Hello Community and Gardeners!
The garden is greening up, growing up, and looks absolutely wonderful. Folks are adding their own personal touches which helps make community gardens such special places. Come by and say hello to our gardeners.
{There's just something about a garden fence. Strangers quickly become aquaintances: leaning, talking, listening, watching. Conversation happens. People of all ages are connecting, talking veggies or weather or fingernails or whatever. It's working!}
Here's a (long, grab a snack!) update:
Open Spots:
There are a couple of open spots available and we are going down our wait list and contacting folks to fill them.
Gardening Help:
Garden Coordinator Chris Clay will be holding "Office Hours" at the garden this Saturday morning, June 11th from 9:00 am until 10:00 am. If you have questions, or need advice, please swing by.
Weather Forecast this week: Hot Hot Hot:
Water well! Your plants will appreciate extra water this week! Might hit 100 on Thursday!
(Please tell me that's just a rumour, so early for That )
Remember to slowly and thoroughly soak the base of the plants at the soil line rather than sprinkle from above. Bright sun will be magnified by the water droplets on the leaves and will actually burn the plants; remember science class when you took your magnifying glass outside and burned things? Same thing. Also, if you overhead water during the heat of the day, you could possibly cook (steam) your plants. Save that for after harvest! If you can get to the garden twice a day, morning and dinnertime-ish, your plants will be happy.
Pepper plants like it hot, but not too wet, so if you are growing peppers, one good soak a day will do it unless they are tiny seedlings that need to not completely dry out.
Weeding:
Don't forget to check for weeds in the path areas around your raised bed. Simply pull some of the wood chip mulch aside, pull those weeds, and replace the mulch. We will be setting up a compost area later this week, for now a small pile at the rear fence will do fine. Maybe a sign? Feeling artistic? Surprise us!
Section Coordinators Needed:
We are going to be on the lookout for a few section coordinators for the garden who will keep an eye on their area, and act as a liason to the garden committee. Do you have to be an expert gardener for this? No.
A section coordinator will simply keep track of the gardeners in their area, be a point person for a gardener to notify if they will be on vacation and need coverage watering, or if they are ill and will be unable to attend their plot for a short period. They will have the contact info for the plots in their area, and can coordinate with the gardeners in their section to cover for one another. It is also a good way to keep gardeners talking to each other. As a coordinator, you might have to occasionally gently remind folks about weeding and keeping tidy and following the rules. If a problem arises, pass it on to the committee and we will take it from there.
Franklin Community Garden Committee Meetings:
Here are the upcoming garden committee meeting dates, we'd love to have you join us for your input.
We meet on Mondays at the Municipal Building at 6:30 pm, you can check what room we will be in by visiting our Committee Page on the Town website and clicking on 'Agendas:'
http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_BComm/garden
June 20
June 27
July 18
July 25
August 8
August 22
There's always room for more at the table! If you dig community gardens, and live in Franklin, and are available on a couple Monday evenings per month, you could be our newest committee member! Get involved!
Thank You:
Hoses are now hanging on spiffy holder things, thanks to Kim & Greg!
The Food Pantry gardens are chock full of donated plants from Grateful Farm, Tangerini's, Perduco Seedlings, and generous gardeners. A fine crew has been tending as well, great job!
Have a great week!
