Welcome to all the new gardeners and welcome back old friends!

We spent some time at the garden over the weekend – I can only turn so much soil in one session, so our garden is being prepared as we plant. And we have planted!

To be honest, I don’t remember what we planted, but most likely kale, black eyed peas, lima beans, lettuce (which is up already!) and some assorted seeds that the girls picked out. Our garden will certainly be no masterpiece, there was no planning involved, it’ll just happen as it happens!

I did take some photos. Of course they are still on the camera, but I’ll post them as soon as I can. Wasn’t the weather just perfect for gardening this weekend? We’ve had some rain, which made the weeds easier to pull, and there are so many weeds that the compost piles really do need to be turned!

I’d like to invite all gardeners to become authors on the blog, just sign up for wordpress, send me your email address, and I’ll send you an invitation. We’d all love to see your garden growing online!

I met Katie at the garden this weekend. She has a beautiful set up with a big bean pole tent in the center and some great bamboo trellises. She also has a terribly cute little daughter with the biggest blue eyes you’ve ever seen!

So, what are you planting now?

Extend the growing season for your greens!

Kate Jerome, of www.garden.org, says you can grow greens all year round by making a crude greenhouse. She recommends using woodchips to a depth of 6″, covered with 6″ of compost (worm castings are best). Lettuce, chard and any variety of greens can be grown in this medium, and as fall approaches, you can cover it with hoops of pvc pipe covered with plastic sheeting. This should extend your growing season through the winter!

Ref: National Gardening Association

Paris is starting her sweetcorn

Paris is planting her sweetcorn inside – we are making the pots from newspaper, and she has been busy collecting the kernels from her last year’s crop to plant.

Will keep you upated!

Patti Moreno/Mel Bartholomew – SFG tips for March

Welcome to March, and hopefully some warmer weather!

Here, “Garden Girl” Patti Moreno, and the pioneer of square foot gardening, Mel Bartholomew, share tips on what needs to be done in March.

When to start planting.

I’ve done the calculations, and according to The Farmers Almanac, we can start planting our seeds indoors around March 2nd.

You can start your seeds inside SIX weeks before the last frost. And the last frost for us is around April 13 (the chart said April 13 for Springfield, IL and April 20 for Chicago, IL – so I’m going with Springfield!)

My girls were at Peace Camp in December/January, and Charlotte Talkington came to show the group how to make paper pots for starting seeds or cuttings in. The nice thing about making your own newspaper pots is that the whole thing can be planted in the ground. And, of course, they are MUCH cheaper than anything you can buy in the store!

I found a tutorial that shows how to fold your own pots. Charlotte’s pots were stapled, but these ones are pure origami and require no staples!

Have you started buying your seeds yet? Don’t forget to post your progress here on the blog!

Thinking of spring?

I know I am thinking of spring! Yes, it’s snowing outside today, but it can’t go on for much longer, right? After all, we have spring planting to consider!

There is something you can do right now. Have you received a hoarde of seed catalogs in the mail? Now is the time to plan your garden and order your seeds. One of my favorite sites, The Cooks Garden is packed full of beautiful vegetables to grow. And this morning they sent me an email showing some of the seeds you can plant as soon as the soil is workable – plants that like the cooler weather. You can see that email here. The Kaleidosope mixed carrots look really fun! And I just love peas fresh from the garden – they rarely make it to the kitchen at my house, we just love to eat them right from the shell!

If you’re itching to get out in the garden, grab some seed catalogs and start planning!

The girls and I are hoping to make raised beds in our plots this year. The plots are 15′ x 15′, and we’re thinking of making four 4′x4′ beds with a tiered bed in the middle for strawberries and herbs.

If you’re also interested in square foot gardening, visit Mel Bartholomew’s site. If you like the idea of raised beds, but don’t want to be confined to 1′ increments, you could take a look at Patti Moreno’s site. Known as “The Garden Girl”, Patti is at the forefront of the urban gardening movement, with her back yard “urban farm” in Roxbury, MA. Her site is very informative, with many, many videos explaining her techniques. Patti also raises chickens and rabbits in her backyard farm, and has a very unique way of doing it!

You can see more about Patti here:

Patti Moreno – Garden Girl

Christmas comes to the Westside Community Gardens

So, December 6th seems like an eternity ago. It was a busy day, December 6th. First, there was the Jaycee’s Annual Christmas Parade, and then the Community Gardens Tree Trimming party, and lots of other events in between and afterward that were personal to those who attended. Personally, I had to ask one of my daughters to skip her friends birthday party due to numerous commitments.

But, a great time was had by all, even if we were absolutely freezing! Hot chocolate did it’s part in taking the edge off the cold, and the fire was nice and warm as long as you could take the smell of the smoke … and children and adults alike had a great time making bird feeders using pine cones, peanut butter and bird seed.

The music from the Boys & Girls Club holiday CD and Heather’s iPod kept us all in a festive mood, however the weather got the better of us and the event only ended up lasting half as long as it was supposed to.

Thanks go out to the Masonic Lodge who so kindly donated the tree, and to all the volunteers and donors who provided cocoa, hot water, cups, stirrers, pine cones, peanut butter, bird seed, napkins, Purell, etc! We couldn’t have done it without you!

And to the wonderful neighborhood children from the Bent School YWCA Before and After School program, and Bent School Girls Scout Troop 1051, who spent lots of time making the pretty ornaments for the tree, A VERY BIG THANKS to you and your teachers/troop leaders for being part of the Westside Community Gardens Christmas this year.

I have more photos to post, and I promise I won’t make you wait too long. I also promise that the wait will be worth it!

Invitation to help trim the tree!

Tree Trimming party

Join us on Saturday, December 6, when we trim the Community Gardens tree! We would LOVE to receive donations of weather-friendly ornaments for the tree, and we invite local children to make ornaments and come help trim the tree!

Community groups assisting with this project are the Boys & Girls Club, YWCA Before & After School programs and Girl Scout Troop 1051. Thanks for your help!

Westside Community Gardens hit Facebook …

Got a Facebook account? You can find the Westside Community Gardens there, too, come join us! I just posted more photos from the Harvest Festival – photos like this one … can you see the fairies in the fire?

Can you see them?

Green tomatoes – do you have as many as we do?

We visited the garden today for the first time after the “big frost” of Wednesday morning. (And yesterday was 76 degrees? WTF is going on!) and we just had buckets and buckets of green tomatoes left after the plants had long since wilted to the ground.

I picked all the tomatoes I could rescue from my plants, and Paris picked 3 of her 5 plants. I carted all the dead greenery to the compost pile, as well as the green tomatoes that didn’t make it, and we still had 2 shopping sacks full!  We called all the relatives and delivered green tomatoes to them, and I’ve been trollling for recipes so we can use the rest. I do hate to waste anything!

Here’s some recipes to try if you, too, have an overabundance of green tomatoes!
Recipes from BostonPlus.com
Southern Food at about.com has lots of ideas
A nice selection at allrecipes.com
Epicurious is always good for a variety of recipes
Fried green tomato recipes from Joy in the Garden
Or you can just use my google search!

Have fun with the recipes, let’s hear what you made!