garden news-manage the garden

GARDEN NEWS-MANAGE THE GARDEN

several  months before we moved to santa barbara in 2017 i spent an hour with the person who along with others is the brains behind the establishment of this community garden several years ago
he gave me a long informative walking tour of the garden

what attracted me to this community garden vs the others in the area was 
the central part of the garden raised produce that was donated to needy charities and organizations
the produce a lot of produce is donated each week
i knew i wanted to be part of doing that

the areas around the perimeter is about 20 plots of 10 x 20 ft for individual gardeners

they had a phenomenal compost system that produces this great compost
you know the kind you could almost eat it looks and smells so good
no wonder the plants love it so much

i also after coming there buried in my two plots seven 5 gallon buckets with 3/8 inch holes on the bottom and sides for the worms to move back and forth through the holes
i deposit all our leftover produce and compost pile safe foods from our kitchen into these buckets
about twice a year i harvest this rich compost and put it on my eight 3x8 ft beds
so thats about 70 gallons of worm compost a year on my beds

when you come to the garden you can see the difference this compost makes
eg my mild tam jalapeno i grow from seeds is bout 3-4 feet tall and is loaded with peppers
i donated the same plant to the garden and its about half that size and is just now producing peppers
remember put a 5 cent plant in a 5 dollar hole

i volunteered initially once or twice a week for 3-4 hours each time 
when the pandemic hit i moved all my volunteering to the garden and now usually volunteer there at least 3 days a week sometimes more

early on i spent a lot of my time making my soil richer
now almost four years later i have it where i want it 
i just add my compost and organic fertilizer before planting
i have a drip system set up 
i mulch a lot so i dont have to weed much and to conserve water
so
the time spent in my garden has decreased some so i put the time doing stuff in the central part of the garden where the produce we donate is grown

i help the garden manager maintain the drip system and maintain and prep any new beds
over the last 4 years the soil has gotten richer and richer
so i pretty much care for most of this areas veggies

i transferred a lot of the skill and knowledge i accumulated from being at the country n and keeping up with organic gardening and rainwater harvesting and green living

recently our garden manager resigned 
this is our second one
we have been lucky to have two skilled and well educated managers
its a part time position
the two did it partially because of why i am at the garden
they both had garden plots there

its been hard to find a good candidate for the position since the pandemic
so
they approached me to be the garden manager
i know i would be good at doing it
but
as i told them i have enough to do in my life without this job
i dont need the money 
if i did it i would not accept any money 
but
i said i dont want to do all that they have to do 
so
i agreed this week to be sort of the interim garden manager without all the other responsibilities that comes with the job
those that i dont want to do has to been farmed to other volunteers to do
i think this will work until we get someone permanently 

i told them i will make sure the veggies get taken care of and get grown and harvested
a volunteer will plant them and grow them in our greenhouse
i decide what and when things get planted
i will take care of the hundreds of feet of drip lines and maintain all the beds
when a new bed becomes available i will prep them more like i do my beds

so i am sort of the interim manager but not really without all the political responsibilities and non gardening responsibilities and the garden education responsibilities

so far its working

ok so i was doing most of what they agreed for me to do anyway 

the organicgreen doctor