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| Year 2 | 2009 |
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| Irrigation News The irrigation system is in and runs on a timer system beginning around 2AM - 7AM every night. The rotation is every 5 days each plot gets around 1/2" and when we get a rain of at least .5", we will skip a day or two. Also, I have installed a spigot and garden hose to be used mainly for washing off your shoes, tools, etc. located next to the shelter. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ With our first year behind us, we are all experts now. Right? Far from it, but at least now many of us that participated last year now know that we cannot manage more than a couple of squash plants at a time but we did okay with our tomatoes, beans, peppers, cucumbers, sunflowers and okra! Some planted watermelons, beets, herbs and potatoes. Did I miss anything? I planted corn, watermelons and cantelopes in a community area for everyone but we only got corn last year. We may try that again this year, depending on the demand we have for plots. The few that planted in the fall did extremely well with cabbage. Did anything else do anything?  What did you learn that you want to share with the others? Let me know and I'll post your comments here! We had some impressive plots and some produced more than others so let us know if you were one of the fortunate ones. Where did you buy your plants? Did you plant seeds or plants? How far apart? Did you fertilize? Any trade secrets? Let me know. Jim and Frances had a great time with their successful plot. Just look at those sunflowers! |
| Gleaning Teams! Last year, many of us were not able to tend to our plots when the crops starting coming in resulting in waste. This year, I want to recruit some people to be on "glean teams" to help us harvest produce before it's too late.  My initial idea is to have some announced "Gleaning Days" occuring on Mondays during the peak of the harvest season. This will give us the weekend to tend to our plots or to ask others to help us gather any produce that needs picking if we are going to be out of town, etc. Also, if you cannot get out to pick the weekend before, but you can get out early in the week, you can let the glean team coordinator know not to pick your produce. The incentive for the glean team members will be that they can keep what they can eat and they'll give the rest to the Church and Community Service or the Food Bank. Comments? Email me. Sam |
 This year, anyone that signs up for a plot along New Street will get an extra 4' for planting some flowers. For these flowerbeds, leave a mulch border so the flowers are not too close to the grass that is cut with a tractor. I am delegating this to you this year to help make our garden more appealing and to give our bees more flowers to visit! We made an executive decision to try planting blueberry bushes along Fairley street this year that will start producing in the second year. Debbie Hanmer is going to coordinate the blueberry bush project and will let us know if she needs some help with that. Turns out that blueberries do very well in our area so we should be getting tons of blueberries from this, if we can keep the birds from beating us to them! Notice that there will be several small mulch piles in the garden to help you in getting your plots looking good in a hurry. I hope to have a shed and tiller for the grass and weed control and if you use ground cover, you must remove after the season along with any cages or stakes that you use. Please do not take any metal stakes or bricks out into the garden this year that may be missed and that could damage the tractor. Thanks for getting involved in this community activity! |
This
year we are going to have 2 bee hives thanks to George "Batman"
Norfleet. This year I hope to have bee hive shelters so we
can
have the hives out in the middle of the garden area but out of the
heat. Also, George is going to give us the honey so we can use for a fund-raiser for our garden expenses for 2010. I am sure these are going to be a hit for Christmas presents in 2009 for our family and for church members too!
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Picnic Shelter and Tool Shed News We have a great picnic shelter with 2 nice picnic tables thanks to Thomas Coughenour's BSA Eagle project. Thomas is an Eagle Scout candidate with BSA Troop 420, sponsored by the Laurinburg Presbyterian Church. This is a great addition to our garden and will be enjoyed for several years to come. We also have the tool storage shelter, thanks to the Presbyterian Church in the Pines for allowing us to use this old troop trailer. Steve Cole and Robert Chavis with Simmons Heating and Air are responsible for refurbishing it and for putting in on blocks and building a nice ramp for access. If you need to access the tool trailer and do not know the combination, please call me at 910-318-3583. Also, please make sure to lock it back if you are the last one working and if you are not, make sure to lock it if the others remaining after you are not getting tools out. We do not want to ever leave it unlocked because many are starting to leave personal tools in it for everyone's use. If you ever use the tiller, make sure to check the oil level by removing the cap. If you can see oil, you are good to go. If not, then pour enough in so that you can see it standing. If you ever notice any problems we any of the tools, please let me know. For your convenience, I have posted a garden roster and plot layout on the wall inside the storage trailer so you can see who your neighbors are, etc. |
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| Join the Garden Group Now! |
If you want to be a part of this group,
please join
by going to our membership page and signing
up at: http://www.ActiveLaurinburg.com.
We are looking forward to gardening with you. We want you! If you have a green thumb or if you have never planted anything, you'll fit right in. |
| Contact me if you have any questions. Sam Thompson - 843-230-7929 or email me at: sam@carolina-mortgage.us. | |