What’s Happening in the Garden

“Yes, the Lord pours down His blessings. Our land will yield its bountiful harvest.” Psalms 85:12

Our October “Garden At The Ridge” promotion yielded a lot of interest from our congregation, and several families have volunteered to help us in growing our garden. Thanks for your interest in growing our Garden At The Ridge! - Jim & Marilyn Sproul

These notes about the garden will be updated regularly so that you can keep up with our progress.

• Perimeter of garden laid out with landscape timbers
• Area of garden sprayed with vinegar (to discourage weed growth), then weed block fabric pinned down across entire garden
  
• Cedar-blend mulch spread across area
• Herb and pollinator garden beds built and installed (closest to drive)
• Beds filled with soil and compost (1500 lbs!) and planted with frost-hardy herbs and flowers
• First row of planter boxes built and installed next to herb beds
• NOTE: When all beds are built and installed, (hopefully this month), we will order several yards of compost mix. Filling beds will be an arduous task, but several pairs of willing hands (and wheelbarrows) would be most appreciated!
• Drains will be placed underneath each box to direct water flow from driveway across garden area

• Clean (no diseased or insect-infested) plant material from fall pruning in our home garden has been sacked and left at garden site. This will be spread in a single layer in the beds after weed block has been cut out and removed. Decaying stems, branches and leaves will encourage the local earthworms to move into the boxes and start their work in our garden soil.

• Compost - We will be asking for donations of your bagged leaves, untreated (with herbicides), weed-free grass clippings and prunings to help build our compost for next year.
• If you have prunings from your landscape/garden, please save them as we begin to fill in the beds. (Please, no branches thicker than your finger, weeds or plants that have been sprayed with herbicides or insecticides.)
• Carrot seeds are planted into soil-filled cardboard tubes (from paper towel rolls, wrapping paper or toilet paper). These are grown inside under grow lights to give them a good start. The tubes are then planted directly into prepared garden soil, so that there is no transplant shock. (Carrot roots are very sensitive!) So, since I used up all the tubes I’ve been saving to plant out the leeks, I will need a lot more this spring.Please save your empty paper towel and toilet paper tubes!

• Porter and Roma tomatoes were planted in late August and have been heavily pruned back to encourage ripening before frost.
• The Golden Egg zucchini were succession-planted from seed and have produced all through the spring, summer and fall.
• The Malabar spinach was slow to take off, but grew like crazy all through the hot summer. The photo shows the growth from just five plants.
• Most of the plants for the church garden will be started under grow lights in our kitchen. Here are leeks (in TP cardboard tubes) and onion plants. These tolerate the cold and will be planted along the edges of our beds to discourage insect pests.
  
• We have two types of garlic, softneck and artichoke, waiting to be separated into individual cloves and planted in the new beds later this year.
  
• Baby plants from our row of thornless blackberries have been dug up and potted so that they can be transplanted into a row behind the garden. They won’t produce berries until spring of 2024.