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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 or Wednesday evenings June – September. The project is run through Arlington’s Recreation Department.

A sign has been posted at the garden with guidelines for gardeners to follow in order to grow our food and keep everyone safe during this health crisis. A pdf of the sign is available here. The text appears below.

TO DO OUR PART TO STOP THE SPREAD OF COVID-19
WE ENCOURAGE GARDENERS TO:

• Stay home if you or those you live with are not well or not sure.

• Maintain physical separation of 6 feet or more.

• Avoid clusters (of more than 10), schedule gardening at different times.

• Use your own tools and take them home.

• Don’t leave things outside the fence while you’re working.

• Ask visitors to stay outside the garden fence.

• Use gloves and sanitizer to keep your hands clean.

• Cloth masks are (required).

• Sanitize commonly-touched surfaces: gate, locks, water spigot, hoses, storage bin, seed box, fertilizer bags.  

   

We left the smaller parsnips in the ground last fall and harvested them today.

The ground was already pretty workable, probably due to lack of rain, but still pretty cold.

The artichoke and allium seeds we planted on February 22 are off to a strong start. The front row has 1 pot of Tavor artichokes & 3 of Walla Walla onions; the middle row has 2 pots of Rossa di Milano red onions & 2 of Conservor shallots; the back row has 2 pots of Megaton leeks & 2 of New York Early storage onions. Next week, we move on to seeding our first brassicas and greens.

We’ve been making our own seedling soil for a decade. Yet, this is the first time we’ve attempted to document it as a recipe. For germinating seeds, like the leeks, onions and shallots we started yesterday, we use a light, less nutrient-rich mix.

• Coconut Coir – 1 brick (rehydrates to 0.33 cu ft)
• Compost (sifted & sterilized ) – 12 cups
• Vermiculite – 3 cups
• Sand (rough builder) – 3 cups
• Garden Tone fertilizer – 2 TBS
• Wood Ash – 2 TBS
• Limestone (ground) – 1 TBS

For transplanting the seedlings into 6-packs and small pots, we shift the mix closer to fertile garden soil by increasing the compost and nutrients.

• Coconut Coir – 1 brick (expands to 0.33 cu ft rehydrated)
• Compost (sifted & sterilized ) – 24 cups
• Vermiculite – 3 cups
• Sand (rough builder) – 3 cups
• Garden Tone fertilizer – 4 TBS
• Wood Ash – 4 TBS
• Limestone (ground) – 2 TBS

About the ingredients:
The coir is made from ground coconut shells, and is a pH-neutral, sustainable alternative to peat moss.
The compost is all vegetable-matter based, from a home compost pile and from the ones at the main garden.
The Garden Tone organic fertilizer is rated at 3-4-4. For our eggplant, pepper and tomato seedlings, we often substitute Tomato Tone.
The wood ash is collected from a home fireplace, sifted to remove charcoal chunks.
The limestone buffers the pH of the compost. We use pure ground limestone. (Our garden soil tests high for magnesium, so we’re wary of adding more.)