(Y)Ardfarmers Garden Report August 2011

1. Produce: In the ten weeks since we started harvesting (at the end of May) we have delivered the following amounts of produce to the Calvin Presbyterian Church 'Care Closet' in wssest Philadelphia each Thursday morning:

• 22 gallon bags of salad greens
• 3 gallon bags of spinach leaves
• 6 dozen radishes
• 24 8-oz. bags of parsley
• 194 4-oz. bags of other herbs (sage, rosemary, basil thyme, mint, oregano)
• 10 bunches of chives
• 10 qt. bags of green beans
• 53 zucchini
• 6 pint bags of jalapeno peppers
• 6 qt. bags of banana peppers
• 11 qt. bags of frying peppers
• 14 sweet peppers
• 65 lbs. of plum tomatoes
• 39 lbs. of beefsteak tomatoes
• 27 lbs. of cherry tomatoes.

2. Labor: Church members have responded well to requests of help with watering and harvesting the garden. Watering continues to be done by weekly teams of volunteers, and Wednesday evening harvesting by ad hoc volunteers responding to email and church bulletin requests. The four-barrel rain capture system has benefited from recent rains, and continues to be used as available for watering the main gardens and the tire-container herb and potatoes beds.

3. Matt. 25:35 Project: A.P.C. (Y)Ardfarmers continue to help develop the Matt. 25:35 project (also known as the Tri-Church Table Fellowship) with Overbrook and Calvin Presbyterian Churches. With the end of the Barry School roof garden project, Sherina Poorman has volunteered her skills (and those associated with the Build-It Bus) to the Matt 25:35 Project. She brought the Build-It Bus to the July meeting of the project committee so that committee members of the other two churches could tour it. (They were very impressed). She also made suggestions for how a youth gardening project could be integrated into the larger project via the summer camp and after-school programs at Calvin Presbyterian Church. A.P.C. (Y)Ardfarmers continue to discuss how and when raised beds like our own might be erected in the enclosed sunny side yard of Calvin Pres. Most recently, we forwarded to them information from the Philadelphia Presbytery regarding available grants from the Michelle Obama-inspire 'LET'S MOVE!" program for the setup of urban gardens. They are considering applying for such a grant.

4. Finances: At present, the garden fund has a positive balance of $1537. 39. Now that the garden is established, we anticipate that a $500.00 annual budget will be sufficient for all expenses (seeds. cuttings, herb plants, tomato cages and other plant supports, organic insect and mildew repellents, fence repairs, etc) in future years.