365 Days of Running: Days 9-13: RAIN, NEW RUNNING SHOES, & A PERSONAL B...

365 Days of Running: Days 9-13: RAIN, NEW RUNNING SHOES, & A PERSONAL B...: Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. Wedding planning has really taken a lot of time out of my day. But don't worry I'm still running!...

Empty Beds, Full Bellies

Its been two weeks since I had to call in for back up. That's right the little buggers got the best of me. Sean and Jamie came the next day to spray everything down. It may have broken my spirit but it saved the plants and in the end that's what really matters. After my call of defeat Denzel and I were able to finally put up the branches we graciously received from Sam's fallen tree to make our watermelon tepee. The next days some of us were able to cover the structure with mesh and string the vines through to create the coolest garden fort Rowan has ever had!!!

Since then the vines have really taken over and the melons are hanging all over it. It looks like we have green softballs hanging from the green tepee.

Today was food bank day!!! Of course it was also the hottest day of the year, so naturally it would be the one day we needed to get to the garden at 4:30 Well for those of you who have been following, you all know how much sun the garden gets which is great for the plants but very hot for those of us who must tend to the garden. So by 4:45 today Orlando and I were sweating our butts off as Barb walked up to finally meet me.



I haven't said a lot about it but Rowan's Alum Mag is doing a story on the garden!!! Barb is the one who wrote the story and she wanted to see the garden on her own. I am happy that the university is taking notice of us and how great this garden can be. Hopefully more people will read about us and want to help or become involved.

So back to the sweaty-ness... We pulled up all of the carrots today which made the beds look rather bare. (don't worry kiddies, pumpkins will soon be growing) So all in all we had over 65 carrots to deliver.

Our little fat cucumber

Then I cut off a watermelon to give to the bank as well as two cucumbers and a whole bag of zucchini from a friend's garden(thanks Kristina:)It was a great day despite the heat it is always a great feeling leaving the food bank. Especially because I keep on meeting so many cool people there. My first trip I met a man who had won like over four gold metals in the special Olympics for swimming, he later told me that his wife competed also and she won a couple gold metals as well. Makes me wonder if I am doing enough with my life. Here this guy had won not just a gold metal but numerous and he did not look much older than me. I only hope that as I get older I can get half the determination to train and work for a goal as he did for swimming. (Plus I could really use the work out! )

Peace Love & Veggies

A Moment Of Thanks

      Im sitting here watching the sunset thinking about how this whole garden came into being. You see about three days ago I had the pleasure of giving a phone interview to a rep from the Rowan Alum. magazine. They wanted to write a story abbot our little patch of patch of paradise. I was asked so many wonderful questions about the whole story my mind hasn't stopped thinking about them. Seeing the garden up and growing now, you forget what it was like 10 months ago. We (Lewie and I) had no idea who to turn to. All we knew was that we wanted to have a community garden here at rowan. Over those next months we met the most amazing people who I am now proud to call my friends. We helped to form one of the most kick ass (pardon my language) club here, Rowan Environmental Action League. And we were somehow able to prove many people wrong by getting students to care about something that didn't benefit themselves.
      If you were to tell me last fall that at one point we would have over ten students up on a Saturday, before ten, in the rain, digging holes I would have told you "not here, not at Rowan." But we did. People told us that the local community wouldn't become involved or interested with a garden in he middle of the campus, but at least once a week I get a member of the community walking through who stops to ask what we are doing and stays to here the story. I'm not writing this post to say we did the impossible. I am writing this post to say thank you to everyone who helped us get to where we are and where we want to go. To the best friends, best club, and best community this newbie gardener could ask for. We did it. And we aren't stopping either!

There is nothing in the world like watching a plant grow from a seed to a work of art, it is one of the most magical things in the world. 

Lean mean killing machines... I think not!

Hello All!!!

I know it has been a while since Ive posted anything so get ready because there is much to tell so get ready for many posts this upcoming week!

     Well two posts ago I told you all about the vicious attack on our fair garden from those demonic bugs from hell (also known as aphids) and our acquiring of 1,500 hard core killing machines (known to the common man as ladybugs). If you don't remember go back and read it... Ill wait.We ended up waiting for about a week for the assassins to arrive via mail, praying that the little creatures didn't die in the heat. They arrived at the house alive... well most of them anyway. On the way back to Rowan I dreamed about the wrath that these little bugs would bring to the unwanted garden dwellers. I could see it before my eyes. Ladybugs storming out by the hundreds blood thirsty and ready for battle. The little beetles opening up their wings and flying over to the tomato plants spotting their targets. I couldn't help but grin at the thought of hundreds of the little red and black spotted bugs diving down and consuming the nuisance that has bothered me for so long.

What played out in my mind and what actually happened though are two very different stories.

      That evening after we have watered the garden, right as the sun was setting we opened the container for the ladybugs to have their freedom... First all the bugs had crawled to the top and then they just sat there. Maybe ten of them flew off into the garden but the rest just sat there. I tried everything to get them to fly out or even to crawl onto the leaves of the plants but they wanted to stay in the container. After deciding that it couldn't hurt them to just pour the bugs onto the plants I went around the tomato beds sprinkling ladybugs and the wood shavings they came with like a waiter shakes out parmesan cheese on your spaghetti. Once finished, I crouched down to take a look at the battle that was sure to unfold as the hungry ladybugs found their food. Instead I watched the dumpy little bugs walk right around the aphids as if they were tiny pebbles in their way!!!! So much for my vicious killing machines! I had thought that I had hired skilled assassins to do my dirty work, but from the looks of it I hired dumpy little twits who didn't even know that the thousands of roadblocks were their main source of food!

     It has been two weeks now since the release of my epic fail and there are about ten to fifteen ladybugs that are visible in the garden. The aphids are still there, and I have resorted to power washing my tomato plants every day to spray off the pests. I didn't want to resort to spraying anything on the plants but it looks like that's our next step.

The Quest For The Perfect Poo!

      That's right people you read it right... Poop! Now you may be asking yourself, "Why is she looking for poop?" Well my friends that is the wrong question. The real question is: In a world where everybody poops why is it so hard to find some for free?!?! Before I go on I should probably back it up a bit so you are not completely lost.
    
      As many of you may know, none of the students here including myself have ever worked on a garden as big as the one we have here. So naturally when there are questions (and trust me there are) there are normally two sources that I turn to. My bible, The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan, and Google.  But lately there has been a new book that has woven it's way into my heart, Farm City. Basically it is a true story of a woman named Novella Carpenter, who decided to have her own farm in the middle of Oakland California. The book has all kinds of tidbits about her urban farm, from bee farms on the back porch to to raised beds in the neighboring vacant lot. (she really is my superman)
   
      Now you are probably thinking "Thats all fine and dandy but it still doesn't explain why you have this new fascination with poop." Well it does! You see while reading Farm City, I learned that chicken poop is good for your garden, horse poop is great for your garden but rabbit poop tops them all. Yep those little furballs are squeezing out gold nuggets as far as gardening goes!

      So this leads us back to the title of this post:The Quest For The Perfect Poo! and my question if there is so much poop in this world why is it so much money? This garden is on a tight budget. (And by tight budget I mean my budget since the club funds are closed for the summer) There is just no way to buy the amount of manure for our big garden. I am praying to the garden gods that I can get as lucky as Novella and befriend  a horse owner who has compost in their backyard, since I doubt Res Life would let me have my own herd of rabbits. (I am imagining Travis's face when I tell him why I need the bunnies...poop!)

      And this leads us to the end of this post. With me beginning my quest for the perfect poo. In this case perfect means free. So will be jumping onto craigslist. And just like the thousands of creepers that flood its pages I too am in search for slightly used and damaged goods.

*****If any of you readers out there know a way to help out (you or someone you know owns a horse farm, chicken farm, or rabbit farm lol) please comment the blog or email me. *****

Garden Under Attack Again!!!! (damn bugs)

 
    Our garden is under attack again! Last week I had the great idea of not wearing my glasses to the garden and hardly noticed the little white and red dots on the plants. This week I decided to ride my bike over right after class and noticed these little demons all over our tomatoes. You know that Charmin commercial where there is toilet paper shreds all over the bear's but? Yeah that's what out tomatoes looked like. (Well kinda...)

       Sticking to my guns as to not using chemicals for as long as possible I remembered a book from my last class and realized what my cure would be. LADYBUGS!!!! Yep and I have Eric Carle and his picture book, The Grouchy Ladybug to thank. (What? My class was childrens literature) That evening while watering the garden I was lucky enough to find a ladybug in the lavender patch and placed it on a tomato plant. It was amazing watching the little thing walk over to the aphid and bite it's head off! It was then decided that ladybugs while pretty and cute are deadly killing machines.... killing machines that I must employ for the survival of our garden.

       Fast forward to today and I just got off the phone with a very confused boyfriend who was forced to buy 1,500 ladybugs off of amazon. Since I have no mailbox here at school over the summer he has the lucky privilege of rinsing the little saviors and letting them cool in the fridge over night. I know this seems weird but these are the instructions from the seller. I am so excited to have the little bugs arrive. I have opened a bag of ladybugs before for a little girls birthday party and it was the neatest feeling having thousands of little feet crawl all over me then fly away up into the sky ready to start their lives.

Garden Update!

Weed Pile

       Well its been a week or so since I last updated you all on the garden. Last week Denzel and I went over to go weeding. Boy were there a lot of those suckers! After our little battle upon the unwanted vegetation we went around picking up all our fallen adversaries and piling them up.

       Since then we have had double the weeds come in. And I am finding myself now searching for machetes online. They do have them for sale on Amazon under tools & home improvement if anyone was interested. How does a machete help with home improvement?

Sunflowers

      So fast forward to today I finally was able to buy a 100ft hose so we didn't have to walk across the field to fill up the watering cans. Since mother nature has decided to grace us with a heatwave we are going to have to start watering twice a day to keep the soil moist. Between the new watering schedule and this sun expect to see many pictures next week of our little babies because I think they wont be babies anymore.

Corn