2010 Garden click here for 2009 garden to volunteer, contact beth[at]reachteachserve.org     6/4/2010 grant voting extended!     5/27/2010 work to complete...trellis     5/21/2010 Planting tasks to be completed     5/13/2010 What and How to Grow updated     5/03/2010 Pepsi Refresh Grant - VOTE NOW!     4/26/2010 What and How to Plant     4/23/2010 Get to Planting     4/12/2010 Work Day details     4/2/2010 April 17 work day plans     3/4/2010 plant list trellis projects sign ideas donation letter     2/02/2010 volunteer to manage specific pre-planting tasks

2010 Garden Details

Expanded to ten 5'x50' strip beds (2500 square feet) and half an acre of sweet corn, and 13 fruit trees.

Click here for the List of Plants in the Garden

Ready to Harvest

July 8, 2010

WASH ALL YOU PICK - some spraying for pests has or will be be done

just a reminder...pick what you'll eat fresh (this garden is not intended to be a source for individual freezing/canning or resale)

• Green / Yellow / Purple Beans
• Peas (what you can find...they're puny)
• Kohlrabi
• Swiss Chard
• Spinach (a few plants left)
• Head lettuce (a few plants left)
• Pak Choi (this stuff looks really good!)
• Yellow Squash
• Zucchini
• Cucumber
• Cabbage
• Sweet Corn: the 12 rows on the south side are ready. The 15-1/2 rows on the north will be ready the week of July 18.

Coming soon:

• tomatoes - lots and lots and lots of green ones on the vines

Notes to Garden Volunteers

5/27/2010 - Final Planting / finish trellises

Jobs to be completed

click here to get document

water...water...water. Everything got miracle gro this week. Wait until the second week of June to reapply. If you stop by and stuff looks thirsty, water it. Make sure to put the hoses back in a way that doesn't tangle and doesn't block mowing. Yes, there are broccoli plants - they are tiny, but they are there.

we need tomato cages. drop them behind the greenhouse. We have 108 beautiful tomato plants thanks to the VanHooks.

assemble and place the signs. Bob Camp created some awesome plant identification signs and brackets, and Tom Ping and Twain Moore painted them, but they need assembled and put in place. Screw two bolts onto the sign to hold on the pronged bracket. The signs are in the back hallway of the office wing on a cart with the hardware and the tool you need. Place the signs in the garden per the updated map. (The VanHooks will have to place the tomatoes - I don't know how they were laid out when they were planted.)

1) plant lima bean seeds (located in the white lidded plastic box in the red tub in the greenhouse) - make some holes around ther outside of the pool ladder in a circle and plant the lima beans. String some twine between the white poles for the beans to climb on the sides without the steps.

2) Move the already planted starts (they look like cabbage) marked with the white knive as "Flavorburst Pepper Sweet" in row North 2, closest to the lettuce, to strip North 3 in the uncut space between the cabbage and pak choi - somewhere the seeds for sweet peppers and cabbage got mixed up, and we are missing 1/2 of our sweet peppers. The cabbage that is planted where the sweet peppers should be to be moved. (These peppers are the only pre-grown plants we have purchased this year - everything else we grew from seed!). It is unlikely that all 28 plants will fit with spacing between the existing cabbage and pak choi. Leave walking space between pak choi and cabbage, and fill in the space between the first two sections of cabbage and the second two sections of cabbage if you need to.

3) Plant 12 sweet yellow peppers from the greenhouse in the pre-cut holes vacated by the moved plants (see point 3). 

4) finish the bamboo trellises

      a) Create two missing bamboo trellises for cucumber in strip South 4 and finish the one that isn't complete. The holes for the cucumber are already cut. You need 8 poles per trellis. 

            i) bamboo is in greenhouse

            ii) scissors/knives, seed, twine in the red tub in the greenhouse. if you run out of twine, use the white nylon string in the box with white netting, but return it to the netting box

            iii) transplant the the remaining batches of cucumbers from the greenhouse to the bamboo trellis in strip South3. Holes are already cut. There are two varieties (I think): slicing and pickling - check the map for the location per variety. What was to be permanent marker on the plant markers wasn't, so I did my best to figure out what the knives said in the cucumber area!  I don't think there is any burpless.

      b) Create three missing bamboo trellises for pole green beans. Use the bike rim to mark and cut the holes for the seeds. Space the three sections in a V (liek the cucumber) between the pea trellis and the ladder trellis. Use the bike rim (in the garden) to mark and cut the holes for the plants first (see cucumber), then put the poles in and tie them together.

            i) Plant pole green bean seeds - in strip South 4 - one per hole in all three sections. These three should fit in a "V" shape between the pea trellis and the pool ladder trellis, like the cucumber. You will probably run out of seeds. If you do – please identify where you stopped!

