November 19th Work Day

Greetings!

On the 19th of November we had our first Fall work day at the UA Community Garden. This may seem a bit late in the game, but we spent all semester setting up the management system and contracting someone to get the beds dug and backfilled and the mainlines of the irrigation installed. This means, yes, the beds are dug and the mainlines of irrigation are installed. We also got a beautiful turquoise shed built in which to store our tools (go check it out, it's lovely and hard to miss).

Anyways, this all means our work days are going to involve tamping pathways, dressing beds with compost from the UA Compost Cats, installing the drip tape and laterals of the irrigation, and building pallet compost bins. We'll be open for the public in the spring of 2012! Get excited. Because we are.

Back to the work day, we had a great turnout of folks and we really got a lot done! The dirt (and I call it dirt because it is terrible soil) that was dug out of the beds is really chunky with caliche, so we have to sift it before we use it to tamp down the paths.

Our giant pile of unsifted dirt we had to wheel to the garden area.

Nothing our fancy sifter couldn't handle.

We also had a big pile of soil (and I say soil because it is what was used to fill the beds, and is a mix of compost, sand, and soil) left over from the construction of the garden that was done by machinery. We used it to backfill some of the beds that were looking a little low.

I guess we forgot to take a "before" picture, but if you imagine a big pile where all that dark soil is, that's what we managed to move in a couple of hours. Three wheelbarrows and a group of motivated individuals will really get you a ways.

Anyways, there was a lot of tamping, shoveling, and wheelbarrow-ing, on top of some general merry making. I like to think most people that were present had a good time. They all did stay until noon, but I understand that could have been because of the promise of good food.

If there's one thing we're good at, it's feeding people that help us.

The UACG is really coming together! We're having another work day this Saturday, December 3rd, from 9 am to 1 pm. Come join us for more path building, back filling, and (hopefully) compost bin building. There will also be foooood! And you really shouldn't miss the development of the garden; it's pretty exciting to see.

Nowadays it even looks like a garden!


And gardens need to have people in them!

So come and join us sometime soon! If not this Saturday, then at least when we open in the spring. Go to our website (www.uasfs.com, under the Garden in the Desert tab) to fill out an interest form for a plot, to sign up for our list serv, and to check our calendar of events! And feel free to email us at sfsgitd@gmail.com with any questions.

Happy gardening, folks!

Sofia

Sunday Fall Work Day

Oh man, oh man, did we have a great work day this past Sunday (October 24). Winter's coming along slowly but surely, which means we have to start getting the beds ready for the seedlings we have growing at Amy and Andre's! Also, the front end of the garden has been lacking attention, so we finally fleshed out the burms so that we can plant some lovely desert plants out there. Nothing says "come look at our awesome garden!" like a jojoba bush (but mostly because it's so much fun to say "jojoba")

The corn needed chopping down in the sunken bed:


Then we aerated the soil using an ancient technique of hopping on your shovel and giving it a wiggle:


We were going to bundle the corn stalks together for a fall festive feel, but they kept falling over with the wind. We ended up using them as mulch for our freshly aerated bed in order to keep in moisture and prevent wind erosion until the new seedlings go in.

We finished the burms out front. The idea is that water will pour down from the roof, onto the ground, then collect in the area where the plants will go before flowing down toward the street. We also tried to make them a bit symmetrical to keep the area pleasing to the eye:

Well now, isn't that pleasing to the eye?

All this really wasn't too much work, and we did it over the span of a few (very chill) hours, so it was a nice way to spend a Sunday. We also had pizza and bagels and tea, because everything is better with pizza and bagels and tea.

Thanks to all the wonderful people that we managed to bamboozle into helping out! We appreciate all the help we can get. And you there, reading this post! Feel free to join us next time, yeah?

How can you say "no" to these earnest faces?

All in all, our garden is looking marvelous, and I can't wait to get the winter crops in.