Brian's Garden

Dear BG Team - 

Tomorrow is forecasted to be partly sunny with temps in the lower 60s. We’ll start the work party at 10 am.

This Week’s Harvests …

Our weekly harvest totaled 74 pounds!

Monday 6/10 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by  Mark, Kathy, Karl, Diane, Beth, Marta and Amber. We harvested bok choi raab, broccoli, chard, kale (red russian and dinosaur), heads of lettuce, mizuna, mizuna raab, and salad mix. Again, the majority of our harvest was salad mix… 17.25 pounds of salad mix!  We sent a total of 44.25 pounds to the Brinnon Food Bank. Thanks  Lys  for delivering it all to the meeting point on Tuesday 6/11 morning.

Wednesday 6/5 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Diane, Beth, Lys and Amber. We harvested bok choi, kale, salad mix and many heads of lettuce… 19 pounds of lettuce heads, to be exact. We sent a total of 29.75 pounds of produce to the PT Food Bank.

Our garden has been producing! Here’s some Year-To-Date numbers…

Food Bank YTD Total Pounds

Brinnon 128.00

Port Townsend 48.75

Thanks to June 6th Work Party Volunteers!

Water and feed.

Lys and Denny continued working on the irrigation. Lys watered the garden and got everybody hydrated. Amber watered the plants in the hoop house. Denny fed the garden, paying special attention to the plants who could benefit from worm tea. The garlic got the last dose of nutrients before we harvest them later this summer.

Weed, weed, weed.

Karl finished weed-wacking along the outside fence line. Mike and Kathy weeded some beds. The weeding never ends. Mark and Kathy spent a ton of time and hard work terminating the cover crop and weeding Bed 9N. A huge undertaking!

Don’t forget to seed.
Mike seeded radishes throughout the garden… in the potato grow bags and in Bed 8S. Tiny, little radish seeds.

Transplant those seedlings.
Kathy transplanted the bean seedlings and Amber transplanted some squash seedlings. Diane thinned and transplanted carrots in Bed 1S and Bed 2N.

Shade and protect.
Lys and Amber installed hoops and shade cloth over some delicate beds. Karl hung the gate Beth donated between the shed and chicken coop. Such a lovely addition! He also worked on creating a gate in the fence near the bulk compost and soil piles.

Tasks for June 13th Work Party
Choose your own adventure...

Irrigation: (HIGH PRIORITY) run sections of drip line down each bed (3 per bed) and get ready to make connections

Pest control: 

• rabbits: continue attaching rabbit-proof fencing (chicken-wire) to outer perimeter and sheet mulch with hog fuel

Weeding - beds and aisles: 

• ONGOING - bindweed needs to be dug out wherever it is popping up
• carefully weed next to beds where we directly seeded (as some seedlings are still very small)
• weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles

Planting - direct seeding: 

• add 2 more rows of carrots in Bed 5N

Planting - starts: (HIGH PRIORITY)

• cucumber seedlings - plant in Bed 4N, Bed 4S, Bed 5N and Bed 5S and create trellis for climbing support
• tomatillo seedlings - prepare more grow bags (mix compost and garden soil with fertilizer amendments) and plant tomatillo seedlings - place near other grow bags
• zucchini seedlings - plant in Bed 9N after it has been prepared (finish weeding and turning cover crop, then amend with NutriRich 4-3-2 and blood meal/feather meal mix)
• lettuce seedlings 

Plant maintenance:

• thin beets and transplant them where there is more space in Bed 6N
• transplant some phacelia from Bed 1N to Bed 5S and Bed 6N
• water plants in hoop house - when watering the tomatoes, make sure that water does not touch their leaves
• mound a mix of farmyard blend and garden soil around all alliums - cover the white and red areas to increase the size on the lower plant
• onions in Bed 1S, Bed 2S, Bed 6N, Bed 8N and Bed 9S 
• leeks in Bed 7N

Construction:

• finish gate in the fence near the bulk compost and soil piles (using the two framed, galvanized panels)
• (HIGH PRIORITY) build two tomato structures in Bed 7S

Bed preparation: 

• (HIGH PRIORITY) finish terminating cover crop in Bed 9N… it needs to be weeded before being turned over
• (HIGH PRIORITY) flip hoop house from Bed 5S to Bed 6S

Groundskeeping: 

• weed-wack around chicken coop and back side of garden
• finish weeding the inside perimeter of the fence and sheet mulch with hog fuel
• clean chicken coop - vacuum and scrub interior

We hope to see you for some FUN in the garden!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden