Longfellow Creek Community Garden Spring Fundraiser

Date: Saturday, May 16, 2009

Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Location: C&P Coffee Company – 5612 California Avenue, Seattle, WA

Suggested Donation: $25

Wine Tasting of Northwest Wines

60 tickets available

Contact Event Coordinator at lazylocavores@me.com

Wine tasting courtesy of Bonnie of QFC, Westwood Village

Prizes, auction items, raffle tickets, opportunities to become a Member of Longfellow Creek Community Garden



Come to C&P Coffee Company, 5612 California Ave SW, on Saturday May 16, 2009 at 6:00pm for The Longfellow Creek Community Garden Annual Spring Fundraiser. This year’s event is a wine tasting of Northwest Wines. Suggested donation is $25.00. Tickets are limited, and available in advance by emailing lazylocavores@me.com or may be purchased at the door.

This highly anticipated event spotlights a wine tasting courtesy of Bonnie, a level one sommelier, of the Westwood Village QFC to include numerous wines from throughout the Pacific Northwest. Owen Sullivan of OS Winery will be stopping by as our guest wine maker and will be pouring his famous red. There will also be prizes, donated auction items and raffle tickets. Come sample some local wine, mingle with the Longfellow Creek Community Garden Mentors Board and other West Seattle gardeners.



This is our main fundraiser for the year and your support will assist Longfellow Creek Community Garden in purchasing the tools, seedlings and supplies needed for this summer and fall growing seasons.

Longfellow Creek Community Garden is a quarter-acre neighborhood garden located in West Seattle. Our goal is to provide the West Seattle and White Center communities with access to an area for growing nutritious food and expert education on all aspects of growing vegetables in the Pacific Northwest. We offer many levels of involvement regardless of ability to pay. We are actively enrolling new garden members and have bi-weekly educational seminars scheduled.

January in the garden - lots of clean up to do from last season's activities. Spring is just around the corner, and February is a month for clean-up and preparation.

OUR NEXT WORK PARTY IS:

January 27, 11 AM - 2 PM (tentative)

Longfellow Creek Garden in Snow!

There was a literal blanket of snow over the Longfellow Creek Garden on Dec 23rd. We made our way around taking pictures of the soft pillows that were once rows of veggies this summer. The structures from the tomato row and a few collard greens were sticking through the snow. Check out a few more pictures at my Flickr account. Lets meet in January to talk about what we want to grow next year!

Jayne, Sherpa and Arlo met Phil and his gang at the garden to make snow angels and throw snowballs at each other and to the doggies.

Third Garlic Planting Party:

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

11 AM to 4 PM - Weather Permitting

Bring gloves, wear shoes that can get dirty!

Bring a digging fork if you have one.

Email zach growingwashington org to RSVP

or call (425) 367.9133

Garlic and Fava Planting Party

Sunday's planting party was terrific. People started showing up around noon and we got right to work tilling several rows. Carrie, Chris, Lynette, Loring, Zach, and I planted five rows of not-for-food fava beans, and four new rows of garlic. We came away with quite a bounty. Kale, beans, rutabaga, yellow squash, golden beets, potatoes, corn.... The apples you see were picked the day before in Eastern Washington. (Thanks, Carrie!) Everyone came over to Zach’s place later and we cooked it all up. Yum.

2nd Garlic Planting Party

The first Garlic Party had 8 people in attendence. In 2 hours we planted 2 beautiful rows of garlic cloves.

Thanks to Sally, Sandy, Ryan, Audrey, Jeremiah, Carmen & Nicholas, and Palmer for coming to help plant the garlic, which required a lot of diggin and weed pullin!

Sunday October 19
12:00 to 4:00
2nd round of garlic planting at Longfellow!

Thanks,
Zach

PS:

Check out http://www.urbanlandarmy.com/ - a local program for helping people organize urban farming projects....

Also, Sustainable West Seattle is having a planning meeting for a local food dinner. Check out
http://www.sustainablewestseattle.org/
the meeting details are:

Wednesday October 22, 6:15-7:45, at the Southwest Branch Library in West Seattle (9010 35th Ave SW - on 35th, Bus Route 21). - Please note this is a different library than the one we met at last.

Planting Garlic

We will be planting garlic on Friday evening at 4:00 PM (weather permitting). Heavy or medium rain is a no go…but if the weather is nice we’ll be using various tools to plant several rows of garlic.

Garlic is planting in October and harvest in July. We will need to get straw to lay down as mulch - if anyone is at halloween / harvest parties and there are decorative bales of hay can you snag em'?

