The Garden of Concord invites all to Part II of "Nurturing our Nutrition" scheduled for Sunday, July 31st from 2-4:30 with a presentation by Ron Vietel, General Manager of the Saxapahaw General Store and seasoned nutritionist.
The talk entitled "The Circle of Nutrition" will take us on a round trip tour of the many important elements required in obtaining complete nutrition to include environmental factors,soil attributes, planting, harvesting, and consuming local foods. There will be hands on demonstrations, a question and answer session, and of course some healthy snacks!!
The event is free but we would welcome any donations! Space is limited and reservations are suggested.
Event location: Concord UMC Fellowship Hall. 4462 East Greensboro-Chapel Hill Road, Graham (Eli Whitney), NC 27253.
Come nurture with us...it WILL be good!
-Donna
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
COMPOSTING...Collection to completion.
Our 2nd session of Garden Gritz two Wednesdays ago (sorry..a little behind!) was on composting and why we organic gardeners LOVE this free black gold treasure!
We don't feed the plants, we feed the soil and let the soil feed the plants. Compost is made up of partially decomposed organic materials, mostly plants and the manures of plant eating animals, and the soil dwelling microbes that do the decomposing. Compost helps the garden by providing nutrition needed for vigorous plant growth, improving soil structure, increasing the ability of soil to retain water, contributing to the health of plants, moderating soil pH, and feeding soil organisms. No wonder we love it so much and so does our plants!
In the The Garden of Concord, we begin, side dress, and end our beds and seasons with compost and lots of it. We have been feeding and making our own compost from the beginning and supplementing the large volume needed with gracious donations from Brooks Compost every year. One of my favorite days of the year is when the semi from Brooks pulls up early Spring and I stand there smiling and thanking God while watching 38 yards of rich dark dirt dumped into a huge pile that the kids will be so excited about at the the next garden work night! Without getting too technical,I will share with you some of the basics that I have learned and how we make our compost.
Getting the right balance and recipe for compost is not too difficult, however, the finished product occurs faster if you follow a few simple guidelines. Like everything else that grows, Compost is made up of many elements. The two most important are carbon and nitrogen. Carbon is the "brown" component of compost and would involve the layering of sources such as dried out stems, stalks, or leaves of plants, straw, hay, dried out pea, and bean vines, and fall leaves. All free stuff naturally occurring and gifts from God! The nitrogen element, or "green" factor would include grass clippings, kitchen scraps (veggies, fruits, eggshells, stale bread, coffee grinds..) and any non diseased freshly pulled up plant debris. Our chickens do their part by donating their droppings and feathers when we clean out their coop area.
We had originally built a 4-Bin system using scrap lumber and have since added additional bins with donated pallets for the sides tied together and also one on the bottom (great for airflow). We begin a pile by layering 6" of browns and then following with some greens, then a thin layer of dirt or finished compost and this is when the chickens donations can be added also. Time for more browns again with approx 3" of crunchy dry stuff. The layering then continues while trying to keep a ratio of approximately 30-1 by weight and roughly 3"-1" in volume. Two additional important elements to the living compost is providing sufficient air flow and water. We water in between layers for the consistency to resemble a wrung out sponge and also by turning the pile frequently (after the pile has been layered up to 4'), sufficient airflow will be obtained. Without the above 4 elements and layering increments, the pile will not heat up properly, will delay a timely completion, and maybe get smelly! We strive for workable finished compost within 4 months, but you can still get some good compost w/o a lot of effort by letting it just sit for a year or more.
A fully layered 4' pile should heat up to approx 140-160 degrees fairly quickly and stay up there for 3 weeks or so. If the temp starts dropping, we make sure it has been well watered and fluffed up a bit. After 3-4 weeks, it is time to turn the pile (moving the materials from the outside top to the center bottom) to Bin #2 with then continued frequent watering, fluffing, and checking temp to see if it is maintaining a good heated temp range to around 110 degrees. Another 3-4 weeks later, time to turn to #3 and then subsequently to #4. The temp finally drops to around 80 degrees and we then work it through a sifter we made to shred up and remove any large pieces such as non-decomposed branches. If the pile is not reheating at this point and remaining at around 80 degrees or below, it is considered stable and ready to feed to the garden!
That is my version of "Composting 101" excluding many more details that I could go into, but our Garden Gritz break is over and it is time to get back to work and take care of God's creation!
It WILL be good!
