Monroe's Own Food-Sharing Garden

As many of our readers already know, Alpine, Oregon (where we live) has been host to a unique community garden for a year (and is heading into its second). What makes this 'sharing' garden unique is that, instead of many separate plots, that are rented by individuals, this garden is one large plot, shared by all. All materials and labor are donated - either by local individuals and families, or through grants from businesses and non-profit organizations. The food we grow is shared amongst those who have contributed in some way as well as others who are in need in our community. All surplus is donated to our local food-bank. No one is ever charged money for the food that is grown. We like to think of it as a 'Stone Soup' garden where each of us donates a little of our surplus --whether in time or materials--to grow a sense of community, and plenty of food to share. 

These are teaching gardens as well. All food is grown without use of herbicides and pesticides. We rely on heavy mulching (to minimize the need for watering and weeding) and compost (made from yard and kitchen waste) to fertilize the soil. People who are interested in this project, if local, can join us in the garden and learn by doing. Our more distant supporters can follow these blog posts to pick up gardening tips and ideas, or learn how to start a Sharing garden in your own neighborhood.

         Tilling in maple leaves between rows of cover-crop.

In mid-February 2010, Alpine's neighbor, Monroe, became host to a Sharing Garden as well. We are extremely excited about this development. While Alpine's garden is about 80' x 100', we paced out Monroe's garden at 110' x 175'. Between the two gardens this brings us up to about 2/3 of an acre of rich and fertile soil. In addition, at the new site, we've got a 20' x 30' metal building built on a concrete pad which can store the garden tools and be a workshop space on rainy days. It'll be mighty toasty in the summer! and we're already designing an indoor food-drying system against the south wall. The well, at its peak, flows at 100 gallons a minute! Yes folks, you read that right! We won't have to worry about the garden drying out just as its coming into its fullest harvest time.

                                            Harvest 2009.

Another great feature of this site is its location. Monroe is a town of about 700 people. It's got a main-street with some shops. Monroe hosts about half a dozen churches and the elementary, middle and high-schools that serve this rural region. Our garden site is located in the empty field directly between the elementary school and the Methodist church that houses the food-bank where we take our surplus produce.  This way, it will be easy to involve school-age children and give them access to a garden for hands-on learning opportunities. Also, the recipients of our bounty at the food-bank can make a direct connection between the food they're eating and where it comes from. We've already begun drumming up some volunteer interest from those who benefit from the food-bank. As the Alpine garden has few people within walking distance, Monroe's garden site makes it more convenient for volunteers to participate.

As we mentioned in the last post. The Monroe garden is sited on the property of Chester Crowson, a long-time valuable member of the local community. At 86, Chester has been a bus-driver for over 40 years and has the distinction of being Oregon's oldest bus-driver on record. He currently owns the bus company that provides transport for all the local children to and from school. If the funding comes through, he'll be providing bus-service to the young people in our pilot program this summer, to bring them to and from the Alpine site. We are deeply grateful for Mr. Crowson's open-handed and good-hearted support for this garden project. Thank you Chester!

P.S To our local friends and supporters: We're going to need someone with a large tractor and tiller to do the initial ground-breaking in Monroe once the soil drains. If you'd like to volunteer, or know someone who can, please give us a call at 847-8797. Chris and Llyn

First Signs of Spring!

Well, it appears that spring is on its way, at least in our neck of the woods. The crocuses have been blooming for a few weeks now, willows are leafing out, and the robins have returned. There's a beautiful soft "blush" when you look to the hills as all the deciduous trees' buds slowly begin to swell. And the moist wakening earth just smells so fine on a sunny day. With the arrival of spring, we gardeners get itchy to be working the soil again and yearn to start the cycle of planting, cultivation and harvest once again.

We're happy to announce that we've received permission for a second year of gardening at Alpine's Food-Sharing garden. Chris has painted a beautiful sign to display at the park. The sign is made almost entirely from recycled materials. It provided a welcome diversion to get us through the damp, dark days here in Alpine. He also built several bird houses to attract bluebirds, and woodpeckers to the park. We'll let you know when the birds move in!

We'll be expanding the garden program for 2010. With the help of Evelyn Lee (thanks Evelyn!), we submitted an extensive grant proposal which includes funding to expand the program in the following ways:

• We've been given permission by Chester Crowson (of the Crowson School-bus Company in Monroe) to expand our garden to a second, additional garden plot on his property between the Food Bank (where we've been taking our surplus produce) and the elementary school in Monroe. He made it clear to us that he is one hundred percent supportive of the program and will "help us in any way" he can. Be sure to thank him next time you see him.
• We're creating a pilot project to involve young people ages 9-18 in serving their community by raising food especially for the Monroe Food Bank and others in need while they learn valuable gardening skills.
• And we intend to expand and structure our volunteer program to involve more people in the project. (email us if you want to be on our volunteer list: alpinecogarden@gmail.com )

Pea Planting Tips: Fortunately in our area, there are a few things that can be started now with a cloche (unheated greenhouse) or cold frame. Though some gardeners can sow peas directly in the ground now, the Alpine garden site is still too soggy so we've started ours indoors. We've planted four seeds in the four corners of four-inch pots, about one finger-knuckle deep. The four-inch pots are deep enough that the plants won’t exhaust the nutrients or become root bound before they're transplanted. When its time to transplant, we'll put each clump of four into the soil without teasing them apart. Each clump will be planted eight inches apart. Other plants we've started in the cloche are: spinach, kale, broccoli, parsley, onions and lettuce.

We'll keep you informed about how you can get involved in the existing Alpine garden, the Monroe garden expansion as well as the youth program.

