The Compost Heap, Harvest 2003 No. 7

We at TCH decided to harvest some reflections on the growing season past from Gardeners who have taken on special jobs and projects, so we might see -- as we see in the intricacies concealed by the illusion of splendid simplicity in the assembled harvest of squashes and pumpkins -- the marvellous way we make the Garden grow.

2003: A Good Year for the Gardeners and the Garden

The first important work of the garden started in January when the Planting Committee, under the leadership of Ken Holmes and Mary Austin, met and inventoried the seeds and then placed orders for new seeds for the year. The Greenhouse was the next to phase in, and was in full operation by mid-February under the new leadership of Mary Ann Brauer. Ben Klagenberg and his construction crew had a number of projects started, including two new cold frames, new raspberry trellises and watering system, a raised carrot bed, and getting Big Red on its feet.

The weather gods smiled on us during the first three months and we were able to get a good start. My hope was to have all of the beds planted by the Summer Solstice, June 21st, when the sun exposure is at its maximum. We didn't achieve this goal but we didn't miss by very much. We had a summer cold period that slowed down both the garden and greenhouse production. After a good start with the Taxi tomatoes, many of the others have languished and not turned. All during this period, we have enjoyed excellent root crops, good sugar snap peas, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Our usually wonderful raspberries were a disappointment and the strawberries just marginal.

As the summer has moved into fall and we have had a lovely period of good weather, most of the crops have recovered and are doing well; the cucumbers have been overpowering and the herbs first-rate.

This year we had three new experiments underway: the use of kelp as a soil amendment, the use of red plastic for tomato cover, and the use of pomace (grape skin and vineyard leavings) as an additive. Our results were not conclusive; none were negative, so we will continue with them into next year to see if long-term use will be a positive. The use of raised beds has been a definite success.

What are we going to do differently next year? We feel that our mode of operation is sound; what we hope is to do everything in the process a little bit better. This includes what seeds we order, our greenhouse schedule and germination success, when and how we bring beds into service, our watering practices, more raised beds, and many prayers and offerings to the weather gods.

It is always a good year when you have the opportunity to work on something as productive as a garden with people you enjoy and with whom you find a common bond. I hope you will all find in your hearts to join again next season.

2003 Year-End Treasurer's Report

We end the year with a modest cash balance of approximately $3500, of which about $650 is reserved for the Doris Buck trellis. As the very new treasurer for Posh Squash, I am really impressed by how much is accomplished with a very small amount of money.

Our total budget is well under $10,000 annually, with water being our largest single expenditure item. Obviously, operating on a tight budget means that maintaining some reserves is essential, as replacement of any major equipment would strain the annual budget.

I haven't begun to calculate the value of the produce we all enjoy from the garden, but it must be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

How do we do it? With 125 members, each volunteering an average of three hours per week for six months of the year, we have a total of 9000 mostly women-hours (some men) providing the know-how and labor that leverages such a small cash investment into such a bountiful harvest.

Appreciating the Garden

I looked down at my dinner plate the other night and viewed it with a different perspective and a new appreciation. A salad with lettuces of various colors and textures mixed with beautiful sweet gold tomatoes and crunchy chunks of lemon cucumber. Beside it, a steaming serving of mixed zucchini and other summer squashes, and a portion of roasted chicken seasoned with the herbs of our garden. The hands of my fellow gardeners had nurtured most all of it. People I know and had worked beside in our garden all had had a hand in it.

From the team that prepares the compost, to the tillers of the soil, to the planters of the seeds, to the waterers and weeders who spent long hours to make sure that seeds and water and soil, mixed just right with the sun's energy, would yield the harvest we're all able to enjoy near season's end. I've even grown to better appreciate the field workers and farmers that produce so much of our store-bought food.