-Donna
We don't feed the plants, we feed the soil and let the soil feed the plants. Compost is made up of partially decomposed organic materials, mostly plants and the manures of plant eating animals, and the soil dwelling microbes that do the decomposing. Compost helps the garden by providing nutrition needed for vigorous plant growth, improving soil structure, increasing the ability of soil to retain water, contributing to the health of plants, moderating soil pH, and feeding soil organisms. No wonder we love it so much and so does our plants!
In the The Garden of Concord, we begin, side dress, and end our beds and seasons with compost and lots of it. We have been feeding and making our own compost from the beginning and supplementing the large volume needed with gracious donations from Brooks Compost every year. One of my favorite days of the year is when the semi from Brooks pulls up early Spring and I stand there smiling and thanking God while watching 38 yards of rich dark dirt dumped into a huge pile that the kids will be so excited about at the the next garden work night! Without getting too technical,I will share with you some of the basics that I have learned and how we make our compost.
Getting the right balance and recipe for compost is not too difficult, however, the finished product occurs faster if you follow a few simple guidelines. Like everything else that grows, Compost is made up of many elements. The two most important are carbon and nitrogen. Carbon is the "brown" component of compost and would involve the layering of sources such as dried out stems, stalks, or leaves of plants, straw, hay, dried out pea, and bean vines, and fall leaves. All free stuff naturally occurring and gifts from God! The nitrogen element, or "green" factor would include grass clippings, kitchen scraps (veggies, fruits, eggshells, stale bread, coffee grinds..) and any non diseased freshly pulled up plant debris. Our chickens do their part by donating their droppings and feathers when we clean out their coop area.
We had originally built a 4-Bin system using scrap lumber and have since added additional bins with donated pallets for the sides tied together and also one on the bottom (great for airflow). We begin a pile by layering 6" of browns and then following with some greens, then a thin layer of dirt or finished compost and this is when the chickens donations can be added also. Time for more browns again with approx 3" of crunchy dry stuff. The layering then continues while trying to keep a ratio of approximately 30-1 by weight and roughly 3"-1" in volume. Two additional important elements to the living compost is providing sufficient air flow and water. We water in between layers for the consistency to resemble a wrung out sponge and also by turning the pile frequently (after the pile has been layered up to 4'), sufficient airflow will be obtained. Without the above 4 elements and layering increments, the pile will not heat up properly, will delay a timely completion, and maybe get smelly! We strive for workable finished compost within 4 months, but you can still get some good compost w/o a lot of effort by letting it just sit for a year or more.
A fully layered 4' pile should heat up to approx 140-160 degrees fairly quickly and stay up there for 3 weeks or so. If the temp starts dropping, we make sure it has been well watered and fluffed up a bit. After 3-4 weeks, it is time to turn the pile (moving the materials from the outside top to the center bottom) to Bin #2 with then continued frequent watering, fluffing, and checking temp to see if it is maintaining a good heated temp range to around 110 degrees. Another 3-4 weeks later, time to turn to #3 and then subsequently to #4. The temp finally drops to around 80 degrees and we then work it through a sifter we made to shred up and remove any large pieces such as non-decomposed branches. If the pile is not reheating at this point and remaining at around 80 degrees or below, it is considered stable and ready to feed to the garden!
That is my version of "Composting 101" excluding many more details that I could go into, but our Garden Gritz break is over and it is time to get back to work and take care of God's creation!
It WILL be good!
-Donna
Sunday, July 10, 2011
SAVE (and change) the date(s)!
Hi everyone.
We have several garden activities planted this month that you won't want to miss! We continue to slide into the week on Monday nights with lots of cool water splashing fun and on Wednesday's, we break for Garden Gritz with thyme for the kidz at 6! No cooking on Friday, July 29th (postponed from the 16th) as we join together to feast at our Tomato Sandwich Dinner from 6-8 in the fellowship hall. On Sunday, July 31st (originally scheduled for the 10th) from 2-4:30, we welcome Ron Vietel from Saxapahaw General Store for Part II of our summer series "Nurturing our Nutrition".
The kids will have a BLAST the week of July 17-21 with an "out of this world" vacation bible school planned with Concord UMC. Galactic-Blast takes off on Sunday, the 17th and continues through the week beginning with a provided meal at 5:45 pm followed by a full spaceship of discoveries, stories, singing, dancing, crafting, and praising God! The activities conclude each night at 8:30 and there will be a special performance by the kids on Sunday morning, the 24th followed by a covered dish fellowship luncheon. For more information, please contact Commander Kevin Miller at kevin.c.miller@duke.edu. Please note that because of all the cosmic activity happening that week, we will not have our Monday night splash night, nor Kidz Thyme scheduled, however, the garden WILL be open and hoping for visitors by the parents of the Jr. Astronauts!
