Sunshine Weekly Weeder Newsletter
25 March 2015
www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org
Get Your Volunteer Hours in Now!
28 March, Saturday - A workday hosted by Luda and Jody from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm.
For more information email: Jody Trendler or Ludmila Voskov.
11 April, Saturday - A workday hosted by Katy and Chris from 8:00am - 11:00 am.
For more information email: Katy Davis or Christopher Schroder.
Don't Forget to Record Your Volunteer Hours
Please remember to record the hours that you worked during the plant sale in the Green Binder.
Yippee!, another Batch of Compost Tea!
Sunshine gardeners now have access to freshly brewed aerobic compost tea! The compost tea brewer is set up in the southern-most green house.
Another batch is being brewed and will be available SATURDAY 28th March, AFTER 10 AM on a first come, first serve basis. The brewer makes a 50-gallon batch of tea, so there will be a limit of 1/2 gallon per full-size garden plot. Please bring your own jug.
Compost tea can be used as either a soil drench or a foliar spray. The tea should be diluted approximately 10:1 before use, so 1/2 gallon should be more than enough for your plot! The tea should be used within 8 hours after bottling. The millions of live microorganisms in the tea use up available oxygen very quickly in the confines of a small container where they can go dormant.
Benefits of using of aerobic compost tea include:
- Improved plant growth as a result of protecting plant surfaces with beneficial organisms which occupy infection sites and prevent disease-causing organisms from finding the plant
- Improved nutrient retention and water retention in the soil
- Improved plant nutrition by increasing nutrient availability in the root system
- Improved uptake of nutrients through the foliage while at the same time reducing evaporative loss from the leaf surface
- Improved soil structure
Thanks to Jeff Monks and Jennifer Woertz for undertaking this project.
Don't Let Your Produce go to Waste
Micah 6 has a new service available for gardeners starting on the 4th of April. Volunteers will pick your produce while you are on vacation and contribute the food to the Micah 6 Food Pantry. This is a volunteer organization that stocks a food pantry in central Austin for those in need. Help avoid produce waste!
In order to participate please go to the "cool room", first door on the right as you enter the trailer. There will be special instructions with flags, markers, and a garden map in there. Basically you will mark your plot by placing a dot on the map (don't forget to remove it when you return), and place a flag on your plot. Complete instructions are in the cool room.
When you come home from vacation, replace the flag and the rebar in the bucket, take the green dot off the plot map and erase any special instructions from the white board.
A special thanks to Gail Reese for helping rollout this project.
What to do in March
Mid-Late month: sow lettuce, mustard, radish, beans, corn, cucumber, pumpkin, squash.
Transplant tomatoes, peppers, eggplant.
Officer and Zone Coordinator Contacts - Sunshine Garden
Officers
- President - Ila Falvey ila.falvey@gmail.com
- Vice-President - Janet Adams jartdaht@gmail.com
- Secretary - Ginny Heilman gheilman1@gmail.com
- Treasurer - Jack Reynolds scgtreasurer1@gmail.com
- Director - Michael Hall fibercable@austin.rr.com
- Director - Kay McMurry scg.plots@gmail.com
- Director - vacant
Zone Coordinators
- Zone 1, Jody Trendler jody.trendler@gmail.com
- Zone 2, Katy Davis katydavis@austin.rr.com
- Zone 3, Ludmila Voskov lvoskov@austin.rr.com
- Zone 4, Ila Falvey ila.falvey@gmail.com
- Zone 5, Mary Gifford mgifford@austin.rr.com
- Zone 6, Charlotte Jernigan charlotte@cybermesa.com
- Zone 7, Jing Li jingli80@yahoo.com
- Zone 8, Irina Kaducova irina@austinshrooms.com
- Zone 9, Cheryl Hazeltine cph@austin.rr.com
- Zone 10, Christopher Schroder christopher.s.schroder@gmail.com
Other Coordinators
- Weekly Weeder Newsletter - Margaret Powis purslane2013@gmail.com
- Plant Sale - Michael Hall fibercable@austin.rr.com
- TSBVI Liason & Volunteer Coordinator - Janet Adams jartdaht@gmailcom
- Plot Rental - Kay McMurry scg.plots@gmail.com
- Carpentry & Repairs - Robert Jarry r.jarry@sbcglobal.net
- Water Leak Repairs - Stewart Nichols sgwater@math.austin.tx.us
- Tools & Wheelbarrows - Bob Easter beaster1@austin.rr.com
- Website Coordinator - Sharon Rempert scgardenweb@gmail.com
Record Service Hours Online - the Virtual Green Binder
