Please help Wednesday mornings, Saturday mornings
This is our first large tomato delivery of 2022. We harvested these tomatoes mostly green on Monday. By Thursday they were nicely red. Only a few were damaged and decayed, “leaky”. They were stored a room temperature. Please harvest tomatoes when they are green and starting to turn pink. Red tomatoes will not last very long.
We need a volunteer to harvest and deliver on Wednesday mornings. We also need a volunteer to organize work on Saturday mornings. Please contact Jason S. if you are able to help.
Work to do
On Monday evening if the weather cooperates we will harvest and tackle other jobs depending on how many people show up for work.
On Wednesdays: We need help delivering the harvest to the pantry on Wednesday mornings from the church cooler to the food pantry. Wednesday morning is also a good time to add to the harvest if you have time.
On Saturdays: We need help organizing a Saturday work day. Please let me know if you are interested in helping organize a Saturday work day.
This week we harvested $262 worth of food across multiple days.
-Harvest: Please use the notebook to record your harvest. Squash and cucumbers need to be harvested regularly. Harvests needs to go into storage for delivery to the pantry. Please read earlier posts and/or contact Jason S. with questions about how to store the harvest for delivery to the pantry.
Special for tomatoes marked with orange twine or pink yarn: These tomatoes need to be set aside for our seed collection project. Please do your best to keep them separate. It’s ok if they are yucky and rotten. We just need that seed!
-Weed: We put the old weeds in a large pile in the composting area. We will compost these in a major way later on when we build our “bio-reactor”.
A delivery to First Presbyterian Welcome Table
Because the St. Joseph’s food pantry was closed this week, we make a produce delivery to the the First Presbyterian Welcome Table on Thursday morning. Everything went well. We received word that our produce was welcomed.
This was the First Presbyterian delivery from St. Mary’s cooler on Thursday. We delivered the tomatoes on Monday.
Flowers: Some Anderson County Master Gardeners along with the St. Mary’s gardeners introduced more flowers to the garden this year.
Wish List
-Pieces of brown cardboard for covering weeds. We will cover it with mulch. Plastic tape is ok. Please do not include glossy cardboard. Just drop it off by the gate. We will take care of the rest over time.
-We need leaves, shredded yard trimmings, and straw and grass clippings for compost and mulch (no sticks, no herbicide)
-We are trying to build more than one Johnson-Su Bioreactor (an interesting composting method). We are looking for the supplies listed on their site: How To Build Your Own Bioreactor
Here’s the list of bioreactor supplies. I am sure that we can find most of these locally.
These supplies are for one reactor. We hope to make multiple reactors.
Landscape cloth (woven, minimum 5 oz.): Piece One: 13’ x 6’, Piece Two: 6’ x 6’, Piece Three: 6’ x 6’
One standard, sturdy shipping pallet with dimensions of approximately 40” x 48” We have pallets.
Wire re-mesh (6” x 6” x 10-gauge wire), used to create a 5’ x 12’ 6” supporting wire cage. This type of remesh is normally used for reinforcing concrete. Be sure to use re-mesh as horse fencing or other similar wire fence products have insufficient vertical strength to hold the cage in position as you fill it.
Four 10’ lengths of perforated, bell-end, 4” septic system drain field piping
Tie wire (normally used to tie rebar together)
-If you wish to make a financial donation please mention the St. Mary’s Community garden in the comment section of the donation page at St. Vincent de Paul Society (St. Joseph Food Pantry) .
We do not need any seedlings at this time. But we can help you find a home through our network of growers.
