact that there weren't any posts asking us why the blog had been abandoned spoke just as loudly as anything else.

During harvest time, Jane and I pulled as much produce as we could for The Well after a full day at work. Each time we were there, we asked the church office staff to turn the hose off after letting the irrigation system water the garden for an hour. On one occasion, after asking the office staff to turn off the hose after its allotted hour, Jane and I left and returned three days later. The hose was still on and it had been raining for two days. The garden was flooded. That was when we knew that it was a lost cause.

This was also a very hard lesson in the fact that Jane and I cannot organize people and communities. We may be good at a lot of things, but motivating and leading groups of people is not one of them. I would hope that if this ministry had more inspiring leadership, then perhaps things would have turned out better...but the general sense of apathy that we experienced from the community doesn't exactly fill me with confidence in that scenario.

In the end, it is clear to us that our ambition was much bigger than the reality of our times. These days, we as a society are more prone to write checks to a cause, rather than break a sweat while providing time and effort. When you look back at the 30's and 40's, when people needed help, other people came to their aid by stepping up and showing up. They didn't write a check, they didn't claim it as a charitable deduction on their taxes--they actually did the work that needed doing, and many times church leadership would be there with their sleeves rolled up. I am deeply disappointed in the selfishness of our society in general, and in the apparent loss of active outreach ministry from our churches in particular.

Jane and I have decided to take some time off. We will not be taking this on again next year. We asked the Grace Mission Council to agree to donate the purchased materials to The Well, which they did. So, if The Well wants a garden next year, they will have all the necessary materials to get started. All they will need to do is come up with the plants, seeds, and people. For our part, Jane and I will focus on our own garden next year. If we have any surplus (which we usually do) we will donate it to The Well. Considering our current experience, we have no confidence that the people who need these fresh vegetables most will have access to them next year through another WellSprung Garden, and that is the saddest thing of all.

A friend of mine is fond of saying, "Our priorities are what we do." So, when people said to us that they would be there--and then they didn't show up--what their actions said, in fact, is that this ministry was not a priority for them.

Wild Turkeys!

2009-07-29T15:30:00.001-07:00

When I pulled into the parking lot this morning, I spotted this adult wild turkey, and about five or six of her young. They weren't exactly hip to getting their pictures taken, so I didn't get good shots.

This is one of the little ones. They're pretty cute--as long as they stay out of the garden.

As you can see, the weeds have completely taken over as a result of the lack of consistent volunteers to help keep up with the mowing and mulching--among other tasks. So today, our friends Tisha and Austina came out to start pulling.

Tisha (left) and Austina (right) worked very hard for about an hour, trying to get the weeds out. They were helped by the fact that the recent rain had softened the ground, but they were stymied by the fact that the weeds had grown very strong root structures, which they basically had to try and dig out with trowels. Needless to say, they weren't having fun.

Meanwhile, I went to work harvesting. Remember that nice, new wheelbarrow that was donated to the cause? Well, I filled it up after two straight hours of harvesting cucumbers, yellow squash, acorn squash, broccoli, and lots and lots of tomatoes.

This little pumpkin is a peek at the future. This one is located in the healthiest pumpkin patch, just North of the garden fence. Several other pumpkin and watermelon patches are struggling, and several more have died due to the lack of regular tending. This one, however, looks like it will produce some decent pumpkins for the Fall.

The Price of Apathy

2009-07-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

Jane was off today and spent the morning in the garden, fixing the damage from the recent storms. This is what she wrote about her experience:

"I was out in the garden this morning looking over the damage from the storms that blew through. Most of the tomato plants were down. They had fallen down from the temporary supports that we put in. I took out the twine, and for the next two hours I gently picked up the plants and tied the next level of support by myself.

I felt sad. The plants would not have been knocked down by the storm if all of the wooden condos had been in place. We had the wood, and the supplies. We didn’t have the hands. The weeds are out of control. Andy and I are not used to that. Weeds are controlled by mowing and mulching. We have had less than a handful of very generous recruits, one who actually rigged his riding mower to collect grass clippings. The people who volunteered know who they are and are so appreciated for their time, effort and sweat.

I was sad because our leadership of this project, meaning me and Andy, failed because we had to do the work ourselves. Plans for signage and instruction had to take a backseat to just getting the seedlings planted, etc. The blog, though beautiful and encouraging, led to no increase in volunteers, and email communication to encourage participation was fruitless. And now, the condition of the garden is an indication of something much worse: Indifference.

As I gathered my things to leave the garden today, I noticed a woman sitting in her car. She was waiting for the food pantry to open. I rolled down my window and asked her if she would like some vegetables. She said yes and got right out of her car. I gave her what was picked and told her that she could go to the garden anytime and pick what she needed. She didn’t know that the garden was there for the food pantry. The families don’t know. With all of the need that there is right now, we should have more hands than weeds to pull, but it just isn’t so.

Just like everyone else, I have every reason not to do this garden work. I work full-time, and I am exhausted at the end of my workday. The last thing that I want to do is spend my time off in sweltering heat. God called us to lead this project and see it to the end, even if it means that no volunteers show up. Today I saw first hand why this garden is needed. The woman in the car wasn't concerned about what group I belonged to or where I came from. She wanted to feed her family."

I too have encountered families at the pantry who are totally unaware that the whole purpose of this garden is to provide fresh produce for them. For some inexplicable reason, this message is not getting through to these families.

I recognize that this post is not particularly warm and fuzzy. However, it is an accurate statement of the overall condition of this ministry. For reasons passing understanding, many people say they are interested in working in the garden, but almost none of them have followed through. Without more people who are willing to be of service to others, we can only do so much.

Condo Construction

2009-07-11T09:51:00.000-07:00

Over the past week or so, we've just been trying to keep up with the tending, weeding and harvesting of the garden. But today, we were actually able to have some time to start building the tomato condos. If we'd had more time and more manpower, we would have had them all built weeks ago, but as it is, we just have to build them when we can. Three were put up today:

These two were built first, because these beds didn't have the benefit of the temporary structures. The plants were spread out all over the place--you couldn't even walk through the path in the middle that is now visible. Notice the rungs that surround the corner posts. There are also rungs in the middle too. The tomato plants are then tied to these rungs with strips of cotton t-shirts. The cotton strips won't cut into the plants, and the condos themselves give the plants the flexibility to move in a storm without blowing over or snapping. This is the method of growing tomatoes vertically that we alluded to in earlier posts, which is why we can plant them so close together.

This one is just South of the first two, on the West side of the garden.

