santa barbara country n news-my community garden

SANTA BARBARA COUNTRY N NEWS-MY COMMUNITY GARDEN
the community garden where i have my garden plots is a fenced in area that includes 25 plots 20 ft x 10 ft around the perimeter of. i have two of the plots so i have 400 square feet of garden to grow veggies on
in the center part of the community are long garden rows
all of the produce grown there are donated to local food banks or food kitchens

right now we are growing tomatoes onions leeks squashes cucumbers kales swiss chard lettuces beans artichokes celery and more based on the seasons

on the outside south side of the garden is a fruit and citrus orchard
all the produce gets donated
there must be 30 different varieties planted there

in the front of the garden outside the fence are these raised beds where veggies are grown year round
all are donated to the food bank
ok i have been known to slip a veggie in my mouth and munch on it as i work
this week we added raised bed soil and planted squash peppers tomatoes basil and lettuce

ms b and mr h both love to be in this garden

each week i work in the garden as a volunteer for 4 hours
some weeks i will do extra volunteering if its needed
eg
one saturday i spent 4 hours with the premed club from the university of california at santa barbara
these 25+students worked hard pulling weeds making planting beds harvesting veggies and fruit and talking to me about med school and applying to med school and majors etc between their garden work
its the same group that i gave an alzheimers presentation to last month at their monthly meeting

we have several youth groups that volunteer here

in fact the two raised beds were made by a local eagle scout group as a scout project

i sure like to see youth do this volunteer work
they all students should have to do this to graduate

in my garden i am growing several different tomatoes
the two largest one at the top of the picture are early girls that i grew in the green house ie my front porch and dining room then planted about 6 weeks ago
so far i have harvested 6 tomatoes with a lot more on the way

the tomatoes on the bottom of the picture were bought at the local farmers market
this grower grows these in a greenhouse where he has garden beds inside the greenhouse
he is able to keep it warm and toasty so these heirloom tomatoes can grow
they looked and tasted like summer tomatoes
not like the typical greenhouse tomato thats grown hydroponically

then
the bane of gardening in this area is gophers
at the school we have hardware cloth underneath the beds
im sure the gophers keep the roots of the veggies trimmed down

at the community garden there is a 5 ft fence around the garden with hardware cloth buried fairly deep
this seems to keep the gophers out but occasionally they sneak in
traps are use to stop them
permanently

this week the garden manager brought this stuff in to try
he swears by it in his home garden
its a mixture of cayenne pepper and dried blood
i guess the pepper keeps them from crossing over or under wherever this stuff is spread

in texas it was rabbits and deer
here the big varmint is gophers
yes
just like in cattyshack
they will mock you

hopefully this works

the organicgreen doctor