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Mike, Michael and David planted all five of the new fence posts on the far side of the garden in one day! (Well almost – one still needs some digging). I (Alan) finished the rails on the Eastern Ave side. If the weather is good Tuesday evening, I’ll oil the rails, and should be ready to hang the fence fabric next Saturday. I have no doubt now we can finish this season.

The general fence-building process is:

1. Measure and plant the metal post bases, in a reasonably straight line, evenly spaced, right height, and plumb. Every so often we get lucky and just pound one straight down without any digging. Most of the time we need to dig a hole, get the post base in the right position, and pack the hole with rocks and dirt to hold it firm.
2. Cut a notch in each 4×4 posts for the irrigation lines and paint them with raw linseed oil.
3. Cut and fasten the 1×4 rails, making everything nice and square, and paint them with raw linseed oil.
4. Screw and staple the 1×1 hardware cloth to the posts and rails and trim up the edges.
5. And when the new fence is finished, we need to disassemble and dispose of the old one.

A couple of challenges left – we’re recycling about five post bases that are currently holding up the old posts, so we need to at least partially disassemble the old fence to finish the new one; what do we do with the Philosopher’s Stone?

Mid-summer is a time of transition in the garden. Today we pulled the spring peas and replanted the area with pole beans. (We use the same tall trellis for both.)
The garlic was also harvested today and replanted with turnip seed. Last week, we harvested the first spring broccoli and cabbage, and the last of the fava beans, which were replanted with fall peas.
Harvesting of our heat-loving nightshades (eggplant, peppers and tomatoes), okra and squashes (cucumbers, crooknecks and zucchini) has begun and the first of our bush beans were ready today.

Our everbearing greens (collards, kale, perpetual spinach and Swiss chard) are in full production and the sequentially-planted greens (arugula, mustard and lettuce) have been providing continuous harvests.
Next week, the first of the potatoes should be ready for harvest. That will herald replanting with fall brassica seedlings (broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower) seeded last month in our nursery bed.
The last of our spring salad turnips and the first of our onions were also harvested today. There is much to look forward to, and it’s feeling like the garden is in full swing!

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.