This is a cucumber condo, which is also partially visible in the previous picture. Notice the twine which enables the cucumber vines to crawl upwards--another means of arranging lots of plants in close proximity to maximize the available output of veggies in a smaller space. We have two other condos of this type on the South and East fences.

We did some harvesting before doing anything else this morning, and here's a little sample of what we found:

These radishes were one of the last things to be planted from seed--and they're one of the first things to be harvested. Radishes grow fast--so fast that you can use them as "marker crops". In other words, you plant radishes with other things so you can see where the other crops will be. As you pick the radishes, this aerates the soil to make more room for the other crop that you've planted.

We also picked more yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, acorn squash, and beet greens.

Elaine is looking for any tomatoes that may be ready to pick. As it turns out, they're not ready yet--but when they get ready, it will be an avalanche of tomatoes.

Believe it or not, these carrots just got thinned out. This is part of the process of planting a lot of seeds and then culling out the weaker sprouts to aerate the soil and make room for the stronger carrots. We'll be thinning these carrot beds out again before they're ready to harvest.

What a Difference Nine Days Makes

2009-06-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

Jane and I spent the last nine days on vacation, and returned to some major changes. We're used to this kind of fast growth over such a short period of time, so we weren't surprised by anything, but it's still interesting to see the differences:

The green patch in the middle of the bed are the radishes that got seeded right before we left. They're growing fast.

These pumpkins are located just North of the garden, and they're starting to make a run for it. However, not all of the pumpkins have fared so well. Some have dehydrated and died, and some--especially along the ridge on the West side of the field--have been completely overrun by the tall grasses that we haven't been able to keep down.

The carrots have completely filled out their respective beds. We will have to start thinning these out, so we can have room for nice, big, juicy carrots later this season.

Jane is fixing the cucumbers off the NW side of the garden. The vines needed more training up the twine condo, so they can have more room to grow tasty cucumbers.

Okay, now this is a problem. Do you see all of those really big Yellow Squash? They shouldn't be that big. Once these Zephyrs start producing, they're like little factories, churning out mass quantities of squashes day after day. So, don't be afraid to head into the garden to pick the Zephyrs. An ideal Zephyr should be no more than 8 inches long. Any bigger than that, and they're pretty bad. Let the squash harvest begin!

An Area in Need of Attention

2009-06-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

If anyone has the time and a push lawnmower here is one area in need of attention. Weeds have sprouted up all over and are threatening to take over the cabbage! Some of the weeds have gone to seed so it would be best to dump the clippings in a compost pile somewhere away from the garden where they can decompose in peace, or pieces as the case may be!

Please post here if you can tackle this job!

Squash!

2009-06-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Today I went out to tend the garden and here's what I found:

The squash looks good for the most part but some of them are getting a little carried away. The large one on the left side of the picture is over 12 inches long, way too big for a tasty squash! Six inches is about where I like to pick them. If you happen to see any around six inches pick them and take them to The Well office for now. It is extremely important to pick squash often so they will continue to produce. Any kind of a lull in the picking and they will slow production in exchange for seed making.

Here are the squash beds to choose from. The bed in the back of the picture contains the yellow squash. There are many more small squashes beginning to form so we'll need another picking probably by Friday!

Temporary Condos

2009-06-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

The plants have gotten so big, and we've had so many other delays, that we needed to get some kind of structures up right away, until we can build the condos. Jane and Elaine went out last night to throw these together. So, think of these as more like housing projects.

The twine is just to keep the plants pointing upward with a modicum of support. When we build the condos for real, we will use the 1 x 2 wood that you currently see as horizontal rungs to tie the plants to. We will be using much taller 2 x 2's for the permanent corner pieces, because most tomato plants will just keep growing until the season ends--they can get to 10' tall or more, depending on a number of factors. This will take some time to complete, so I'm not going to even begin to guess as to when you will see completed condos.

100% Planted!

2009-06-16T15:31:00.001-07:00

These four little Basil plants represent the completion of the first planting phase in this garden. Theoretically, we would have had everything in the ground, mulched, and ready to tend by Mid-May, and would have had all of the condos built by now, instead of not having any condos. But, considering that this is the first year of this project, all the screwy weather, etc, we're not doing too badly. Now, it's just a matter of trying to keep up with the oncoming first harvest, which should begin within about a week or so.

More Veggies in View

2009-06-15T15:52:00.001-07:00

Here is a little Bell Pepper--we have two others as well on different plants. Things are starting to come into view now, such as:

This is one of a number of Big Beef Tomatoes. It won't be long before these little guys are ready to pick (it will be sooner than you think).

The Swiss Chard is now three weeks old, and getting close to harvest time.

Beet Greens, likewise three weeks old. In about another week, they'll be perfect as an addition to salads.

This is that last bed that hasn't been finished yet. It now has Radish seeds in the big wet spot in the middle of the bed. Yeah, yeah, it's a little late, but so is the whole garden. In about one or two more days, I'm going to put the basil seedlings in here, and THEN we will be finished with the first round of planting. I also finished tweaking the irrigation system, and will anchor this last stretch tomorrow or Wednesday. I planned to mow and have Jane mulch, but the approaching thunderstorm nixed our plans.

BOOM!

2009-06-14T17:01:00.000-07:00

Between the rain a few days ago, and being totally unavailable in between, it's been five days since we've been out to the garden. It was during this time that this garden did what all gardens do after a month or so--they explode.

These are the center beds of Tomatoes, facing West. You can't even see the beds anymore.

This is the Southwest corner of the garden. The perimeter bed in the foreground is filled with Butternut Squash, the perimeter bed on the left side is chock full of Cucumbers, and the bed in the middle of the picture are the Yellow Squash. You will notice the wooden structure around the Squash bed. These are too keep the very large leaves pointing upward, which keeps the walkway clear and also happens to route rainwater down to the roots of the plants.

Speaking of Yellow Squash, here is the first little Zephyr! This one should be ready to pick and eat in about a week or so. They grow pretty fast.

After getting over the shock of how big everything got--we still haven't had time to put up the vegetable condos around the tomatoes--Elaine and I got to work finishing the irrigation system.

Here is the lovely and talented Elaine, securing the irrigation hose. She is cutting up wire clothes hangers, bending them into a horseshoe shape, and sticking them into the ground to keep the hoses down. While she was busy doing that, I finished punching holes in the rest of the tubing. Once we got all that taken care of, we turned on the main valve by the house and the sweet sound of leaking hoses filled the air. We spent about another 45 minutes making sure that the holes were facing down into the beds, rather than shooting up into the air, and then we called it a day.