5) attach the “DO NOT DRINK” signs in the red tub to the spigots with the thin metal wire or white nylon string (with the netting in the box).

6) Install netting on A-Frame Wooden trellis. 6' bamboo stakes will be used to hold down the bottom of the netting on the 11 wooden trellis following the example that is completed.
    a) get the box with the white netting from the greenhouse - it contains the supplies you will need to complete the A frame trellises - white nylon string, scissors, hammer, "U" staples, galv. nails, netting, tape measure.
    b) grab the empty milk jugs from behind the green house. They are to be used as weights to help anchor down the wooden frame. You will need two jugs per trellis. From the hose at the garden, fill the jugs with water and hang them from the remaining trellises as shown with the white nylon string. They should hang low but not touch the ground, and should hang from where the bracket from the leg meets the top board.
    c) do not cut the netting. drape it over the top of the trellis and then start the project with the bamboo pole hooked with the nails to one side. Then criss-cross back and forth from one side to the other to affix the netting to the legs of the trellis with the “U” staples.
    d) at the top of the trellis, place at least five staples – one on either end, and three across the top.
    e) from the top of the trellis, criss-cross stapling from one leg to the other until you get to the bottom of the other side.
    f) using the galvanized nails in the black box, drive one nail at an angle with the head toward the ground on the outside portion of the bottom of the leg on both sides.
    g) string the pole through the bottom of the netting and hook on both sides under the nails.
    h) cut the netting – make sure to leave at least one section of knots between the pole and where you cut – about 4 or 5 inches.

7) replace the one dead okra with a good one from the greenhouse

8) plant green bush beans in the very last row of Strip South 5 and on the outside edge of the row next to it - we ran out of yellow bush bean and I can't find any more seed

9) pull weeds as needed - seeds are sprouting in the zucchini and yellow squash and those openings were pretty weedy.

10) Fisher's...can you mark the specific herbs? I can't tell them apart! There are some white flags in the red tub in the greenhouse and a permanent marker.

5/21/2010 - Tasks to be completed

Community Garden - Yes, we mean you! Perhaps you thought that there had to be plenty of helpful volunteers with the garden....think again! The response for appeals to help with the community garden has been discouraging, especially with our goal to reach, teach and serve.

Help IS needed: first, there are many more plants that were started from seed that need to be planted NOW. Several more flats have been started that are not yet ready.

1) Spinach
2) Great Lakes Head Lettuce
3) California and Flavorburst Sweet Peppers
4) Pak Choi
5) Broccoli
6) Romaine and a few Bibb lettuce
7) rest of the Spaghetti squash
8) Acorn squash
9) rhubarb (there is a plant in the strawberries that needs to be moved
10) pulling little weeds and then planting Canteloupe, Honeydew and Watermelon seeds
11) Kohlrabi
12) Planting the inside sections of Snap peas and Shelling Peas
13) Planting the inside sections of bluelake Pole beans and fortex pole beans
14) planting the bush bean rows of Burgundy, Blue Lake and Golden Wax
15) in a couple of weeks, hopefully we'll have more starts to plant from the seed that was started last week.

Click here for the list that is posted in the greenhouse of what has and has not been planted, updated 5/21/2010

Click here for the planting plan, updated 5/21/2010.

Email or call beth[at]reachteachserve.org for details on the other tasks, such as:

• bolting the metal posts to the plant signs
• placing the 50+ signs in the garden
• stringing netting over the 10 remaining trellis
• creating 6 more trellis (bamboo, old ladder, bike rims...)
• weed-eat around all the strips without damaging the plants
• pulling weeds where the holes are cut in the ground covering
• do not drink signs need to be wired to the spigots

Please consider donating an hour or two of your time for this worthy project. 

