Rhode Island Feeds

Excerpt from the full article:

A heirloom tomato (called a heritage tomato in the UK) is an open-pollinated (non-hybrid) cultivated variety of tomato that can be grown from seed. Conventional hybrid tomatoes bought from your local grocery store, however, cannot be grown from the seeds you would save from them.

I figure, what’s the point of paying for and supporting parts of the food chain that are not self sustainable? Besides, heirloom tomatoes are very tasty fruits that are easy to grow and it’s free to save the seeds for the next growing season.

(en español debajo)

Hello Gardeners!

I’d like to schedule a workday and a couple workshop days, and maybe we can combine most of it into a workweekend. The way I envision it is that we have a full workweekend like we did in the early Spring with select “break hours” for workshops. I’m very interested to hear ways we can better this plan, so please give me input wherever you may have it.

Unofficially, every Thursday evening is a work(night), but there are things that need to be done in the garden that might require a stronger workforce.

I’m thinking to schedule it for the weekend of September 18-19 so we have time to really plan it. September usually offers luscious weather for such events, and it’s only 3 weeks away so it’s not too crowded between now and the Harvest Party which is scheduled for the 21s of October.

I’d like volunteer resident experts for the following subjects:

Seed Saving – how to let plants go to seed and/or collect and (if) process seeds for next year
James said he’d head the tomato department

Compost Management – how to really work compost

Weed Management – which plants are weeds, which are not, which can be eaten.

Harvesting – when to harvest certain items

Companion Planting- which plants benefit other plants

Pest Control – best methods of organic pest control

Food Storage – I’d really love to see a canning class which can be held off-site and possibly on a different day. If we have enough interest in this, I’ll look for a site where we can hold it. Otherwise, methods of processing for storage in the freezer or cellar.

If you have interest in leading one of these workshops or have a suggestion for a workshop, let me know by going through the website, email or phone: 831.224.7352

http://www.foxpointgarden.org

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¡Hola Hortelanos!

Quisiera a planificar un día para la limpiada de la huerta y tambíen a organizar las clases para cosas importante a la huerta. En la manera que lo veo en mi mente es que nos tenemos un fin de semana completa como nos teníamos en la primavera temprana con eligado “horas a parada” para se participan en las clases. Tengo mucho interesada las maneras a mejorar esta planifica, asi pf me dan cosas en cualquiera manera que ustedes piensan me ayudaré.

Habitualmente dedicamos las tardes de los jueves a la huerta, pero hay otras cosas que también requieren nuestra atención y nuestro trabajo en grupo.

Estoy piensando a programarlo para la fin de semana del 18-19 de Septiembre asi que nos dispongamos el tiempo a planificar bien. Normalmente, los días de Septiembre son muy bien para estos eventos y también esta solamente lejos a 3 semanas asi no es una conflicta con la Fiesta de Cosechado, en el calendario para el 21 de Octubre.

Quería los voluntarios para las temas siguentes:

Guardado Las Semillas – como se permita las plantas a ir a la semilla para colectar y (si necesario) procesarlas para el año siguente
James de tomate me dijó que él demonstrará como guardar las semillas de tomates

El Manejamiento del Composto – cómo se usa completa

El Manejamiento de las Hierbas – Cuál plantas a comer, cuál no, cuál a removar.

Cosechando – cuando a cosecharlas

Sembrar a Compañero – qué plantas se pueden cultivar junto a otras a fin de que se beneficien mutuamente

A Controlar las Plagas – los métodos para controlar de forma natural las plagas del campo.

Guarda los Alimentos – sería muy agradable tener algunas clases sobre cómo conservar en frascos los productos de la huerta. Si hay muchas personas interesadas en esto entonces habría que buscar un lugar más adecuado que la huerta. También veremos cómo congelar los alimentos o cómo conservarlos en el sótano.

Si tiene la interesada enseñar un o más de esas clases (o tiene una sugerencia para una otra), no se deje contactarme por el sitio de web, email o telefono 831.224.7352
–

http://www.foxpointgarden.org

From Hannah:

Just wanted to let you know that all the summer squash plants are infested with the squash vine borer. I pulled a dozen or so of the nasty little buggers out yesterday by slicing the main stem vertically and removing them with a knife. It is very important that the damaged stems stay covered with moist soil to encourage re-roooting. I think we might lose 1 or 2 plants unfortunately, but they might stand a chance if they stay properly watered and covered. If you could spread the word for people to pay closer attention it will help out a lot! Fingers crossed.

from Leo @ scclt:

