Digging in for the Winter

It has been a wonderful year at the Community Garden. The Garden has been put to bed for the winter.  Look for a Thank You in the Rapphannock Record to all of the people who donated time and supplies to the garden.  We are already planning for next year and have some fun ideas in store!  We'll keep you posted.

The Garden doesn't grow only vegetables....

This week we found some baby bunnies!  I know, it shouldn't be exciting because they'll probably eat all our fall seedlings...but they are quite cute.  Here is a picture of one of them.  It IS a donation garden isn't it?!?

MORE IMPORTANT NEWS!
This week we donated 160 pounds of produce to the Northern Neck Food Bank.  This went to serve 75 families in Westmoreland.  Please keep the community donations coming! We had over 50 pounds donated to our red bin. 
Happy Growing!

Our Red Bin is Working!

Thank you so much to those of you who donated your extra garden produce to our "red bin!"  Here is a picture of what we received this week. Keep it comin'!

Donation Totals

Update:  The Bay Center Community Garden has so far this year donated just over 200 lbs of produce to the Northern Neck Food Bank!

Bounty

The Garden is really starting to produce.  Last week Carolyn and Kirsten took over 20 lbs of produce to the Food Bank. Here is a picture of the squash, turnips, kale, swiss chard, tat soi, and cucumbers we picked.  

Soon we will be inundated with tomatos!

And our cucumber and squash plants are quite vigorous!



Beautiful Garden

The Garden is beautiful after the last two days of steady rain.  On Saturday we made our third donation of nearly 10 lbs (that's a lot when its all greens!)  of produce to the Northern Neck Food Bank.  Our fridge (Thank you Donna!) is installed and we now have storage space for produce.  If you are a gardener with extra produce shoot us an email at baycentergarden@gmail.com and we'll tell you how to get the veggies to us so we can add them to our Saturday donations.
Garden Pictures Coming Soon!

Our First Donation

This week has been very exciting in the garden.  Our plants are growing in leaps and bounds. This week we were able to harvest nearly 13 pounds of produce to donate to the Northern Neck Food Bank.  Also, soon we will have a fridge on the back porch of the Bay Center so gardeners with extra produce can add to our garden donation. 

Gutters!

The rain this weekend was very exciting.  It watered our seedlings, and our new strawberries and blackberries.  But it also filled up our new rain barrels!  This past Friday gutters were installed on our garden shed!

Also, we have established a schedule.  Someone will be at the BCCG every Thursday from 4-6, and the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month from 10-12 to help guide you through the work needed in the garden.  Of course feel free to come volunteer any time you have available.  There is a binder in the garden shed with notes about what has been done by previous volunteers.

Hope to see you soon!

Update!

What a productive few weeks.   On April 23rd we were able to plant most of the garden.  Since then it has been a joy watching all the little seedlings come up!  This past Saturday Carolyn's sister came to help and did an amazing job clearing ivy off of our garden shed and setting up our rain barrels in anticipation of gutters and a rain shower! Thank's to Carolyn and Tara we now have 3 rain barrels ready to go.  Kirsten spent some time weeding the paths and Matt came in the afternoon to mulch them so no weeds will get through! I bet they'll find a way though!

We have come such a long way since having the idea for the community garden, but there are still a few things we need. Let us know if you are willing to donate.  Here is a list!

Hand tools (all types)
Garden gloves
Tomato cages
Garden rake
Mulch
Scale (10 lbs at least)
Tiller
Supplies for a compost system
lumber for cold frames
Straw bales

Thanks!
Kirsten

FRESH the Movie

The Bay Center for Spiritual Development will be hosting a screening of the movie FRESH on May 5th, 2011 at 6:30 PM.   This is a great movie about possibilities for local sustainable food systems.  There is a suggested donation of $10 to benefit the Bay Center.  Please come! If you want to know more check out the movie's website at freshthemovie.com.

First garden work day a success!

This past Saturday the Bay Center Community Garden had its first work day.  We tilled, composted, and mulched with newspaper. Thank you so much to everyone who came to help!