Dundee Community Garden This Week

Hello Dundee Community Gardeners and Friends,

Please join us for our workshop and workday this Saturday, April 30.  And we've got a great trip organized for this Sunday May 1 to tour Rebecca Bloom's organic farm. 

Saturday April 30, 10-11 a.m.  Workshop at A.V. Sorenson Center, 48th & Cass: Crop Rotation, Companion Planting, and Natural Pest Control (free)
Refreshments provided by Blue Line Coffee and the Bread Oven.
11 a.m. Work-day at the garden: we'll be putting annuals in the flower beds.

Sunday May 1, Tour of Rebecca Bloom's organic farm in Honey Creek, Iowa
Meet at DCG to carpool/caravan at 12:45 (leaving at 1 p.m. sharp!) or meet us at the farm at 1:30 p.m.  Rain or Shine!

Tour a small organic farm and purchase herbs, veggies and flowers for your garden from Rebecca Bloom, owner/organic grower of BloomsOrganic.
The tour of Fertile Crescent Farm will include a walk around her growing areas, high tunnel production, and the passive solar home she uses for processing vegetables and starting the seedlings.  Rebecca has plants of all kinds, including herbs, cole crops, lettuces, tomatoes, eggplants and peppers, many of which are heirlooms and other unusual varietals.  She also has interesting and unusual flowers. Rebecca  supplies vegetables to top Omaha restaurants, sells plants at Whole Foods Markets, and sells vegetable and starter plants at the Benson Farmer's Market.
Address: 27124 Ski Hill Loop, in Honey Creek, Iowa (near Mt. Crescent Ski Area and Hitchcock Nature area)
Directions: Fertile Crescent Farm is on Ski Hill Loop north of the Mt. Crescent Ski Slope, which is a west turn from the Old Lincoln Highway (#183).
That loop is the 2nd gravel left off of Old Lincoln Highway.  Those who are driving are welcome to give Rebecca a call and she will give very easy-to-follow directions--the farm isn't hard to find.  Rebecca's #s:  402-639-7365 (cell) or 402-455-1890 (home)

Volunteer to help Mow the Garden:
We need another volunteer or two to help keep the grassy areas of the garden mowed.  If you can help, contact Mary at megreen4@cox.net  

Record your Volunteer Hours:
Don't forget to record your volunteer hours on the laminated sign attached to the white water container in the garden.

COMING DUNDEE COMMUNITY GARDEN EVENTS (open to members and friends of Dundee Community Garden):

Saturday May 14, 10 a.m. Workshop at A.V. Sorenson Center, 48th & Cass:  New Varieties-- Cool Crops for Small Gardens (exploring some of the new smaller varieties for small gardens) (free)  Refreshments provided by Blue Line Coffee and the Bread Oven.
11 a.m. Work-day at the garden

Saturday May 21  Dundee Spring Fling  Dundee Community Garden will be sponsoring a plant and seedling swap, and we'll be selling home-made sturdy tomato cages as a fund-raiser.

Coming in early June:  Shed-Raising Party.  We'll get a crew together to build a covered tool rack/sign board.  If you are handy with tools and would like to help build the shed, contact Curt Hickman at curt3@cox.net

COMMUNITY EVENTS:

Gifford Park Community Garden Opening May 7
The Gifford Park Community Garden is pleased to invite you to the Gifford Park Community Garden Opening on Saturday May 7th at the Community Garden (35th and Cass). The event will take place from 11 am -1 pm.
The following events will be offered:

• Face Painting
• Get Your Photo with Your Plot!
• Painting of Garden Stakes – to identify your plot
• Children’s Garden Activities
• Plot Sign Up
• Seed Swap
• And much more!!!

Please join us for this special event. All are welcome and snacks will be provided. We hope to see you there!

Dundee Community Garden Update

Hello Dundee Community Gardeners and friends,


Welcome to our New Garden Members! We had a great turn-out at our New Member Orientation, and also for our Spring Ground-Breaking on Saturday. We got the garden cleaned up and one community (food pantry) bed planted with cool-season greens, so we are going to hold off on having another group work day until Sat. April 30. On April 30 we have our gardening seminar at 10 a.m, and at 11 a.m. we'll have a group work-day and plant the annuals in the flower beds.

New Garden Guidelines: We have some changes to our 2011 Garden Guidelines (attached). An important change that we want all members to be aware of:

"I will harvest my crops when ripe. I understand that if I do not regularly pick my produce when it is ripe, my plants may be harvested by other garden members during group work nights, and my ripe produce will be donated to the Food Pantry."

This change came about because we saw so much excellent produce last year that rotting, un-picked, in people's plots. Since our work nights are Monday nights, our members have all weekend to pick from their plots-- and if you let us know NOT to pick from your plot we can honor that-- but we'd like to see more produce from the garden getting used.

Watering Reminder: Just a reminder that we ask our members to follow the watering guidelines, which include using a watering can and water from the rain barrels whenever possible.

Mowing: We are looking for another member or two to help our current volunteers keep the garden mowed! It would involve bringing your own lawn mower up to the garden. If you can help, let us know!