Hello friends of urban chickens,

I just wanted to bring everyone up to speed on where we are, what’s
coming down the pipeline this week, and how we are planning on moving
forward

Last Thursday, Katherine, Nicole, and I went to the City Council
meeting to try to speak with the Ordinance Committee members before
the Council meeting and gauge whether they would be likely to support
the ordinance change. We spoke with Councilmen Narducci, Solomon,
Hassett, and Yurdin (Cliff Wood was late, but he’s also the sponsor of
the ordinance change). All seemed very supportive of the ordinance
change, but emphasized similar concerns: that we make sure the
ordinance language is “done right.” I would assume that this is
connected to the concerns that we’ve already anticipated (smell,
noise, rats, predators, humane treatment, etc.), but this is important
to keep in mind.

At the Council meeting, the request for the ordinance change was sent
straight to the Ordinance Committee, as we expected. The Ordinance
Committee meets this Thursday, 7/22, at 5:30 pm at City Hall
(Committee Room A, I believe?). We would like to have as many people
there as possible in the room to show support for the ordinance, but
we’ve been told that it would be best if only 4-5 people spoke to the
Ordinance Committee. We don’t want to irritate the members by
dragging the meeting on and on, but please invite friends, family, and
chicken-loving strangers alike to show up on Thursday at 5:30. If we
have a huge turnout in numbers, that will help us show the Ordinance
Committee that there are a lot of people in Providence who support
having backyard hens! Kate has been working on getting a chicken
design made so that everyone at the Ordinance meeting can wear a
Providence Chicken sticker and show what ward you live in. Kate, do
you want to email that to this list?

Here’s who we have lined up to speak already: Christie Moulton (Farm
Fresh), Christine Chitnis, Leo Pollock (SCLT). If you are interested
in speaking, please email me directly and we can figure out the
details. But once again, we will be better off if we have a room full
of people in support, but a very small number of people to speak so
that we keep the meeting short and sweet.

I’ve attached the most updated version of our Chicken Packet, which we
have been and will be handing out to all of the Council members. Hope
to see many of you Thursday!

Yours in the chicken revolution,
Leo

The next potluck is scheduled for Thursday, July 22. Apparently, we missed the first one, so I’d like to make it up and have another one at the end of July and two in August as well. We need more potlucks

I’d like to schedule the 2nd July potluck for Saturday July 31. All potlucks are at the garden and are weather sensitive.

There are presently 2 spots available on the Board. If you are interested in becoming a board member, please contact me.

Every Thursday evening is an unofficial work day, and it seems to be working out really well so far. I’m scheduling an official workday for Saturday, July 24th from 8am-5, weather permitting. If you would like to come earlier than that, please don’t let me stop you. I’ll have a list of things posted on the bulletin board if you can’t make the scheduled work hours or wish to come earlier in the day.

We’re going to be selling organic fish fertilizer next week for $10/bottle. I bought 4 gallons, which should be about 32 bottles. It’s concentrated, fantastic stuff! If you can, let me know that you want some, that way if I need to order more I can see if it’s possible.

There’s more information to come in the next few days after I get the minutes from the prez, so consider this is a head’s up.

Hey Gardeners,

I’m helping to build a community garden for an elementary school which we’re hoping to plant things by next week. If you have any plants that maybe getting too much shade or need to be thinned out, please let me know as soon as possible by contacting me using the contact form here. Thank you so much!

I got this in my email a couple days ago (sorry for the delay) and think it would be a fun thing to do. Let me know if any of you are interested in going and I’ll let her know or pass on her email to you..
———————-
Hello,

I work for the company that is producing Mutual of Omaha’s “proud sponsor of life’s aha moments” campaign– visit www.ahamoment.com to see what an aha moment is and the great real stories we filmed during the campaign in 2009.

Associated to that, we have a 34-foot Airstream mobile film studio that is traveling the US on a 25-city tour to capture the country’s aha moments. We are headed to Providence next Tuesday, June 29th & Wednesday, June 30th, and would love to invite the board and members of the Fox Point Community Garden to share what lead you to become involved with the garden, and how your lives have changed since. We love what you are doing for the community, and I am sure there was a moment you each knew you wanted to dedicate your time to this cause. You would just have to step into the Airstream studio for a few minutes and tell your story on film, which would be posted to www.ahamoment.com .

We would love to have any of you that are interested! We will be parked at Burnside Park (at approx. 2 Kennedy Plaza, on the Washington Street sidewalk near the ice skating rink), Tuesday, June 29th (11am to 7pm) and Wednesday, June 30th (11am to 7pm).

