Post #3 for 2015 - Come See the Garden Grow!!

Yes, I know it has been a while since my last post, but the Raab Park Youth Garden has not been sitting still.  So much has happened since the last update that I think I will just post photos and captions.

We started the year by members of the leadership team doing a late planting of daffodils.  The flowers arrived in a warm February, but the planter beds looked pretty sad.

Then came, along with a little rain, the compost that the Youth Garden shares with the P-Patch.  Jenna Clement and friends moved and spread a lot of it into the Youth Garden.

 
 

In April, on Earth Day, we entertained the annual pilgrimage of 7th grade gardeners from Jennifer Silvernale's class at West Sound Academy.  They weeded plots 1, 4, and 5, added compost and planted peas, onions and potatoes.

Just a few days later, the Master Gardener Class of 2015 arrived.  Their "Rookie Day" was well spent removing more plastic, weeding, adding compost, chipping, putting up trellises, etc.  For more photos of these excellent interns and the miracle transformation they wrought see the WSU Kitsap County Extension Facebook page.

This year we moved cool weather crops to bed #1 (below) and the 2015 interns put up the trellis for the peas.  As of now the peas are taking off, but they need a little help to stay on the trellis.  The hoop house was erected by the leadership team on bed #2 and contains mostly squashes this year.

 



The Work Parties have been sparsely attended, but those there have contributed mightily!!!  Here Ken Tuomi is building the bean tunnel while Cathy Carson and Nancy Peregrine discuss tenting the tomato plants.  Thanks to the Master Gardener Foundation for the cover material.  The tomatoes have done beautifully and are almost ready to uncover.  Unfortunately the carrots are going to need to be replanted.  Even with the covering they did not geminate well and we discovered we have rabbits again.   They like to eat the tops off the carrots.

Ken likes to work with fruit trees and is a devotee of Bob Mc Bride who spoke about espaliering fruit trees at our first work party.  Ken has been trimming, mulching, and putting footies on the apple espalier this year.  We may even harvest some good apples in the fall!  Bob will be back in July to speak on trimming fruit trees.
 




Mary Jolley donated a picnic table to the children's program.  Here Jenna Clement, Darlette Knight, Mary and her hubby are carrying it to the craft area of the garden.  Thank you Jolleys!

Thank you also to Sven and the Raab Park custodians for fixing the bench on one of the older picnic tables.  Kids can once again sit and create safely.

The new shed has been painted and it is getting organized too.  Thanks to Sam Clement and Grover Bosley for their additions to the building that the Poulsbo Rotary bought and built.  We are slowly but surely painting and cleaning up the older shed too.  The Water Spigot houses have had an amazing face lift as they all have cement footings which make them stand up straight and tall now.









The flowers are way ahead of blooming schedule this year.  In part due to the warm temperatures and in part due to the drip irrigation.  The Clement family donated new hoses so that all of the planter boxes are on scheduled watering.  We are in the experimental stage with how much watering we need, but it certainly helps!






We have additional signage in the garden thanks to a Poulsbo Garden Club grant.  We wish that the rabbits, deer, crows and caterpillars could or would read it as it may stop them from nibbling on our veggies!

 However, the strawberries were delicious for quite a while.  There were not enough to take to Fishline, so we enjoyed them during our Work Party breaks!


Monday, June 22nd is our first Children's Program.  Our "Scare Crowish" teacher is ready in her summer attire.  She will be joined by two younger helpers soon, as well as Herb Robert Potter, who is already sitting in the garden enjoying the sights and smells.  Thanks to Cheryl Bosley, Pam Warner, and Jill Ray for their creativity.









The photo to the right is from last year's first Children's Program.  Yes, it is Stepping Stone Day.  We had 80 children, not to mention the number of parents, who came to learn and create.
 
This year the Children's Programs run from 10 - 12 for 9 Mondays.  If you are excited about kids and gardens come on out at 9:30 AM to get your instructions and plan on staying until 12:30 PM to help clean-up.  They kids will love you for it and so will the garden!

Post #2 for 2015 - March & April Reminders

 

March Flew By and April Is Nigh

 

 

 

Important April Dates At Raab Park Youth Garden

• Rookie Day - Friday, April 17th from 8:30am - 11:30am PLUS Lunch in the Shelter 'til 12:30!  We will be spring cleaning, planting and eating. :-)

• Earth Day with West Sound Academy 7th Graders - Wednesday, April 22nd from 12:30pm - 3:30pm. We will be planting potatoes, onions, and beets.

