Holey Cow!

So we arrived at the garden Wednesday night to find a giant hole on the north side of the lot. We need to figure out how to resolve this. Hopefully it's temporary, but in the meantime it's interesting to see what's below the garden.

sonnet

A morning fair, a blue sky clear of cloud;
A riot of tomatoes, multihued.
The appled branches full of promise bowed;
The garden beds with heady scents imbued.
The collard plants put forth new tender leaves—
Survivors of the doily-making pest
And trumpet vines meander through the eaves
While we with scale the bounty manifest.
         The day’s work done, yet still we lingered late:
         For summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

The Garden Since Last Time

 A lot has happened in the garden since the last blog post!  Because I've let the photos pile up there is too much to talk about and all I can give you are a mess of pictures and the broad strokes of what we've been up to.  I'm lumping the pictures by theme, not by week, so don't be jarred by continuity errors. 

Look at all those delicious peppers!

 

Holy Smokes! Eggplants too!

And I thought I heard you say something about the best looking carrots ever picked.

 

While we're talking about carrots let's not forget that a couple of our volunteers helped to sift compost and top off the bath tub for our up and coming crop of squeaky clean organic claw-foot carrots.

 

In other under-earth news, we pulled half of the potato bed.  The plants were not doing so hot on the end of the bed, so we pulled them to make room for radishes and broccoli.

Look at those potatoes!  And one cannot ask for a better excuse to kick off a series of photos where people are holding vegetables out in front of themselves!

  

Oooooh, Tomatoes.  You're breaking my heart!

We know that you're thinking, "Your volunteers need to start flossing before biting into apples." Well, regardless of the validity of that statement, it's off topic.  Remember those russeted mystery apples growing between the dodecahedron and the raspberry bed?  Well, they are pink. On the inside. Yup.  Wrap your mind around that.

 

We also had some adventures with weeding.  For one thing, we found a weed that was turning into an established tree ensnared in a plastic 6-pack holder.  So remember to clip those rings folks!  It's not just Seagulls anymore.

 

This happened.

We also found this.  So far we have only seen one in the garden and the picture isn't clear enough to give it a confident ID, but after a brief e-mail exchange with a beetle expert at UIC, we think there is a good chance that it's a Red-Headed Cardinal Beetle. 

Also found during weeding, a Lilliputian albino pig farm with county fair sized tomatoes. (relatively)

And as you know from following the blog, we had a potluck cookout.  It was amazing.  

And look at all those amazing volunteers!  Thanks to everyone of them.  Keep coming back to Ginkgo and keep coming back to the blog!

Relax Okra... we'll talk about you when you start producing.

 

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Roosevelt Volunteers

On Thursay July 12th a group of students from Roosevelt University dropped in for a workday with John and Susan.  The hard working volunteers helped with an expansive community trash/recycling pick up that spanned all of Kenmore, down along the cemetery wall south of Irving Park Rd. and north to the park at the intersection of Buena and Kenmore.

During the trash pick up the volunteers found many items that add a little intrigue and possibly horror to the the neighborhood.  Many many cigarette butts are too be expected, but what about a hammer, mangled lingerie and a baby stroller?  What happens here at night is your business Buena Park.  BTW, we kept the hammer.

 Other volunteer tasks included turning compost, sifting compost, collecting dried coriander from our spent cilantro plants, planting some warm weather plants like New Zealand Spinach, mulching between the beds, weeding, tying tomatoes up, and much more.

Special thanks to Freedom Nguyen for coordinating the event and to the volunteers for their hard work.  Ginkgo is open to anyone who wants to drop in and lend a hand on our workdays.  We hope to see some of these faces return.

 

A closing note:  I have fallen behind on updating the blog lately and I appreciate the patience of the Roosevelt volunteers as well as any avid fans of the blog.  I promised these students that I would make them famous on the blog and now I've kept my word.

Ginkgo Organic Garden Party and Hootenanny

There ain't no party like an organic garden party, cause an organic garden party's got crops.

Come hang out with Ginkgo after the harvest/workday on Saturday to enjoy a bite and socialize. We welcome guests to bring something to share: Food/Beverages/Enthusiasm. There will be shade, grills, meats, veggies, snacks, and I've heard rumors of a swimming pool*.
Tell your friends, especially if they have volunteered with us in the past.

Ginkgo over and out.

*Exaggerations are common when describing swimming pools.

 

 

Where: GINKGO ORGANIC GARDENS

             4055 N Kenmore Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60613

 

When: Saturday 21 July.  Around 1p... give or take

Boys to the Right.

The heat finally broke and it is good.  Somehow it seems like a turning point in the season.  It feels like the second half of the season is about to begin, as if the All-Star break is over and we will be getting some of our old players off the DL.  There are plenty of crops that are done for the season.  Benched until next year, but then again we have things to look forward to.

Soon we will have enough pole beans to start donating and these cabbages are looking good. We were surprised to find a couple of delicious large cucumbers growing. Last weekend we were looking at all sorts of crops that are almost there.  The words, "one more week" were in the air.  One more week and those gooseberries'll be ready.

And a side note: Has anyone noticed a strong trend of the male volunteers standing in a bunch in the back right corner of our group photos.  Myself included-- Just an interesting trend.