We also found another welcome surprise in the form of three very long soaker hoses. These will be used to irrigate the cabbages and kohlrabi that are on the outside of the fence. Once we get a splitter valve, we'll be able to hook these into the system.

Squash Blossoms

2009-06-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

These are a couple of the Acorn Squash along the fence in the Southeast quadrant. They've really taken hold in their beds and almost every plant has several blossoms on them.

This is a big Yellow Squash blossom in the Southwest quadrant.

We are also getting more blossoms on the various Tomato beds, and the Cucumbers outside the fence. Veggies should start appearing soon!

I also went after the Colorado Potato Beetles with a double whammy of Diatomaceous Earth and cornmeal. Hopefully that will whack them out, and we won't have to deal with them again. Stay tuned...

Irrigation in Place

2009-06-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

Today, Dave and I worked together to layout the rest of the irrigation system. It was Dave's suggestion earlier to use 1/4" vinyl irrigation tubing, instead of soaker hoses, to irrigate the rest of the garden. So, he came out to visualize how the system would work, and then we went to Lowe's to purchase what we needed. The system uses a series of splitter valves to rout the water, and various and sundry t-posts to run the hoses in all different directions. We're not finished yet--we still need to anchor the hoses down with cut up clothes hanger wire, and punch the drip holes--but we've got the most difficult part out of the way. Here's what we've got so far:

We started with a 15' length of hose and a main shutoff valve attached to the spigot.

Now we no longer have to crawl under the hedge to turn the water on! The main hose can be detached whenever it isn't in use, so the lawnmowers don't chop it up where it lies on the grass.

The main hose runs to this first four-way splitter along the East fence. The two valves on either end are attached to regular soaker hoses, which run along the perimeter beds. The middle-right 1/4" hose goes to the Southeast quadrant, which has the Zucchini, Carrots and Beet Greens. The middle-left hose goes to the second splitter.

This splitter is near the mid point of where the two main paths cross, and is anchored by a post. The far left 1/4" hose feeds a series of Tomato beds, the middle-right 1/4" hose feeds the Southwest quadrant, which has the Swiss Chard, Yellow Squash and Carrots. The yellow hose is a free floating hose, which ends in the spray nozzle. This will be used to water the Cabbages outside the fence. The middle-left hose goes to yet another splitter.

Right near the top of this post, you can see two very small shutoff valves. The idea here is to be able to regulate which areas need more or less water. From here, hoses go to more Tomatoes, Peppers, Tomatoes, Tomatoes, and more Tomatoes.

Here's Dave setting some of the hose. One thing that we've done with the 1/4" hose network is try to keep the whole thing linked together in a very elaborate circular system. The idea here is to try and keep the water pressure regulated and constant. We've never tried this before, so we could end up with a mess on our hands, but we think the system is sound.

Within the next couple of days, we hope to have the anchors in place and the drip holes punched. Then we'll really be in business.

Invasion at The Well Sprung Garden

2009-06-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

Do you see these ugly little monsters? These are adolescent Colorado Potato Beetles, munching on one of the tomato plants. Yup, Potato Beetles also go after tomatoes (perhaps it's the whole potAto, potAHto, tomAto, tomAHto thing), and eggplants. Jane found the skeletal remains of two tomato plants yesterday, did some research, and found our culprits. Her immediate steps to fix this were to pull the two dead plants, snipped off all the leaves that had bugs and eggs on all the other tomato plants in the garden, collected everything in a sealed coffee can, took them out of the garden, and burned them.

These are what the eggs look like: the orange blotch, which is located on the underside of the leaf, which makes them hard to spot.

Now, we can't be certain that we've eliminated all of the Colorado Potato Beetles, larvae, pupae, and eggs, so according to Rodale's Garden Problem Solver, we can use either cornmeal, or wheat bran meal which is sprinkled on the plants. The beetles eat the meal, it expands inside them, and they explode--not unlike the scene in Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life." Other organic means of eliminating these pests include Diatomaceous Earth to destroy the larvae. D.E. consists of fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae. The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layer of insects' exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate. Arthropods, such as slugs or larvae, die as a result of the water pressure deficiency. There are other means of eliminating these pests, but most aren't organic, and some can be cost and/or time prohibitive. These are the two simplest and cheapest means of dealing with the problem, in addition to collecting and destroying the actual bugs and dead plants. In the Fall, all of the old plants and overgrown weeds need to be collected and removed from the garden. Leave the soil bare for a few days, then till the soil thoroughly to a depth of 6 to 8 inches. About 2 or 3 weeks after that, rake the soil and leave it bare for a few more days. This allows the birds to work on the beetles that are looking for a place to overwinter. Then plant a cover crop, such as clover which is a great natural fertilizer, or lay a 4 to 6 inch layer of organic mulch. In the early spring, about 2 weeks before planting, give the garden another tilling and leave it bare for the birds to work over again.

Here's what an adult Colorado Potato Beetle looks like:

Eewww.

Remember, there's a list of To Do's in the mailbox. Anytime you want to come out and tend the garden, just check the mailbox for what needs to be taken care of.

Peppers Planted, Cucumbers Climbing

2009-06-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

This pepper bed is located near the northeast corner of the garden, with the east bed of onions located behind them. The four tall pepper plants in the background are Bells, the seven little plants in the very foreground are Jalapenos, and all of the little plants in between are a mix of Anaheims, Anchos, Cayennes, Jalapenos, and Hungarian Wax. All but the seven Jalapenos in the foreground were donated. All that's left to plant are the last 2/3 of a bed that is just to the left of this picture, which currently has a variety of tomatoes.

These cucumbers are really taking off. As you can see, they are now climbing the twine condo that was built around them.

They are also sporting lots and lots of blossoms. We should be seeing little cucumbers very soon.

The rain of the last two days has the ground good and wet, and all of the plants are turning dark green, and starting to shoot for the sky. We haven't had an opportunity to mulch again in about a week, and now we have freshly planted beds with no mulch at all. If a couple of people can get together to mow and mulch the garden soon, that would be much appreciated. While you're at it, go ahead and pick up those two flats of cabbages that are shrieking to be planted in your garden:)

Sprouts!

2009-06-02T08:17:00.001-07:00

All of the beds that we've direct seeded so far have sprouts in them. For those of you keeping count, that's one week from the time we scattered the seeds on the beds. Not bad, considering the dry week we've had. Here's what we've got so far:

These are the swiss chard sprouts.

For context, this is the swiss chard bed. It is located at the southwest corner of the garden, with the yellow squash and carrots to the right. In the background, you can see cucumbers and cabbage.

