APC Community Garden - Watering Info Update

Hello Again (Y)Ardfarmers:

As our first garden crops mature, we're learning how to adjust our watering technique.  The soil mixture in the beds is relatively soft compared to most of our home gardens, so when we spray-water, they tend to flop over more easily.  And as summer heats up, it's better in any case to water at the roots, rather than from the leaves down. Therefore, we have decided to go for the 'trickle method' with both of the big beds.  Here's how:

1. I've attached a two-way connector to the wall faucet at the back of the Parish house.  So now there is ONE hose leading to the middle of one of the large beds, and ANOTHER hose to the middle of the second bed.  (I also removed the nozzle from the one hose, with the help of much spray lubricant!)

2.  When you come to water, turn the wall faucet on NO MORE THAN ABOUT A THIRD OF AN INCH.  This will result in a modest but steady trickle to each of the big beds.  Leave the trickle  on for about half an hour -- you don't have to move the hose, as the water will gradually disperse to both ends of each bed.

3. While the two big beds are being trickle watered, fill the watering can with water from the rain barrels, and put one can on each of the tire beds (herbs AND potatoes).  (If the barrels have run out, you'll have to wait till the large beds are done, and fill cans of water from a hose attached to the the wall faucet).

4. If you like, bring your Bible or other reading material, bring the lawn chair(s) on the P.H. back porch down on the lawn,  and enjoy God's summer bounty as you wait for the big beds to finish being watered (Psalm 104 is a great creation psalm to contemplate as you do that!)

5.  We have to be careful not to over-water (as well as not to under-water!).  So if someone from your team has gotten there ahead of you, and the soil is wet and malleable, DON'T water again -- wait for two days (and co-ordinate schedules with other team members!)

As a reminder, I've reproduced  below the watering schedule below (with one addition for September).

I'll be in San Francisco visiting son and grandson from June 30 to July 7, but look forward to seeing some reddening tomatoes when I get back!

Blessings, and thanks again for everyone' enthusiastic participation in this project.

MSVL

Watering Tips for the APC Community Garden

Hello (Y)Ardfarmers & Friends:

Thanks to all who have signed up to weed and water the APC vegetable garden this summer!  Actually the garden foliage is so lush now that there won't be much weeding to do -- but below I'll give you some hints about watering.  

 

You might be interested to know that Jim Young and I took 4 gallon bags of salad greens, plus 10 8-oz and 30 4-oz ziplock bags of herbs to the food pantry at Calvin Presbyterian Church  in West Philly this morning.  They were enthusiastically received, and we also had a good meeting with representatives of Calvin and Overbrook churches about the three-church food & nutrition education project of which APC is now an affiliate.  Stay tuned for further details!

We have families or groups of friends who have volunteered for  watering/weeding duty for every week up through the 10th of September --that's great!  We could still use volunteers for the week of  Sept. 11 and Sept 18.  Shoot me an email if you're interested in doing either of those weeks.

Now: some tips about watering during your assigned week.

1. Plan to water every other day (unless it rains, then you can skip a day!)

2. We now have a 3-barrel rain recovery system set up on the Parish House back porch, with spigots attached to two hoses.  If there is water in those barrels you should use it first.  You'll find that a hose from the system leads to each of the two garden beds.  The pressure from the system (when you turn on the spigots) is not great -- and you may have to lay to watering end of the hose on the ground while the pressure is building up.  But once the trickle begins, you can just lay each hose in the middle of the bed and let it run (it will disperse gradually to each end).  While that is happening (you should leave the hoses on the beds for about 20 minutes if there is enough water in the system), you can fill the watering can by the regular wall faucet, and put a watering can full on each of the five herb beds in the tires by the P.H. parking lot, plus a watering can full on each of the two 'tired potato' stacks by the Bleddyn Road Hedge.  We've also put a couple of summer lounge chairs on the P.H. back porch for you to take down and relax in while you then wait for the rest of the garden to be watered!

3.  If you run out of rain barrel water, you should switch the hoses from the rain barrel system to the regular spigot on the wall  by the P.H. back porch.  This of course will have better pressure, so you can just do a regular spray watering.

4. Please don't hesitate to contact myself or Jim Young if you need more information, or if you'd like someone to come over and help you get started on your first watering.  And thanks again for your help!  So far, we've had a great growing season.

Blessings,

Mary S. Van Leeuwen

(Y)Ardfarmers' Chair

Pastor's Pen: "Pentecost at the Coffee Shop"

In just a generation, our society has truly become more and more diverse.  As I sit and drink a cup of coffee at a café, I hear a couple nearby sharing an inspired conversation in French.  I don’t know French, but given the enjoyment of the participants I am a little jealous.  As a boy, I rarely heard languages other than English.  Now, during the regular commerce of the day, I might catch a word from my high school Spanish class or my college German courses.  I find it amazing that the eight most common languages other than English spoken in Philadelphia’s schools are Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, French, Khmer, Spanish, Russian and Vietnamese. 

Language connects us, and it also excludes us.  As beautiful as the poetry and music of a particular language can be, not understanding another’s meaning can also be alienating.  As we open our mouths, we find ourselves in a particular phylum or family.  Language becomes a source of identity for us.  It helps define who we are.  It matters whether we read Shakespeare, Cervantes or Goethe. 

In the Book of Acts, we learn how the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples at Pentecost.  Suddenly they disciples were speaking in other tongues.  A crowd quickly gathered and “was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each” (Acts 2:6).  With this miracle, God was giving the Church a new identity.  As ethnically and diverse as the Church is and remains, it has a primary identity in Christ through the Holy Spirit.  Language is no longer the defining characteristic.

In our complex, diverse and fast-paced culture, questions of identity become paramount.  We have serious questions of who we are and what is important.  Beyond language, we find a new classification system.  We define ourselves by the jobs we do, the things we buy, and the media we consume.  We secretly embrace our categories because they give us meaning.  The ongoing miracle at Pentecost means even our created categories of identity are secondary to our identity in Jesus Christ.

Speaking into our old situation, the apostles reach out to us, and they give us a new language.  We speak a new poetry and sing a new song.  We become children of God.