Post #4 - June is Blooming Out All Over!

June 8, 2014

Try out the "Pages" at the top of this blog!  By clicking on any one of the titles in brown next to the Home button, you will find a page of information.  There is a map of the garden planting beds, what plants are in each, meeting minutes, etc.

Our June 5th Work Party was wonderful!  There were 8 pairs of helping hands. Every planting bed is full now.  We have a gourd and mini-pumpkin tunnel planted and the fencing ready to hold it's mysteries for the children to gaze through.  Our Bean Arch was created out of bamboo and extra red/purple beans were planted.  Also planted were cucumbers, rainbow Swiss chard, radishes, summer and winter squashes, more rainbow carrots and pumpkins.  The potatoes were mounded and everything was watered.

We all oooooed and aaaahed at the grassy-haired garden guardian that Cheryl made and the well-built water spigot "houses" that her husband Grover created.  Cheryl painted them with paint donated by Winslow Paints.  Love those donations!  And the children who attend the first program on June 23rd will be adding their handprints as decorations on the sides of the "hose houses."

In the afternoon, several of the Leadership Team met to set up the irrigation system.  It was a mind boggling task.  We now have two sprinklers and a long drip hose watering most of the plant beds.  A little adjusting and hose repair will need to be done, but the warm weather and regular watering should produce a nice harvest for Fishline.  In fact, Cathy took 12 pounds of rhubarb to the new Fishline office at the end of the party.

Darlette Knight is our volunteer of the month!  She was the only one that appeared to help Betsi at the work party on Saturday the 7th.  Darlette learned to love the smell of Lemon Balm as she pulled up most of it, moved the fennel together so that it is easily accessible, planted pink money tree seeds, and watered anything that looked like it needed it.  Betsi weeded, raked, and put down large sheets of cardboard on the dirt path that was created when the water line was extended.  The next work party will need to cover the cardboard with chips.  We can line the narrower paths with coffee bean bags as the summer progresses.

There are only 3 more Work Parties until the Children's Programs start on Monday, June 23rd.  Two of them are on Saturdays.  The Leadership Team added the Saturdays this year to help those who could not attend on Thursdays.  Betsi will try contacting the few who have signed up for the next 2 Saturdays to confirm that they are coming.  If not, we may need to do an emergency Thursday to have a final sprucing up before the kids and parents arrive.

If you did not receive the email with the Doodle Calendar to sign up for helping during the Children's Programs, please contact Cheryl Bosley at ecbosley@gmail.com.  Volunteering at the programs requires that you smile and talk to children.  It is a lot of fun and always leaves a good feeling that children are still full of curiosity and creativity.

Our next Leadership Meeting will be Monday, June 16th.  We are counting on the good weather to continue and will be holding the meeting at the garden picnic tables.  If it rains or is too hot we will be under the shelter roof.  Come join us!!  We will start a little early, 12:30pm, and finish earlier too.