Our Community Garden Plot

This year I decided to try growing some veggies at one of the community gardens in our neighborhood. It's a good-sized plot that will allow me to experiment some more with growing veggies. We have two awesome raised beds at home that Charlie made a couple of years ago but I've been struggling with growing veggies there. The community garden is a great place to experiment and learn more about veggies, plus it will allow us to harvest more fruit!

Here is the garden before we started working on it. Behind JP is rye grass which was seeded last fall for a beneficial reason that I don't remember--I think it adds nutrients to the soil in the spring once it is turned under.


Here it is at its "baby stage" after we turned under the rye grass (and removed some of it), added compost, leveled it off, and planted our starter plants: summer squash, eggplant, bell peppers, heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos, broccoli, chile peppers, cucumbers. A few days after we planted the starter plants, we sowed some bush beans, carrots, radishes, and beets.


Here it is today in its "adolescent stage" growing and developing, and a bit unruly with the weeds.


As of today, the tomatoes are growing. . .

. . . and we harvested some summer squash!

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radishes

I like radishes. . . but I LOVE French Breakfast radishes!!!

They are tasty AND so much easier to grow than regular radishes.
Well, at least that's true for me. My next step with these is to try successive sowing so that I can harvest them more than just once in a season. I'll get to try this at the end of summer!

NOTE: I found this website that looks like a great gardening resource for zone 5, Forth Collins Nursery.

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Quilt Blocks

Here are some of the blocks I have been gathering for a community quilt we (Highlands Mommies Craft & Garden subgroup) are making to exhibit at Denver's first-ever county fair in July!


Below are 3 blocks I have made for the community quilt. My favorite is the one with the tree trunk where I used the reverse applique technique. I hope to write a description of the process in a later post.

I will also write more about this project as we complete it. And, FYI, you can enter a drawing to win our fabulous quilt by purchasing a ticket at the fair! Hope to see you there!

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Not so "red hot"

I have yet to figure out why these Red Hot Poker plants have stopped showing off their beautiful red/orange/yellow colors? They've bloomed like this for the past few years and it's such a disappointment. There are some varieties that bloom green but when I purchased these I made sure to buy the warm-colored variety. The first couple of years these pokers did bloom with more colors. I don't know what's going on. Do you?

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A Strawberry Patch

We now have a strawberry patch in our yard but only after having to give up on the tomato "patch".

Last year our neighbor's house was sold and then remodeled after she moved into a nursing home. The remodel added a new section to Ms. Charlotte's house which now gives too much shade to the garden that faithfully grew wonderful tomatoes for our family for 8 years. We're sad about the change (all around) but I think we have found a perfect solution: STRAWBERRIES!

This will be a great spot for strawberries because it's contained and will allow them to spread but only to the borders. We had an alpine strawberry bush here before but with a big family it just wasn't enough. I'm sure this will satisfy four curious and hungry children very well. I'm hoping it will yield enough strawberries for some yummy freezer jam too!

(If you look closely, I haven't fully given up on tomatoes in this spot. I have planted a tomato plant in the pot to the left of the garden. It will be an experimental tomato plant for 2011.)

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