These are the beet green sprouts.

This is the beet green bed in context. It is located across from the swiss chard, in the southeast corner of the garden, with the zucchini and more carrots to the left. In the background, you can see cucumbers and cabbage.

They're hard to see, but if you look closely, you'll see little, green, carrot sprouts.

This is the carrot bed in the southwest corner, with the yellow squash in the background, swiss chard to the left, and butternut squash visible in the upper right corner of the photo. There is a matching bed of carrots in the southeast corner of the garden, near the zucchini and beet greens.

We've got some of our soaker hoses laid down, mostly around the perimeter beds. Dave told me about using lawn irrigation hose, which looks like a good idea, considering the potential issues we may have with water pressure. I'm going to talk to our good friend, David, at Lowe's to see if he can help us out. The main issue now is figuring out how to lay out this network of drip irrigation hoses and valves throughout such a large and complex garden. I know what you're thinking: "Why not just get a big sprinkler to cover the whole garden?" Sounds like a simple and cheap solution. But here are the problems with that: First, spraying water over the tops of plants is incredibly inefficient. Much of the water either blows away in the wind or just plain evaporates before it hits the ground. Most of the rest of it lands on the leaves themselves, not the roots, which increases the incidents of leaf rot and a particularly nasty mold that can run rampant throughout a garden. These problems alone can add up to be much less cost effective, when considering the water bill and the amount of personal time spent trimming rotted, moldy leaves from plants. Drip irrigation puts the water right at the roots, which uses much less water and prevents leaf rot and mold. Stay tuned...

With A Little Help From Our Friends

2009-06-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

All apologies to Lennon/McCartney, but it is not hyperbole to say that this garden would not, could not, be where it is today without help from all of our friends, whether they donated their time and efforts, plants, or materials. Bill and Ann came by this morning and planted more tomatoes, peppers and cauliflower (shown here). We were also able to solve the Mystery of the Industrious Garden Elves from our last post. They were the ones who did such a good job with the cabbage, kohlrabi, mulching and leveling of the last two beds, and they bought a spray nozzle for the hose, until we get the irrigation system in place. Way to go, Bill and Ann! Here are some more pictures of their handiwork:

In front of the larger, bell pepper plants, there are several, much smaller, pepper plants of various hot varieties that were donated to the cause. If you look very closely, you'll see them there. We've got more hot peppers, including Jalapenos, that will go in this bed within the next couple of weeks, once they get stronger.

The big plants in the foreground are the last of the large tomato plants that were donated to us. They got to looking very sickly in the last couple of days, but we're hoping that they will perk up now that they're in the ground. In the background, are several donated cherry tomatoes.

A closeup of one of the cherry tomato plants.

The finished bed of cauliflower, along the NE fence. There is a matching bed of cauliflower along the NW fence, where the mailbox is. I know you can't see them in this picture, but trust me, they're there.

Frankie The Hammer disposed of the garbage yesterday and did another round of mowing. Jane and I spread the mulch last night, and put a list of ongoing tasks in the mailbox. So, if you head out to the garden, and you don't see anything obvious that needs to be done, just check the mailbox and the To Do List is in there. We also planted the yellow pear tomatoes:

This patch of green mulch is hiding several yellow pear tomatoes along the east fence. You can see the cucumbers and acorn squash in the background.

More yellow pears along the NW corner of the garden. They are bordered by onions to their south, and cauliflower along the fence to their east. If you've never had a yellow pear tomato, they are excellent in salads:)

So, now we're about 90% planted! The only seedlings left to put in the ground are the various hot peppers, and possibly some basil--but the basil doesn't look very good, so we may scrap those. We've still got some things to seed directly, and we'll end up splitting the last miscellaneous tomato bed to do that, and possibly the pepper bed, but I think we have enough pepper plants to fill that bed. Obviously, we've still got plenty of ground to mulch (which needs to be done on an ongoing basis, hint, hint), and we still need to layout the irrigation system, but the majority of the HARD work is done.

Those two flats of leftover cabbage plants are still sitting outside the garden fence, by the mailbox. If somebody (or several somebodies) would pick them up and plant them in their own garden, that would be great. It would be a real shame to have to throw them out.

Cabbage, Garbage, and Kohlrabi

2009-05-29T14:54:00.000-07:00

We've had some great work done in the past 24 hours. Frankie The Hammer fixed the tire on the wheelbarrow, and donated a couple of garbage cans:

We had a lot of trash building up, between debris collected during the initial groundbreaking, plants that died before they could get planted, and lots of plastic trays. So, now these two cans are overflowing with trash. If anyone has a small pickup truck and is willing to take these to the nearest dump, we would greatly appreciate it.

This is the tilled area just outside the west fence. Someone came by and planted the donated kholrabi (purple leaves on the left) and more donated cabbage, plus some mulching of the cabbage in the background--which was a lot of work to be sure. We still have a flat of cabbage at the garden, and one more at my house, which we have no more room for. So, please, if anyone wants to plant these cabbages in their own gardens, come by and pick them up. Otherwise, they will go to waste.

The same gardening elves also planted and mulched these donated bell peppers, located on the east side of the garden, near three beds of tomatoes. The rest of this bed will also be planted with various types of peppers, but it will probably be a little while because the seedlings aren't quite ready yet.

Also, those beds along the north fence were leveled out. Whomever was our grand benefactor, please post a comment below and let us know who you are. Great work all around!

So, at this point, we're about 80% planted. We've got some more direct seeding to do, including garlic, leeks, and radishes, as well as some plants that need to grow a little more first: yellow pear tomatoes, jalapeno and other hot peppers, cauliflower, and basil. We hope to get these in the ground within the next couple of weeks. Then, it's going to be all about mulching and tending until harvest time starts.

Volunteering

2009-05-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

For anyone who is volunteering at the garden it would be greatly helpful if we had some regular times for folks to volunteer. If your schedule permits you to drop over on a somewhat regular basis please post what times and days you can be there. I know not everyone is capable of a regular work time but if you can it would help out immensely! Also I know Andy and Jane have been donating a significant amount of time to get this garden going and could really use the help. If we had a bunch of folks getting out there to mulch and maintain the amount of time necessary for each person would be small. If you have friends and family who would like to get out there to volunteer please pass along our need for volunteers!

Direct Seeding begins

2009-05-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, and the day before, we got some direct seeding done. Generally, we direct seed vegetables that are either very easy to germinate without the need for special care, plants that wouldn't do well within the confines of a peat pot, or both. Here are the pictures:

This bed is on the east side of the garden, with the zucchini in the background, and was seeded with carrots.

