Sunshine Community Gardens

4 March, 2022

www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org

If you are signed up to receive the Weekly Weeder and have not been receiving it, here is a troubleshooting page to help. If this doesn't help, please let Sharon at scgardenweb@gmail.com know. Thanks.

In this Issue:

Plant Sale Countdown: It's Here!
Pre-Plant Sale Photos
Resources for Your March Garden
February Totals for Micah 6
Garden Tasks for Service Hours

Plant Sale Countdown: It's Here!

By Janet Adams

It's Here!! It's Time!! 2022 Plant Sale!!

March 5, 2022
9 am - 2 pm
Tell your friends and neighbors.
We accept cash, check and credit cards

We will be encouraging the use of masks and social distancing. The event will not be as social or family friendly as it has in the past and as it will be in the future. But we will get our tomatoes and peppers that are hard to find anywhere else.

Also a reminder, there will be no food provided to the volunteers on Saturday.

There will be no parking at the garden from noon on Friday, March 4 until after the plant sale on Saturday.

If you have questions contact me at jartdaht@gmail.com or 512-808-7994 or find me at the garden.

We ask that volunteers do all they can to protect themselves and others from exposure to the virus.

We had our plant deliveries and they look great. There are so many kinds of tomatoes in the world. Plant descriptions for herb, tomato, pepper, eggplant and tomatillo varieties are on the website. Plan your purchase!

When you come to shop, remember to bring something to take your plants home in. The boxes and trays we have collected are for customers the day of the sale.

Plant descriptions for herbs, tomato, pepper, eggplant and tomatillo varieties are on the website. Plan your purchase! When you come to shop, remember to bring something to take your plants home in. The boxes and trays we have collected are for customers the day of the sale.

Sign Up!

Volunteer!! All members of Sunshine are expected to help at the plant sale. And when you are at the garden, be sure your neighbors know how important this is for all of us.

For volunteers there is a sale on Friday evening. It is only for those who have helped or will be helping on Saturday. It starts at 5 following the All Gardeners meeting at 4:45pm and again, there is no parking on the grounds of the garden after 12:00 noon on Friday.

Ways to help:

--Clean in and around your plots. We want to look our best when we invite the public to Sunshine.

--Bring your empty flat trays to the garden. (Flat trays are those things small pots fit into, usually black)

Pre-Plant Sale Photos

Our Volunteers have been helping unload plants by the truckload! These organic seedlings were raised by Gabriel Valley Farms for Sunshine.

Photos by Kristin Phillips

Resources for Your March Garden

March is one of the busiest planting months in the calendar. It is the time to plant many spring crops, especially tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and herbs. Be sure to harden off greenhouse-raised plants and provide tender seedlings with protection from chilly winds and frequent watering. Basil is especially vulnerable to damage from wind and cooler temperatures.

March is also a great time to lay down soaker hoses and mulch. Doing so now will help keep your garden free of weeds and save water all through the spring and summer.

What to Plant in March

Below is a list of vegetables to plant this month in Travis County (adapted by Maria Beach from the Texas A M AgriLife Extension Vegetable Garden Planting Guide compiled by Patty G. Leander, Master Gardener Extension Specialist). You can view the full planting guide here.

Beans, Snap and Lima (Seeds; All Month)
Beets (Seeds; All Month)
Cantaloupe (Seeds; Second Half of Month)
Chard (Seeds or Transplants; All Month)
Corn (Seeds; All Month)
Cucumber (Seeds; All March)
Eggplant (Transplants; Second Half of Month)
Greens, Cool Season (Seeds; First Three Weeks of March Only)
Greens, Warm Season (Seeds, Last Three Weeks of March)
Lettuce (Seeds or Transplants; First Week of March Only)
Mustard (Seeds or Transplants; First Three Weeks of March Only)
Peppers (Transplants; Last Three Weeks of March)
Pumpkin (Seeds; Last Three Weeks of March)
Radish (Seeds; All Month)
Squash, Summer (Seeds; All Month)
Squash, Winter (Seeds; Last Three Weeks of March)
Tomatoes (Transplants; All Month)
Turnips (Seeds, All Month)
Watermelon (Seeds; Second Half of Month)

Ila Falvey recommends this wonderful article, "In the Austin March Vegetable Garden," by Travis County Master Gardener Sheryl Williams.

February Totals for Micah 6 Food Pantry

by Walter Kuhl

February Donations:

Produce: 3 pounds
Dry Goods: 4 pounds

Donation Cumulative Totals for 2022:

Produce: 50 pounds
Dry Goods - 16 pounds

The lack of produce donations to the food pantry reflects the lack of produce at Sunshine. The successive freezes have been hard on all of us. Usually January and February are good months for donations -- lots of greens, beets, and carrots. Last year over 400 pounds of produce were donated through February. Hopefully our gardening fortunes will improve soon. Spring is a beautiful season -- time for optimism!

