Bamboo Trellises and Baby Beet Greens

Tuesday’s work party was a skeleton crew but Sophia and Elizabeth managed to get quite a bit done. Sophia – Miller CC Garden’s Watering Fairy Godmother – watered all the beds, which are looking great. Check out these ready-to-harvest radishes after their shower:

Then we got busy building two trellises to provide a little more privacy for the neighbors and for vine crops to grow up come spring. Domino helped by chilling out in an empty bed:

After minimal trial and error (as well as a helpful lesson from Sophia in how to most effectively bind things together with twine, a lesson Elizabeth apparently never learned), two trellises adorned the two back-most beds:

There was also just enough time to thin the beets and some of the carrots. Rather than leaving all those little beet babies to die, Elizabeth took them home.

Their first use was immediate: raw in a bowl of kimchi fried rice. The rest of them will probably end up in a salad or possibly lightly stir-fried. The sky’s the limit for these microgreens!

Two Work Parties Next Week

As we try to find the day/days that work best for most volunteers, we’re going to have two work parties next week:

Tuesday, Sept 12: 5:30-7:30 pm
Saturday, Sept 17: 10 am – 12 pm

Current tasks include:

• Thinning starts
• Planting remaining four beds – bring winter-appropriate seeds or starts if you have them!
• Building bamboo trellises
• Weeding around the beds
• Adding benches to the beds – let us know if you have lumber to donate
• Brainstorming/planning ongoing garden activities and community meals

This work can easily be accomplished in two days, and it would be great to get as many people together as possible to enjoy the garden together and gauge interest in future activities.

Bamboo for the trellises

Sprouts galore

I’m happy to report that every crop we planted on Tuesday, August 23 has sprouted!

Here are the radishes and carrots:

And the beets, planted in diagonal rows:

Not pictured are the onions and spinach, but those are peeking their heads out too.

Also, the transplanted lettuces are doing just fine:

Isn’t gardening exciting?

Janaina Stronzake speaks at Miller CC Saturday, Sept 10 6-9 pm

This Saturday from 6 to 9 pm at the Miller Community Center, Janaina Stronzake will be talking about her experience working with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement, the largest peasant movement in Latin America.

The event is organized by Community Alliance for Global Justice & Grassroots International and is free of charge (donations encouraged). It includes a community dinner, Janaina’s talk, and Capoeira Angola, which is Brazilian martial art and ritual combat dance.

For more information, contact CAGJ: 206-405-4600, contact_us@seattleglobaljustice.org / www.seattleglobaljustice.org