Email one more time

I haven't heard from many of you re: this email, so I'm posting its contents for one more view ... Hi gardeners! Harvest of Hope is looking terrific. Thank you for your part in our success! Our garden steering group met this week and we have a few things to share with you. I'll number to make it easier for me: 1. Saturday, May 12 at 9 a.m. will be our late-spring planting day. Please join us at the garden (barring lightning and thunder) to plant your beds for the rest of the season. Most of the beds are already full of early spring crops, so some of you may want to take out cooler-weather items and replace them with warmer-weather things. A few beds haven't been planted yet -- now is the time to get them going! As before, we'll provide plants on the planting day, but if you miss that day you'll need to provide your own. Let me know what you want to plant from among this list: tomatoes zucchini peppers (bell or other variety) bush beans onions summer squash (be aware that summer squash will take up a lot of space in a raised bed!) cucumbers (to be grown vertically within a tomato cage so as not to take over or creep out of the beds and/or into other folks' gardens) sweet potatoes We'll have folks around on Saturday who can help advise you on spacing of plants -- for instance -- it's better to place tomato cages in your bed for tomatoes first, then plant the tomatoes in the middle of the cages -- then you know you have things spaced as they'll need to be to grow well. Remember that what looks small now will likely get a lot bigger as it grows! 2. Getting your harvest to the hungry. Some of you have asked us what the best way is for you to get your veggies to someone who needs food. We're working on establishing a process. By May 12, we should have some clear instructions for some choices as to where you can take what you pick, and we'll give you a sheet (and email it to you) on how that will work. If you have greens or radishes or the like in the meantime and don't know where to take it, please email me and we'll figure something out! 3. A new face. Last year's garden guardian angel, Paul, is out of town for an extended period. In his stead, we've got a new friend, Randy Hicks, who will be helping us. His dad, Rick, works at First Presbyterian. Randy will water what looks dry at least twice a week, and he will mow and trim around the beds. He will not weed or harvest from within the beds -- that's up to you. Also, if plants are "escaping" their beds, he may "flop" them back in in the course of his work. 4. Monthly gatherings. I'd like your suggestions as I work to set up a monthly gathering for gardeners (and open to our community at large). Like last month, I'll probably try to have these occur on Sunday evenings, include a guest speaker/educator, and include some time for us to work and talk together in the garden. At each of these I'd like to have some experts and/or Master Gardeners on hand so that those of us (myself included) who are less experienced gardeners have a chance to get our questions answered. I may let May 12 be our gathering for this month, since the end of the school year seems to be so hectic -- that is, unless you'd really like us to try to gather. Let me know. In the meantime, please send suggestions about what you'd like to learn about! Some examples: gardening with kids, succession planting, saving seeds, heirlooms, composting -- or we even have a friend who could talk to us about making goat cheese! The folks from UT Extension could talk to us about weed identification, or perhaps even give us an intro into food preservation. I'm sure there are many other topics -- I'd like to hear from you about what you'd like to know more about. 5. Poison Ivy. Larry says he's killed poison ivy near the fence at Harvest of Hope, so be aware that it's around. If you don't know what it looks like, Google it and make sure you have an idea of what to avoid! We'll try to keep it at bay so you don't have to worry about it, but it won't hurt to be aware. 6. Needs. We could use a small wheelbarrow or two, if anyone has an extra or would like to donate one. We've also talked about mounting a covered bulletin board to the side of the shed so that we can post information there for all gardeners to read (but that won't get messed up by rain or dew). Do you have carpentry skills you'd be willing to share? We'd also like to build two wood-post hose holders and "plant" them near the water spigot. Feel like building? 7. One more time, and I can't say this enough: Thank you for your part in our garden's success. This is Harvest of Hope's second season, and it's so promising because of you. Thank you for your patience and your support (and feedback) as we learn the ropes together. If you have any questions, feel free to email me and I'll try to respond in a timely fashion. God bless, Jennifer