Sunshine Community Gardens

22 April, 2021

www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org

Gardener's Picture page

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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.

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Happy Earth Day!

The theme for this year's Earth Day is "Restore Our Earth" which focuses on natural processes and emerging green technologies that can restore the world's ecosystems.

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Mother Nature Hits Sunshine Three Times - Volunteers Respond

Article and photos by Jim Willmann

First, it was the big freeze, then the hail, and this week a freak wind burst. The freeze caused leaks at 12-15 water stations and multiple breaks in the trailer's copper water pipes. The hailstorm destroyed the plastic panels on the trailer porch roof. Then on Tuesday, a freak wind burst tore off the tin roof of the tractor shed and dumped a 12' x 8' piece of roofing on Mary Gifford's plot destroying some plants and tomato cages. Luckily, no one was near the tool shed when the roof was torn off.

Fortunately, Sunshine has gardeners with expertise in plumbing and building repairs and who were willing to volunteer the hours needed to repair the damage.

Steve Schulz (Water Leak Repairs Coordinator) spent several days repairing the water stations leaks and burst pipes under the trailer. With the trailer, Steve would locate the leak, repair, and turn on the water only to find another leak. This happened at least five times.

Robert Jarry (Carpentry & Repairs Coordinator) led a team (Stan Lundgren, Steve Camp, Ray Porter and Jim Willmann) to remove the damaged trailer roof plastic panels and replace with tin panels. The tin panels not only will be less subject to damage but also make porch cooler. Stan, Robert, Steve, and Jim repaired the tractor roof including some minor damage to tool shed roof.

Thanks to Steve Schulz, Robert Jarry, Stan Lundgren, Ray Porter, Steve Camp and Jim Willmann.

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A Great Passalong Plant

Randy Thompson shares this photo of a Passalong Plant that a Sunshine Gardner brought to the Passalong event. What is the plant Randy?

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Compost Tea Anyone?

Ila Falvey reports:

A visitor to Sunshine asked whether he could have some tea to drink. I did not know what he was talking about and he pointed to the sign "Compost Tea Today".

During the height of planting season, Linda Pennington and I brew aerobic compost tea using water, worm compost, molasses, and seaweed in a large barrel with aerating stones. The set up is in the hoop house and it takes about 48 hours to brew a batch. If the orange sign is up, there should be compost tea available. If you use the last amount, please take the sign off and put it in the hoop house so we know to brew more. If the sign is up and there is no compost tea, then "the last drop person" failed to remove the sign.

Using Aerobic compost tea (either as a foliar feed or applied to the soil) or is thought to increase both the microbial life and nutrients in the soil resulting in healthier plants. I tend to use it when planting transplants or seeds.

For more information see the this link.

To use, it is suggested that it be diluted 1:4. There are gallon jugs next to the set-up for your use. Please return them. There is no charge for the compost tea. Just another perk of gardening at Sunshine.

If you want to check out how we make it, email us and we can do a "show and tell". Our emails are in the Weeder.

Happy Gardening,
Ila and Linda

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Weeder Content

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