For Sunshine gardeners new and old -- donations of both fresh produce and dry goods (canned foods, dry beans and rice, etc.) for the Micah 6 Food Pantry may be left in the cool room (south end) or the refrigerator in the trailer next to the Micah 6 Garden. There are both paper and plastic sacks in the cool room if needed. During the pandemic we also have kept a cooler on the trailer porch for those uncomfortable entering the trailer; that will be likely discontinued soon. Delivery to the food pantry is every Saturday morning around 9am, during peak harvest months an additional Thursday afternoon delivery is added.

Thank you so much for your continued generosity.

Garden Tasks for Service Hours

by Steve Camp

Greetings Gardeners!

The 2022 Plant Sale is on Saturday!! Please help out with last minute chores! Priority task is cleaning up and manning The Plant Sale and cleanup afterwards on Saturday, March 5. Contact Janet Adams and/or Randy Thomas (jartdaht@gmail.com) for details.

New gardeners!

There are several new gardeners at SCG! Please don't hesitate to introduce yourself and y'all get to know each other a little and share garden knowledge and tips. Let's emphasize the Community in Community Garden!

One of our gardeners believes that they came into contact with some poison ivy while gathering leaves at the south end of the leaf pile! Please observe common sense and caution when collecting leaves or chips. We have no way of vetting what landscapers drop off except by asking them not to dump certain items. If you are worried about poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, wear long sleeves, gloves, mask etc. and decontaminate post activity. As far as I k now this is the first gardener that this has happened to.

We are running into a problem with hose connections. Please do NOT connect hoses with aluminum fixtures to our brass faucets. These two metal alloys will chemically bond, effectively welding them to each other. If you have them connected now, be aware that if there are problems with the faucet, your hose may have to be cut in order to get it off. Aluminum hose hardware is generally silver in color. If unsure, ask your vendor or read any literature that comes with the hose

Please avoid putting items in the dumpster until after the Plant Sale Cleanup. You may store them on your plot until after dumpster pickup on Tuesday morning.

Sunshine Community Garden was fined a few months ago for the dumpster being over filled. Please help us to avoid this by following a few simple guidelines:

Fill the dumpster from the back (under the hinges and further to the rear) to the front. If you put stuff in the front, it tends to stay there and eventually leads to a large unused gap in the back. It will in effect turn our 4 cubic yard capacity into 3 cubic yards.

If you think the dumpster is full, contact me (Steve Camp, I'm there a lot) or Randy Thompson (he's there a lot). We can usually compact stuff to make more space.

Follow the rules regarding what goes into the dumpster and what does not, there's signage close by.

If the dumpster actually does get full before pick up day, I'm working on finding a spot where we can store a reasonable overage, to be loaded after the dumpster is emptied. Please contact me if this happens.

When you're done with your project, please close the lids.

Tasks specifically needed:

Maintaining common paths and common areas. If you have plants extending into common paths, trim them. The common paths are designed to allow the biggest wheelbarrows that we own to traverse them unimpeded.
Mowing and maintaining perimeter fence line inside and out.

TSVBI:

Weeding paths in TSBVI garden and wood chip areas on west side. (This is normally needed. Try to get out roots. Be sure to smooth out paths after weeding to facilitate TSBVI students moving around garden).
Picking up trash in compost area and along fence lines.
Cleaning the street curb gutters of dirt and debris buildup. (At places in the curb gutter along Sunshine Dr. And 49th St. soil has built up and grass is beginning to grow. Scrape off with shovel and put in wheelbarrow. If debris is gravel it can be put in low places in the parking lot, otherwise, destination is dumpster.

Regular:

Mowing (Please check area around trailer and greenhouses). The mowing season is slowing down somewhat, let's get to work on the common paths. There is burmuda grass growing up in many spots that needs to be dug up.
Maintaining common paths. (Gardeners are required to maintain a 2' strip of common paths adjacent to their plot.)
Mowing and cleaning up overgrown/messy places in common areas.

Note: TSBVI hour tasks can also count as regular hours.

Your Zone Coordinator may have more tasks than are listed here. Contact them if you feel that you have run out of things to do.

Slow Down . . . You're on Garden Time! Enjoy!

Weeder Content

Please submit weekly weeder articles, photos, and recipes by Wednesday to both Co-Editors:
Maria Beach at dr.maria.beach@gmail.com