Pierson Park Community Garden

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Pierson Park Community Garden in the McKinleyville Press

Check out the current edition of the McKinleyville Press. There is an article about the Pierson Park Community Garden and the McKinleyville Community Garden Project.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Today in the Garden

From front to back Blue Fescue, Bravo Red Petunia, and Garden Sage

Early this morning, I weeded the ornamental community garden bed. A friend saw me from over at the bank and stopped by to chat about landscaping projects and Costa Rica. I headed home to ready myself for a botanical garden meeting and my last art class; for the latter I was unfortunately late. After lunch at Pachanga Mexicana, I headed home again to pick up the plants that I'd purchased at the Humboldt Botanical Gardens Foundation plant sale and some that they had so nicely donated. I also brought a shovel, wire cutters, gopher wire and pruners. I drove down to the garden, brought the plants over from my car, prepared the bed with some of the Wes Green topsoil-compost mixture purchased by the Humboldt Area Foundation Grassroots Grant. Thanks to Wes for the discount and thanks again to the Humboldt Area Foundation for the grant. Then, I proceeded to wrap the Bravo Red Petunia root balls in gopher wire. I wrapped then planted one by one until I ran out of gopher wire. I planted a couple of Nepetas after wrapping them too. After I ran out of wire, I watered the community beds and my allotment bed. Adrienne stopped by with her Jack Russell Terrier. We talked about JRTs because I have one too and then she started to water her bed and we said our goodbyes. I gathered my plants and tools and put them in the back of my car. I was about to leave when I noticed the Magnolia stellatas also donated to our garden by HBGF needed pruning. I went back to my car, grabbed my pruners and went back into the garden to prune the trees. I love pruning! Jeff Dunk stopped by to pick out one of the plants donated to our garden by North Coast Community Garden Collaborative. He opined that my pruning job "actually looked pretty good". It kind of made me laugh because of the "actually" and I felt pretty content that someone else appreciated my not-so-novice-anymore pruning ability.

Prune dead wood first, next branches crossing other branches, next suckers and last stand back and evaluate if the specimen requires any aesthetic pruning and always clip with the sharp side of the blade flush agaist the part of the branch or trunk that is to remain. I thought I was done with my day at the garden and then as I was leaving I saw the preschoolers coming in line over to the garden. I ran back to my car to grab my camera, which was in my back pocket and then back to the garden to take pictures of the kids. I tried not to interrupt and let them go about their business. They were very interested in gardening except for maybe one or two who were more interested in me. I left after the first little girl began planting. I was out of time and had to pick up my son from track practice. I picked him up, we headed home, passing by the garden. I worked on the post about children gardening and realized that I hadn't taken photos of the community ornamental bed that I'd been working on, so quickly I headed down to the garden and took some photos of the new plantings and then some of other beds that were looking quite nice in the garden.

And here I am at the end of the day, still thinking about the same community garden I was thinking about this morning when I thought about gardening for a bit before art class.

Nitrogen Fixing Cover Crops

Above, Sabra Steinberg's and Jeff Dunk's bed has from right to left a lovely artichoke, garlic and fava beans. According to Jeff, both the fava beans and the garlic thrive in our Humboldt County winters; both plantings act as a delicious food source with the added benefit of protecting the bed throughout the winter as a cover crop.

Fava bean is a nitrogen fixing plant that takes nitrogen from the air and transfers it to the soil, increasing the nutrient value of the soil. Cover crops have the additional benefit of protecting planting areas from soil erosion while the area would otherwise lie fallow. More on cover crops and crop rotation. Below, another community gardener has planted fava beans.

Fava Bean Crop Cover Planting

Preschoolers at the Garden

A group of Rooney Preschoolers visited the garden today. They arrived in an adorable line, each child carrying something to plant. They listened as their teacher showed them how to plant and then began to take turns planting.

Teaching children to garden in a community garden teaches them more than just about growing nutritious food. It offers the children exercise, social interaction and builds a sense of community bridging social, economic, generational and cultural gaps.

Rooney Preschoolers' Garden Bed

Above, at Saturday's community garden meeting, Jamie Rutten selects vegetable starts, an Elk River Nursery donation collected by the North Coast Community Garden Collaborative. Below, Jamie Rutten and Gary Rees discuss the garden's grass roots origin, the upcoming garden expansion project, and soil and bed preparation practices.