• First Work Party of the year - Thursday, April 30th from 9am - 12pm.  We will be completing whatever planting did not take place on Rookie Day.

Please come and join us in the garden!

 



Post #1 for 2015 - February Anticipation and Participation

Spring Is Just Around the Corner.  Put On Your Sun Screen and Come Dig-in with Us!

 

Yes - the new gardening season has started.  The 2015 Master Gardening students began classes Friday, January 30th.  We are already receiving emails from the Master Gardening Foundation regarding this year's Plant Sale.  Rookie Day is planned for April 17th and the regulars at the Raab Park Gardens are serving lunch.  If you have an easy soup, salad, or dessert recipe that you can share, bring it on over to the warming shelter at lunchtime.  Please let me know what you are bringing so we don't have duplicates of each others culinary expertise (206-201-3285 or betsikurz@yahoo.com).  I will confirm the exact time for lunch next month.

 

The Raab Park Youth Garden Leadership Planting Team (That is a mouthful!) met on January 19th to plan what to plant this year and where to plant it.  Check out the Pages that show you the list of plants and/or the map of the garden beds.  The meeting notes are on the January 2015 Meeting Notes page.

 

To plant the flowers and veggies, we will be having Work Parties on Thursday's this year, from 9 - 12.  I've started a listing of all the Thursday's in the planting year on the 2015 Work Parties page.  Please note that we are looking for volunteers to teach a 30-minute "class" on anything about gardening that you know or are interested enough to research.  One of the difficult things to keep up after your first year as an MG is the requirement of 10 hours of education.  If we even have one class a month at the garden, that will automatically give us 3-hours of education!

 

Our next Raab Park Youth Garden Leadership Team meeting is February 16th in front of the fireplace at the Safeway in Poulsbo.  Please come and share your energy and ideas with us.

 

See you in the garden really soon!

Betsi Kurzawski

Volunteer Coordinator

 

 

 

 

 

 



Post #9 - That's All for 2014 Folks!

The Last Blog for 2014

A super sunny summer gave us a huge crop of sunflowers, squash and pumpkins in September and October.  On September 15th we harvested all of the green beans, cucumbers and summer squash.  Thirty pounds went to Fishline. The empty beds were covered in black plastic.  We left the pumpkins, winter squash, gourds, potatoes and red runner beans for the October 15th work party.

Judy Morgan led the work party. She tried to sweeten the sadness with goodies as she announced that she was stepping down from the garden Leadership Team.   This year was not an easy one as we went from a Leadership group of 8 to 6 when Linda Wells and Nancy Sirman had to attend to family matters.  Judy picked up a lot of time in the garden.  Now it is her turn to play with her grandkids and learn to make krumkake.  She has promised that she will attend work parties in 2015.  Maybe she will even donate some lemon bars! 

September 20th the was Judy's last leadership meeting.  Jennifer Clement joined Jill Ray, Cheryl Bosley, MJ Tyler, Kim Kouns and me for a quick organizational meeting.  Then we were joined by several intrepid MG volunteers while we cleaned out the old shed so it could be demolished and cleaned up the large shed.  This included taking stock of all the educational materials so Jill and Cheryl knew what they may need to order for next year.

On the 21st, the demolition of the old shed was done.  The gentlemen of Poulsbo Rotary came with a large saw and cut it into pieces.  Jennifer took the pieces off the next weekend to use as materials for her new chicken house.  We recycle!  The Rotary group also built the forms for the cement floor of the new shed.

Judy and Jennifer met Cal-Portland, who donated the cement for the base, on September 25th.  J & J smoothed over the cement themselves!  They also met the truck with the new shed kit when it was delivered the same day at the park.

Over a period of 17-days, a group of tenacious Rotarians and Sam Clement (Yes, Jennifer's husband) built our new storage shed.  It is water tight and primed.  In fact, the new Leadership Team held the last meeting of 2014 in the shed at a picnic table on October 20th.  Our new Leadership Team includes Cheryl Bosley & Jill Ray in charge of educational activities, Kim Kouns as Treasurer, MJ Tyler as Secretary, Betsi Kurzawski & Jennifer Clement in charge of work parties (PARTY PARTY!!), Darlette Knight and Pam Warner as Leadership-at-Large.  We are hoping for one more member in the spring, but we would be pleased to include anyone who is interested in adding their time and talents!

