PESTO FESTO 2! & The EarthDance Mission Awards

Hello all,

Please mark your calendars for the upcoming PESTO FESTO this summer! Molly Rockamann and EarthDance have booked the 2nd annual Community Celebration of local FARMS - Food, Art, Relationships, Music, & Sustainability at the Savoy on Saturday, November 7th, 2009.
Tickets will sell out quickly. Order yours now!!

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/72363

Thanks to St. Louis Earth Day -- this will be a ZERO WASTE EVENT!
www.stlouisearthday.org

All proceeds benefit EarthDance's Organic Farming Apprenticeship Program & Camp EarthDance!

http://www.earthdancefarms.org

HOT! Volunteer Work Day

It is hard to believe that the Dog Days of Summer now start in June! Thank you to the courageous volunteers who gave 100% despite the 100+ heat index: Sue, Gail, Dwayne, and Joe. Even though we weren't able to work much past 1:00pm, we still managed to get quite a bit accomplished today. The hedges are all mulched on the Mueller side, we set the trellises for the grape vines, we dug the holes for the compost area, and we put up the sign! It's been so much fun seeing the small steps add up and make a BIG difference.

Also, thanks to those that stopped by and offered encouragement. That positive energy is just what our Community Garden needs!

Volunteer Work Day Saturday June 27, 2009

Come join us at the corner of Mueller and Suburban Saturday morning at 9:00 (or anytime throughout the day!) for some good old-fashioned hard work. Some of the tasks (from low to increasing manual labor effort) include spreading mulch around remaining hedges, spreading more woodchips in the orchard, clearing more brush back by the creek, building the trellises and building the compost bins.

We plan on bringing our grill and providing volunteers with brats and hot dogs for lunch and we'll have a couple coolers with bottled water to keep everyone hydrated in the heat.

Items to bring if you have them: wheelbarrow, rake, gallon jugs (empty milk jugs will work!)

We'll see those of you that can make it on Saturday!

Successful Fund Raiser & Garden Signs

This past Friday evening, we hosted a food booth at the Ferguson Concert Series as a joint fundraiser with Robert-Superior's Community Garden. Even though it was H-O-T, the turnout was pretty good and several folks were very generous in supporting our efforts. We managed to clear about $100 per garden and had a good time doing it. We were also invited to do another sometime this summer, so if you couldn't make this past one we'll give plenty of notice for the next.

In other news, we got the garden signs ordered this past week. Our intent is to be able to put them up at the next work day (Saturday June 27th!!) The picture above is of the main sign and then we'll also have a separate Sponsors Sign to be used beginning next year.

Concert Series Fundraiser this Friday Night!

Click to Enlarge

News: The Good, the Bad, and the Good

First the good news: We finished mulching the row of hedges along Suburban Avenue, mulched around the apple trees, and covered up the stump holes.

Now the bad: We lost one of the apple trees and noticed one of the hedges was broken at the base.

Turning the bad news into good news: We found a replacement apple tree on sale (the same type) and replaced the nearly-dead one. Also, we kept 10 spares for the hedges and easily replaced that one. Then the remaining spare hedge plants were potted. We'll keep an eye out on the hedge row for the next couple weeks and replace any that aren't thriving. We also hope to have good news over the next week regarding the signs for the garden.

Weekend Update

Friday evening we finished planting the remaining hedge plants. A group of cousins stopped for a while and learned the differences between night crawlers, grubs and good ol' earthworms. They helped throw the leftover clods of dirt into a pile and enjoyed throwing several of them into a puddle. We told them they could stop by anytime we were working and help. That suited them just fine.

Today is Mueller's block party and Larry went down there to hand out movie night flyers and chat up the garden with the residents there. We were told that the garden was where people had parked for the party in previous years. We had a moment of horror about someone driving over our newly planted "little guys". No plant was harmed and here's why: When Larry actually pulled into the garden (where the road/pathway will go), Cortez across the street came over yelling "you can't park there!" When he realized it was Larry, he told him that he was keeping all of our (and Cortez's) hard work safe!

That's exactly what we had hoped for: A vested interest in the immediate area!

We'll probably finish mulching the hedges Sunday evening. Volunteers are appreciated! (5:30pm)

Hedge Update

The stumps were removed and we were able to move about 20 wheelbarrows-full of the ground-out remains. One stump in particular happened to be in the way of the hedge line, so the timing was perfect on getting it taken care of. Due to rain earlier in the week and a recalculation in placement, there was more digging to be done than we hoped. Craig handled the lion's share of that effort while several of us handled the planting. There were a total of 50 hedges planted, with maybe 20 more left still to do. Not too shabby for an evening's work!

Thanks to all the volunteers, especially on such short notice!! Craig, Sue, Carole, Randy, and Freddie

Stump Removal Today

Mr. Baker is planning on taking out the 6 stumps today for pennies on the dollar of what he normally charges. (He's so fun to talk to too!) This means we'll have more wood chips to move to the back of the lot. If anyone planning to show up tonight has a wheelbarrow we'll be happy to put it to good use!

Volunteer Opportunity Thursday June 4th

The hedges were delivered today from Miller Nurseries. These 2 year plants don't look big, but they are fast growing (up to a foot per year). We decided to go with these "tallhedges" because the description said that it grows green, thick, and heavy foliage all the way to the ground to keep unwanted "guests" out. That's exactly what we're trying to accomplish with these!

Most of the prep work has been done to get these planted. Larry staked out and spray-painted the lines for planting, and our friend and fellow Ferguson resident, Joe Reyna, dug most of the holes yesterday. We are asking for volunteers to help us plant the 70 or so hedges. We'll start on Thursday evening around 5:30. Hope to see you there!