Dill and the long winter's rest

Gardeners have the habit of winter dreaming about next year - it looks like some good progress is in the works for the Applewood Gardening Initiative. Genesee County is greening up and beautifying! Stay Tuned...

A gift from the garden.

Dill is the herb that Scandinavian mothers use (in a tisane) to lull their babies to sleep. Completely safe, the seeds and foliage are both useful.
We harvested some great dill plants at the fall garden cleanup. I didn't think they would produce, we planted them so late! We didn't harvest seed, but the plants grown in that beautiful compost were wonderful.

I brought the plants home, dried the leaves in my handy dehydrator, and filled three spice-sized jarfuls for our gardeners. A jar of dillweed in the market runs about $3.50 these days. We got a good return on a few plants!

I learned something else from our garden this year (I grew up in town and didn't learn gardening at my mother's knee like so many folks) - I learned to just keep planting, dill at least... it's never too late!
And keep planting the love of gardening and the skills to garden successfully, it's never too late for that either.

Spotlight!

Our hardest working urban gardener was named Community Champion by the Keep Genesee County Beautiful campaign this weekend!

Big Congratulations to Melville Kennedy!

(You deserve it, Mel.)

Garden Seminar 9/6/07

This was a wonderful event, and the best send off I could want! Thanks to Jenn Hill for the pictures, and thanks to all of you for doing such great work.

Long live the veggie garden!

Tuesday update

Phil, who had the original vision to build a demonstration vegetable garden that would be both attractive and productive, doing a little last minute cultivation before the neighborhood get-together. Wish us good weather!

Finally, a photo of Mel! a lifesaver for this garden, among many gardens!

Make that two photos of Mel :)

Hi Helen! You should get double time for this job!


I missed getting Sharron in the camera lens this time but she donated her weed- wacker to the cause today, as well as some herbs to fill in the gaps.
Sharron has the nicest comments to hear while gardening, like pointing out to us "how many shades of green there are" that make the garden beautiful. The eye of the artist, that.
By the way, the weed-wacker wasn't needed as the Land Bank (I think) came by recently and trimmed the grass paths and the rest of the lot. (Thanks!)
I must say, the trimmed grass really sets off the shapes of the beds.

today in the garden

No matter how late the start, a garden in August means bounty. Harvesting has begun: Mel took a couple of quarts of green and yellow wax beans over to "Lou", our water angel who lives (and gardens) across the street, and I took home some beautiful radishes and swiss chard (see the photo below). I hope Phil put the lettuce in some icy water to revive it, although he is going out to dinner this evening. He has enough for salad for a week!
Mel, I'm sorry I never get your photo. (He really is there every week working, come rain or shine.) And Sharron, I thought your picture turned out well!
By the way, last week we canvassed the neighborhood and got to meet some of the neighbors, inviting them to pick, weed, water, and come to our get together next week.
I think by the looks of the tomato plants and the peppers that they were the big winner with the neighbors, judging by the lack of ripened fruit. I pinched the basil and cut off some over-ripened okra, and there was a lot of beans, chard and lettuce that could have been harvested.
Phil discovered a tiny cucumber today, and we've all had a taste of the stevia, lettuces, cherry tomatoes of various varieties, and 'Mariachi' peppers. I am personally looking forward to the eggplant and tomatillos. I think Sharron is rooting for some sunflowers. And the corn is tasseling, and the runner beans are twining.
It is, as Phil dreamed it, a beautiful garden. Veggies can be beautiful. We are learning as we go, because as you all know Rome wasn't built in a day. But it is amazing what a small group of volunteer gardeners can do in a short amount of time.

It is happening in Detroit

Here is a link to my gathering of information concerning the Detroit Agriculture Network's Annual Tour of Urban Farms and Gardens. Inspiration for our little band of urban vegetable plotters!

August 14 Work Bee

Weeding and watering... and sprucing up the grounds.



Phil and Helen enjoy a moment.

planting day photos

Phil and Sharron

Theresa

Wow! It's looking great. I haven't been by in a couple of weeks and it looks like things just popped. Fantastic work everyone!

Thursday 8-9-07 Workday

These are my most recent pictures of the garden. They make for a nice before and after contrast of all the great work that has gone into the project. Thanks everyone!

The beginning

Hi everyone,

I decided to try a blog for the Beautiful Vegetable Garden designed by Phil and built by so much cooperation and hard work by you all! This way, I thought it might be easier to post pictures and keep them all together almost like a photo album. Here's what we started with at the corner of Home and Chestnut (310 W. Home Ave.)