As of the beginning of April we had 20 trays fully seeded in the green house, including assorted lettuces, spinach, basil, beets and kale. You can almost taste the crunch of the first summer salad straight ahead!
By mid-April we will be preparing the next batch of seed trays with peppers and tomatoes. Followed soon thereafter by squashes, cucumbers, melons and more. Some root vegetables get sowed directly into the garden. In fact, the peas and onions are already beginning to take root in several beds along with a healthy crop of garlic. The green world doesn’t waste any time but gets right down to the task of performing more magic.
In the meanwhile, our volunteers have started laying down the spring layer of compost to make ready the beds. Seven out of our 18 beds are fully set for transplanting seedlings from the greenhouse, which usually begins around May 1st, weather permitting. That transplanting will continue, from greenhouse to garden, throughout May.
We have a good feeling about how the growing season is shaping up. We’ve made a couple improvements in the garden layout, including the installation of a few climbing trellises to see if we can get better production from our peas and melons. We are also in the process of making a major upgrade to the irrigation system, which should help improve the overall yield.
Who says gardeners aren’t a competitive bunch? Once again our sights are set on another record-breaking harvest, hoping to far surpass last year’s mark of 1,080 pounds of fresh food. As usual, whatever we do harvest will be donated to Saint Rosalie’s food pantry in Hampton Bays.
And let’s not forget the arthropods, or the birds for that matters. Just adjacent to the vegetable beds, with a generous grant from ReWild Long Island, and help from a group of Hampton Bays home schoolers, we’ve been able to double the size of our pollinator garden this year, in the hopes of keeping all those essential garden helpers well fed and happy.
Those of you who are interested in volunteering, we can always use another pair of hands, if you’re ready to get a little dirty and lend a hand with some digging and weeding. We usually manage to have some fun too. You’ll find us in the garden at St. Joe’s Villa on Tuesday mornings, from 9:30 to 11:30.
And otherwise, please mark your calendars and try to join us for our Earth Day celebration on April 22nd, from 1:00 pm-5:00pm at the Villa, 81 Lynn Ave., Hampton Bays NY. We will have a large assortment of seeds on hand ( $1.00 requested donation per pack) so you can choose your garden favorites.
See you in the garden!
Regards,
Maribeth Fuchs and Daphne Shuttleworth
Garden Managers