M.G.s & Interns,
Hello to everyone and hoping you’ve been able to keep up with your yard and garden chores between the showers; it’s almost like we’re living in the tropics with the daily rain. We had a couple of good work days at the garden last week, but then, any day spent in a garden is a good one. We cleaned and prepped two of the vegetable beds and they are now ready for fall seeds. Also, the new, year round Aluminex cover was placed over the small greenhouse and secured all around to keep it in place in high winds. It is a reflective, shiny material woven from aluminum-like fibers that is actually somewhat attractive; just hope it doesn’t distract pilots bringing their aircraft in for landing – oh, that’s right, we no longer have commercial flight traffic.
Summer rose pruning will begin in earnest this week and we will continue work in the vegetable beds. The muscadines are reaching full ripeness and are ready for picking and juicing for jelly or just for eating; the rains have really made them plump and sweet. We had better hurry on this as the poachers appear to have been helping themselves.
Any help we can get at the garden is very appreciated. On Wednesday we were joined by: Toni Clark, Ann Abshire, Tony Lucenti, Judy & Melissa Starr, and Bob Pittman. And on Friday, coming out were: Darlene Price-Bailey, Delia Walker, Verna McCollom, Pat Tolbert, Phyllis Smith and Jerry Jobe. On Monday I made an impromptu visit to the garden during one of our little showers and found Tim Schreck weed-eating in the rain. He found time to do this even with a full time job, wife and young children at home, community service projects galore and probably chores of his own screaming for his attention. He said that because of his job he can’t come out on the work days so he likes to come out and give an hour or so of his time whenever he can. This is what being a Master Gardener is all about; thanks Tim for that extra dedication.
I’ll repeat an earlier point I made that we have tasks at the garden that will fit any level of physical limitations. Bad back? Bad knees? Heat sensitive? Just let me know and if the project of the day is off limits for you and I promise there’ll be something else for you to do within your capabilities. We begin arriving early enough to work before it gets too hot and there is ample shade and even a big fan under the porch. Now, if you just don’t like to sweat, well, that’s not an issue I can really do anything about………
Come when you can, not if you can; we’ll be glad to see you.
The Garden Team