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
