February 24, 2023
Many of us gardeners have been taking the seed packet’s suggestion to get an early start in the garden with cool-weather crops. Some of us are planting our lettuces, radishes, and other veggies. I guess it’s all that springlike weather we have been having. I don’t believe we will be without another cold spell or two before spring really gets here. We need to keep the row covers handy and keep the roots watered. We are so excited to have 2 new gardeners already participating in their respective garden beds. Welcome Lindzey Jackson and Eva French!Thanks to volunteers, The Barber family (Amber Mae is a Master Gardener that needs to do volunteer hours for her designation.) She put the rest of her family to work as well. Her husband Ben took out the volleyball poles which makes the garden look so much nicer. The rest of the family strung the Square Foot Garden beds and cleaned out the dirt of some of the beds to ready them for Mel’s Mix. Amber and I worked on the hügelkultur bed and planted potatoes in it.
The Wings of Eagles sent us 4 volunteers to create Mel’s Mix for a 4’X4’ bed. After that, they worked on our compost pile chopping the coarse compost and moving the decomposed into another bin, shredding the decomposed compost and mixed it with the recently purchased mixture of compost. We are so grateful for that good work. Compost is vital for the Square Foot Garden beds.
Many thanks to Lucien Hodges for his donation of 2 fruit trees that he purchased from our good friend, Barbara Wright at Wright’s Nursery in Briggs. We are encouraging the purchase of fruit trees as a donation to our “Remembrance Orchard.” This orchard will provide a way to remember a friend or relative or even a milestone in one’s life. Amy Holkesvik has agreed to paint a tree on the back of our shed with the names of those being remembered.
We have had a turnover in the Board of Directors this month. Ladonna Bishop has agreed to take on the position as Treasurer, replacing Krista Spurgeon. Krista held that position until the end of January.
I attended the Parks Board meeting on January 16. I wanted to check on the timeline for the sidewalk along the fence line leading from the parking lot to the ADA-compliant garden site. Chris said he had a quote of $5,200 for that project which will be starting in the next several months. This will provide the incentive to find the funds to purchase the concrete needed for the garden beds for the physically challenged. Labor will be donated.
We are looking for Board members with experience in fundraising and social media experience. If you have that experience or know of anyone we can contact, please pass it along to us. lampasascommunitygardens@gmail.com
