Week 15: The Ice Age in August

So this week the mornings have been frigid. It will be 40 degrees when I set out to work IN AUGUST. Although it will finally get into the 70s or 80s in the afternoon we are all wearing things to keep warm until the sun busts through and remembers that it is summer. It has been a cooler summer then last year overall but it is still surprising that early August is cold. In case you didn't know that means two things: winter will be extreme again and our tomatoes are struggling. See tomatoes like warm muggy weather. So we have lots of green tomatoes but they will not turn colors. This has led to some disease and rot. To combat this and keep pests from eating up more of our garden we are spraying neem oil mixture. Neem oil is awesome because it kills and combats harmful insects and fungus while not hurting the helpful ones like bees or butterflies. It works for the whole week and then I need to spray again. It is also an organic approved spray since it doesn't have any chemicals that just harm everything like so many other sprays.

We have also spread dog hair around our garden at 46th st. to keep raccoons from eating our corn. We know it is raccoons that have been taking our corn because they are big time food wasters. They only nibble the cob and they break the stalk. Raccoons are frightened of dogs usually and the smell should keep them away.

Our stand this week that is on Thursdays from 11 to 1 did better this week. More people keep coming to campus getting ready for school so we can hope to continue to sell better each week. (It also helps that people like eating corn which we did not have last week). There was still plenty to give to St. Martins so I think everyone wins.

We planted more broccoli, lettuce and peas this week for a fall crop at 46th. We took out the swiss chard to make room for the broccoli since the swiss chard has not been awesome for us this year. It is an eyesore with it being so bug eaten and we can't really sell it since it is so mangled. I am glad to be back and am always looking for volunteers as school gets underway. As you can see from the pictures the garden is booming and beautiful. It is a lovely place to work and be close to God.