The Posh Squash has had a mostly very successful year. We've had some disappointments and one or two downright failures, but that seems always to be the case. In the seven years that I've been working in the garden I can't remember a year where something didn't fail to live up to our always-high expectations. I recall only one year when tomatoes ripened in sufficient numbers to make sauces enough for a couple of meals.

So, considering the wide variety of crops we are trying to grow and the natural variations in weather and insect populations that happen each year, we should expect to have some poorer crops here and there. This year, thanks to MA's greenhouse crew, we will have quite a few beds of vegetables growing into early winter. They've already been put into the ground and the mild autumn has given them a good start -- peas, green beans, chard, kale, lettuces and kohlrabi, to name a few. Enjoy the rest of this year's harvest. Your hands and many others have made it possible.

What Rot! In Praise of Compost

Chester Case and Debbie Hoyt, resident compost nuts, have been fretting about the relatively low thermometer readings from their compost bins, heaps and piles. Why not hotter stuff? Not enough nitrogen, too much moisture, insufficient tossing and tumbling? Surely, it can be hotter, thus sterilizing seeds, killing germs, and the like. Then the thermometer broke. Chester bought a new one. Suddenly, the compost is really cooking! Temperatures risen! There must be a moral to this story.

This has been a productive year for Posh Squash compost. Twelve bins have been at work, plus three wire-cage piles and several heaps. The shredder has been howling and grinding away at viney and stalky stuff, which is now going into the piles along with horse manure from the Equestrian Center. Coffee grounds and eggshells are coming to us from Starbucks and Twofish Bakery. Gardeners bring their kitchen trimmings. Spent plants decompose to enrich the next plantings. What an economy, all simply built into the scheme of things, wanting only an assist to fulfill itself.

What grows in the Garden stays in the Garden (except what goes onto Gardeners' tables). When the burn pile is down to ash, it will go into the compost. The Compost Works, if I can be extravagant, is the digestive system of the Garden, and a pungent metaphor for the sustainability of self-renewing systems. Working with compost, witnessing the beneficial metamorphosis of garbage into garden gold, you feel like you are working with the life forces, you and the microbes, worms, insects, fungus and bacteria... You even feel expansive and magnanimous as the raven, raccoon and skunk poke and plunder the piles. There's plenty for all in an ecosystem aspiring to renewability.

Posh Squash Projects and Maintenance

The primary working element in "Projects and Maintenance" is the construction crew. It is made up of 14 members from the overall garden membership. Over the past three years, they have built the garden shed, constructed the raised flower beds, extended the compost from eight to twelve bins, built the greenhouse, and many other projects. Small but essential projects come up all the time, like repairing a fence or gate, fixing a leaking faucet, and the like.

In 2003 the principal projects were the raspberry support and the irrigation system. We added two more cold frames for the green house. Relocated and built a new hose rack. Built four more raised beds from recycled lumber. Questions have been posed regarding the value of raised beds. Why are we doing it? The best answer I can give is: It saves water -- less surface area exposed to the elements compared to the growing area. It reduces erosion -- the garden is on a hillside and the soil keeps moving downhill; with the raised beds, the edges are contained and erosion is reduced. It enhances the ability to develop an improved soil mix. It reduces the effort to weed. It allows for a greater concentration of planting. We use the full width of the bed. We plan to install more raised beds wherever it makes good sense.

During the past year we overhauled the transmission on Big Red, the rototiller. So far it looks like we will get our money's worth out of the effort. Also, we overhauled the shredder, serviced the weedwhackers and the small tillers, the two mantises. On the horizon is the construction of the memorial trellis, a new fence on the south end and a new gate for the entrance.

The Greenhouse

This was my first year as Greenhouse manager so it's hard for me to compare this year to past ones. What has seemed to me the greatest success and most pleasant surprise has been the quality, enthusiasm and dedication of my crew. I call them my elves for all the magical, miracle things they do. They readily learned their skills and went right to work cranking out the "babies." I sure hope all you elves come back next year and work your magic again.