This carrot bed is on the west side, with the yellow squash in the background. Both of these beds were seeded two days ago.

Jane is seen here, prepping a bed for beet greens. The basic method for direct seeding involves making sure the bed itself is soft and broken up. Due to the delays we've experienced, all of these beds developed a hardened crust, which needed to be broken apart. Jane is using a trowel to do this. Once the ground is prepped, we basically scatter the seeds evenly on top of the bed. This scattering method is used for very small seeds, such as carrots, beets (for beet greens), swiss chard, lettuce mixes, etc. Larger seeds, such as beans, are actually planted into the ground, but we'll get to those later.

The bed on the left has been seeded with swiss chard, and the one on the right was seeded with beet seeds for beet greens. Once the seeds have been scattered on the ground, we spread grass mulch on top. However, it is important to understand that, with these direct seeded beds, we don't layer the usual 1.5 inches of mulch, because the seeds wouldn't germinate very well. These beds have a very light layer of mulch (you can actually see the brown earth under the mulch) to allow for sunlight to heat up the seeds. Once these plants have grown large enough to stand up by themselves, we will mulch them a little more heavily.

These are the donated Bonnie Cucumbers that we planted just two weeks ago. Look at how much they've grown already! They've also developed the latest good sign of a healthy cucumber plant:

Right in the center of this photo is one of the little tentacle-like parts of the plant that is used to grab onto anything it can reach in order to provide stability to the plant itself. At the moment, the plants are too short to reach anything, but at the rate they're growing, they should be able to start grabbing the condo we've constructed soon.

We also got more mulching done, but we got rained out before we could go any further. Today, I went out to get some more work done, but the ground was still too wet. Hopefully, we can get some more work done tomorrow.

The Well Sprung Garden Location

2009-05-27T17:38:00.000-07:00

Just in case anyone needs directions to find The Well Sprung Garden to work here is a map to help you find it.

If you cross over I 65, you've gone too far!

1001 Chapman's Crossing

Spring Hill, TN 37174

The Holy Grail has Arrived

2009-05-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

Frankie The Hammer showed up this afternoon with The Holy Grail: a riding lawnmower with a bagging attachment. He bought the bagging system used--it was actually designed for a different make of mower--and refitted his lawnmower to accommodate the attachment! I was looking at hours of using the push mower today, and here comes Frank. He mowed until he ran out of gas, and we got several more beds mulched. Check it out:

Three tomato beds on the east side of the garden, now happily mulched.

Seven tomato beds, on the west side, breathing a collective sigh of relief.

Frankie The Hammer has also taken our wheelbarrow to his place, to try and fix the tire. Once he's got it worked out, we'll have a very useful asset on our hands. Way to go, Frank!

We've also gotten some more plants in the ground this morning and this afternoon:

You can't see them now, but next to each stake is a watermelon plant. We put ten of them in the ground, which were kindly donated by Bonnie Plants.

Closeup of one of the Black Diamond Watermelons in the previous photo.

One of several Jubilee watermelons that were planted today.

The rest of the pumpkins are now in the ground as well. If you go out to the site, you'll see wooden stakes all over the place. Next to each one is either a pumpkin or a watermelon.

Two more rows of cabbages were planted today. As you can see in the upper right corner, there are still a whole slew of cabbages left to plant. We'll probably put them in the tilled area off the west fence, but we'll still have way more plants than we have room for. Anyone want some cabbage plants?

Jane's heading out there right now to do some more work. I'll try to make a point of getting some shots of her progress tomorrow.

Security Breach at The Well Sprung Garden!

2009-05-25T15:55:00.001-07:00

Well...sort of. As you can see, an animal tried digging under the west fence, near the cucumbers and butternuts. Fortunately, we dug a perimiter trench around the garden area before installing the fence, so it was already somewhat lowered into the ground and harder to dig under. There were no tracks that were discernable nearby, and the claw marks weren't much help, except to note that the marks looked pretty big. It could have been anything--even a stray dog looking for mischief.

The miscellaneous tomato bed, near the mailbox, is now complete. There's all kinds of tomatoes in there--most of them weren't tagged, so we won't have any idea what we have until we start harvesting. But there are some German Queens, Big Boys, Big Beef, etc.

These pumpkins have been in their peat pots for so long, they've now grown secondary leaves. You can see the heart shaped leaves, with the rough edges. These poor guys need to get in the ground ASAP. Hopefully, the weather will be good tomorrow (my day off), and we'll be able to get them planted. The four little pumpkin patches that were planted last week are also growing secondaries, which is a good sign.

Anyone care to join me tomorrow and help mulch the garden? We've got tall grass and lots of beds to cover...

The Importance of Mulching

2009-05-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

So far, we've had trouble keeping up with the mulching needs in the garden. Here are two pictures to illustrate just how important this task is:

Exhibit A. This is a bed of tomatoes that were mulched last week. Notice the dark green leaves and the strong, straight stalks. These plants have been enjoying the benefits of grass mulch: cooler ground that hasn't dried out much, nutrients from decomposition, and very few weeds. These plants are ready to take on just about anything that comes their way.

Exhibit B. This is a bed of tomatoes that have not yet been mulched. Notice the pale, yellow leaves, the drooping stalks, the general stressed look. These plants are struggling to survive in a bed that is hot, dry, hard, is not being replenished with nutrients--and was just watered yesterday and today. These poor little guys won't be able to take much more of this. They need mulch, right away.

So, please, even if you only have an hour to spare, bring your bagging lawnmower and a friend (or a friend who has a bagging lawnmower), and help us get these beds mulched. Feel free to use this blog to organize, using the comments feature, so you can more easily operate on your own time. Just like the plants in the picture above, we need all the help we can get.

First Fruits...sort of

2009-05-23T16:22:00.000-07:00

Look carefully. Do you see it? Amidst all the brown, there's a little green. An within that green, there's a little, tiny, itsy, bitsy, teeny, weenie, round, Marglobe Tomato! It actually showed up the Early Girls, which are usually the first to produce. This should also give you an indication of just how late we were in getting these in the ground, because they were planted just this past week. Let the games begin!