Zach Zink

Please email me to rsvp by emailing zach growingwashington org
and / or calling 425.367.9133

Benefits and Purpose of Gardening

With regard to food production, this blogger says that community gardens create...

Self-reliance: Disciplined people, Discipline Thought, Disciplined Action.

And that...
Small steps, relentlessly taken will create durable people and communities, economic lifeboats. There may not be time to save everyone, but there is time for everyone to save themself. Start simple by asking everyone to plant a garden.

This may seem insignificant but it accomplishes vital tasks:
1. Each person is responsible for self-reliance.
2. Builds agricultural skills and a sense that we are part of the land.
3. Cuts food-miles and reduces oil dependence.
4. Strengthens the social fabric with confidence that we are durability from famine caused by oil shortage.
5. Affirms by action that we can and will prevail. We need only exercise our liberty and responsibility.

Community gardens strengthen communities with shared responsibility and knowledge.
from:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4161#more

harvesting/thinning beets

Here we are seeding Filderkraut Cabbage into the row for late fall havest (fingers crossed!)

Laura harvests some beets to take home after a day of direct seeding rutagagas and cabbages into the soil.

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

A great article appeared today on The Oil Drum, a website totally devoted to reporting any and all news that relates to energy, especially Peak Oil .

Aaron Newton writes,

"Of course we have an alternative. The population of the United States of America could make an anticipatory change away from industrial agriculture and decrease our dangerous reliance on it? We can, as a nation, turn away voluntarily from industrial agriculture by rejecting a culture of hyper consumption and promote a culture of creation- not factory farming but local farmers meeting local food needs. We can embrace the freedom and stability of agricultural self sufficiency and local interdependency- the battle cry can be Food Sovereignty! And we can do it in advance of any possible economic troubles because of speculation, liquidation, inflation, or any other manipulative practices that might further distort food price and access. We can begin again to base our society on providing our own needs and the needs of our communities."

More article can be found if you follow the link:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4285#more

OH MY GODDESS!
The 1st Annual Food Garden Tour in West Seattle is coming up, which is of course our favorite event of the year (or at least we hope it will be)! Guess who's gonna be on the tour!!!!! Longfellow Creek Garden is less than a year old, but it's otfwdh (off-the-fricken-wicked-dope-hook) anyway! Which is why of course, we have been selected. Here's the blurb:

We are planning the 1st Annual Food Garden Tour in West Seattle. Our goal is to meet other gardeners, have fun, and share information/inspiration with others who are committed to growing food in an urban environment. By visiting each other’s gardens we can learn what works in different locations with a variety of approaches.

YEAH! ALRIGHT! Ok so what you need to know is this:
It's August 2 from 10am to 2pm.
There will be between 6 and 10 gardens, a map, directions, etc. You go at your own pace. There'll be someone at each garden to show you around and give you info.
Wow!! Now you're like "omfg (oh my fricken goddess), how do I learn more?" Well you stay tuned that's how. We're gonna get more info up here real soon! SEE YOU THEN!

Cedar Grove Compost Donates....Compost!

Jami at Cedar Grove Compost has agreed to donate Longfellow Creek Garden 30 cubic yards of finished compost.

This is a wonderful gift to the Garden and we are incredibly grateful to Cedar Grove Compost. We will work the compost into our soil, use it as topdressing around our plants when they get a little bigger, and use it in our own compost pile as needed to balance it and promote rapid decomposition.

Jim will be delivering it in his big ol' work truck. We are continually amazed at the support for neighborhoods interesting in developing their own food systems.

Please visit http://www.cedar-grove.com/ to look at other products and services they might be able to offer you as you garden organically at home.

Best,
Zach Zink

First Harvest from my Home Garden

I have 100 square feet of raised beds at home. Here is a picture of my first big harvest today from the "salad garden" as I like to think of it.

Seattle PI Article

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/365448_urbanfarming02.html

Jennifer Langston wrote an article about urban farming, and mentioned Longfellow :-)

garden is exploding!

Sugar snaps need support, so as they get taller you can train them to grab onto your twine, and they handle the rest for the next 5 weeks. Posts get pounded down with a...post pounder.

Alongside the sugar snaps are some mustard greens. The big grassy patch in the foreground is winter rye and vetch that I cover cropped over some soggy clay soil.

Jim came over with a bobcat and tilling implement and tilled the rest of the soil. Thanks Jim!

Things are really growing over here. Can you believe that within this picture are mustard greens, carrots, sugar snaps, 3 kinds of kale, swiss chard, spinach, corn, tomatoes, zuchini, cilantro, radishes, pole beans, leeks, & sunflowers!

