PICA groundbreaking

October 31, 2009. This morning we gave C quad a rude awakening with pick axes and digging bars. At first just Jose, Hannah, and I brought tools over to the segment of cut asphalt by C4 and started in. Slowly more picans trickled in and then the excavation was in full swing. We broke the asphalt with the ground-shaking digging bars and then pried it out with pick axes. After a few hours and lots of sweat the spot was asphalt free. Now we'll take out the gravel, help rebuild the soil, and bring some more green life to C quad!

Fall in the Garden

We're a month into fall quarter now and new picans are becoming comfortable with the garden. The abundance of summer is fading and we've been preparing beds for winter. Workdays have been busy with turning beds, planting plenty of collard greens (leftover from the agroecology lab), harvesting beautiful corn and anasazi beans, much more, and of course, celebrating with a delicious meal afterwards. Soon we'll be loading some pictures of the garden and also of our workday out in Bonny Doon at the Shumei Natural Agriculture farm.

Some new additions to the garden are a new long bed in front of the apple trees by B2. Behind it some perennial collard trees, a perennial tomatillo (Incan ground cherry), and a perennial melon-like squash. A small new bed over by the compost, a nice flower bed next to it and a mulberry tree in between. Just today we put in a loganberry bush in the shaded corner of the garden, part of expanding our berry row. In our effort to beautify the shade-structure we planted one banana passionvine. Future plans are to plant a purple passion vine to keep it company, and some other either beautiful or edible vine(s).

That's it for the moment, more later, and pictures too. Come stop by if you get a chance! : )

Sean

Pergola and garden Action

Hey all. It is going down in the Garden. Pergola got started on Saturday and is looking amazing! Thanks to everyone who put in their time and effort working on that project. This Saturday Pergola work will continue, so be there, as we work to complete this awesome garden structure. Also, we have turned almost all of the beds and have got a bunch of new crops in the ground. There is still lots of planting and other work to be done so don't miss out on the action. Come take part in Saturday workdays and get involved!

Now they're flowers!!!

Remember, way back in October when we stuck all those bulbs in the ground behind B1? Well I sure as heck do! Guess what? Now they are beautiful flowers! Check it out!

Winter Tree Pruning

The Winter Tree Pruning Workshop was an amazing success! Thanks to everyone who came out! And thanks to Dave Shaw for leading such a great workshop! We were able to prune all the apple and pear trees in the garden. We will hold off on pruning the stone fruit trees (peach, plum, etc.) until summer because they will require a different type of pruning. Hopefully. because of the awesome pruning we gave the trees last weekend, we can expect lots of delicious fruit come summer and fall, so get ready!

Harvest List as of February 17th 2009

Garden
• Chard
• Collard Greens
• Bok choi
• Mustard Greens
• Broccoli and Cauliflower will be ready soon, keep an eye out, they are a bit too small right now. These are planted primarily on the south edge of the garden in between fruit trees, do not confuse with collard greens and harvest the leaves or else the broccoli and cauliflowers will suffer and may not produce.
***Chard, Collard Greens, and Bok Choi are real small just due to the lack of sunlight, you can still harvest them small. Remember it is a good idea to leave at least 5 leaves per plant so they will maintain productivity and cut leaves from the outside inwards. Also, in beds 8B ad 15, there are brussel sprouts which have leaves, but should not be eaten because they the plants will not be able to produce brussel sprouts. Check with Andrew if there is any confusion about this.

A-Quad
• Collard Greens
• Cauliflower
• Romanesco broccoli
• Mustard greens
• Lettuce
• Kale
***If you have any questions or are confused about harvesting any goodies in the A-quad, check in with Bee or Molly in A-1 they will be happy to hook it up.

PICA's Farm Beds
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Collards
• Kale