Root for the Kale!
The gardeners are planting kale! We have such a perfect climate for growing kale, but the Crown Hill Community Garden was unable to grow it. When the gardeners took over the space, the dirt was full of club root – a fungus that affects the roots of most brassicas. So the gardeners focused on growing chard and lettuce – lots of chard and lettuce. Club root spores can live for ten years – that’s a lot of lost broccoli and kale. Not to be deterred, of course the gardeners came up with a clever solution. The brick gardening troughs around the front of the Crown Hill Center! Fred mentioned that it looked like they had never been seriously gardened – or at least not for a long time. They hauled in dirt that was not from the garden, scattered vetch seed in to start building the soil, and now they are ready to grow kale.
Stop by on Saturday!
The gardeners are at the garden every day – just pop on in and you are likely to find them.
They are always at the garden on Saturday afternoons. If you have twenty minutes, or 3 hours – you can be part of the community garden!
What’s Growing
- Peas – they are really starting to grow!
- Tulips – the bulbs of these beauties were rescued when Fred Meyer cleared everything out for Christmas.
- Lambs quarters – a weed. a delicious weed.
- Sunflowers – growing where they stood last year. Seeds last year start growing – that’s when it is time to plant more!
- Jerusalem artichoke
Around the Garden
The gardeners are turning the compost. On Saturday, the compost was only registering around 100 degrees. So the gardeners pulled everything out of the bin and now will put it back, layering in freshly pruned pieces of the privet bush, coffee grounds, and leaves from the pile behind the Whitman track. Fresh oxygen and fresh materials will have the compost pile heating up again in no time.
Preparations are being made to welcome a new fig tree. A neighbor has a tree they need to remove and gardener Christal is excited to make a home for it at the community garden. She removed a bunch of privet from the corner of the building, and is working to dig a hole.
