Inside Brian's Garden

Dear BG Team - 

Tomorrow is forecast to be cloudy with temps in the 50s. We’ll have a rolling start to the work party between 9 and 10 am. 

Fun news… Denny picked up a check from the Jefferson County Fair. We made $10 from our fair entries! It's not often that we earn money from the quality of our veg!

This Week’s Harvests 

Monday 9/30 evening harvest for the Brinnon Food Bank was supported by Diane, Beth, Lys, Lindsay, Jordan, and Amber. They harvested 137.5 pounds of produce! And the first of our pumpkins were ready! Aaron also let us harvest some apples which we brought to Brinnon… 27.5 pounds of apples and 5.5 pounds of pears! And Lys brought the corn she has been growing for us at our house… 37 pounds of corn!

We were also able to send produce that was gleaned from Red Dog Farms for a monthly community meal at the Chimacum Grange. After the meal on Sunday 9/29, Amber picked up the produce and stored it in the walk-in fridge to add on to our Brinnon delivery. Beets, carrots, dill, parsley, kale, arugula, leeks, salad mix and corn totaled 134.5 pounds!

So we sent a total of 272 pounds of produce to Brinnon this week!

Wednesday 10/2 morning harvest for the Port Townsend Food Bank was supported by Lys, Diane, Karl and Amber. They harvested 29.75 pounds. The extra help really made a difference!

Thanks to September 26th Work Party Volunteers!

It was a small, yet mighty, team… Lys, Mark and Mike!

They removed squash plants that have died and are no longer producing fruit, erected a house over our pumpkins to protect them from cold weather, and weeded Bed 7N in preparation for planting garlic.

TOMORROW: Planting Party - Thursday, October 3rd

• Garlic (HIGH PRIORITY)
• prepare bed 7N for planting
• amend soil 
• blend compost, Farmyard Blend and NutriRich 4-3-2 in a wheelbarrow
• top bed with kelp fertilizer (1# per 100 sqft)
• two varieties to be planted: hardneck (Music) and softneck (Transylvania)
• plant spacing = 4-6 inches apart in all directions (the more space given, the larger the heads will grow)
• after planting, mulch with straw
• Radishes (HIGH PRIORITY)
• seed in empty grow bags along north fence-line - use Park Seed, Beauty Blend 
• plant spacing = 1-2 inches in all directions
• planting depth = 1/2”
• Mache (HIGH PRIORITY)
• prepare beds for planting (remove all plant material and amend soil with compost)
• north ends of Beds 4S and 5S (after scallop squash and yellow crooknecks are removed)
• Lettuces
• direct seed and/or plant in flats
• **Beds 3S and 9S were recently planted with lettuce starts**
• Fava Beans
• treat with legume inoculant before planting
• prepare beds for planting (remove all plant material and amend soil with compost)
• north ends of Beds 4N and 5N (after cucumbers are removed)
• entire Bed 9 (after zucchini is removed)
• plant spacing = 3 inches in rows with rows at least 12 inches apart
• Cover Crops
• inoculate any legume seed with inoculant before planting
• prepare beds for planting 
• east side of Bed 3N (after mizuna is removed)
• west side of Bed 2S (after lettuce is removed)
• south ends of Beds 4N and 5N (after delicata squash are removed)
• south ends of Beds 4S and 5S (after cucumbers are removed) - be sure to leave watercress
• plant very densely to cover all areas of the soil
• we will tarp Beds 6S and 7S after plants are done producing 
• (this will allow us to use this space for our compost pile rehabilitation project)
• Spring Flowering Bulbs ??
• if anyone has any of the following bulbs to share, please let us know and we can add them to the garden for spring blooming bulbs!
• Lily
• Daffodil
• Iris
• Trillium
• Grape Hyacinth 
• Tulips
  

**planting tips and recommendations from “Vegetable by Vegetable: A Guide for Gardening Near the Salish Sea” by Marko Colby & Hanako Myers

Here is a great little video about inoculation and why it is important: What Is Inoculant? And Why To Use It For Garden Legumes?.

Additional Tasks for October 3rd Work Party

Groundskeeping: 

• continue weeding and adding chicken-wire to outside north-fence line and sheet mulch along fence afterwards
• weed in between double fence-line (east side of garden)
• weed aisles and add additional hog fuel to sparse aisles
• continue weeding behind the chicken coop, add cardboard and hog fuel to sheet mulch the entire area

Plant maintenance: (HIGH PRIORITY) 

• water plants in grow bags
• remove any plants that are no longer producing
• delicata squashes
• fix top of tomato house (reattach plastic roof)
• cover pumpkin plants with remay instead of plastic

We hope you can join us in the garden to maintain this wonderful food hub!

- Amber, Lys and Denny
Co-managers at Brian's Food Bank Garden

P.S. Beth passed along a link to a Ruth Reichl documentary about the US broken food system and the pioneers aiming to fix it: Food and Country. It will be airing live on Tuesday, October 8th from 5:00 - 6:45 pm. It's not necessary to be an AARP member to register and watch… and it's free!