Robbins Farm Garden is a cooperative community garden project at Robbins Farm Park in Arlington, MA. Since 2010, we’ve grown vegetables organically as a group, created an educational resource in the community and continued the agricultural tradition of the farm at the park. We garden Saturday mornings April – November and Tuesday evenings June – September. The project is run through Arlington’s Recreation Department.
First harvest: Garden salad
Our first substantial harvest of the season was all about salad. We harvested arugula, lettuce, radishes and spinach, along with some lovely micro-greens from thinning our beets, bok choy, mustard and Swiss chard. Yum!
Coolest overalls ever!
Thanks to Nicole for brightening the garden.
Our first warm Saturday of the season
Though it’s the middle of May, today felt like summer at the garden. We enjoyed our first harvests of arugula and radishes, which we seeded in the soil last month. Next week, we’re expecting to harvest our first lettuce and spinach, which we started indoors and transplanted as seedlings.
Our new metal pea & pole bean trellis has been fitted out with twine, and looks quite fine! There are seedlings sprouting all over the garden and our warm weather seedlings are beginning their hardening off period before being planted in the soil.
Opening Day Rock Stars
Opening day was brisk and breezy at the garden. Much to our surprise, we discovered that the young lettuce we left in little plastic hoop houses survived the winter. The other major discovery was a huge rock about a foot below the surface of one of the garden beds.
The rock was almost as large as the Philosopher’s Stone we unearthed with great labor many years ago and left in the corner of the garden until the fence was replaced. Yet once the rock stars set to work, there was no doubt that the rock would be moved. It was an exhausting process, but the team displayed remarkable skill and ingenuity. Well done!
Get Ready for Opening Day – April 2, 2022
Mark your calendars with a big squash blossom star for Opening Day at the Garden on April 2nd from 9AM to Noon.
Weather permitting, we’ll be digging garden beds, planting early crops, checking the wintered-over crops, and conducting spring clean-up. After that, we’ll be gardening every Saturday morning for the rest of the season.
Come join the fun!
2022 virtual Seed Selection Meeting – January 22
Our annual seed selection meeting will be held on Saturday, January 22 from 9:30am to 11:30am. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the meeting will be held virtually. Please contact us to get info to join the meeting.
Everyone interested in the crops and varieties we plan to grow at Robbins Farm Garden this season is welcome. Prospective new members of the garden group are especially encouraged to attend and join in the discussion. Collect your seed catalogs and your great expectations for the upcoming gardening season!
