November Garden Workday

First Saturday Workday

Our first ever, First Saturday Workday** was a great success! The perfect opportunity to weed our plots and get ready for the fall planting season while chatting with others. Some gardeners were ready to transplant seedlings and start seeds. With our first summer crop behind us, we were all optimistic of what the fall may bring.

Holly helping weed one of our free plots.

If you have a chance, check out Clarissa's plot. The rosemary is flourishing.

Can't wait to see what Paula will plant in her fall garden. 

Teaching the next generation all about gardening. Love it!

**We plan on having an informal workday every first Saturday of the month. A chance for us to get together to garden, help others garden, and chat with other gardeners. We need your help to give this event a fun and catchy title! Please email ideas to nasjrbcommunitygarden@gmail.com.

Summer Highlights

As our first planting season is winding down, lets take a moment to congratulate ourselves. We started a community garden from scratch! We were provided a fence and a piece of land. Through fundraising and garden dues, we were able to purchase concrete blocks, soil, water barrel, garden shed, and community tools. With the hard work and diligence of our garden members, we transformed the land into a working garden with raised garden beds and a compost as well as a citrus area and flower garden. Congratulations NAS JRB Community Garden members on this HUGE accomplishment!

The following pictures are highlights from our first growing season. All pictures are courtesy of Michele Irizarry.

All Coming Together

With the addition of a new shed, compost stalls, and donated plants, our Community Garden is really coming together.

Instead of an unorganized area where we kept our community tools and supplies, we now have a shed.  It really helps the Community Garden look neat and tidy.

After attending compost workshops and gathering ideas from fellow gardeners, the COMPOST TEAM and Community Garden members designed this three stall compost system.
The compost in one stall is almost ready to be added to our plots.
Our plants are going to love the black gold.

The easy to read signs describe exactly what can and cannot be added to the compost. 

We are grateful for the donations of flowering plants to the Community Garden. 

Coming Soon! Special blog posts featuring our Community Garden Members and their fabulous gardens.

Time to Celebrate

Thanks to the persistence and patience of our President, we have running water on site. A couple of days ago, a member noticed workers digging near our Community Garden. She asked what they were doing. And to her surprise, they told her the Community Garden was getting a water spigot. For all of us, this was a welcomed surprise. Now, we don't have to ask neighbors if we can walk through their backyard to hook up a hose, drag the hose across the street, and fill up the water barrel. Then, fill up a watering can multiple times to water our gardens. The water barrel served its purpose, and helped us get our gardens started. But now we're living in luxury with running water on site. Thank you again, Rebecca, for making it happen.

Oh, the suspense.

The spigot works!

We're in business.

The joy of gardening with running water and a watering wand.

Time for a celebration! We popped open a couple of bottles of Martinelli's and enjoyed  tasty bakery treats.

Getting ready for the toast.

Creating Our Compost

Composting doesn't look pretty in the beginning, but the end result is golden!

How would our community garden benefit from a compost? Composting fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps and brown lawn litter like leaves is a cheap, if not free, way to create a nutrient rich amendment for our gardens. It's the organic alternative to store bought fertilizer. 
We're going to use the knowledge we gained from workshops and site visits to create a composting area in the community garden. Not only do we need your help with the lifting and building aspect. We also want to share with everyone how our compost system works, and what we need to do keep the compost working. We really hope everyone can make it this Friday.

Who: You! Our Community Garden members

What: Creating Our Compost

Location: NAS JRB Community Garden

Date: Friday, April 5th

Time: 1:00pm

Beneficial Plants and Insects

Interested in keeping those pests away from your garden organically. Try companion planting. There are certain types of plants that attract beneficial insects. These insects like to eat the "bad bugs".

Holland Angello created an easy to use spreadsheet on beneficial plants, what they repel, and tips about the plants. She also created a "good bugs" spreadsheet with names of the insects, and how they benefit your garden. You can view these spreadsheets by clicking on the highlighted names above. Thank you Holland for the wonderful resources.