Also, strawberries (big ones!) ripening.

This garden is for our church and community to take what they can eat fresh for free, but it requires many servants to make it a way to glorify God.

5/13/2010 - how and what to plant update

Plants are slowly disappearing from the greenhouse. An updated "how and what to plant" list has been posted in the greenhouse and listed as the "planting" plan on this page.

Peas, beans, spinach, lettuce, sweet peppers, swiss chard, zucchini, yellow squash, okra and kohlrabi are all still waiting to be planted.

click here for updated planting plan     
click here for updated how and what to plant

Tom Ping has an idea for trellis' and is going to make one this week as a sample. If it works, watch for 10 more, then we can plant the winter squash and melons!

Have you voted today???? We've moved up in the Pepsi Refresh Grant votes to #112.

5/03/2010 - vote for us to win the Pepsi Refresh grant!

Vote for us to win the Pepsi Refresh Grant for May! June! (voting has been extended by a month)

The reach, teach, serve Community Garden has been accepted as a candidate for the Pepsi Refresh $5,000 grant for the month of May – the project with the most votes wins! We’re currently ranked #149, so we really need your support!

Pepsi chose to allot their Super Bowl advertising budget for a nation-wide grant competition. The free Community Garden at Cicero Christian Church application has been accepted as one of only 1000 nationwide applicants this month.

You can vote once a day until May 31 June 30 July 31*. This would be a huge blessing to efforts to reach, teach and serve our community with free fresh produce.

*Because we were in the top 100, we were given a second and third chance and moved into the July voting!

Update 7/1/2010:

Guess what? We were in the top 100 in June, so we have a third chance in July to win the $5,000. Continue to vote every day through July. Scroll down for details on how to vote.

Update 6/4/2010:

Because we were in the top 100 in May, we have a second chance in June to win the $5,000. Continue voting every day for our project to win. Scroll down for details on how to vote.

Update 5/27/2010:

With only four days of voting left in the May Pepsi Refresh Grant contest, Cicero Christian Church's reach teach serve Community Garden is ranked #104 after starting at #149. The top 10 are awarded $5,000.

    But....the top 100 get to move to the June voting and get a second chance to win! We only have to move up 4 spots to qualify. Please vote every day through May 31!

Here's how...signin or create a logon and password at www.RefreshEverything.com, search for "Cicero" and select to vote for our entry!

How To Vote in the Refresh Everything Grant Contest:

• Visit www.RefreshEverything.com website.
• Beginning in July, a new screen has been added - choose to "browse ideas & vote"
• In the bottom left corner, click on "sign in"
• Choose "sign in directly with Pepsi" on the log in screen.
• Enter your preferred email address.
• If you have already created an account, enter your password and sign in. If you have not created an account, select "No, I'm new here!" and sign in.
• If you are new, on the Sign Up screen, enter your first name, last name, and create a password. Enter your birth date, day and year.
• Type in the security code - if you can't read it, click "refresh image" to get a new one.
• Click Done
• To find the grant request, simply search for "Cicero" and the project is listed under "Grow a FREE COMMUNITY GARDEN to reach, teach, and serve the neighborhood" in the food and shelter section.
• Vote. You can vote for ten entries a day, but make sure one of them is our garden!
• You can vote every day through May 31.

click here for the the direct link to vote every day.

04/26/2010 - what & where to plant

Click here for memo on precisely what is ready to plant and how to plant it in the strip garden plan.

Garden plan updated today, click here to get the update, or the updated planting plan in the tan side bar at the right.

Both of these documents were updated 5/13/2010.

4/23/2010

There are several flats of vegetables that can be planted.

They are in the far end of the greenhouse in the south side of the church building. They should be well marked.

DO NOT PLANT ANYTHING THAT GOES ON A TRELLIS: melons, squash, peas, beans, cucumber.... I'm not ready to figure out exactly where the holes should go until we get the trellis design done.

DO PLANT: lettuce, spinach, peppers (several varieties of hot and sweet), cabbage, pak choi, swiss chard, eggplant, brussel sprout, kohlrabi, okra

There will be more to plant later (tomato, broccoli, and such still not ready to plant; some seed stuff)

It is VERY IMPORTANT to plant according to the plan!!!
It is two pages now, printed on 8.5" x 14" legal size.
One page is the north 5 strips, one page is the south 5 strips.

