Sunshine Community Gardens

30 September, 2021

www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org

Gardener's Picture page

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In this Issue:

• What to Plant in October
• Change of Seasons
• Re-Formatted Site Rules Ratified
• Sunshine Donates Plants to Schools
• September's Micah 6 Totals and Excellent Eggplant Harvest
• Picnic Tables Rebuilt
• Thank You Khaki Weed Eradicators
• Garden Tasks for Service Hours

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What to Plant in October

Fall is here and the upcoming week is likely to be cooler, with highs in the 80s. Most fall crops may be planted all month long. October 15th (10/15) is the traditional date to plant TX 1015 sweet onion seeds. October is the time to plant most of the heading brassica transplants (like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage) that were not already planted in September. Cool weather and winter-hardy herbs like cilantro, parsley, and salad burnet also do well planted in October.

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). The original planting guide is at: https://travis-tx.tamu.edu/files/2020/06/Vegetable-Planting-Calendar-Travis-2015.pdf

Vegetables to Plant in October:

Artichoke (Transplants; All Month)
Asian Greens (Seeds or Transplants; All Month)
Beets (Seeds; All Month)
Broccoli (Transplants; All Month)
Brussels Sprouts (Transplants; All Month)
Cabbage (Transplants; All Month)
Carrots (Seeds; All Month)
Cauliflower (Transplants; All Month)
Chard (Seeds or Transplants; All Month)
Collards (Seeds or Transplants; All Month)
Fava Beans (Seeds; All Month)
Garlic (Cloves; All Month)
Greens, Cool Season (Seeds; All Month)
Kale (Seeds or Transplants; All Month)
Kohlrabi (Seeds or Transplants; All Month)
Leeks (Seeds only, Through mid-October)
Lettuce (Seeds or Transplants; All Month)
Mustard (Seeds or Transplants; All Month)
Onions, Bulbing (Seeds, Mid-October)
Onions, Bunching or Multiplying (Seeds [or Divide Existing Clumps]; All Month)
Peas, English, Snap, or Snow (Seeds; First Week of October only)
Radish (Seeds; All Month)
Shallots (Cloves; All Month)

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Change of Seasons

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Reformatted Site Rules Ratified At All-Gardeners Meeting

At the quarterly All-Gardeners meeting on Tuesday, membership ratified the nonsubstantive reorganized/reformatted site rules. The goal of the reorganization and reformatting is to make the rules more user friendly. A special thanks to Kelley Atkinson for her help with the reorganization and reformatting.

The reorganized/reformatted rules can be found on Sunshine website under the "Member Info" tab.

Other topics discussed at the meeting included Sunshine's financial status, service hours, khaki weed control, plot compliance and the work of currently functioning committees.

Thanks to all the Sunshine members who attended and helped make the meeting a success!

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Sunshine Donates Plants to Schools

As part of Squeaky Frog Farm (Jen Woertz and Jeff Monks) growing fall plants for Sunshine gardeners, arrangements were made for Sunshine to purchase plants to donate to school gardens. The response from the schools was very good. 500 plants were donated to 22 schools - each receiving a flat ( 20 plants) or more. 100 plants were also donated to the Partners For Education, Agriculture and Sustainability (PEAS), a nonprofit o rganization which supports school gardening programs. This fall plant donation is a continuation of Sunshine's practice of donating excess plants from its spring plant sale to schools and nonprofit organizations.

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September's Micah 6 Totals and Excellent Eggplant Harvest

Walter Kuhl shared this Micah 6 donations update for September:

September Totals:

• Produce - 210.5 pounds
• Dry Goods - 52 pounds

Year to Date Totals:

• Produce - 3564 pounds
• Dry Goods - 309 pounds

Currently delivery to the Micah 6 Food Pantry is once a week, around 9am on Saturday morning. Please place your donations in the cool room or the refrigerator in the trailer. You may also leave them in the cooler on the porch if you are not comfortable entering the trailer.

To the right is a picture of eggplants donated to Micah 6 by Sunshine gardener, Bob Easter. So far this year Bob has donated an impressive 184 pounds of eggplant to Micah 6 Food Pantry. Thank you Bob and thank you to all gardeners who have generously donated to Micah 6!

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Picnic Tables Rebuilt

Kristin Phillips writes, "We've all seen the new ramp to the tool shed, and now Robert Jarry is replacing rotten boards on Sunshine's picnic benches. Jarry - helped [on this project] by Steve Camp - has been the lead carpentry volunteer for at least a decade, mending hose holders, porches, stairs and other structures in the garden."

Thank you to Robert and Steve for repairing our picnic tables in time for gardeners and visitors to sit outdoors and enjoy the nice Fall weather!

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Khaki Weed Workday Thank You

Important Reminder for Recording Workday Hours

And Two More Chances to Whack Khaki!

IIa Flavey writes, "Thank you to everyone who participated in the workdays dedicated to removing Khaki Weed. For those of you who didn't make it, there is both ample opportunity and Khaki Weed to remove."

As a bonus to those who attended the workdays, you have been authorized to "count" each hour as 1.5 hours.
Example: Worked 2 hours, Record as 3.

Again, thanks for your eradication efforts.

Khaki weed is very easy to identify now because it is covered with sticker burs. These burs contain the seed heads. Khaki weed grows like a flat mat that can be carefully lifted with its attached seeds, collected in a plastic bucket and thrown in the dumpster.

If you missed or can't make the organized workdays and want to contribute to the heroic effort to defeat the khaki weed and/or need to work some service hours, you may also attack it individually. Please note however that the time-and-a-half credit is only for the workday volunteers, to encourage folks to participate.

There will be two more dedicated Khaki Weed Eradication Workdays--Saturday Oct. 9 and Saturday Oct. 23, from 9-12 (see the list of garden tasks, below).

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Needed Service Hour Tasks - Thursday, 30 September, 2021

To help keep gardeners aware of what service hour tasks are needed, an attempt will be made to keep this list current.

Please observe our 3 mph speed limit! The garden road is not a ranch road!

Priority (Tasks specifically needed):

1. Digging up khaki weed, wherever you find it (Counts as TSVBI hours).
   We will be having a workday Saturday 9/18 and Saturday 9/25 to specifically address this problem. 9:00 until 12
2. 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.
3. Mowing and maintaining perimeter fence line inside and out.

TSVBI:

1. 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). Mowing between fence and street along 49th St. and Sunshine Dr. along and 10' inside fence. (Frequent mowing will be needed this time of year.)
2. Picking up trash in compost area and along fence lines.

Regular:

1. Mowing (Please check area around trailer and greenhouses. Frequent mowing will be needed this time of year.)
2. Maintaining common paths. (Gardeners are required to maintain a 2' strip of common paths adjacent to their plot.)
3. Mowing and cleaning up overgrown/messy places in common areas.
4. Cleaning street curb gutters of dirt and debris build up. (At places in the curb gutter along Sunshine Dr. and 49th St., soil and debris has built up and grass beginning to grow. Scrape off with shovel and put in wheelbarrow. If debris is gravel can be put in low places in parking lot. Otherwise, put in dumpster.)

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

With temperatures cooling off and additional people at the garden, it's more important than ever to observe The 3 MPH speed limit.

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Weeder Content

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

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