Llyn and Chris - Garden Coordinators

Alpine Food-Sharing Garden is Done; Food Bank still needs donations

The Alpine Food-Sharing Garden had a killing frost over a week ago. It came on rather unexpectedly and it put an end to just about everything in the garden except the winter crops we planted in early September: kale, brussels sprouts, peas and a few other things. These are quite big enough to bring a harvest to the food-bank.

If your garden is still producing surplus produce, and you'd like to bring it to the Monroe Food-bank, the people there would be very grateful. Though on third Thursdays (tomorrow) the food-bank isn't open till 5:00 pm, you can still bring your donations by at any time in the day. Leave them on the carport behind the big, white Methodist Church on Orchard St. Other weeks the Food Bank is open 10:00 - noon. They are open year-round.

Thanks so much for your support -

Chris and Llyn
Alpine Food-Sharing Garden

Food Bank - Christmas Eve

Hello neighbors in the Willamette Valley,

 
It is a pleasant coincidence that the Monroe Food Bank will be open next week on Christmas Eve. What better time to share from the blessings each of us have been given with those who may be less fortunate at this time. The Food Bank will be open from 10:00 to 12:00  on Thursday, Dec. 24 in the garage and covered car-port behind the big, white Methodist Church in Monroe. Farmers/gardeners, if you have a surplus of potatoes, winter squash or other bounty from your garden, these donations would be welcome. I can't imagine many people's winter-crops survived last week's freeze but greens, beets, carrots or other fresh produce would be a special treat for those at the food-bank, at this time of year.

Canned goods, and dried goods and other commercially prepared foods are all welcome as well.


Thank you for your generosity and may this season of light touch you in miraculous ways,

Llyn and Chris
Alpine Food-Sharing Garden

Building a Bean-Tipi

It's difficult to show the evolution of the garden because of its size (80'X 100'). Pictures taken to capture the whole garden just blur into a lot of undistinguished greenery and its easy to lose scale. Here's a short photo essay that shows the progress of one aspect of the garden; the pole-bean tipi that we made and planted in late May.

We began by prepping the soil, fluffing it up with a spade-fork and digging in rabbit manure. Beans don't need a lot of fertilization as they are able to "fix" nitrogen from the air. We mounded the soil into a ring and lay down a heavy bed of straw in the middle (6" thick). Next we chose three stout, straight bamboo poles and tied a knot around them about six feet from the ground. You want to place your knot lower than the height of your shortest other poles as they need to be able to lay in the crotches formed by this tripod. Spread the three tied poles into a tripod with the legs equal distance apart. Lay the other poles in the spaces between these main poles so that you eventually end up with your poles 4-5 inches apart at the bottom. Work your way in a spiral laying a new pole between these original 3 poles in a circular direction. Be sure to leave space for a door. Later in the summer, the tipi provides excellent shade and it's easiest to harvest the beans from within.

Here's the tipi's top after all the poles have been placed:


Plant the beans about 4-5 inches apart. Beans are a large seed so you don't have to groom the soil as much as for small seeds such as carrots or basil.


Here's the tipi about three weeks after we built it and planted the beans:


This picture was taken about eight weeks after planting:


Here's Llyn in the door of the tipi almost 10 weeks after planting, in late July (those are buckets of manure tea in the lower right-hand corner):



We harvested beans off the tipi for several weeks and yielded many, many pounds which we took to the food bank. It was relatively easy to harvest the beans because they hung down into the center of the tipi. Next year we're going to grow our cucumbers on a slanted trellis so they will hang down and be easy to harvest as well. This next picture was taken in late September just a week or so before we had a killing frost. Here's Llyn harvesting the dried bean-pods to thresh and save the seed for next year's garden.

Bean pods should be brown and mostly dry to the touch before you harvest them for seed. They won't develop much at all after you pick them and so you want the ripest, fullest bean-pods to ensure the most viable seeds. Here are a few ripe ones. This variety is called "Blue Lake" pole beans. (Blue Lakes also come in a bush-variety that won't vine up the poles.)

This last picture was taken in mid-October, a few weeks after the killing frost. That's a giant artichoke plant in the foreground (started from seed last March! - It had it's roots in a pile of seasoned rabbit manure.) One quarter of the garden is behind the pole-bean tipi and to the left.

Our garden has mostly been put to bed for the winter. We have some winter greens planted, some carrots and beets. We'll continue top harvest and share these as they ripen. The days are getting noticeably shorter and the winter rains have begun to fall in Oregon.

Thanks for following along on our garden adventure.

Llyn and Chris

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

It's been awhile since we've reported on the progress of Alpine's Food Sharing Garden. We've been as busy as nut-burying squirrels - harvesting the garden, sharing the harvest with the local food-bank and canning and drying some of the surplus. Just last week we began planting our fall/winter crops of greens, cabbage and brussel sprouts.

On average we take a well-mounded wheel-barrow full of produce to the Monroe Food Bank each week. Chris and I (Llyn) still do most of the garden's tending but the word has gotten out that Thursday is harvest day and we have volunteers showing up most weeks to help with the harvest and assist with other projects as they arise. Here are a handful of pictures that show our harvest and volunteers at "play".

Llyn Peabody with our first week's harvest:


Eva Riedlecker harvesting beans inside the tipi:


Steve Northway and Chris Burns planting fall crops:


We love growing food for people and we're already preparing for next year's garden. We'll have the luxury of having beds prepared and the fence built. We now know which produce is most popular at the food-bank so we're planning the garden around this information. Here's an overview of one of the lushest areas of the garden. That's the pole-bean tipi on the left and to the right is the 50' x 25' NE section of the garden with tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, kale, collards, chard, raspberries and sunflowers. The picture was taken a month ago so things are even lusher now!