Sunday Rain

Hey everybody!  I was able to water this evening, hooking up hoses to Pat's front yard hose bib.  Pat also weeded the final tilled row closest to 24th, and got some tomato, collard, celery, cucumber, walla walla onions, and salad greens starts that I planted tonight.  Thanks again to Pat and Stein Perry for the water!

Growing Things!

Farmer Jayne is pictured working on the sod to get the weeds out!

We have all been working hard to turn over the sod, weed out the invasives and break up soil clumps.

After the beds are ready we fertilize and transplant. Here is a row of Sugar Snap Peas and a row of Corn.

Planting Party

Cool Moms Planting Party

May 24

10 am - 12noon

Wear shoes or boots, gloves, and bring water. We have bathrooms nearby.

Bring your own pole bean or climing plant seeds.

RSVP to zach@growingwashington.org

Lots more to do!

I cleared out another bed of a wheel barrel's worth of weeds yesterday, and planted some kale, spinach, and chard starts thinned from my raised bed. Jayne came by and put in some more greens, but I think the bed next to her stuff (which is almost ready to harvest) is up for grabs. I was going to do some seeds, but ran out of time. Maybe this afternoon before I go to work. Be sure to use labels so folks don't plant where you did! 

Jayne turned up another bed last night which needs to be de-weeded. This was the bed that was machine tilled, and it seemed to do a great job in making the weeds grow back stronger than ever! If someone gets a chance to go by and pluck out the big dandelions and buttercup, that'd be awesome. I spent about 5 hours on it yesterday, which - while quite a pain - I think will really pay itself off in terms of fewer stuff to pull around the plants as they grow in the coming months.

For those of you who read the flyer I put up at Arlo's daycare - welcome! Please contact any of the folks linked here to get plugged in. I work crazy hours, but will try to answer any calls or e-mails as soon as possible. 

Cheers,

Jen

planted more veggies

Today Jeremiah and I really dug into the garden to plant more veggies, Jen also came over and planted some starts.

Jeremiah and I planted radishes, corn, 3 kinds of zuchini, cilantro, sunflowers, and "super sugar snap peas." We have a lot more of the sugar snap pea starts right now b/c of Vince's donation from 21 Acres. Getting these planted is a priority.

Jen planted mustard greens.

I also cover cropped some patches of ground that are very much clay with winter rye and vetch to try and break up some of that clay and build it up for next season.

Using lots of organic fertlizers like chicken manure (nitrogen), Rock Phosphate (calcium and phosophorous), bloodmeal (nitrogen), and dolomite lime (calcium and magnesium, sweetens soil to lessen acid conditions). Soil in the pacific northwest is slow to respond to compost because generally cool temperatures slow down the microbial action that makes the nutrients in compost available to vegetables.

As a result, for first time gardens it behooves folk to add powdered or pelleted ammendmnets because they are, comparatively speaking, immediately available. The are activated first by tilling them into the soil at their recommended application rates (almost always explained on the packaging) and second by watering them in once they are there.

planted

planted from seed...white russian kale, rainbow swiss chard, sugar snap peas, broccoli raab

planted from starts (thanks Vince for the donation!)...zuchini, corn, super sugar snaps

also covered a very clay/marginal patch of ground by the creek with winter rye and vetch to cover crop it and start breaking it up.

-Zach Zink

Tuesday April 29th 3-8pm

I will be at the Garden to continue working on turning the soil and making rows, and laying wood chips in the pathways. I will be at the farm from 3-8pm and I will bring shovels and hoes. Please bring your own gloves and any hand tools you think you will need. I am missing my pruning shears with wood handles from last Saturday's work party, and I have a few too many shovels left over. Please mark your tools with your name and phone number so we can get them back to you.

I already have some pumpkins, cukes, leeks, peppers, cilantro, peas and tomatoes started. Once the rows are ready, we will be able to plant some of these things right into the ground. We will need to construct a hoop house for the tomatoes and peppers, and if the Okra and Melons come up, we can put those in as well. If there are any construction people out there who would like to lend a hand with that, please contact me.

Hope to see you there!

Jayne Simmons
206-898-2101

Saturday, April 26

I will be at the Garden on Saturday, April 26, from 11 to 6 if anyone wants to come help out. Feel free to stop by for however much time works for your schedule.

I think I will be using a shovel to turn over the sod to make beds. It was just too wet to really succeed with the tiller. Hard work! But important.

