Hello Members!
August 6 Work Party: The work party is this Saturday, August 6 from 7:30 – 9:30 AM and the garden will be closed until 9:30 AM for the general membership. Now is a great time to get some hours completed. 4 hours are required by April 30, in order to renew your membership and 2 of the hours are due by December 30. As we saw last year, many members ended up having to pay for hours because they left it to the last minute. For everyone’s safety, we will check everyone in at the gate and provide instructions for your assignment in order to keep everyone socially distanced. Masks are recommended if you are near anyone that is not a direct family member. We have a number of assignments that are important to maintain the infrastructure of the garden – please do your part.
Please let us know if you will be attending by replying to this email so we can plan accordingly.
Further, we do have some permanent assignments available that you could sign up for. These are assignments that take 10 – 30 minutes each week and can simply be added to your regular garden work on your own time. These can be very satisfying endeavors.
We Need Volunteers For These Permanent Assignments:
- Food Bank deliveries once per week
- Plumbing repairs as needed
Coffee Grounds in the Garden:
Coffee grounds are a good addition to the garden soil or compost pile. They can encourage the growth of micro-organisms and worms and can improve the tilth of the soil. Coffee grounds have little effect on soil pH.For compost, limit the amount of grounds to no more than 20%. Too much can inhibit growth of some plants like lettuce. As a mulch, do not put more than ½” as the grounds can create a dense mat that repels water.They can be mixed directly into the soil. You will need to add additional nitrogen as the grounds are broken down by bacteria and micro-organisms.
Use grounds sparingly and check for any impacts on your new plants. We will be getting donations of coffee grounds from local coffee houses. Look for them at the gazebo and corners near the manure piles in the future.
Source:
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/soil-compost/coffee-grounds-composting
https://extension.arizona.edu/using-coffee-grounds-garden
End of Summer / Beginning of Winter Season: By the end of August, gardens will be coming to the end of their Summer seasonal production. If plants are failing, we strongly recommend removal — even if these areas are vacant for a month. It is better to remove old rotted crops than to leave them to increase spread of disease. In September, consider removing all crops and starting to prep for winter planting.
We hope everyone had a productive summer season — tomatoes are wonderful. Too bad we could not have our traditional Tomato Tasting at the picnic which had to be cancelled. Thanks to everyone who donated your 10% to the Food Bank as it was and continues to be greatly needed due to COVID.
For Winter, you should be thinking of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces, etc. Look at the Planting Calendar for So California on the lbcg.org website.
Garden Reviews: All plots will be reviewed the first Week of every month with a 2nd review mid month. Please be sure your plot is in compliance and dig out all weeds in the plot and pathways and be sure that there is no overgrowth of plants outside of your plot borders.
Current Plot Issues:
- Plants growing into pathways
- Weedy plots and pathways
- Sunflowers too close to borders
Boxes for Food Bank Deliveries: We are always looking for boxes to deliver vegetables to the missions. If you have any, please place them on top or bottom of the cages in the Food Bank at the gazebo. We need small to medium sized boxes, NOT large ones as they become too heavy. The amount of produce contributed to the Long Beach Mission and other charities was amazing this year. Those of you who contributed your 10% and more should feel very good about this at a time when so many are in need.
Garden Share Area – SW Corner Behind Manure Wall/Next to Dirt Plot: The garden share area is in the southwest corner behind the manure pile and to the right of Q15. If you have something that you no longer use or need but someone else could use, please place it in this corner. If you find something there that you can use, feel free to take it. Please leave only things that other gardeners may want to use and refrain from putting “junk” or unusable materials in the Share Area. Junk should be discarded in the gray bins. Metal cages that are no longer usable should be crushed by stomping on them before placing them in the trash so they don’t take up all the room.
Board Meetings: Bi-monthly Board meetings are held the 1st Monday of the even months by Zoom from 6:30 – 7:30pm. Garden members who are interested should contact the President or email us at info@lbcg.org to receive an invitation to the meeting.