This is a great time to visit the Dow Gardens in Midland, MI, while the butterflies are in “full bloom”. And Sheri will be there Saturday to sign copies of her book, Easy Edibles.
Then the following Tuesday (April 13th) the Midland County Master Gardener Association have invited Sheri to give a talk at Whiting Forest.
I hope you can make one of these events if you are in the area. You can see more details on the Events page.
I almost forgot to say – the new website went live today. I hope you like it and the new events and news areas prove useful. Let us know what you think…
I did get my half-plot in the community garden again, so over the weekend I began starting seeds in earnest. After much consideration, I started loads of seeds, knowing that the surplus would be welcome. Plus, I’m going to grow more flowers this year (including “Outhouse Hollyhocks”). I have some new ideas about how I want the garden to feel – I want lots of color as well as the vegetables.
We’re happy to say that the enthusiasm for Easy Edibles has prompted us to do another, larger print run in time for spring gardening – thank you, everyone, for your support.
Ann Arbor’s Interfaith Peace & Social Justice organization hosted a Faith and Food meeting tonight. Having grown tomatoes as a benefit in previous years, and thinking about the possibilities for growing specifically for donations to food banks, I was eager to hear what everyone had to say about their experiences.
All the represented congregations had slightly different experiences – some had gardens on site, others had Project Grow community plots, still others donated from gardens at their homes – but there were some common threads. First, the need for commitments and schedules when a group is involved, and second, the enormous amount of food donated – often 500 lbs. or more! The third important point was the need for coordination with a food bank/charity, so that they can plan around what you are growing to donate. These organizations also have “wish lists” for what they really need in their pantries.
These were actually started a week ago in our basement, on the workbench, on a heating pad and under a fluorescent shop light. These are leeks and kale, two plants that can be planted early, while others need to wait for the ground, and weather, to be ready.
There’s no guarantee you will have a surplus of any sort, even using Sheri’s book. In a good year, you will be able to harvest all you grow and make use of it. Maybe there will be more than you can eat, and you will have time and effort to preserve the excess appropriately. Sometimes, for any number of reasons, you will have more than you can use.
Sometimes you will have a surplus not because the weather and the soil and everything combined perfectly, but simply because you planted too much. So you should always give thought to how you want to plant your garden, and what you want to grow and how much of each you might hope for. But maybe, things were going to plan, until everything ripened the day before you were due to go away on vacation.
So another way to look at it might to be speak with a local food bank or pantry, and ask what they will need. As we said, you can’t guarantee them you will have a surplus, but if you plant the right vegetables, then on the occasions you do, then you know they will be able to make good use of it.
Two good sources of information on local food banks are
A warm welcome to the new Alice Greene & Company website.
This is the Project Grow plot I had last year, and hope to have again this year. It’s actually a half-plot and you can see it on the left in the foreground. The rest of this Project Grow community garden stretches to the right. Of course, most details are hidden under the snow right now, but you can see the plot’s boundary markers sticking up.