Looking ahead on the calendar for August, we finalize our summer series with a canning class presented by the Alamance County Extension Agency in the afternoon of the 20th as we practice with some of our own harvested tomatoes and cucumbers. On the 26th, we share our favorite garden recipes with each other and the community at our 3rd Annual Harvest Celebration Dinner. All of our dates can be found on our blog (thegardenofconcord.blogspot.com) and the details for our garden events will be provided in succession!
Thank you everyone for a great summer and your continued support of our garden! It WILL be good!
-Donna
We have several garden activities planted this month that you won't want to miss! We continue to slide into the week on Monday nights with lots of cool water splashing fun and on Wednesday's, we break for Garden Gritz with thyme for the kidz at 6! No cooking on Friday, July 29th (postponed from the 16th) as we join together to feast at our Tomato Sandwich Dinner from 6-8 in the fellowship hall. On Sunday, July 31st (originally scheduled for the 10th) from 2-4:30, we welcome Ron Vietel from Saxapahaw General Store for Part II of our summer series "Nurturing our Nutrition".
The kids will have a BLAST the week of July 17-21 with an "out of this world" vacation bible school planned with Concord UMC. Galactic-Blast takes off on Sunday, the 17th and continues through the week beginning with a provided meal at 5:45 pm followed by a full spaceship of discoveries, stories, singing, dancing, crafting, and praising God! The activities conclude each night at 8:30 and there will be a special performance by the kids on Sunday morning, the 24th followed by a covered dish fellowship luncheon. For more information, please contact Commander Kevin Miller at kevin.c.miller@duke.edu. Please note that because of all the cosmic activity happening that week, we will not have our Monday night splash night, nor Kidz Thyme scheduled, however, the garden WILL be open and hoping for visitors by the parents of the Jr. Astronauts!
Looking ahead on the calendar for August, we finalize our summer series with a canning class presented by the Alamance County Extension Agency in the afternoon of the 20th as we practice with some of our own harvested tomatoes and cucumbers. On the 26th, we share our favorite garden recipes with each other and the community at our 3rd Annual Harvest Celebration Dinner. All of our dates can be found on our blog (thegardenofconcord.blogspot.com) and the details for our garden events will be provided in succession!
Thank you everyone for a great summer and your continued support of our garden! It WILL be good!
-Donna
Monday, July 4, 2011
FIREWORKS in the garden with lots of RED tomatoes, WHITE potatoes, and berry good BLUEberries!
Happy July everyone and thank you for all of your help, support, and prayers for our garden. Our hot nights have been on fire with many members and kids (and chickens) working and taking care of our garden while enjoying abundant harvests graced by our God. We have been sliding into summer on Monday nights with lots of water fun, water pools, and watermelon and will continue through the remaining summer. Come splash with us…it WILL be cool! “Kidz Thyme” from 6-7pm on Wednesday nights has now been paralleled with “Garden Gritz” at 6:30 every week for a short water break and chat about garden tips and topics.
While we have retired most of our spring plantings, we are still harvesting Swiss chard, carrots, lots of basil, dill, parsley, and other herbs, along with a few strawberries still sighted. We have begun harvesting blueberries, beans (green, yellow, and burgundy!), potatoes, jalapeno and banana peppers, leeks, and even a few tomatoes! Stock up on your Duke’s mayo because we have over 200 tomato plants in ground to harvest until the first frost. The peppers and eggplant have begun flowering while the beds of sweet potatoes, cantaloupes, cucumbers, and watermelons are all filling up fast. We also look forward to one of our newest plantings..Edamame beans!
This past month we had our first gathering of our Summer Series “Nurturing our Nutrition” with the class, "Learn How To Make Cultured Vegetables" led by garden member, Denise Kennedy. Over 20 people shared in fellowship and tastings while listening and participating in a hands on demonstration along with a great Q & A session about general nutrition. Our next class will be on the 31st of this month from 2-4pm with Ron Veitel, the general manager and chef from Saxapahaw General Store sharing a presentation on nutrition and the benefits of consuming healthy, organic, and locally grown foods. More information will be provided soon. Also save the date for Friday the 29th to attend our Tomato Sandwich Dinner from 6-8pm. Yum!
Our next GAB (Garden Advisory Board) meeting will be held on Thursday, July 7th at 7pm and is open to anyone interested in sharing ideas and/or learning more about our garden.
Thank you again everyone for a super summer! Praying for many July blessings (and more rain)!
It WILL be good!
-Donna Poe
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