Our First Corporate Donation!

Our garden has been so blessed with donations from local businesses, neighbors, and garden lovers in general. Today we received a donation of two picnic tables from AT&T's office in Bridgeton, Missouri.

AT&T's Vice President of External Affairs in St. Louis wrote, "We applaud your efforts to improve local neighborhoods and we're pleased to make these tables available. We hope they will be enjoyed by all visitors to your community garden."

Children's fun days, garden work days, and garden tours will all benefit from our new garden tables!

Thank you to AT&T for recognizing our efforts and for your donation!

June Work Day Progress!

Braving a St. Louis heat advisory, our volunteers accomplished so much today! Julia, Sharon, Bev, John, Emily, Ed, Linda and Gail helped mulch and weed and plant more cantaloupe in the community area. We also had the benefit of admiring Heidi's artistry as she painted whimsical characters and flowers on our picnic table. We made sure to stay hydrated and rested as often as necessary. Julia brought a kiddie pool for the kids, but several adults got their feet wet to cool off!

Lunch was a good stopping point and we devoured a vegetable "bread pudding" and strawberry shortcake provided by Ed and Linda. Linda had soaked the strawberries in Limoncello and it was a refreshing end to our workday!

Prior to lunch we had a group of friendly bicyclists stop by to quickly tour the garden. Craig and Blue Tapp Scheffer and Gerry Noll were among the group. It's fun to share our progress with anyone who stops by. In fact, area resident Marvin Bruce comes each work day to "supervise" for a few minutes! There is a great picture of him in front of the corn above.

Thank you to everyone who participated and to each and all of you that support our garden through hard work, donations, and especially well wishes!! 

Progress of the Community (shared) Crops

The individual plots are doing great although a few of us had issues with lettuce bolting. Best to plant something else where that lettuce was growing because once it bolts it is too bitter to eat.

It is time for a community crop update. Here is the status by the pictures ordered 1-5:

1. This is the corn that was planted about a month ago during the children's fun day. If you haven't seen it in person go check it out! It is already about 16 inches high! The second round of corn and the popcorn planted last week are coming up too and are about 3 inches tall. 
2. The grape vines are all growing (even the one we thought we lost) and the one in the picture has started attaching itself to the trellis. It is so much fun to watch how each fruit or vegetable grows. They each have their own growing personalities! We may get a small grape crop this year, but next year should be excellent.
3. The herb garden has several plants ready to share. The lemon balm can be picked and used fresh to flavor drinks or dried to use in teas. The cilantro could stand to grow just a bit more, but feel free to take a small amount to flavor your Mexican dishes or guacamole. Sage, Rosemary, Dill and Basil can be snipped for individual use. Please only take what you need so others can enjoy it too!
4. The strawberries have been producing very well. If you see any ripe ones, enjoy them! I let one of the neighborhood boys pick one while he was helping me weed. He said "it looks just like a *real* strawberry!" What a great opportunity to share where our food actually comes from!
5. The watermelon plants are growing! As are the squash, eggplants, cucumbers and pumpkins. Late summer and early fall should be fun!

The community blackberries are starting to form berries now and are growing quickly. The apple trees in the orchard are continuing to grow, but we aren't expecting apples until next year.

All of the plots got a drink of water today, and it is impressive how well everyone is keeping the weeds pulled. Great job to each and every one of you!!