The Steering Committee met Friday, October 1, 2004 at the Del Mar Center. Present were: Chair Tom Warnock, Vice Chair Ralph Rasmussen, Dianne Rasmussen, Jim Grenwelge, Sally Skibbins, MA Brauer, Ben Klagenberg, Maria Bardini-Perkins, and Chester Case.
The meeting began on a sad note as the Committee remembered two Gardeners who recently passed away, Paul Thiene and Wink Franklin. They will be missed.
Chair Tom headed into planning for the Annual Posh Squash Harvest Dinner. It will be celebrated at the White Barn on Wednesday, November 3, 2004, from 5:30-8:00. The Harvest Dinner is the grand wrap-up of the growing season and an occasion not to be missed. Jim Grenwelge is the overall organizer and planner. Dianne Rasmussen and a crew of Gardeners are in charge of table decorations. As in the past, the bounty of the Garden finds its way onto the tables in a cascade of squashes, pumpkins, gourds, and flowers. At the end of the dinner, Gardeners take the decorations -- which are presently stored at the Garden adorned with “do not take” signs -- home with them. Susan Grenwelge has created another fine poster announcing the Dinner; it is posted around The Sea Ranch. Day Crews have received their assignments for the potluck, with the request that vegetarian dishes be indicated with a card marked “V.”
Tom invited nominations for the Gardener of the Year Award, the Peter Farmer Award, and special awards. Last year’s award winners, Dianne Rasmussen and Ken Holmes, will lead the selection process this year. Awards will be made at the Harvest Dinner.
Discussion turned to retiring beds and preparing the Garden for the winter, not that the Garden is totally fallow in the winter. A work party to plant garlic will be held in the first weeks of November, weather permitting. Since Day Crews are making good progress with mulching beds, it does not look like a work party will be needed. Tom commented on the importance of the work party as a productive, efficient way to complete necessary Garden tasks. He asked Day Leaders to remind their Crews that participation is an integral part of a Gardener’s obligations as well as a fine way to get to know other Gardeners, socialize, and feel good about doing important, timely work that otherwise would be very difficult to complete.
The Committee tucked into a good old gardening palaver about approaches to winter mulching. The pros and cons of the newspaper/straw mulch were discussed. The Committee decided to continue with this approach, as it worked very well for weed and insect control and contributed, in the form of over-wintered straw, to the Compost Works. The drawback to newspaper/straw mulch is that it does not add to the soil. The possibilities of “non-tilling” beds were discussed in conjunction with the need Brigitte Micmacker pointed out to rotate the lettuce beds. Green manure cover crop mulches of fava beans and vetch will be planted in former lettuce beds.
Gophers and moles have taken more than their share this year. A population explosion? Jim Grenwelge brought up the idea of erecting tall poles in the Garden to serve as perches for raptors. Daytime, hawk; nighttime, owl. Ben Klagenberg considered the materials and labor required and declared it could be done. The Committee approved the project.
Ralph Rasmussen updated the Committee on the splendid Posh Squash Cookbook project. Sales, initially strong, have leveled off but are expected to pick up as the holiday season approaches. More than enough copies have been sold to recoup the cost, so now all is profit. If sales are good, a second printing will be ordered.
Several announcements:
Think about the holidays and what a swell gift the Posh Squash Cookbook will be for friends or family.
Tom Warnock will retire as Chair of the Steering Committee at the end of this planting year. He has been right in there for four years, doing a great job. He will continue as Friday Day Leader.
Ralph Rasmussen, presently Vice Chair of the Steering Committee, will succeed Tom as Chair. Ralph has been Wednesday Day Leader and a stalwart member of the Steering Committee.
Sally Skibbins, who was one of the original founders of The Garden, had never been Day Leader until she took the Tuesday spot. She will retire as Day Leader this year but continue as a mainstay Gardener on Tuesdays.
Debbie Hoyt, as enthusiastic and hardworking a Gardener as you’d ever hope to see, will assume Day Leader duties for Tuesday.
Linda Warnock, who has had much experience in such matters, will take up the duties of Treasurer.
Reva Basch and Jerry Shifman will be leaving the Garden this year to relocate in the Bay Area. Both have been Gardeners for a long time. Jerry has been a stalwart hand with the rototiller, planting, mulching, construction and repair. Reva created and hosted The Compost Heap website, copy-edited the newsletter and supplied numerous fine photos to both.
Official gardening ends with the Harvest Dinner, but that does not mean the Garden is bereft of good things to pick. Garlic and shallots will be growing. Also growing are cover crops of fava beans and vetch. Pickable in the winter will be varieties of lettuce, bok choi, mustard, kale, cabbage, chard, carrots, broccoli (maybe), snap and sugar peas, as well as herbs and spices like parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Keep your contributions to the Compost Works coming all winter, too. Decay never rests, to our advantage.
