Quimper Garden SUMMERized

(Shown with fresh picked bounty left to right) Morgana, Paul, Louise, Arlene, and Mary

Where did August go? Seems like summer just arrived. When we plan what we plant, we shoot for what is the expected weather for the time of year. Now, and in the future, we'll have to look at planting vegetables that could do well with more temperature variables. For a vegetable gardener, and especially for a garden that grows to give to others, that can prove challenging. If we could just have one or two more weeks of heat... If the extremes didn't happen... Lots of 'ifs'.

Our garden is still producing plenty of certain types of produce - others, not so much. Take that "two more weeks of heat" statement above, and we just might get our squashes blasting off. Our basil peaked early, and is not producing just now. "Two more weeks of heat", however ...

Our greens are loving the rain and the cool weather. Spinach, mustard, chard, etc are finally coming on. We are planting lots of radishes, and started flats of lovely Asian greens to make their way into the greenhouses once we're done with cukes & tomatoes. And of course, the ever-producing scallions - a favorite commodity at the food bank.

In preparation to increase winter production, we have planted the five new raised beds resulting from a grant from Port Townsend Noon Rotary. Also in our plan, we have cleared out a ton of soil amendments from one of our hoop houses; now we can put in even more growing containers in the center of the hoop house and fill it with more produce than ever in preparation for the winter. Before that happens, however, we have a lot of gravel to spread to keep from wading through the muck. Anyone have an extra hour or two to help shovel gravel? It's lots of fun.

As always, we need volunteers to help keep the weeds at bay. Weeding and mulching are our go-to jobs when everything else is complete; needless to say, they're usually at the bottom of the list.

Come visit our awesome and inspiring team any Tuesday or Friday afternoon, 1:00-3:00 pm-ish. We can always learn something from each other! Contact Barbara at barbaratusting97@gmail.com.