Sunday, September 25, 2011

Butternut squash, anyone?

Just a quick update.  920 pounds of produce is the year to date tally!  Mind boggling.  Equally mind boggling - how to figure out who needs what and when.  Karyn is now sitting with a large quantity of butternut squash just harvested.  The pantries we've been contributing to don't have storage space.  So now we need to solve another problem.  How do we get the harvest to the people who need it?  Ideas?  

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Garden that Keeps Giving

Who would have thought that just three months after breaking ground we would be able to harvest hundreds of pounds of fresh, organic produce?  Last week, Karyn reported that she had to pull the back seats out of her mini-van to make room for the tomatoes, beans, squash and potatoes.   Everything has been delivered to the grateful recipients at the Cumberland and Freeport Community Services and Portland's Preble Street.  Here are some pictures of the produce and the Cumberland Girl Scouts who participated in harvesting veggies a few weeks ago:


Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Harvest!!!

August has been quite rewarding for our garden.  As we are in our first year, we keep reminding ourselves that this is a trial year and ANY produce would be fabulous.  The hard work is paying off.  We have been able to harvest and donate buckets and bags of produce to the Cumberland Food Pantry, Freeport Community Services and Preble Street Resource Center.  Tomatoes, summer squash, beans, potatoes, greens, etc. have been delivered to the appreciative folks working to help neighbors who, for whatever reason, would not have the resources to obtain fresh, healthy produce.

As Hurricane Irene swirls around us, and hopefully passes Maine without too much damage, it's a good time to catch up on the blog.  I was looking at some photos I snapped about a month ago and then another group yesterday, and it's amazing to see the changes that have taken place in this short time.

Not only is the field full of produce, but it is surrounded by a very happy looking perimeter of sunflowers!  For weeks, it seemed like those sunflowers were going to remain about 6 inches tall and never flower, but they have really taken off.  I only hope that their sturdy stems will hold up.

This past Friday, some local girl scouts with their leader helped with the harvest--picture to arrive shortly.  On Saturday, we picked up anything that could become a projectile in the storm -- our sign, buckets, row covers, etc. Fingers crossed that all will be well when we get back to the garden tomorrow.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Bugs - the bad and the ugly!


It's been too long since the last post, but we've been busy!  The good news is that we have started to harvest zucchini (ok, you probably have too many!) and beans, potatoes, tomatoes, cukes and other veggies should be ready soon.  By the way, the peanut experiment didn't work, but it was fun to try.

Happily the dogs (and their owners) are now accustomed to the garden, and we have had far fewer fence mending episodes.  The latest battle is with tomato horn worms--they look like something out of a cheap horror flick--big, fat and bright green.  Horn worms camouflage themselves superbly;  they are the color of the tomato plant, AND, they will put up a huge fight to not get picked off the plant.  They devour the tomato leaves, and left unchecked, would decimate all of our plants.  However, after lots of picking, and not too many tomato stems stripped, we think we got 'em for now.  P.S.  Karyn is offering 50 cents for each horn worm picked and destroyed--I think her kids are getting rich!

The other battle of the garden is in the cucumber and squash families which are being snacked on by the cucumber beetle.  We have picked hundreds (maybe more) of these nasty creatures, but they seem to reproduce at a rapid speed.  Hopefully we can eliminate them and save our produce.

It is interesting (and frustrating) to experience these pests that don't typically appear in a small home garden--but when planting a large plot, they call in all their family members for the big feast!

Speaking of things that are interesting, how about the weather this summer?  Brutally hot July, followed by a wet and cool (so far) August.  Never a dull moment for gardeners!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Updates, thank yous and a plea

It's been another busy week.  Red, white and blue corn, beans and flowers have been planted.

We get so many questions about the garden, so the basic information was posted on this sign:  This is a trial garden with all produce going to local food pantries.  Volunteer hours are 8 - 10 am on Tues. and Sat.

Thanks to the Cumberland/North Yarmouth Lions Club for the $100 donation.  Also to Greg Fowler for bringing us a load of hay mulch--the plants are growing, but so are the weeds, so we'll be getting the mulch down as soon as possible.

Finally, a plea from our hard working volunteers. . .We encourage everyone to visit the garden, but PLEASE do your best to keep your dog from coming into the garden.  While we are looking into better solutions, we ask that everyone try to keep their dogs from breaking through the fence.  We love seeing dogs romp through the park, but not trampling plants.  THANK YOU!


Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Are we Nuts?

Things are busy in the garden!  Last week, a group of students planted peanuts--yes you can grow peanuts in Maine (or at least try).  And seeds that were put in a few weeks ago are sprouting--melons, cucumbers, potatoes, etc.  Sunflowers have been planted around the fence border so we are hoping for lots of tall flowers later in the summer.  

This Saturday (June 25th) we are holding open volunteer time from 9 am to 11 am for anyone interested --bring the kids along.  We'll be planting (and watering if we don't have a good soaking rain before then).

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Planting Begins -- At Last!!!



(left to right):  Karyn Marden, her daughter Katherine (a fabulous helper!), and Karen Gallati


After 2 plant sale/fundraisers and lots of hard work in prepping the 60 x 60 garden, we were finally able to start planting on Saturday and Sunday.  The fencing around the garden will go up this week.   