WHOOPS!  I missed October 15th.  This was our final work party of the 2015 year.  It was a combination of an education activity and closing up the garden.  Below is a photo of the 15 fantastic 7th Graders from West Sound Academy who joined us to harvest, clean-up and cover the rest of the planter beds.  Their hard work and energy, along with 8 MGs and 3 WSA teachers, produced 120 pounds of produce (pumpkins, squash, rhubarb, potatoes, etc.) for Fishline.  Our HUGE sunflowers were set aside for the birds and some for next years seeds.  The Red Runner Beans were picked in hopes of generating more seeds for next year's bean tunnel.





So sometime between now and next spring, the leadership team, with some outside help (thank you Mr. Clement and Mr. Bosley), will paint the new shed, have shelves installed, have the picnic table holders re-attached and move back its original contents. 

At our last meeting we also discussed plans to partner with the Poulsbo School District to enrich their science program, building a slate path from the front of the garden to the back so that those in wheel chairs will find it easier to move through the garden, and planting more items that will appeal to the customers at Fishline.

We are looking forward to showing off our dream shed (basic concept shown at right) and meeting you in the Raab Park Children's Garden in the Spring of 2015.  Cheryl will once again be sending out Doodle Calendars so that volunteers can sign up for Work Parties and Children's Programs.  Watch for them in your e-mail!

If you come up with any ideas for the garden, please let us know!!!!

Happy Fall and Winter,

Betsi Kurzawski
betsikurz@yahoo.com

Post #8 - August 28th Preparation for Winter Starts

It Seems A Little Early, But...

We started tackling the stuff to be done to let the garden have a nice winter's rest.  Unfortunately, I did not think to take photos until after everyone had left.  The photos below are without the great gardeners doing the tasks, but they will give you an idea of what is going on.

Our group consisted of Martha Alexander, Pam Warner, Sally McMahan, Jennifer Clement, Ann Munro, Jerald Smith and me (Betsi).  We have renamed Jerald the Human Green-waste Compactor (HGC).  He has taken over from Becky Endzell as the best jump-in-the-can-and-smash-the-green-down person.  Our team filled the cans to their brims several times, so Jerald did a lot of jumping.

He also attacked the job of consolidating the items in the large storage shed area where we store the Children's Program's wheelbarrows, watering cans, and hose paraphernalia.  The outcome was that more than half of the space has been freed up to use for storing items in the small shed!

Martha did a wicked job of pruning back the Cape Fuchsia bush that was groping people at the garden entrance sign.  She just didn't have the heart to take all of the blossoms away from the hummingbirds.  At the next work party, on September 11th, she has promised to cut back what is left.  I hope the hummingbirds are taking advantage of their extra nectar time.

Anne and Jerald freed Herb Robert from the invading Lemon Balm.  We know it will reappear next year, but for now he sits comfortably in a less crowded garden.

The pumpkins, gourds and winter squash have turned into sprinkler eating plants.
 The "tunnel" vines actually took over the sprinkler we set up to water multiple planting beds, hogging all of the water to itself and one other bed of squash.  It has overgrown the planter bed that held radishes.  Unfortunately that meant that the summer squash that were small or in bloom did not receive any water during the past week or so.  The fruit that had already set was huge, but the new fruit was spongy.  So we picked all of the
available summer squash (yellow, crook-neck and zucchini) and then pulled out the vines.  This allowed me to cover the bed for winter.  Two beds down - only 18 to go.  Jennifer helped to wrestle the sprinkler from the pumpkin tunnel and we hope that it stands on its own for then next 2 weeks of sprinkling.

Pam operated on the smoke-tree and the rose bush next to the hops trellis.  The branches of the smoke tree were blocking the path through the trellis and laying on the ground in the path of the aggressive Nootka Rosa.  Both are beautiful separately, but together were very overgrown.  Now they have been separated and will grow next to each other in peace, though I think that the Nootka could be trimmed back even further if someone would like to continue pruning it on September 11th.

Seeding sunflower heads were cut off and hung for the birds, while their jack-in-the-bean-stalk-like trunks were cut up for the green waste.  I wonder if birds can become obese?!

All the while we pulled and picked and twisted enough produce to give Poulsbo's Fishline 100 pounds of rhubarb, summer squash, beans, peas, cucumbers, and tomatoes.  It was amazing.

