Robbins Farm Garden

A Cooperative Learning Project

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Brassica backers

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I talked to quite a few parents and children over the two-and-a-half hours I was there today. I gave out veggie school cards, for which I noted quite a bit of interest.

People seemed especially impressed with the broccoli and cauliflower, and I even had some radish backers when I complained of our excess. What do we think of pickled radish?

Or pole beans? We’ve some extra seeds. I am thinking we could plant a few in a corner and put in a bamboo for it to climb to the sky.

When we pull the radishes, how about if we replace them with turnips? They grow fast and are very good when early.

Blossoms and even a fruit

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TomatoesOur fourteen tomato plants went into the ground at Memorial Day, after a robust discussion the week before of which types and quantities we should raise.

Twelve of them ended up in the bed we designated for them, and singles are in the adjacent brassica bed in openings created when we had to remove diseased cauliflower and cabbage plants.

This is our roster, thanks to Lisa, who reported their planting when they went in: 2 sugar plum grape, 2 sungold cherry, 1 red zebra, 1 blondkopfchen cherry, 2 Moskovitch, 1 yellow perfection, 1 red brandywine, 1 brandywine, 1 Charlie Black and 2 eva purples.

The method for planting was completely different than what I would have done with my own tomato plants at home had I not been there to observe: The holes were dug one-third deeper than the pots the seedlings were in; this was because tomatoes, I was told (by Mike, or Alan?) are vines, and all about their roots. To accommodate the added depth, we pinched off the shoots from the stem that would have been underground.

The holes were prepared, meanwhile, just as I had, on instruction, earlier in the day for peppers and eggplants: A small handful of chicken poop for fertilizer and a sprinkling of pulverized eggshells for calcium, to ward off blossom end rot. 

Mike, who headed the tomato committee, advised mounding small rings of earth at each plant’s drip line, to form sort of a watering dish. This, he told me, ensures that water showered on the plant is more likely to arrive at its roots, instead of dampening all the surrounding area.

Last Saturday, the first tomato appeared on one of the plants — sorry, dunno which one (it was a sugar plum)— mottled green and marble-sized. I took a picture to share with you, but my auto-focus got a really sharp image of the hairs of an adjoining stem instead. It was mottled green and marble-sized, trust me.

Youngsters frolic in park, flock to garden

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A gang of kids toured the garden Wednesday. They were in their threes, maybe late twos, with maybe one 4-year-old, according to the mom I asked.

The six or seven of them had gathered around one mother sitting 30 feet to our northeast, then went down to pick bouquets of wildflowers along the park fence, and then came over to the garden.

The kids came by themselves at first, engaging in conversation with each other, though eventually, a few moms finally came by as well to supervise. It was good to see them!

Something is Eating the Soybeans

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It seems like the soybeans are not doing as well as the bush beans, at least partially because something is attacking them.  We found seedlings that had been chopped off before fully sprouting:

and seemingly healthy seedlings that had little pieces chewed out of them:

Curious.

Cucumbers break thru

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cuke pairThe cucumber shoots are up.
 
We had planted the cuke seeds in pairs in 2-foot intervals on either side of the compost bins. Of the 8 seeds planted, 6 germinated, producing nice healthy shoots, a pair and a single on either side. To improve the odds of getting an abundant crop, we separated one of each of the pairs and replanted them to the center spot between those remaining. So now the spacing is 12 inches between plants, still 3 on either side of the bins.

Elizabeth, our CGO (chief growing officer) says to expect an explosion of cukes.  To make provision for that,  Alan, chief engineer, has built two growing ladders, one on either side of the bins, in readiness for the onslaught to come. 

Always looking for a little action, I proposed we run a cucumber pool:  $1 a slot on the number of cukes we actually get out of the garden. So far, no takers on that.