Our main problem child was the squash. We had that extended rainy cold spell in April which they hated and would not come out and play. We had to start over with the zucchini and some of the winter squashes when it was warmer. I bought a heat pad for next year to hopefully remedy this kind of problem. What I would like to work on next year is honing our watering skills.

Our Habitat Garden

The definition of a habitat garden, according to Kate Frey of the organic gardens at the Fetzer Vineyard, is a place in "constant activity... beneficial to man, beast and nature, flowers appealing to bird, man and insects -- such is a habitat garden. No one should be without one."

Dill, chamomile, basil, rosemary, pineapple sage, sunflowers, purple millet, marigolds, cilantro... many plants serve our habitat garden. This year, for instance, we observed aphids attracted to the garlic chives and dahlias instead of to the destruction of other edible plants. Hummingbirds and bees continued to feed and pollinate. Man, bird, insect, nature... all contributing to the well-being of our garden.

My guiding principle for the herb beds in their second year has been to maintain the abundant growth of our collection. And, as the memorial to Doris Buck has become a reality, my goal has been to reorganize the main flower beds to provide a place of beauty and reflection within which the arbor and bench will reside. As I plan for the next growing season, my hope is to organize the care and, most importantly, the proper watering of herbs and flowers as separate from the main vegetable garden.

Posh Squash Collective Memory

It has been my pleasure, for the past year, to maintain the GIANT Posh Squash Scrapbook (begun in 1975), and to begin a new scrapbook for the decade 2000. According to the Society of American Archivists, archives are considered the non-current records of individuals and groups that contain information of enduring value -- in other words, the records of everyday activity that goes on in our community garden. The album for the years 2000-2003 is mainly a collection of fairly current photographs and newsletters. I am in need of and would be happy to receive and include all manner of documentation for these more recent years. Archives benefit everyone; they are a way of supporting our gardening community's collective memory.

The Compost Heap, the Newsletter

This year, Chester Case (editor-in-chief), Reva Basch (copy editor and webmaster) and Jackie Gardener (layout and publication), exceeded all previous records with seven really pretty good issues. During the growing season, almost monthly, The Compost Heap has brought reports from the Steering Committee, news and announcement, features, recipes, photos and haiku to the Gardeners. Contributing Gardeners have varied the fare with columns, reviews and more recipes. But, you say, this must have cost a bundle. Not so; actual cash cost has been amazingly low -- just paper and ink, really. Fortunately for TCH, Jackie donates the services of her hardy computer and printer.

By the way, we didn’t invent the name The Compost Heap, as appropriate as it is. Since its beginning, the Posh Squash has had intermittent newsletters, all with that title.

Now, TCH dives under its mulch and retires for the winter. However, keep your eye on our splendid website, www.jereva.com/PoshSquash, for news and announcements. See you in print next February.

The Posh Squash Website & Email List

The Garden website, or dot.Compost Heap, has just completed its second season. It includes all the articles that appear in the paper edition of the newsletter, and more – features we didn't have space for in print, more complete versions of articles, additional information, and photographs galore. Following each year's organizational meeting, we post that season's Posh Squash roster along with other timely (and timeless) information about procedures and who's in charge of what. If you misplace your paper copy, remember: you can look it up on our website at www.jereva.com/PoshSquash.

If you're searching for an article from a particular issue of The Compost Heap from 2002 to the present, you'll find it on the website, too. You can browse issue by issue, or click to the article index and look up the specific item you want. Eventually, I'd like to add links to other gardening-related sites elsewhere on the web. If you have any favorites, or other suggestions for the website, please do let me know. You can reach me at reva@well.com.

Speaking of email, the Steering Committee has been trying to use that medium more regularly this season to communicate time-critical information to Gardeners, including work parties as well as other developments at, or affecting, the Posh Squash. To that end, please make sure I have your current email address. If you received the recent mailing about what to bring to this year's Harvest Dinner, your records are up to date. If you didn't, please contact me with your email address. That way you'll be on top of whatever news breaks during the next few months, while the Garden, and the Compost Heap editors, take a break.