Click Here For Planting Plan

Many of the sections of ground cover are not yet cut. The best thing is to MEASURE, then cut an X, and then tuck the fabric under.

If you need more stakes, they are in the storage pod behind the greenhouse in a box.

Save all the planting containers. Neatly stack them in the greenhouse. Make sure that the temporary white flags are in the correct spot. Save the plastic forks.

Peppers are to be planted Hottest to the north and then less hot as you go south. Don't mix the sections. Habanero, Cayenne, Banana, Jalapeno, Cascabella, Anaheim. Sweet: California, Flavorburst.

If you don't have enough plants, leave blanks!

You may use the miracle grow in the green house to fertilize after you plant.

 If you have questions, call Beth Roberts at 317-508-1009.

The permanent signs are done, but will need to be painted - we'll be having a painting party soon!

4/12/2010

Fertilizer applied to strips by Doug Wiggers on Friday, April 2. Thanks to Jeff Roberts for picking up a great drop spreader at the sale barn.

Garden strips have been tilled on April 7 by Dan Conder.

Tom Ping is hooking up the pump and installing two new spigots for the two new strips in the irrigation system.

Bob Camp continues to work on the 50+ signs to identify plants.

Sweet Corn plot fertilized and tilled on April 12 by Ron McGill and Dan Conder. Sweet corn will be planted on Tuesday, April 13 by Ron McGill.

Funding. With the purchase of blueberry plants, peat moss and supplies to extend the irrigation this week, we are out of money in the account designated for the garden. We will need to purchase further supplies based on our inventory on April 17 including fertilizer, pest control, trellis supplies and additional hoses. Please consider making a gift designated "garden" through your offering.

Don't drink the water from the hoses! The church will be open for use of the restrooms and water/pop/snack machines.

Work day scheduled April 17 from 8a-noon.

Bring your family and come when you can.

There is a very specific planting plan that is to be followed. You may pick one up at church, or view it here.

Goals to accomplish:

• place ground cover - using existing and creating new
• transplant strawberries
• set out hoses in the proper place
• if signage is ready, we will paint/stain the wood
• setup frames for trellis projects
• plant seeds
• plant starts that are ready to go
• fertilize the fruit trees
• create raised bed for blueberry bushes
• plant asparagus roots
• create trellis for peas and beans from existing supplies (fencing, fence posts)
• develop/design trellis for melon, cucumber & some beans (bike rim), and winter squash
• evaluate existing supplies and create a list of needs (fence posts, trellis supplies, tomato stakes, hoses, fertilizer, pest control, seed, ground cover...

Bring gloves and utility / garden knives or scissors and wear clothes that can get messy; kneepads; motorized push tillers; hand tools for planting; soaker hoses that you no longer need.

If you have some strawberry plants that you can add to our mix, bring them.

4/2/2010 - Work Day Set for April 17

Set aside the morning of Saturday, April 17, to work at the reach teach serve Community Garden. Beth Roberts will be there with plenty of tasks to do from 8am to noon. Come by when you can. Bring your kids.

The fertilizing has been completed based on the recommendations from our soil test. Tilling should occur prior to April 17: pray for cooperative weather.

Trellis team: gear up for action! Get the supplies and plans for construction together and you have potential help to get them going. Let me know if you need help with supplies.

Bring gloves and utility / garden knives or scissors, and wear clothes that can get messy.

Pepsi Refresh update: I did not receive a confirmation email that our application was received, and phone followup revealed that they were inundated with applications and even though we got the "Horray! you did it" message, we were not in the first 1,000 applications received. Bummer.

3/4/2010 ~ Planting Plan & Tasks

Read this March 4, 2010 document to get an update and overview of the garden, including:

• planting plan
• greenhouse information
• soil preparation information
• trellis projects to be developed and completed
• signage project to be developed and completed
• plant selection list with location
• donation request letter

Plant List & Location updated 5/3

2/2/2010 ~ Specific Tasks Need Leadership

Are you ready to get a green thumb? 

I want to touch base with those who have shown interest in volunteering for the reach, teach, serve community garden at Cicero Christian Church. Many of you were in attendance at our launch meeting on Sunday, January 31, and I'm excited for what we can accomplish for the cause of Christ.