Let me know as soon as possible and I can reserve some time for you, thanks!

There has been a lot of spam attempts on the site lately, so I’m currently working out another solution. For now, when you use the forum, please include your plot number and name with your post if you have a plot-specific request… thanks for your patience while I work on this.

k

It has come to my attention that there is a nest of yellowjackets at the north faucet (the one closest to the shed). Please be aware of this as we try to come up with a solution to rid of them.

David Segal is one of our resident gardeners at Fox Point Community Garden. Come show your support or get to know his platform!

Hello Gardeners,

This is both a reminder and a heads-up on what needs to be taken care of this weekend.

Saturday 8:30am: Norma will be your point of contact for any details that need to be taken care of for the new plots. Please bring cordless drills, work gloves, good shoes and a kind disposition.

Most of the plots are already in place, but they need to be filled with soil and compost which should be delivered to the addition area in front of the gate.

Very Important, Please read this carefully:
Gardeners who wish to get rid of rocks, pile the rocks near the trash barrel. ROCKS MUST BE PILED ON THE ASPHALT. He stated that in other gardens, the gardeners had thrown rocks onto the grass. THROWING ROCKS ONTO THE GRASS IS AN EXTREME HAZARD FOR WORKERS NEAR THE MOWERS, since the mowers are so powerful and rock fragments that are hit and thrown by the mowers are very dangerous.

Sorry for the caps and bold, but it’s really, really important that everybody knows about this, first for the safety of our city workers who so diligently keep care of the grounds, but also for the safety of the garden’s existence.

Sunday, I’ll be there by 10, but you can start any time you like. I know some people like to get going early and I’m not one to stop you.  Both workdays will continue as long as there is light. I will be there most of the day.

Okay, onward.

Some of the plots are looking really, really shabby. I want to put some emphasis on the fact that plots will be reassinged at the end of June without refund if they aren’t taken care of before then. I hate to be hard on this, but when your plot is unkempt it spreads weeds into other people’s plots and it’s truly not fair to any of us. And there are a lot of people on the wait list who would love to have your plot, so please, don’t make me reassign it. I’ll be contacting individuals after this weekend.

The compost bins are looking fair; not great, but fair. Those of you that have been taking care of it, be aware that it is noted! The big bins in the North end of the garden need to be turned. A few light words about it:

• Please break down large chunks of wood. Wood is great for the pile, but it should be no bigger than your thumb.
• Please turn the compost, even if just a little bit, every time you’re at the garden.
• Please add new material to the leftmost bin (as you’re looking at it from inside the garden) only.
• Please do not add any meat, bones or whole eggs into the pile.
• Please do not add any knotweed to the pile.

Thank you to all of you who helped clear that area on Thursday. It smells worse, but looks better!
There is still a lot of weeding that needs to be done in the community areas and  along the fences. If you’re unsure of what’s a weed and what’s not a weed, just ask another gardener or me and we’ll get you on your way to plant identification!

Wood chips should be delivered either Monday or Tuesday. Please feel free to drop by any time of the week and spread some chips in the pathways. That’s a good way to satisfy your community requirement and there’s no workday necessary to do it; however, Thursday “manager hours” are unspoken work nights, so if it makes a difference to you, you can always come Thursday night, too.

New gardeners: I will be assigning your plots by Thursday, the 17th of June. I will be in touch with you directly about it.

If you have any direct questions about any of this, please reply to this post so that when I answer them, everybody can look here instead of waiting for an email. I will do my best to answer everything as quickly as possible.

Thank you for all your help, and I hope to see you tomorrow!

Warm regards,
k

UPDATE: Work will begin on plot frames on Thurs. June 10 from 4pm to 8 pm whether the fence is up or not. Please bring your own gloves, sturdy shoes or boots, and cordless drills with screwdriver bits and any other tool you think would be a benefit.

Hello Gardeners,

The next workdays are scheduled as follows:

Thursday, June 10, *4-8* updated

Saturday, June 12 8am, all day
Sunday, June 13 10am, all day

We need to have some dedicated volunteers to help build the new plots in the extended garden. Please come and give at least a couple hours of your time over the three available days. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done and I’m really counting on many of you to come help out.

The workdays are scheduled to help the garden in general, in essence, to be a community gardener.
Please work on your own plots during other hours. The workdays are meant for total community benefit. There is plenty to do: We need to turn compost, weed pathways and community areas and put the shed back in order, just to name a few. But most important is building the plots.

