The 2016 gardening season has been a roller coaster so far…We started the season without two of our long-time gardeners, Campos’ founder Beverly McClain, who died last summer, finally succumbing to breast cancer she had fought for years, and Chef Christo Gonzales who died early last year and leaves a beautiful plot, a widow and a son behind.
Things looked tough in the beginning, wet, cold, no sun to be found, a new round of soil that seemed less than fertile and nothing coming up. Following in the footsteps of “Gangsta Gardener,” Ron Finley, I swore a blood oath to make the soil an offer it couldn’t refuse–I’ll nurture you and feed you well and you will produce.
After the very slow beginning, lots of replanting, feeding the soil numerous times with organic fertilizers like compost, blood meal and fish emulsion, along with Dr. Earth’s Organic tomato, vegetable and herb fertilizer, the garden began a slow incline and whoosh, suddenly we are off with a BANG and things are lush and ripening fast.
Here’s a photo journey through the first half of 2016 gardening season at Campos Community Garden and Children’s Garden at Campos.
Wet, Cold Spring Threatened to Put a Wet Blanket on Season’s Gardening Party
The early part of the season was a struggle, and raising some beds required new soil that needed much amending. I had started some plants in the late winter and they were healthy enough going into the ground, but some struggled quite a bit until the sun and the heat started showing up. Peas were a complete bust this year–we planted on St. Patrick’s Day, but the plants struggled, and starving birds and little pests looking for the first fresh food nibbled them away, even under screened covers. The photos don’t show quite the nadir of this cold spring and lack of oomph that stuck around well through May into June. Many seeds had to be replanted, though some turned out not to have rotted and came up in double timed frequency. Thinning became a challenge.
Campos Children’s Garden Herb Spiral: an Evolving Living Sculpture
The herb spiral has changed in composition, mostly through its own doing. Strawberries at the top of the spiral were one thing that thrived during the cold spring, spreading shoots into the lower regions and producing bounties of juicy fresh berries for kids and fellow gardeners to enjoy. Bergamot or orange mint is also spreading, a bit too much and we have donated bundles of it (and nearby sage) to a local affordable CSA that distributes out of Campos. Lavender is practically a cottage industry and in a future post, we’ll show you how we made teas and bath sachets out of the abundant lavender, mints, lemon balm, calendula and other herbs and flowers we have growing in the herb spiral and around the Children’s garden.
Suddenly Playing Catch-Up, Garden Becomes Lush, Dense, Runaway Forest of Life
As noted, weird timing and overplanting have shown up in an amazing bounty of plants. Choosing which plants to thin has become challenging, including finding where to properly pull them. Seedlings, particularly the many many Thai and Cinnamon Basil plants are harvested whole to make room for the other plants.
A new feature of the garden are potatoes! Started in a leftover straw bale from two seasons ago planted with two kinds of potatoes (Desiree, a small red variety and Yukon Gold, which are perfect for mashing), the eyes began growing stems like wildfire. Keeping much of growing leaves buried is key so healthy potatoes form under the soil. But these out of control plants needed their own temporary bin, leftover wood tied together with nylon twine and surrounding the bale as soil and compost gets repeatedly piled on top. We’ll keep you posted on our experiment when we cut the twine in the fall and dig through this rich soil to see if there are potatoes under there.
Look out for our next post–The Pollinators of Campos Garden!