The next and last regular WORK PARTY is September 11th from 9 - 12. 

Come on over and help harvest!  Jennifer Clement is bringing her husband on a garden tractor to help move some of the massive mound of wood chips to the back of the garden and into the area of the semi-circular bench.  Judy Morgan will be the Work Party Leader.

SEPTEMBER 15th is CLEAN OUT THE SHEDS DAY FROM 9AM - 3PM!! 

Normally that Monday would be a leadership team meeting day, but the team decided we needed to use our time on clean up and not discussion.  We need you to help us organize and prepare for our NEW SHED!  The Poulsbo Garden Club has contributed a $500 grant and the Poulsbo Rotary has contributed a $1,200 grant.  Bob Nordnes is donating the cement for our 8' by 8' pad.  AND the Poulsbo Rotary is donating their members to help construct or shed on site.  The old slouching little shed will be demolished and replaced by a taller shed with the same footprint.  The details of the new shed kit are hanging in the big shed on one of the cork boards. 

We need as many hand and minds available as possible to accomplish the following on September 15th:

• Assess and organize the Children's Program's kits
• Clean out and make as much space as possible in the big shed.
• Empty the little shed, moving the items inside into other storage areas.
• Take out the mini-garden next to the little shed.
• Take down the irrigation "system" in the garden.
• Take down the hoop house.

Come when you can and stay as long as possible.  Bring a lunch.  Beverages and something sweet to munch will be provided. 

On October 15th from 8:30 - 12:00 we will be working with the 6th and 7th grade students from West Sound Academy to complete the final harvests and cover the last planting beds. 

Their teacher, Jennifer Silvernail, will join us with about 25 young people.  Any of you that need your final few hours in a garden or just enjoy working along side the next generation, please join us.

Happy Labor Day to All,
Betsi

Post #7 - The Children's Parties Are Over :-(

OMG!  I am so far behind!

There are so many wonderful photos to share thanks to Cheryl, Jill, Darlette and Sharon. 

We'll start with Sharon's.  Do any of you remember this weird stuff growing underneath the apple espalier?

Seems it is a fungus called "Stinkhorn."  According to Wikipedia, "The spore mass typically smells of carrion or dung, and attracts flies and other insects to help disperse the spores."

 

The Stinkhorn patch is now long gone as is most of the Swiss Chard and all of the radishes and peas.  The naked posts setup for the Scarlet Runner Bean arbor are covered with blossoms.  Many of you have asked about them.  They take about 80 days to grow to maturity. Used by native Americans, their large, beautiful, vigorous vines grow over 10’.  The flowers are very ornamental, in clusters of the brightest scarlet and associated hues. Good for snap (when very young), shell or dry beans. The huge seeds are very colorful, violet-purple mottled in black. These beans like fairly cool weather.   We will leave the beans to grow to maximum size and save the seeds for planting next year.

The green bush beans and red dragon tongue beans are still growing!  The dragon tongues are yummy to chew on as you harvest.  Here is more info on them:

 

Dragon Tongue beans, AKA Dragon Langerie, are a Dutch wax type bush bean.  The Dragon Tongue bean is a dual purpose bean, qualifying as a fresh pod bean as well as a dried legume. When harvested fresh, the entire bean, shell and "seeds" are edible.  The pods are crisp and succulent and bear four to six plump bone white seeds with pink to purple stripes that turn tan with age. The fresh seeds are firm, slightly starchy, nutty and sweet. The entire bean can be eaten raw or cooked. When cooked, the bean looses its variegated colors.

The tender pod of this bean is entirely edible. No shelling required. Best raw, Dragon Tongue beans are also excellent steamed, but the color fades during cooking. Perfect for pickling with spices, adds its naturally good flavor to bean salads and stir-fries. Serve simply as a delicious side dish. Its unique color makes this bean an attractive edible garnish and an interesting conversation piece when served to curious guests. To store, wrap in plastic; refrigerate. Use beans within one week for optimum flavor and texture.