While it wasn't great weather for the beach, it was pretty good for planting.  So far we've put in lots of varieties of tomatoes, along with marigolds and peppers.  Karyn went back today (Sunday) and planted lots of winter squash and pumpkin seeds:t four hills each of Boston Marrow, Blue Hubbard, Indian Long Pie, Casper White pumpkin, Wyatt's Giant pumpkin, Winter Luxury squash, Waltham Butternut, and New England pie. Several rows of potatoes also went in.


A big thanks to Greg Fowler for plowing, and to the town employees who erected the cedar posts for the fence (a big job!) and installed our water line.  


Three final notes for today:  1)  please consider making a donation to the garden or asking your church, civic groups and friends to support this effort.  Remember--everything we grow is for the food pantry.    The town of Cumberland is all set up to accept donations for the garden (info on sidebar).  2)  follow our progress by submitting your email address (right top of blog) so you'll get updates in your email.  3)  volunteer some time to help out--there's a lot to do!  Contact Karyn Marden if you're interested.  THANK YOU!!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Veggie Plant Sale to Benefit the Garden @ Cumberland Cong. Church

The garden steering committee and members of the "Green Team" at Cumberland Congregational Church have been busy planting and tending to seedling which will be sold this Sunday, May 22 and during the Cumberland Memorial Day Parade Monday, May 30.  All proceeds will benefit the Cumberland Community Garden.  Both sales are on rain or shine.  The church is on the corner of Tuttle/Blanchard Road and Maine Street (Rt. 9) in Cumberland.

May 24 - 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

May 30 - 9:30 am to noon

The Memorial Day event will include a bake sale and raffle of a garden themed basket.

Please consider buying some of our seedlings.  We also will accept financial contributions to the garden in any amount.  If you would like to donate with a check, make it payable to "Town of Cumberland" and note that it is a donation to the garden.

Don't forget - everything we grow will be donated to local food pantries.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Grant received for the Cumberland Community Garden

We recently received an $150 grant from the Cumberland County Master Gardener Association to go towards supplies for our new garden.

The town is ready to accept donations to the garden.  Just bring or mail your check and indicate on the memo line that it is a donation for the garden.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Garden News from Karyn

April 15th: A very busy week with lots of interest around town about the garden. We have received some generous offers from area businesses, so far Skillin's in Cumberland, Plainview Farms in North Yarmouth, and Johnny's Seeds in Winslow have all come forward with enthusiasm for our project. 

We also heard from Dirk Strong Van Curran who is running an after school program through the Community Recreation Department in Cumberland. He is excited for the kids in his enrichment program to come join us in the garden this Spring as we prepare the soil and begin planting. We hope that the open garden times over the summer will bring back some younger helpers to oversee their work as the vegetables ripen and we harvest them for the local food pantries. 

We had a chance to mark out our perimeter for the garden in the far back of Twin Brooks. The water line is already there and about twenty feet away from the corner of the garden! Bill is hoping we can rally enough volunteers to make a large donation garden, so can everyone press hard to get the word out that we could really use some volunteers in the summer for labor? 
Earlier this week I called 211 to let them know we are seeking volunteers. One morning a week for an hour would be greatly appreciated, and hopefully we could build a force of about 20
people to keep the garden maintained. 

I was also contacted by Jean McPherson who will be donating her time each Thursday at the Cumberland Congregational Church in the morning between 9 and 12 for those who can come pick up vegetables as the Food Pantry itself is open one day a month, but the vegetables would be available more often. Please contact Jean Lamson at the Cumberland Food Pantry for more information.

Also, we had a wonderful time planting seeds at the Cumberland Congregational Church last Sunday. Karen Gallati and Lalla Carothers helped organize the seeds, pots, soil and water. Gene Weir offered to raise the seedlings and re-pot them as necessary in his greenhouse which would be a daunting task us to any of using our windowsills...We will have a gazoodle of seedlings available for the Memorial Day Sale during/ after the Parade, including heirloom tomatoes, peppers, leeks, morning glories, sweet pea, sunflowers, and zinnias. If you want to reserve ahead let us know. I also have Amish Paste tomatoes, multi-colored peppers, and a large variety of eggplants.

With all this buzz one of the big highlights for me this week was getting a great education down at the True Value in Yarmouth about Pickled Garden Scapes from Dave. His garlic is a Cumberland Fair prizewinner and he has built up his Music variety to the perfect size. He said that he puts the garlic around the edge of the garden and the grounhogs won't touch it. Bet they would scarf down those dilly scapes. Of course there were plenty of other solutions offered up, some on the shelf, and some, well, we know how those critters can really hit our nerves.
We would appreciate some help with web graphics and photos...this could be a fun creative blog for the right person(s)...we thought those tech savvy high school kids could really help in their free time this summer!

Thanks-
Karyn Marden
karynmarden@yahoo.com
781-8249

Happy Thawing Out! 


Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Getting Started!

On March 28th, 2011, the Cumberland Town Council approved a plan to create a Community Garden in the Twin Brook Recreation Area.  For the first year, the garden will be planted to serve area food pantries.  Going forward, we plan to lease plots to area residents interested in growing vegetables and flowers in an organic, community environment.