Report from the Steering Committee

The Steering Committee met Monday, October 27, 2003 at the Del Mar Center. Present were Tom Warnock, Mary Austin, John Horn, Jim Grenwelge, Ben Klagenberg, Dianne Rasmussen, Ralph Rasmussen, Wink Franklin, MA Brauer, and your faithful scribe, Chester Case.

Jim Grenwelge reported on preparations for our Annual Harvest Dinner, which is to be 5:30 pm, Wednesday, November 5, 2003 at the White Barn, and reviewed which days are to bring what provender. As far as anyone could recollect, there has been an annual end- of-the-main-growing-season feast ever since the Garden started. An email will go to Gardeners to remind them of the particulars. The Steering Committee will show up at 4:30 to set up and decorate with the squashes and pumpkins grown this year. Honorary Gardeners and special guests will be invited for the festivities.

The unending quest for the successful tomato crops continues. MA Brauer came upon a “season extender,” a mini-greenhouse of green, perforated plastic to put over a tomato vine, and installed some at her home garden where the vines were fine but the tomatoes wouldn’t ripen. Voilà – good results. Very little water is used. She proposed an experiment with the season extender (which basically captures and holds heat around the vine). The Steering Committee applauded her initiative, and committed a bed for her experiment next year, which will compare the effects on the same variety of tomato of the red plastic mulch (see below), clear plastic, the green plastic "extender," and regular. MA will select the variety, propagate seeds, and plant.

Still pondering the tomato challenge, the Committee considered the results of the red mulch installed this year. Besides being the very devil to plant through, the red, plastic sheet teased us with prolific foilage, bountiful blossoms, a good set of fruit... but not good ripening.

Tomatoes, it was observed, have been a persistently problematic crop: blight, blossom end rot, non-ripening, poor flavor. Over-watering is highly suspected as a culprit. Or not enough. Or selection of unhappy varieties. Or both. So MA’s experiment is welcome. Gardeners will need to observe MA’s procedures and leave the care of the experimental bed to her.

The continuing problem of watering was discussed. Too much, too little, foliage wetted that likes to be dry, erratic. The base source of the problem appears to lie in uneven watering skills among the Gardeners, and differences in opinion of when, how much, and how. Variable weather and quite different needs among our plants compound the problem. This year’s plan of assigning certain crops to particular days appeared to reduce the losses and improve yields. The electronic moisture meter has worked well.

Dianne Rasmussen said she will return to the original plan for watering the flower beds, that is, watering by a designated person with special training, rather than including the flower beds in the overall watering chore for the day.

Ben and the Construction Crew will fall to directly on the Doris Buck Memorial Trellis. Funds are on hand, the design approved, materials ordered. Dianne and Ralph Rasmussen announced their gift of the roses to be planted around the trellis. Anyone wanting to help build should contact Ben. Remodel of the rusty, decrepit wire south fence was discussed, the desired outcome being its accomplishment concurrent with the erection of the trellis.

The Committee continued its discussion of the format and content of an organizational plan. The Committee asked Tom to synthesize the several versions on hand into a draft plan. The Committee agreed on the need for some formalization in writing of the Garden’s organization and practices, and is sensitive to the challenge of finding a balance between enough and too much structure and detail. Chester will draft a preamble/mission statement to preface the next version of the organizational plan.

Wink Franklin, Treasurer, reported a balance of $3500, which includes $650 in the Buck Memorial fund. The Garden is finishing the main growing season in good financial shape.

Tom will work with TSRA for a Saturday in February, 2004 for the Organizational Meeting.

Glad they met in the cool of the Del Mar Center instead of the heat of the Garden, the Committee adjourned after Tom reported no new news in negotiations with the Baker Estate.