An Untended Garden

Because of restrictions occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, the VegHeadz have not been able to tend to  the demo vegetable garden for over a month. Come to find out we’re not even needed. Gardening practices in place have created a garden which functions just fine without constant attention.

It is irrigated as a part of the system at the extension office with water that is gathered from the roof of the building. Other than that, the only attention has been from Rachel Mathes, our faithful horticultural assistant, who has harvested the vegetables as they ripened and will be planting some cover crops to take the place of spent plants. Some of the things we have done include planting closely together which helps shade out weeds, applying mulch everywhere, and growing cover crops and companion plants that help attract pollinators and fend off harmful insects. It is so rewarding to see our efforts pay off. We’ll let you know as soon as we return to the garden and you can join us on any Wednesday to help us garden and to learn how we do it.

Here’s an update on the garden from Rachel following her visit today:

“You've outdone yourselves guys, even with not being there to care for them, I harvested over 20 lbs of zucchini and summer squash yesterday. I didn't get a chance to check on them last week so some were humongous at over 3lbs. I gave half to Mark and still have 12 lbs to get through! If you have any recipe ideas, let me know cause I left the small ones on the plants. 

“The pollinator beds are looking flush, and everything looks wonderful. I'm saving seeds as they become ready and will be laying out some cover crops in the next few weeks. The big raised beds themselves are barely weedy at this point.”