Hello All,
As we are planning this Fantastic Event for Memorial weekend, we have come across some really great stories. My favorite story is about All People’s Church located around 2nd and Clark in Milwaukee. Two years ago All People’s had a thriving community garden kitty corner from the church. Here they rented a lot from the city to do garden programming with their congregation and neighborhood children.
The city approached them one day and said, ‘The lot has been sold. You have three days until the bulldozer arrives.” They moved everything. The garden was dozed….and then they waited…..because no one ever bought the land. The deal fell through.
I’m relieved the Karmic Debt on this one weighs on someone else’s soul.
This year, they are rebuilding. They have a new lease with the city and new energy going in to the lot. We will be going on blitz day to help them along. We need volunteers…and then we need more volunteers. Your actions make a difference in the lives of others. So come join us on Blitz Day to help rebuild this much-needed inner city green space.
Now – What is your Victory Garden Story…I invite you to share with us. We want to hear about you!
Filed under: Events
From my friend, Mike the Worm Guy
G.,
I am having our own home garden Blitz during the month of May, as time permits.
We have expanded our garden area and reduced lawn space. Our new garden is approximately 1,000 sf (20′ X 50′) in overall size.
This garden expansion is 3X larger than what we had previously. Before the end of May, we will need to put in a painted cinder block border, a short boundary fence, path stones, and have all of the new planting beds amended with compost(s) and vermiculite.
We like to use cinder blocks because we use the 2 holes in each block as planting spaces. There is no use having a border that does not have more than one function. We have a cement based paint made up. My wife picks the color. The cinder block boundary wall provides over 200 additional plant spaces for vegees or flowers. Each block space is about 1 quart in volume.
I turned all of the ground using a shovel. Once the ground had been turned, yesterday I have worked the ground up down about 14 inches to open it up and get rid of grass using a rototiller. I rototilled in 3 directions in order to really get the ground worked. I will only rototill once in this garden’s life. I am a little sore and glad I do not rototill for a living. Rototilling for solid 6 hours is enough.
BTW…..Though it take longer pre-turning the ground with a shovel makes the rototilling step much more efficient.
Once the beds are designated than I will amended each bed with compost(s) and vermiculite. The beds will NEVER be walked on after this. From now on, the ground will only be turned using a shovel. As I mentioned, rototilling is a one-time only activity.
We will be direct soil seeding some vegees this weekend and planting transplants on around Memorial Day weekend.
We look forward to our new garden being plant ready and moving onto the next step of ‘watching it grow’…….
Mike