First of all, thanks! By default (or until I twist someone's arm), I am your team leader, but it will take many hands and minds to get this garden up and running.

First things first...we need some people to head up some specific tasks before we can get our hands dirty. Forgive my "stream of consciousness" approach to the following:

An inventory needs to be done of what we have: hoses, seed, trellis supplies, tools..... from that we will determine what to request from the congregation for donation and what we may need to purchase. There are supplies in the "pod" behind the greenhouse, in the greenhouse (although not all ours), behind the dumpster, and in my office at church.  Who wants to head up this project? (Pam VanHook)

Improve the Soil: get the soil tested, recommendations made, and implemented. I have contacted the Heights ag program, and the the local FFA chapter. It has also been suggested we contact Noblesville Farmer's Co-Op, Indiana Farm Bureau and the Purdue Extension office. We need resources who can be approached for sand, dirt, and hauling. I think we have someone in the church with a dumping trailer. Anyone want to volunteer to head up this project? (Keri Murray and Gina Maddy)

Germinating seeds and using the greenhouse: As The Way day program creates our pot seeds, we need someplace to put them where they will germinate successfully. We need to determine the best way to successfully transfer the seed starts to the greenhouse. Can we put them straight into the greenhouse? What can we do to adapt the greenhouse for germinating? If there needs to be an in-between step, what is the most cost effective way to create indoor reusable portable grow labs? (At home, I hook a grow light under a cabinet in the laundry room and cover the seeds with a plastic lid - how can we adapt that on a grander scale?) We can surely come up with a cheap solution! I can find the space to use inside the church on a temporary basis. Who wants to dig into this project? (The Way Day Program, Pam VanHook, Amy Morris...)

Signage - a couple of great ideas for signage - etching on metal, wood burning - we need some identifying signs that list plant names that will last through the season, maybe longer. I'll soon have the list of the plant names and we can start right away. I have a few signs with the garden logo and name, but everything else needs redone. Believe it or not, someone stole one of the $100 signs last year. Who can take on this project?

I will update the plant selection and layout and distribute it within the next week. This will let us know how many trellis projects, what seeds to get, and how many plants to start. If you have requests or suggestions (no potatoes, more tomatoes...), let me know asap. Who wants to help me update the list and get the seeds?

Donations - I will update the letter from last year for this year that can be used for soliciting our church, community and businesses for donations of supplies and funds.  My goal is to get as much free stuff as we can get - sand, lime, whatever we need to put in the garden. If we can't get it free, deep discounts. Search for grants for which we can apply, and companies that can be approached. Even a $25 Target gift card makes a difference! This should be coordinated so we don't hit Walmart 25 times! We have $615 to spend until more funds are raised. Last year we raised over $2800 - the bulk of our spending was on the pump and irrigation system - and had many things donated - from hose to plants to busted tire rims. I have a record of what we did last year. If a business wants to partner with us, we will list their contribution in the church bulletin and on our website. We will use their logo if one is available. I have applied for the Pepsi "refresh everything" campaign. Who wants to coordinate fundraising?

Storage - we really need a storage shed devoted to our garden. We need someone to find us or build us one for free or cheap. Any takers?

Anyone interested in drumming up some free publicity? (tv, newspaper, local newsletters...) We are unique. We are the only community garden of this kind that I've found locally. Most community gardens are setup where individuals are given a space to use and grow what they want to use for their personal use. We exist solely to serve. Can you do this? (Deb Meiring)

Ground Cover - we want to block all the weeds that we can. We have reusable black fiberglass ground cover. Some is available for reuse from last year, some will need to be cut from our existing stock. We will also need other ground cover options, like mulch or newspaper, for some areas in the garden. Can you help develop ground cover options and place ground cover in the garden?

Trellis - many plants will be trellised this year to make the most use of our garden space. We will need simple tomato cages, and will need to construct several different types of trellis' - old bike rims and twine, old swingset frames, poly tubing and scrap lumber.... Can you coordinate trellis supply collection, construction and installation?

Contact beth[at]reachteachserve.org to volunteer

Cicero Christian Church 1715 Stringtown Pike  Cicero, IN 46034  317.984.4653