Watch for announcement of a winter Garlic Planting Work Party.
The 2005 Organizational Meeting will be in early February at the Del Mar Center. Know anybody who wants to join? Let them know.
How did the Garden do in 2004? To get an overview, The Compost Heap talked to Ken Holmes, Planting Coordinator and Chair of the Planting Committee. We know Ken as the diligent principal author of our Chore Lists, which he emails to Day Leaders weekly along with an update of the Planting Schedule. A Gardener for eight years, Ken became a Day Leader in 1999. This was his first year as solo Planting Coordinator. He had a small Garden before he came to The Sea Ranch, but nothing special, he said. Here, he is attracted to the outdoor, physical activity of Gardening in a beautiful setting. Easy going, reflective Ken enjoys observing and appreciating the cycles of nature, the changing seasons. Before he retired he was a meteorologist. Like many Gardeners, he likes to cook and eat what he has helped grow.
Super responsible and a tireless learner, Ken has added his keen insight and judgments, sense of timing, organizational skills and sensitive awareness of the needs of the plants to what he learned from predecessors Mary Austin, John Horn, Doris Buck, and Tom Warnock.
TCH: How did the Garden do in 2004?
Ken: Great. The best in many years.
TCH: Why? What accounts for the successes?
Ken: Benign weather. MA’s greenhouse was productive and timely. We had workshop lessons, on planting brassicas, for instance, taught by skilled Gardeners. Gardeners took care of certain crops, like Brigitte Micmacker with the lettuces and MA with tomatoes. You know -- “Plant Parenthood.” We transplanted greenhouse squashes and pumpkins this year and had better results than planting from seed. We composted and mulched. We think we reduced root maggots in the brassicas by mulching with straw and newspaper over the winter.
TCH: Any disappointments?
Ken: Well, the same old problem of consistent watering, especially in the seedling beds, that messed up germination.
TCH: What accounts for the long life, vitality and resilience of the Garden?
Ken: The Garden site itself is a factor in its success and vitality. It is simply a beautiful setting. Many non-Gardeners stroll in and show it off to friends and family. There is the sense of community and bonding of like-minded people working at productive tasks in a cooperative spirit of give and take. And of course, the generosity of the landowners who let us use their land is certainly a factor.
TCH: What are the main duties of the Planting Coordinator?
Ken: Deciding what to plant, when, where and how much. We pretty much follow a formula in scheduling, and plant mostly the same variety of crops each year. In scheduling, we keep in mind the needs of the plant, its season, and its nature.
TCH: Good parts of the job?
Ken: Seeing the Garden grow, seeing Gardeners having a good time, seeing the plans work out, seeing the harvest.
TCH: We see Ken as a conductor orchestrating all the rhythms, seasons, needs and dispositions of the great diversity of plants that grow in the Garden, artfully heeding the nature of every plant. Any hard parts of the job?
Ken: A hard part of the job is keeping clear communication and consistency going among Gardeners of variable experience in Gardening.
TCH: What Mary Austin used to deplore as “free-lance gardening,” maybe? But the computerized chore list and regularly updated planting scheduled, emailed weekly to Day Leaders and posted in the Chore Book, has been one of Ken’s achievements in keeping things coordinated. What are your goals for next year, Ken?
Ken: (Chuckle) To repeat this year. Well, maybe try a bed of potatoes, too.
TCH: Ken, what would you like to say to the Gardeners?
Ken: First off, we done good! Thanks for figuring out the Chore List. Like the Garden, get a good rest this winter. Watch for the first warming of the spring sun.
In Memoriam: Paul
Thiene & Wink Franklin
Rye blade Bent over The weight of water. by Gerry Wilson |
With this year’s Harvest Dinner, we wind up the thirtieth consecutive year of continuous cultivation of the Posh Squash. Congratulations to the Gardeners of The Posh Squash, one and all. This has been a great year. With a few exceptions, our crops came in well, and some were bountiful indeed. The usual predictable uncertainties visited us: insects, quail, wet, cold weather, poor germination. But then, what is a Garden except a proposal made in good faith to the soil, sun, water, and seed, with surprises the only guarantee? We are getting the hang of effective operation and management of the Garden; a big thanks to Chair Tom Warnock. The Steering Committee put the organizational plan of the Garden in writing for the first time. More raised beds have been built, filled and mulched for the winter. Evolving is a diversified approach with emphasis on mulching, composting and soil building. “Plant Parenthood” has benefited numerous crops, majorly tomatoes and lettuces. Both were super this year, thanks to MA Brauer and Brigitte Micmacker. We look forward to our thirty-first year in 2005, and hope that next year, we will see our special acre more secure and heading resolutely into its next thirty years.
The Compost Heap will need a new copy editor next season, and the Posh Squash a new webmaster. These might be the same person or not. If you’re interested in either position, contact Reva Basch (reva@well.com).
