16 May 2015: It's a Garden!

Saturday, May 16th was that first day of the season when I really felt like we transitioned from starting the season to being in the season.  Of course the rhubarb and mint and oregano have been up for weeks, but they do that on their own.  On the sixteenth, we had harvestable heads of lettuce and radishes popping up out of the soil like the instant thermometer on a butterball (only the total opposite of an instant read thermometer on a butterball).  The lettuce and radish are from seeds sown by our volunteers.  Raise your hand if you planted Black Seeded Simpson lettuce! Oh, not you?  What about Red Sails? Surely, you are responsible for the Cherry Belle radishes?  Meanwhile, the Shirz and Penelope peas are making their way up trellises and our greens are looking great!



With regulars and volunteer groups from Second City and Northwestern University Gives Back, we got a tremendous amount of work done on this extended day.  We planted cucumbers. And sure, we planted your regular old slice it in a salad cause you need something crunchy cucumber (yawn), but we also planted Lemon cukes, which look like yellow tennis balls, and Armenian cucumbers (hubba hubba).  We also planted beans (Royal Burgundy and Milk & Cider), watermelon, Patty Pan squash, and a succession of lettuce. 

And that's just the stuff you can eat!  Don't get me started on the geraniums and Inky Fingers coleus.

The season is under way.  Unless we really screw something up, we will bring a harvest to Vital Bridges every week starting this upcoming Saturday and continuing into the late fall. 

The first harvest is in!

On Saturday, May 30, Ginkgo Organic Gardens had its first harvest of the season! Volunteers harvested collards, kale, chard, spinach, radishes, chives and mint. All were transported to Vital Bridges and happily received.

The greens, especially the collards, are always especially popular. Starting them in the greenhouse this year gave them a good headstart and meant we were able to harvest earlier than last season. The collards had a long growing season last year, continuing well into the fall. (They prefer cooler weather.) It will be interesting to see whether starting them in the greenhouse has any effect on the length of their season.

During Thursday's evening session, planning was done for the few beds that are still empty. We've now made room in the schedule (and the beds) for cucumbers, winter squash, summer squash and some heirloom tomatoes. Beans and eggplant will share a bed. Lettuce will share a bed with soy. Artichokes will share the sweet potato bed.

There will be a lot of planting to do on Saturday.

...and there is still more creeping buttercup to be dealt with....It has sprouted all over the neighborhood this season.