On non-workday hours: some plots are looking rather shaggy. Please tend your plots and remember that seemingly abandoned plots will be reassigned. Do not let weeds grow in your plots: they spread very fast into other people’s plots! Use organic mulch (straw, hulls, etc) and remember to use only organic manure, fertilizer or additives.

Thanks, I’ll see you soon!
k

With the recent rains and wonderful weather, there has been an onslaught of new growth from both our wanted plants and our unwanted weeds. Please weed your own plots and around your plots, and take a few minutes to do at least part of a community area.

Justin & I severely pruned back the enormous marjoram/oregano (we’re not sure which) plant on the lowest rung of the terrace. We left some cuttings and some bound topped leaves in the box on the picnic table. Please feel free to take it. We also pulled up some wild garlic/wild onion (again, not sure which) and that’s in the box, too.

Be careful in the terrace to not pull up any real plants. I think it’s fairly obvious what is a plant and what is a weed. On the squash mounds, most of the seeds have sprouted, but the mounds are covered in small weeds. The area by the bees needs some work and remember to cut any knotweed you see.

Thanks for all your work in the garden, it really looks lovely!!

k!

If you have a question about what the combination for the lock is, enter the old combination here as the password to retrieve the new combination.

Hello Gardeners!

I wanted to bring your attention to the forum areas of the website. I’ve added a couple forums that I think will be helpful over the season. Feel free to also leave notes on the bulletin board at the garden, too.

Note that recent posts in the forum are located in a list on the left side of the site. To go to the main forum page, click the forum icon on the top list of icons.

Also, please note that I’ve added a couple of new forums. If you’re out of town and need someone to water or otherwise care for your plants, post a note in the “Out of Town?” forum.  If you would like to alert Renee to items that are okay for her to harvest and take to Camp Street Ministries, leave a note in the “Donations to Camp Street Ministries Forum.” This way she can subscribe to the forum and get notes emailed to her or she can check on thursday nights, make a list and then take care of business Friday mornings.

To write a post in the forum you do not need to be registered. So far there has been little spam, but if the spam increases over time, then I will have to require registration. For now, if you want to leave a message as a guest,  include your name and plot number in the body of the post.

If you aren’t sure what the lock combination is, use the old combo as a password to access the new combo.

Seekonk Public Library (Rte. 152/Newman Ave.)
“Principles of Organic Gardening”
Thursday, May 20th, 6:30 to 8 PM
Katherine Brown, Exec. Dir. of Southside Community Land Trust in Prov. will give a presentation on organic gardening–turning over the soil for the first time, preparing the soil, selecting hardy seedlings, fertilizing, and insect control. Donations welcome. For more info, call 508-336-3594.

Hello Gardeners!

Kim, Justin & I planted some different kinds of squash in the terrace; Feel free to plant Sunflowers, Cucumbers or other climbing fruits in between the squash.

Plant fruiting annuals like tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplant, peppers, or other companion plants in the 3rd and 4th terraces. Feel free to put annual or perennial herbs in between fruiting plants, but try to look up compatability / companion plants to keep pests away and  promote better fruits.  To see a good list of companion plants, visit this site.

Here’s a map of what we have done so far.

The plants are marked with markers and/or sticks. Please don’t uproot them when you plant and be sure to mark your plants so that they are not uprooted by other ambitious gardeners!

Also remember the bulletin board is a community area, too.

Who would be on board to working on the Kid’s Plot? If anybody has an old swingset they’d like to donate to the garden, we’d love to have it there for them and let beans other climbers go to town! Anything that would be fun for the kids to plant, pick, eat and/or play on, would be fantastic.

Hey Gardeners & Foodies…

I want to let you know about a cooking club that happens every month-ish at Brown University Center for Environmental Studies at 135 Angell St. on Providence’s East Side. The next meeting is THIS FRIDAY, MAY 14th!

Some of our gardeners are regulars like last year’s manager, Christie Moulton, John Rousseau and myself (Keri). We hope to see some more familiar faces at this community event.

“In honor of May Day, we will focus on cheese and yogurt making for this meeting. As the hills turn green, pasture animals begin producing milk heralding a time of abundance. Below are the items we will be including in the menu. Please RSVP to Victoria at victoria_richter@cox.net. As always, we will accept RSVP’s until we reach our cap of 15.”

On the menu for this Friday is:

• Paneer cheese
• Saag paneer
• Asparagus frittata
• Homemade Yogurt
• and for desert….Yogurt cheese peras with Rosewater Syrup

Admission is (nom nom) nominal: only $12 per person and you get to take some yogurt starter home. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

So please, sign up and enjoy some creamy deliciousness this weekend.