Brrrrr!

A few nights ago we had an "urgent" meeting of Fauna Garden members and almost everyone came.  We had a delicious salad from the garden with some pasta and discussed issues that had arisen with the neighbor.  He seems to think that our garden is causing raccoons to dig in his yard!  What?!!? Really?!?!?  He also complained that we had our trellis tied to HIS fence and it was pulling his fence down with the weight!  The group discussed the issues and decided to round up whatever poles and stakes we can find and Sunday we will move the chainlink from HIS fence onto our stakes.  It won't be easy, but it's important to keep good relations with the neighbors. 

December arrived with a chill!  We had our first night of the season where it dipped down into the low 40s so Joe, Terry, Jeremiah and Rebekah worked to get the most vulnerable plants covered with blankets donated by Jessica's farm and lots of sheets.  In the process we went ahead and harvested quite a few eggplants and peppers, which might have been damaged by the cold.  It made the work of the last two days worthwhile :)

  

Things are growing and blooming!

Radishes only 2 weeks after seeds were planted!!

We have tons of green peppers!

Eggplant just starting to grow

Lovely, colorful salad mix lettuce

Striped heirloom tomatoes

Heirloom grape tomatoes

Seminole pumpkins

Flowers on the Cherokee Purple heirloom bean

Strawberries - our first bloom of the season!

Halloween in the Fauna Garden

Yesterday we hosted a Halloween celebration in the Fauna Garden.  There were new faces and familiar faces, family and friends enjoying the garden and their community.

Many people, at one time or another throughout the afternoon, helped decorate the fence with lovely paintings.










(Pirate) Rebekah grilled some fresh veggies on the grill, including peppers from the garden!

 Some of the kids enjoyed bobbing for apples


(or swimming for apples?)

 We watched "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" outside in the garden.

We finished off the night with some music and singing (courtesy of Don Hall) and dancing inside.

What an amazing and wonderful Halloween celebration!

Garden Update - Amazing!

The garden is looking amazing! Sunday we have a work party planned and on the 31st is our Halloween Celebration  !!!!

Currently here's what's growing:

Fauna Garden 10-20-10

tomatoes
green peppers
jalapeno peppers
nasturtiums
borage
red and yellow onions
seminole pumpkins
lima beans
green beans (2 types)
scarlet runner beans
sunflowers
eggplants
cucumbers
brocolli
kale
collards
LOTS of strawberries
herbs - mint, cilantro, basil, sage
lettuces and salad greens
watermelons
escarole
arugula
marigolds

Pumpkin Bloom on 10-14-10

Seeds, mulch, and a well, oh my!

Gwen gets a closer look at some escarole seeds as Rebekah shows her where to plant them

Caroline and Stephanie worked on the herb spiral while the kids (Luca, Elijah, and Gwen) had fun playing in the dirt!

This past Sunday we planted some more seeds, got our herb spiral planted, built some bean teepees, moved some mulch, and got the well up and running!

We stopped working around 2pm and had a little rest before our evening "Mexican Potluck" meeting.  There was so much good food and camaraderie!  Following dinner was a productive, successful, consensus based meeting that, although it lasted a while, I think everyone felt good about.  As folks departed for the evening they were sent home with our first harvest - sunflower sprouts!  (courtesy of the Muolos)
I will post notes from the meeting soon!

More plants in the ground!

Meli and Steven stopped by tonight with the cucumbers they started from seed and we did a little impromptu garden work.

We dug out and sifted some landscape rocks (thanks to previous homeowners I guess!).

We got cucumbers and lettuce transplanted in various areas of the garden, planted some borage and marigolds, and replaced a couple of tomatoes that didn't make it.

Yay for lovely little plants!

Plants in the ground, plants in the ground, acting like a fool cuz the plants are in the ground!!!

So, not everything is planted, but we got a lot accomplished yesterday. It was a LONG day! We started around 10am and finally stopped and got cleaned up around 6pm (with a break for a delicious potluck lunch around 2pm).

Jeremiah, Roger, and Adriano were the rainbarrel champs! They got our beautiful rainbarrels hooked up and ready to collect water (we even had a well timed, though brief shower to test them out!)

Andrea, Vickie, and Terry went to Vickie's house and got a large load of wonderful mulch! Caroline and I worked on moving the pathway near the fence and it was ready for the mulch when they returned from their trip. We also got lots of boxes from Jessica's and layed out some of our future paths in the garden.

After our delicious potluck lunch (Joe made spaghetti and vegan parmesan, we had a few types of hummus, some italian seasoned squash, popcorn, and lots of veggies and fruit), we worked on our planting beds.

We reused our old chainlink fence to construct a trellis for our tomatoes and nasturtiums. We also attached some of the fencing to the wood fence at the back of the garden for pumpkins, beans, and cucumbers to enjoy!

It was a happy day for everyone as we got tomatoes, nasturtiums, more peppers, corn and sunflowers planted in the ground.

It was a long and exhausting day but everyone enjoyed themselves :) We will do it again next Sunday!!!

Backyard Garden Co-Op

On August 22nd we broke ground on our backyard garden cooperative. About 15 people showed up, we removed sod and played in the dirt.

Since then we have formed a small community of people working together to grow our own food. We have hot peppers, eggplants, and pumpkins planted and lots of tomato seedlings ready to go in the ground. We also have two herb spirals - one will be for non-edible plants and the other for medicinal and culinary herbs. It's a very exciting endeavor but it's also keeping us quite busy.

Sunday we will be installing rain barrels and irrigation, putting up a privacy fence, and planting some more vegetables in the garden.

Eventually we plan to get chickens and bees too!