Late May in the Garden

Garden Stew

The kids prepare their pretend fire to cook the stew on top.

Raspberries, Potatoes, and the Chicken Tractor

It was a beautiful day at the Center Avenue Garden on Saturday, and there was plenty of activity.

David and Teresa brought down two of their friendly chickens, Turiya and India, to enjoy some time in the newly-built Chicken Tractor.  The tractor allows the chickens to move within different parts of the garden to eat, dig, excavate, and fertilize.

Terry and his grandsons spent a good part of the afternoon pulling weeds, while David, Ben and Bob worked on trenching and laying down irrigation in the tomato patch.

Jennifer planted a new Pomegranate tree in the fruit section near the lemon, lime, and avocado trees.

Karen and the kids cleared out calendula from some of the various beds, built up the potato towers, and harvested some tasty raspberries.

The kids also helped Bob and I continue planting some corn, beans and squash near the fence line along Center Avenue.

Here are some pictures of our activities.

Karen shares her raspberry find with Brenna.

Colin has a great eye for hidden raspberries!

Karen works on the potato towers.

David, Duncan and Karen find some red potatoes.

Red, Blue and Yellow Potatoes.

Bright colors near the front archway.

More colors.

David and Ben trench for the tomato patch irrigation. Brenna supervises and  provides moral support.

Teresa tends to the chickens and the tractor.

Turiya and India enjoyed their day at the garden.

Fresh breakfast from the CACG - red, blue and yellow potatoes along with broccoli.

Sugar Cane is Planted

Friend of the garden and regular volunteer Bob donated a sugar cane plant to the CACG some time ago, and the plant has been relaxing comfortably in the greenhouse until last Saturday, where it was planted, and can now stretch its roots in one of the garden beds.

Looking forward to seeing what happens with this!

Sugar cane in the greenhouse.

The Sugar cane planted in the center of a garden bed, surrounded by a few squash plants.

Generous Donations for the CACG

There was a lot of planting activities at the Center Avenue Community Garden this Saturday, in large part due to the abundance of donated plants that we received.

David's neighbor Wade provided some pepper plants, and Ben and his brother Chris stopped by with a variety of starts, including tomatoes and holy basil.

Karen and Colin made a drive out to the Moraga Gardens Farm where Friend of the CACG Rhiannon said there were an assortment of vegetable starts that we could use.

After the trip to Moraga, Karen and Colin arrived with a trunk full of tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers.

Here are a few pictures from Saturday.

Donations from the Moraga Gardens Farm. Thank you!

Donations from Ben and Chris.

Brenna and Karen planting eggplants.

Brenna is busy digging holes.

Eggplant starts.

Mike and Bob cleaning up the tomato patch.

Jennifer working in the garden spiral.

Cool Use of Space at Willows Shopping Center

I don't usually notice the landscaping around malls and shopping centers, but the Willows Shopping Center in Concord does an amazing job with their landscaped spaces.

From the sign on the grounds, it looks like they work in conjuction with the UC Davis Arboretum to put together their design.

Here are a few pictures - make sure to stop and admire next time you're down at Cost Plus, REI, or Roadrunner Sports!

A Little Garden Harvest

Brenna and Colin spent some time harvesting fresh vegetables at the garden this week, including red onions, romaine lettuce, and yellow and orange carrots.

It was the perfect amount for our dinner, so if you're stopping by the garden, feel free to take what you need!

Brenna inspecting the romaine lettuce.

A lot of this carrot patch wasn't quite ready, but we found yellow and orange carrots in various parts of the garden, including volunteers scattered around the pathways.

Carrots, red onions, and romaine lettuce.

Weeding Day

Jenn and Mike hosted at the garden this weekend, and things are looking great, both in the beds, and outside near the shed and lounge area.

Colin stopped by for a few minutes recently to get a little work done.

Colin did a good job loading weeds in the wheelbarrow....

And tossing them into the compost bin.

The romaine lettuce is looking good. Good enough to eat!

A wide variety of veggies are taking off inside this bed, including cucumber, squash, sunflowers, green beans, strawberries, red onions and carrots.

Just like last year, we should have some amazing sunflowers this Summer.  Here are two that are starting to grow tall.

Garden Picture of the Week

Harmony is a great name for this garden bed, since there are over 10 varieties of vegetables and plants growing in there!