Cabbage...and more To Do's

2009-05-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

Today, Jane and Elaine went out and planted about half of the 300 + cabbage plants that were donated to us. Jane also watered the garden some, but we're actually hoping for some decent rain this time, because the plants are starting to look a little weak. Here's what was done, and what still needs to be done:

Two rows of cabbage, on the south end of the garden. You will notice that these are in rows--not raised beds--and that they aren't inside the fence. This is due to a number of factors: the lateness of the season, the need to get them in the ground NOW, not knowing if they'll even survive (because it's so late, and the plants are so old), the sheer number of plants, and the fact that they were all donated. In other words, we have hundreds of early spring plants in critical condition, and going through the trouble of making beds and taking up space within the fenced area may not be worth it if most of them die--but we also don't want to punch a gift horse in the mouth; so in the ground they go, and if nothing good comes of it, we're ultimately not losing resources or funds in the process.

A wider view, to show what still needs to be done. This ground has already been tilled, so just turning it over with a shovel or hoe should suffice, and then just plant the remaining cabbage the way you see them in the first two rows. It would be best to wait until after it rains, because it will loosen the ground up and make it much easier to work.

This tomato bed needs to be finished. It's the one closest to the mailbox. You can see some tomato plants in the upper left corner--those, and others outside the picture, are what need to be planted here.

These tired little guys are pumpkins that still need to be put in the ground. We got about a third of them planted a few days ago, but these still need to get finished, and the sooner the better. As you can see, they're starting to wilt and show signs of stress. These are located inside the fenced area, at the west side of the garden--but they need to be planted outside the fence. Check out the four other pumpkin patches to see how they were done. It's a pretty simple process: just pick a patch of ground, dig a quick hole, put the pumpkin pot in, and pat the ground together. There are lots of pieces of wood near the propane tank that can be used for stakes to mark their positions, so they don't get mowed down. It's important not to plant them in the tilled area by the west fence, because that whole area will be taken up by butternut vines as they get older.

We still need a number of beds to be mulched, and the other things in the first To Do list (dated 5/20) also need to be completed.

Thanks!

Good Press

2009-05-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

We've been getting some very good press in the local news outlets these past few weeks. Below are links to what's being said about this project.

First, the Spring Hill Advertiser News broke the news to the community about this project.

Then, WAKM, a local AM station, invited us to appear on their Spotlight on Spring Hill program. Dave Townsend agreed to represent us on the air and wrote a post about it on his blog.

Today, The Tennessean, which is Nashville's major daily paper, put out an article in two of it's subsidiary publications, The Journal, and Williamson AM.

Our many thanks to these media outlets and to the reporters who cared enough to put our story out: Ashley Bone of the Advertiser News, Darrel Williams of WAKM, and Jill Wiersma of The Tennessean. Without your help, we wouldn't have received the additional volunteers and donations of equipment that we now enjoy.

Planting Tomatoes, Step by Step

2009-05-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves the taste of freshly grown, garden tomatoes. In this post, we will show you how we have grown healthy plants that produce tons of great tasting tomatoes.

First, we are going to assume that you are planting your tomatoes in raised beds instead of rows. We do this for two primary reasons: the first is that raised beds provide better drainage so your plants don't get swamped in heavy rains; the second is that it allows the roots to get a better hold on the ground, because they're not having to fight their way through hard soil. This is especially helpful if you're growing root plants, such as carrots or onions. Another good reason for using raised beds include being able to use less space to cultivate more plants.

Take your tomato plant, and snip off all of the sprigs on the lower part of the plant, until only the topmost leaf cluster is kept. You can do this with your fingernail, as shown, or with a pair of scissors. It's important to make sure it is a clean snip, and that you're not peeling the skin off the stem. Make sure that you dispose of these discarded sprigs outside of your garden. Decomposing plant pieces are bug magnets.

Dig your hole with a trowel and put the tomato plant inside. It is important to understand that you are burying about 2/3 of the plant under the ground--which is another good reason to have a raised bed. The underground stem will soon create new roots, which will give the plant a solid foundation in the bed, and will improve the plant's ability to take in water and nutrients.

After your plant is in the hole, cover it up with the soil, right up to where those top sprigs start to show. Pat down the soil gently, so it stays in place, but don't smash it down. The ground needs to stay somewhat loose to allow for that good drainage and aeration.

Plant the rest of your tomato plants in the bed approximately 10" apart, in a staggered formation (example: 3 plants in a row, then 2 plants, then 3 plants). I know what you're thinking: "TEN INCHES!? Those plants will choke on each other and nothing will come of them!" We've heard these objections before. The next major step with these tomatoes, which we will show you in the coming weeks, is to build a Tomato Condo around the bed, and tie the plants to the condo, growing them vertically. Trust us, this works like a charm. Once these plants are tall enough, you'll see pictures of what we're talking about.

Have fun with this, and let us know how it's going...

To Do List

2009-05-20T16:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some things that we need to get done so far. Anyone can come out at any time convenient for them to take care of these things, which are listed in order of priority:

Watering! First, we have a monsoon, then we have a drought. The garden is starting to dry out and we haven't yet had a chance to layout the irrigation system. If someone can stop by and hose down the garden, the plants would be forever in your debt. That might take about 15 to 20 minutes. The hose is attached to a spigot on the front of the Wellspring Church offices.

As you can see, many of these beds haven't been mulched yet. If someone (or a couple of someones) can bring out a bagging lawnmower (or two), and spread the mulch around the tomatoes and the onions, that would be very helpful. This might take a couple of hours to complete.

This bed, on the left side of the gate, and it's counterpart with the mailbox sticking in it, need to be leveled with a rake and/or hoe. All of the paths have been dug, so there's no shoveling needed, just some basic leveling that should only take about 10 minutes.

All of the rain delays made the grass start sprouting again in the tilled areas on the south and west sides of the garden fence. If someone (or a couple of someones) can bring a hand tiller (or two) and go back over that ground, that would be great. That will probably take an hour or so.

Thanks!

More tomatoes...and Pumpkins!

2009-05-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

We got a lot done today. This morning, we got a few more onions in the ground (we still have a lot left over that we don't know what to do with), as well as a bed of Early Girls, and cut another path. But, this afternoon, Dave and our new friend Jim were on the scene. They cut out the rest of the walking paths (Hallelujah!), leveled off most of the remaining beds, and planted scores of tomatoes. These two are a couple of gardening machines. Check this out:

Dave on the left and Jim on the right, planting tomatoes.

This is the west side of the garden, facing south. Tomatoes, as far as the eye can see. We have in the three beds in the background, from left to right: Pink Girls, Pink Girls and Early Girls. In the three beds in the middle ground, from left to right: Better Boys, Marglobes and more Early Girls. In the two beds in the foreground, we have a crazy mix of leftovers. These two beds have everything from Early Girls, to Pink Girls, to Marglobes, to Parks Whoppers, to Cherry Tomatoes, etc, etc. We didn't have enough of each kind to justify a whole bed for these varieties, so we'll see how the cross pollination comes out.