Zach Z.
425.367.9133

Work Party

Thank you to everyone that helped out at the work party on Saturday. The weather cleared up and the sun came out for the basically the whole four hours that we were our there, no more no less. We cleared a huge amount of debris, equipment, and trash out of the 1/4 acre, weedwacked, raked, and piled compost.

My my estimate, we had about 20 folks working, 5 kids playing, 3 dogs racing around in circles, and about 5 people that stopped to see what we were up to.

Here are the next steps:

-take garbage to dump....anyone with access to a truck?

-turn over beds with a shovel (hard work, but most important!)

-seed sugar snap peas, plant strawberries

-wood chips between rows

-more clean-up

Cheers,

Zach

Wood Chip-O-Rama

I have a beautiful pile (6 yards!) of wood chips happily steaming away in my driveway just waiting to be used as garden paths! Stonehenge Tree Experts was kind enough to deliver it for free. I love getting free stuff, and recycling ROCKS! 

another photo

More Great Press

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/04/a_garden_for_eatin

Adrian Ryan, long-time Stranger contributer posted this about us on The Stranger's fantastic blog, called "Slog." Check it out. Thank Adrian if you want...his email is: adrian@thestranger.com.

Crazy Coincidence

Chris Jude, a renewable energy specialist and good friend emailed me with more Longfellow history. Chris used to work for Full Circle Farm (www.fullcirclefarm.com) in Carnation, WA, which is one of the bigger organic farms in the area. His longtime girlfriend, Lynnette, worked as an intern for Tolt River Farm, run by Becky and Eric (http://toltriverfarm.com/). Chris currently helps out Eric part-time with Eric's arboriculture business.

That same year that Lynnette & Chris were in Carnation, I was an intern at Growing Things Farm (www.growingthingsfarm.com) All the interns hung out quite a bit. We worked all week and relaxed at each other’s respective farms on the weekends. Often, we'd all be selling at our various stalls at the Carnation farmers market. We were a close community and still are 2 years later.

Chris was talking to Eric about Longfellow and it turns out that Becky used to garden Longfellow when she lived in Seattle. She was 28, it was 1999, and she had just completed an organic farm internship. The very year she was interning, John and Francis Smersh were starting the original Longfellow Creek Garden (so, 1998 I think). Becky gardened for several more years at Longfellow until interest died away and 10 years later still continues to farm.

It is an auspicious discovery to hear that Longfellow has been part of the journey of folks like Becky. All of the farms I’ve mentioned are cornerstones of sustainable, organic agriculture in Washington. They all educate interns like Becky, Lynette, and myself and those interns overwhelmingly stay involved in local food production. Please check them out.

Cheers,
Zach Zink

History of Longfellow

A man who saw our post at the West Seattle Blog commented that he was involved in growing food on LFCG back when it was a fully functioning community garden.

Apparently LFCG was founded by Laura Love, a folk musician. See: http://www.lauralove.net/ for more about her and: http://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=6699#comment-169991 for the comment in which "John" explains our GARLICKY hidden past.

Cheers,
Zach Zink

great press from West Seattle Blog

Thanks to Tracy over at West Seattle Blog, we have gotten some great press.

http://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=6699&akst_action=share-this

We have already had 3 volunteers confirm just from this post! Keep up the good work everyone.

Cheers,
Zach Zink

Work Day - April 19th

Community Garden Restoration
Longfellow Creek Garden is a 1/4 parcel of land that we are restoring into a functioning, food producing garden. The project is run through Growing Washington, a nonprofit devoted to revitalizing the local food industry in Western Washington.

Date: Saturday, April 19
Time: 12 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Location: 2311 SW Myrtle St., Seattle, WA 98106
(Just off Delridge and near the Home Depot in West Seattle)

Park at 2133 SW Myrtle St., 98106. From there volunteers will walk over to the garden, which is about a block away.

Project Leader: Zach Zink
425.367.9133
zach@growingwashington.org

Details: Clearing a perimeter with leaf raking and bramble clipping. Spreading mulch, painting,and weed whacking. Clearing obstacles out of rows to get ready for tilling, making a compost pile.

Bring gloves and wear boots. If you have rakes, hedge clippers, branch cutters, and other misc. lawn care tools, please bring them. We will have an assortment of tools on hand.

At 4:00 PM, when the work is over, we plan to celebrate by tilling the first row. Vince Felice from 21 Acres Farm in Woodinville has graciously donated his time and his 26 horsepower tiller to tackle the rows!

RSVP to Zach by Friday, April 11, 2008.