GARDEN 2016 - UPDATE 1

Garden area increased

Kale is sprouting fast

Earlier this season the garden committee approved a project (the East Garden) to increase garden space by an additional 20 square feet (approx). This represents an additional 30% increase in overall gardening space. This big project took place over the long weekend. However, a long weekend was not required as the construction of the box took approx fifteen minutes and the supplies used were salvaged pieces of wood, from various other projects, that were headed for the landfill. It may not be the prettiest garden, but, it is expected to be productive...and it was free!

The East Garden - currently houses one dwarf cherry tree

This new garden, The East Garden, is to be a hybrid type of garden. One that serves two purposes. The second purpose is to grow additional vegetables and berries. The primary purpose is to prevent lawn destruction. Over the past several years the back lawn of the PUTP has been dug up many times. There are random divits and larger potholes scattered across the entire area. The hope is that those citizens of the PUTP that have a need to dig will do so in the new garden, thereby centralizing 'destruction' to this one area. This may be referred to as the 'rustic sandbox' in the future.

Toys to some, tools of destruction to others

Some of our young gardeners are spending time learning the ways of the plants. They are planting, watering, weeding and getting their hands dirty. One enthusiastic young garden pupil is constantly testing many of the age old gardening 'rules'. We often take some of these 'rules' as law and never think about questioning them. Which is why it is so refreshing to have young minds helping out in the garden. I can tell you that the age old rule that plants need leaves to live ... is true. The bean plants that recently sprouted appeared to be too leafy. Oskie removed the leaves to help out and ended up confirming the belief that leaves are an essential part of the plant. Hopefully, this lesson applies to all other plants and Oskie does not need to repeat the experiment to be satisfied with his initial results.

Bean plant without leaves

In the process of learning...and de-leafing bean seedlings.