Four little pumpkin patches. These are located on the outside of the garden fence, on the west side. Please excuse the cheesy fencing around two of the patches. These are just temporary, but necessary to alert any mowers to their location. Soon, we will replace these with flagged stakes.

Pumpkin, closeup.

We've got about half of the garden planted so far, so we're catching up to where we should be. In a perfect world, everything would have been planted already, but we just have to keep plugging away in spite of the weather and be thankful for a long growing season.

Pre Frost Warning Progress

2009-05-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, here are the pictures of some of the work that was done that I had mentioned before. Everything survived the frost warning, so here's what got done a few days back:

This is one of the two beds of onions we now have in the ground. This is along the west side fence, and the other bed runs along the east fence.

Here is a shot of the upper left quadrant of the garden, facing south. The six beds in the fore- and middle ground are various tomato beds that were (mostly) mulched. There are onions on the left (unmulched), cucs, acorns and butternuts (mulched) up in the corner, and more butternuts and cucs along the back fence. We mowed all that land you see in the background, plus a bunch more you can't see along the left side of the picture, and behind the camera, and we still didn't have enough mulch. Let me say it again: we need people with bagging lawnmowers:)

This is a closeup of one of the cucumber plants that went in the ground on May 13th. As we mentioned before, these plants were in critical condition the day we planted them. They don't look exactly in top form right now, but if you look closely, you will see secondary leaves that are a different shape and texture (rougher) than the primary leaves. This is an excellent sign that these little guys may make it after all.

Likewise, secondary leaves on the Acorn Squash. We also have secondaries forming on the zucchini, yellow squash and butternuts. So, the roots are rooting and the new growth is growing.

It's almost 2:00, and I'm going to head back out there for a couple of hours, but I wanted to try and catch up a little bit on the blog. There are still some more educational posts that I need to get up here too, and hopefully I'll get that done in the next couple of days. Stay tuned.

Laundry Day at The Wellsprung Garden

2009-05-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

Our friend Leilani, President of The Spring Hill Garden Club, went out this morning to remove the frost blankets and assess the situation. Here's what she emailed me later today:

"Went out to the garden today to remove the frost tents. They were sopping wet with moisture so I'm sure it was a pretty good frost last night.

The plants all look fine. I had to hang the tent materials on the fencing to dry out. It was a riot of laundry hanging to dry. I had to laugh-who would've expected in mid May to have to cover plants from a frost! Don't know if you can see some of the dew on the covers, but I'm sure last night it was frost.

I'm enclosing some pics. Post them on the blog if you would like."

Tarp over three tomato beds.

Happy, frost free, tomatoes.

Sheet over one of the butternut beds.

Happy, frost free, butternuts.

Airing our dirty laundry in public.

I'm going to guess that we actually didn't get a frost last night. Mostly because, when I left the house at 4:30 this morning to go to work, the temperature was in the 40's and there was no frost on the ground when I went outside. Now, it's possible it was much colder before, and then warmed up later, but I'm not sure that a warm front of air would account for a 10-15 degree swing in temperature without the sun being up. So, we dodged a bullet--but better safe than sorry.

FROST!

2009-05-18T18:11:00.000-07:00

According to the National Climatic Data Center, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in the U.S. Department of Commerce, the latest average frost date for Franklin, TN (which is as close to Spring Hill as I can find a record for) is April 29th--it's now MAY 18TH and we got a frost warning for tonight. So, Jane and I grabbed every sheet, blanket, towel, and table cloth (even the good ones) and ran out to cover the beds that had been planted. We had to leave the onions unprotected, but if they bite the dust, we still have enough to replant them. Our many thanks to our friends Alberto and Sandy to graciously loaned us a painting tarp and several packing blankets. Without those, the tomatoes would have never had a chance.

I was going to post the progress from earlier today, but if the frost kills off these plants, then there will be no point in the posting--besides, it's now way past my bedtime and I need to cut this short. If the survival rate is decent, I'll put up more information tomorrow or Wednesday.

Basics of Mulching

2009-05-17T19:24:00.001-07:00

Now that we're starting to catch up a little bit on our time line, we will begin periodically posting updates that are more educational in nature. One of the things that we're trying to do, both with the garden and with the blog, is to teach people some basic organic gardening techniques. The idea here is for people who have very little resources to still be able to grow a small garden to help feed their families. This is by no means a full-blown clinic in hardcore organic gardening. Please understand that the whole idea here is to help people hew as closely to an organic garden as possible, without going bankrupt in the process. Any comments are certainly welcome, as we all learn by sharing information, but please keep in mind the purpose behind this garden.

First, we use the most abundant and available resource we have: grass. It is organic (especially if it hasn't been treated with herbicides), it is plentiful, and it's free. The general rule of thumb is for every 3 square feet of garden space, you need seven square feet of grass, otherwise known as the 30%/70% rule. Use a bagging lawnmower, if you have one, because mowing, and then raking is a real drag.

Mowing is a two-person task. After you fill up each bag, just take the bag and dump the grass clippings into an open walkway in the garden. At this point, it is important to have a second person available who can immediately start spreading the mulch. This keeps it from molding and beginning the process of self-composting in a pile. Grass clippings left too long in a pile will heat up and begin to smell terrible, but when it is spread out it won't do that.

The mulch should be spread all over the beds, top and sides, all the way up to the plants themselves. You want to make sure that all of the soil is covered, otherwise weeds will find the open spaces.

The depth of the mulch should be 1.5 inches--no more and no less. Any deeper than that, and the mulch molds, and that--as they say in Ghostbusters--would be bad. Any less, and the mulch neither prevents the sprouting of weeds, nor prevents the ground from drying out. The plants love having a blanket of mulch covering the soil because it helps keep the soil moist and cool in the hot summer, it also breaks up the clay and allows water and air into the roots.

This is a continuous process. Generally, you want to try and do this on a weekly basis, as each layer of mulch starts to decompose, and your grass is high enough to cut. As the mulch breaks down over the season, it adds nutrients to the soil. If you start with nasty, red clay in your first year; by the second year, you will have soft, beautiful, dark brown soil--I've seen it myself.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes!