Dundee Community Garden Gardening Workshops: Thank you to Vince Huebert for leading last weekend's gardening seminar on preparing your soil, and what to plant when. And thanks to our sponsors, Bread Oven and Blue Line Coffe, for the excellent refreshments! For links to the handouts from Vince, go to:

Planting a Home Vegetable Garden www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM819.pdf

Small Plot Vegetable Gardening www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM870A.pdf Small Plot Vegetable Gardening

Garden Soil Management www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM820.pdf

Planting and Harvesting Times for Garden Vegetables www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM534.pdf

Future Dundee Community Garden workshops are listed below.

COMING DUNDEE COMMUNITY GARDEN EVENTS (open to members and friends of Dundee Community Garden):

Saturday April 30, 10-11 a.m. Workshop at A.V. Sorenson: Crop Rotation, Companion planting, and Natural Pest Control (free)

Refreshments provided by Blue Line Coffee and the Bread Oven.

11 a.m. Work-day at the garden: we'll be putting annuals in the flower beds.

Sunday May 1, Tour of Rebecca Bloom's organic farm in Honey Creek, Iowa

Meet at DCG to carpool/caravan at 12:45 (leaving at 1 p.m. sharp!) or meet us at the farm at 1:30 p.m.

Tour a small organic farm and purchase herbs, veggies and flowers for your garden from Rebecca Bloom, owner/organic grower of BloomsOrganic.

The tour of Fertile Crescent Farm will include a walk around her growing areas, high tunnel production, and the passive solar home she uses for processing vegetables and starting the seedlings. Rebecca has plants of all kinds, including herbs, cole crops, lettuces, tomatoes, eggplants and peppers, many of which are heirlooms and other unusual varietals. She also has interesting and unusual flowers. Rebecca supplies vegetables to top Omaha restaurants, sells plants at Whole Foods Markets, and sells vegetable and starter plants at the Benson Farmer's Market.

Address: 27124 Ski Hill Loop, in Honey Creek, Iowa (near Mt. Crescent Ski Area and Hitchcock Nature area)

Directions: Fertile Crescent Farm is on Ski Hill Loop north of the Mt. Crescent Ski Slope, which is a west turn from the Old Lincoln Highway (#183).

That loop is the 2nd gravel left off of Old Lincoln Highway. Those who are driving are welcome to give Rebecca a call and she will give very easy-to-follow directions--the farm isn't hard to find. Rebecca's #s: 402-639-7365 (cell) or 402-455-1890 (home)

Saturday May 14, 10 a.m. Workshop at A.V. Sorenson: New Varieties-- Cool Crops for Small Gardens (exploring some of the new smaller varieties for small gardens) (free) Refreshments provided by Blue Line Coffee and the Bread Oven.

11 a.m. Work-day at the garden

Saturday May 21 Dundee Spring Fling We'll be sponsoring a plant and seedling swap, and we'll be selling home-made sturdy tomato cages as a fund-raiser.

Coming in early June: Shed-Raising Party. We'll get a crew together to build a covered tool rack/sign board. If you are handy with tools and would like to help build the shed, contact Curt Hickman at curt3@cox.net

COMMUNITY EVENT:

Beginning Vegetable Gardening Workshop/Demonstration Series, with UNL Master Gardeners. The Master Gardeners are offering a series of free demonstration classes on beginning vegetable gardening May 7-June 18. See attachment.

Note: If you would like to be removed from the Dundee Community Garden e-mail list, please send an e-mail to megreen4@cox.net and ask to have your name removed.

Dundee Community Garden Workshop and Groundbreaking this Saturday

Hello Dundee Community Gardeners and Friends of the Garden,

This Saturday is our big kick-off: new member orientation, gardening workshop, and spring groundbreaking, all on Saturday!  

After that, we'll have Saturday morning workdays throughout April, 10 a.m. to noon, to get the garden planted.  Come when you can to help!

In May we'll be starting evening work-nights on Monday nights.

See below for details.

Saturday April 9  

9:30 a.m. New Member Registration and Orientation at A.V. Sorenson Center, 48th & Cass.  All new members, please plan on attending!

10 a.m. Workshop at A.V. Sorenson:  How to Grow Your Soil; and What to Grow and When.  Garden member Vince Huebert gives a great overview for new and experienced gardeners.  This one-hour workshop is free and open to the public.  Special bonus: our sponsors The Bread Oven and Blue Line Coffee are providing treats and coffee for all of our workshops!  Thank you to our sponsors!  Please bring your own re-usable mug!

11 a.m.  Spring Clean-Up and Groundbreaking:  bring work gloves and tools such as rakes and shovels.  We'll have a big load of Oma-grow at the garden, ready for you to dig into your plots.

Saturday April 16, Workday, 10-12

Saturday April 23, Workday, 10-12

Saturday April 30  10 a.m. Workshop at A.V. Sorenson: Crop Rotation, Companion planting, and Natural Pest Control

11 a.m. Work-day at the garden

Saturday May 14   10 a.m. Workshop at A.V. Sorenson:  New Varieties-- Cool Crops for Small Gardens (exploring some of the new smaller varieties for small gardens)

11 a.m. Work-day at the garden

Saturday May 21  Dundee Spring Fling  We'll be sponsoring a plant and seedling swap, and we'll be selling home-made sturdy tomato cages as a fund-raiser. 

Coming in early June:  Shed-Raising Party.  We'll get a crew together to build a covered tool rack/sign board.  If you are handy with tools and would like to help build the shed, contact Curt Hickman at curt3@cox.net

Note: If you would like to be removed from the Dundee Community Garden e-mail list, please send an e-mail to megreen4@cox.net and ask to have your name removed