Dragon Tongue beans are an open pollinated heirloom variety originally cultivated in the 18th Century in the Netherlands. The original cultivar has never been manipulated and maintains its heirloom status a plant whose original seed has been passed down for generations. Dragon Tongue beans are a great bean variety for home gardeners, known for their productive high yields and incredible flavor versus other fresh bean varieties.
- See more at: http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Dragon_Tongue_Beans_604.php#sthash.zoheUsBN.dpuf

The squash arbor is overflowing with  various pumpkin flowers.  The deer continue to eat any new strawberries on the top of the strawberry towers, but the dahlias are huge and the tomatoes are ripening quickly.  As of Monday, 8/11/2014, we had donated 197 pounds of fresh produce to Fishline. 

 

The 11th was the last children's program for 2014.  Though I helped out, all of them were organized by Cheryl and Jill.  None of the gatherings could have taken place without the support of our volunteers.  We know that each new group of Master Gardener "rookies" will bring those of you who need the volunteer hours to complete your certificate, but Raab Youth Garden is lucky to have many Master Gardeners who attend the children's programs year after year because they like to be there.  A huge THANK YOU to both groups.

 

Photos and descriptions of the last 5 Children's Programs follow:

 

July 14th was Unbelievable Planter day.  Choosing planters and putting plants in them is very serious business.  So is counting the snails and slugs found in the garden!

 

 

July 21st involved Plants and How We Use Them. This included hammering flowers on muslin to make flower prints, using raspberries to make dye and printing with it, making mini-batiks with raspberry dye (Thank you Nancy for all of the wax imprints!), creating lavender sachets and bundles, and tasting mint tea and rosemary shortbread (Super Yummy recipe is below!). 

Cheryl Bosley's Rosemary Shortbread

Ingredients

1⅓	cups butter
½	cup powdered sugar
2	T sugar
¼	salt
2⅓	cups flour
⅔	cup cornstarch
2	T finely chopped rosemary or culinary lavender optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 With electric mixer beat the first four ingredients until light and fluffy gradually add the flour then turn out and lightly knead press the dough into a pan or roll out to desired thickness about 1/8- 1/4 and bake on a parchment lined baking dish bake for 45- 50 min depends on how thick they are...watch for browning makes about 100 1inch squares, cut while warm.

 

Garden Wildlife was the subject of the July 28th program.  Children received a wildlife detective badge and looked for signs that described the wildlife in the garden.  Then they created birdfeeders from pine cones and sunflowers from hand prints.  The warm summer weather helped the harvesting for Poulsbo's Fishline to begin this week.  It also encouraged some huge blooms!  Or maybe it was because of all the extra watering that the kids did.



August 3rd brought more sun and fun with Pacific Northwest Native Plants.  Julia Bennett-Gladstone and her assistants from the Suquamish Tribe told the stories and facts about native roses and helped the children make rosehip jelly.  Jill organized the raspberry juice banners and Cheryl and Pam helped the children make "nature necklaces."  We harvested more veggies and generally had a wonderful time!

 

The last children's program was the Amazing Messy Art Day!  August 11th found us harvesting again, but also creating works of art including garden wands, garden hats, garden banners, and garden critters. 

 

Work Parties continued amidst the children's programs.

Our garden Work Parties have occurred about every other Thursday and 3 Saturdays this summer.  The Saturday gatherings were poorly attended, so we will probably return to just Thursdays next year.

Our last weed, trim and harvest meeting was on August 14th.  Gerald, a sophomore at North Kitsap High, clipped and pulled out a lot of the dried perennials.  MJ, gingerbread muffin baker extraordinaire, was the lead doing a lot of weeding.  Sally harvested beans and more beans and I covered the first bed with black plastic for winter.  The radishes are done for the year.
 
The next Work Party is scheduled for August 28th (Betsi is lead) and the last one on the Doodle Calendar is September 11th (Judy is lead).

Leadership Team Meetings will deal with Fall Planning, etc.

Monday, August 22nd is our Leadership Team meeting for this month.  Join us at the garden from 1pm until about 2:30!

September 15th will be our next leadership planning day.

If you've read this far you deserve something REALLY COOL!

Click on the link below and choose to open the site.  It was filmed by John Aitchesen's flying robotic camera.  Though definitely taken before the last rain, since the unplanted ground is so dry, it is a pretty amazing overhead view of our Youth Garden and the P-Patch.  You may have already received this from Colleen.

http://www.kitsap.biz/aerial/raab_park/p-patch/8112014/raab_park_p-patch_8-11-14.mp4


Thanks again for all of your time and energy.  It's finding other crazies like me through programs like this that makes life fun and fulfilling.

Betsi