May 30th

Some pictures to illustrate Henry Cakebread's story + extras

The whole garden is doing pretty well !

Nikki's bed is particularly amazing

Elsa's bed is doing quite good too !

Spinaches are recovering from cucumber beetles (still here though !)

Anne's bed is not that productive but beautiful !

Some delicious radishes show their pink outfit

And concerning the team...

Our scribe is writing on the notebook, which is good !

Henry is working, which is worth noticing too !

But most important, everybody seems to enjoy the Garden experience !

A Gift From Me to You

As I sit here contemplating what fun tidbits of information to share with you, our readers, I realize I am robbing you of a life experience. I could tell you about the collards that are exploding from the earth in Nikki’s section, the courageous lone strawberry in Elsa’s, the miserable failure of a first attempt at basil in mine or the young carrots in Anne’s that are shyly pushing their first growths into the sunlight. I could continue with a long tirade about the many weeds that seem to think our beds are a great place to call home or charm you with a tale of victory in the perhaps temporary defeat of the dastardly cucumber beetle. However all that would serve to do would be to simulate the true experience for you, the avid reader. This of course excludes our teachers who I’m sure get just about as much gardening as a soul can take. Or just enough, depending on how you look at it.

            That is why I am encouraging readers this week to escape the confines of their comfy swivel chair and get out into a garden of their own creation. Grow your own food! Stay Healthy! Experience Fulfillment!

            I understand feelings of extreme gratitude may arise towards me for this freedom I have just given you. Gifts of thanks can be sent to 1045 NW 26^th Street, Corvallis Oregon. No perishables. 

A picture of the author (by Anne)

May 16th: Au secours !!! Pests are coming!

A couple of surprises this week!


Some intruders have settled in Oak creek! How dared they!
First a bird has laid its eggs in a neighbour lettuce's bed. Its calls are alarming! It is probably trying to make us leave!

Sorry Bird, but we first have to irrigate our garden, finish planting, and get rid of the second intruders!

Spotted cucumber beetles have attacked our spinach.  

Spinach are not in a very good shape! 

Let's give a few information about this pest. Diabrotica undecimpunctata, part of the family, is a major agricultural pest insect. Adult cucumber beetles overwinter and emerge in spring. It eats and damage leaves of many crops. They feed on weed and other plants until their preferred food source, cucurbits, is available. (squashes, cucumbers...).

Unfortunately, there is nothing much we can do to prevent this pest from eating our vegetables, apart from killing them by hand. 

Hopefully our next observation will be more positive, fingers crossed!

Anne finishes planting her bed

Nikki checks on the other plants

Apart from the spinach, the rest of the garden looks pretty good! 

What about the soil?

Some people may wonder,
"What is the key for creating a beautiful garden?"

Imagination 

 Love 

and a more scientific aspect... 

SOIL! 

All is about soil!

So let's give a brief description of Oak creek's soil :
The soil is part of the Dayton silt loam series, which means that the soil is mainly composed of silty loam. Soil composed of a lot of silt usually make excellent farm land!


Loam is about the best soil there is, just nearly the right mixture of sand, clay and organic matter. To keep it very productive the organic matter needs to be replenished often.

Characteristics of the Dayton series according to National Cooperative soil Survey:
Dayton silt loam are usually moist and are saturated with water during the winter and spring. The mean annual soil temperature is 54 to 55 degrees F. The soils are more than 60 inches deep.

Source: Oregon explorer

So, we are pretty lucky with our soil! good structure, no rocks, etc...
But adding organic matter is a MUST! and adding a fertilizer is a good idea too, to make our garden more productive, ORGANIC, of course!

May 9th

 Take a look at what we did last week !
That was a good gardening day too. We almost finished our four beds !
Kale, spinach, lettuces, chards that we planted the week before looked good.

everybody is doing allright

But wait, did we only introduce yourself ?

Henry and Anne gardening hard

We are a team of 4 young gardeners
(or sometimes more because we have some cool friends coming to help us !)

called "les foux du Fa fa"

(whatever that should mean)

and composed of:

Nikki, the scribe
Henry, the seeds man
Elsa, the planting master
Anne, the garden design woman

"I found some beebalm to plant !"

Here is Nikki, our scribe.

Very professional. Is that the truth ?

Okay !

this one obviously was not.

And here is Elsa. Oh yeah !
She has been eating all our plants before we planted them, to make sure there were suitable.









So what did we plant last week ?

Some sunflowers, strawberries, green beans, radishes and lettuces, and ...

And then here are Hanae and Lucille, two French friends (did I mention than Elsa and Anne are the terrible Frenchies of the team ?) that came to help us that day.
Thanks to them !

Veronica

Seen on our first day of gardening, Veronica persica,

 a common plant that belongs to the Plantaginaceae family.

Even though it is considered as a weed, it is a refined small plant that has

sky-blue with dark stripes flower 

with an awesome white center

And that is why it is called bird's-eye

Bird's-eye has been found growing between two clods of soil

It obviously like our plot's soil and contributes to its biodiversity

That is why... we will keep an eye on it ! 

May 2nd Observations

Working the soil

At its infantile stages...

Placing our babies in with mother earth

Happy gardener...

Thanks Cassidy for all the help!

Wow, what a transformation!

Bellissimo! 

April 25th Observations

First day on the garden !!!

Here is our plot at the Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture :

It is 20*20 feet (36m2).

We decided to form our bed in 4 rows. Each row is about 3.5 feet with 1.5 feet in between the rows.

The spacing in between the rows allows us to walk through the garden without compacting the soil.

Each of us has designed one row, as you can see on our projected garden plan :

 

Lots of things are going on !

   

A part of the team working on the garden design before actually starting deal with it !

 

 Here we go ! Measuring the rows and starting to dig the beds.

We had a pretty good team working on it :

 

This is how looked our beds at the end :

 Good job !

See you next week !