2009-05-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

We got a LOT of tomato plants in the ground today. Jane and her youngest daughter, Elaine, were out at the garden bright and early today, forming the tomato beds and putting the plants in the ground. They were joined by Bill and Ann, who helped dig out and shape more beds. So far, we have beds with the following types of tomatoes--all donated I might add: Pink Girl, Better Boy, Celebrity, and a few Bradley. Later in the afternoon, our crew consisted of Jane, Andy, and our new friends Jenny, Aaron, Ethan and Eva. All told, we planted five beds of tomatoes, and dug out paths for two more beds, which will probably host the 300 plus cabbage plants. We also managed to mow about 30% of the grass in the field, which created mulch for almost all of the plants we have in the ground. The typical ratio of garden to grass is 30/70, so we will need every inch of that grassy field for mulch.

The following pictures show this afternoon's action--never a dull moment:

Jenny planting Pink Girls, Aaron cutting a path for a new bed, Ethan hoeing like a madman, while the baby supervises.

Eva, finding and disposing of rocks. One part of the garden is loaded with rocks, so the more of these we can get rid of, the better.

Jane mulching the cucumbers and butternut squash.

Today was also the day when we received our newly donated wheelbarrow! This particular lifesaver was a generous gift from Creative Lawnworks. All we need to do is put air in one tire and we're ready to go. This may be material for an episode of Lifestyles of the Easily Impressed, but I am really excited about this. It will make our work here--especially during the harvest--much easier.

We also planted the mailbox. This will be used to keep instructions for each week's needed tasks. The blog will continue to post instructions, but the mailbox will be for those who either can't remember what's posted here, or for those who think a blog is the subject of a 1960's B movie. The first set of instructions will arrive in the box shortly.

We'll be back at it on Monday morning, probably around 7:30 or 8:00. We still have so many plants to put in the ground--and that's before we start direct seeding the rest of the garden. We've only got about 30% of the garden planted, so there's still a long way to go before we can get back on track.

Freshly Mowed Land

2009-05-15T16:02:00.001-07:00

The folks from Wellsprings Church were able to get a tractor mower out here today to take down the jungle. That's great for us, because we can keep it to a decent level from here on out--assuming we don't have another two week streak of rain. However, we still have lots of grass seed out there--it's just sitting on the ground, waiting for some unsuspecting person to scoop it up with the mowed grass and spread it into the garden. We still have a lot of work to do in that department. If we can get all hands on deck to bring out every bagging lawnmower they can get their hands on, we can use them to vacuum up all the just mowed grass, with it's attendant seed, and dispose of it by the tree line to the west. After that, we can mow and mulch with impunity. This is not a small job by any stretch of the imagination, so the more mowers we can get out here, the better.

Butternuts and Acorns

2009-05-14T17:58:00.000-07:00

Day three of getting plants in the ground. We started late in the afternoon, due to work and weather, but were able to get Butternut and Acorn Squash planted. There was only a little rain this morning, so all the plants needed watering, as they were looking pretty weak. Pictures below:

Acorn Squash, between Cucumbers and Butternuts at the top left corner of the garden. Zucchini in the foreground.

Butternuts were planted in the top left and top right corners. These are the ones in the top right, with Yellow Squash in the foreground. These squash will grow through the fence and out into the tilled area in the background.

A close up of a Butternut. As you can see, we decided to plant these much deeper than the plants we put in the other day. Hopefully, these will have a better shot at having strong stems.

There's got to be a better way. This spigot is located at the front of the WellSpring Church offices, behind a big hedge, behind some landscaping. It wasn't easy crawling through there, but I made it happen somehow. Turning this thing on regularly will be a drag in a real hurry. Anyone got any ideas? I spotted a craiglist ad for a bunch of 55 gallon drums we could use for rain barrels. Anyone up for modifying them with spigots and drip hoses?

Theoretically, it's supposed to rain tomorrow, but it's about a 30 - 40 percent chance. So, tomorrow's plan is the same as today's: if it doesn't rain too much, we'll be out there.

Plants in the ground

2009-05-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

Two consecutive days without rain! We didn't know what to do with ourselves...well, actually we did. With the delay that all the rain caused, we could no longer take the approach of forming all of the beds first and then planting and seeding the garden. So, today we put in a number of the plants that were in critical condition: Cucumbers, Yellow Squash, Zucchini, and Acorn Squash. These are by no means the only plants that are in dire need of getting in the ground, but they're what we could get taken care of today. Check it out:

Cucumbers--happy to be in the ground

Cucumbers close up. The brown paper wrappers are to confound the evil cutworms.

Yellow Squash. This particular variety are known as Zephyrs. You can see by the way they're laying down that they sat in their peat pots way too long. Hopefully some water and a lot of TLC will get them back on track.

Zucchini--also taking a dirt nap. If they make it, this entire bed will be covered in green--you probably won't even see the dirt below the plants.

It's supposed to rain for most of the day tomorrow, and for the next four days after that, so we may not get much done for awhile. But, if there's even a peak of sun between the clouds, you can bet that we'll be out there doing what we can.

Finally!

2009-05-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

Ten days after our scheduled work day, we were able to have decent weather so we could get some work done on a larger scale than we've been doing over the past few weeks. We had a great crew come out, coming and going in shifts, forming some of the raised beds and mowing down the jungle that surrounded the garden. Here are some pictures of the activity that ensued:

South facing view: Bill digging paths and Jane planting cucumbers.

Walter can dig it--can you?

Jane with cucumber plants that are just begging to be put in the ground.

Check this out! Brenda, and her daughter Ashley, brought some apple and plum trees to root on the property! She also has grapes, blackberries, and asparagus, which we hope to utilize soon.

"I think I can...I think I can..."

Frankie "The Hammer" goes after the 3 foot high grass. It rained so much, for so long, that all the grass went to seed. After it gets mowed down, we go behind with a bagging mower to vacuum up all the seeded grass and take it out of the way. After this gets done, we'll be able to mow normally and use the grass to mulch the garden.

The weather forecast actually looks good for Wednesday, the 13th of May. We plan to start at 7:30 in the morning, before it gets too warm. We've got about 1/3 of the beds formed in the garden, so there is still plenty to be done before we can get more plants in the ground. Bring your work gloves and join us!

Welcome to The Wellsprung Garden

2009-05-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your interest in the Well Sprung Garden! This garden is a joint venture between volunteers of Wellspring Church and Grace Episcopal Church in Spring Hill, TN. Our goal is to grow organic crops to supplement The Well (a program designed to help over 200 families get food for the table) and to provide funds for outreach programs in Spring Hill, TN. The ground has just been broken on the garden and work is commencing! If you are interested in helping The Well Sprung Garden through either donation of items, money, or time and work please email The Well and direct your message to Arica.