posted Jun 3, 2012, 12:11 AM by Andrew Nuckols
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updated Jun 3, 2012, 12:12 AM
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Bean tipi erected and beans planted; cucumber trellis up and cukes planted; squash, eggplants, and tomatoes planted; herbs sheared; honey vine pulled and peas harvested.
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posted May 6, 2012, 1:22 AM by Andrew Nuckols
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updated May 6, 2012, 1:24 AM
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An efficient Saturday morning work party at the Central Library garden planted eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers after turning over the soil and adding compost. Earlier in the week, Don Weber had planted a selection of cole crops and potatoes, so the garden is shaping up as a major food producer again this year. Tomorrow we’ll be harvesting snow peas, which are sweet, crisp and ready to be eaten. We’ll also have sunflowers again this year over by the tennis court, which the finches will undoubtedly enjoy!
Chelsea, Puwen, Don and Melba made great progress preparing the berm beds.
This years cole crops include cabbage, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, and kohlrabi. |
posted Apr 28, 2012, 6:55 PM by Andrew Nuckols
On Saturday, several volunteers gathered at Central Library to work the garden. They weeded, harvested the remaining lettuce, removed the cold frames, planted onions, and trimmed the oregano. As weather permits, we will plant lettuce and other vegetables soon!
Jill and Julie give the oregano a haircut. |
posted Apr 27, 2012, 8:56 PM by Andrew Nuckols
Our winter cover crop of crimson clover is blossoming. We’ll dig it under in the next few weeks.
By L.J. Crye
Plot Against Hunger has begun preparations for this year’s garden at Central Library. Plans include a children’s garden that will probably be sited near the container gardens, and the addition of self-watering rooftop containers from Rooftop Roots in the District. They will be placed on the brick patio across from the tennis courts and next to the library’s perennial garden.
 The container and square foot gardens did well over the winter.
Two work parties, one on Friday evening and one on Sunday afternoon made progress passersby might notice. The Friday work party weeded the tennis court plot, saving sunflowers seeded from last year’s crop, and then mulched that area in preparation for planting. Library patrons will be grateful that we did not have mulch dumped in a parking place this year!
Julie, Claudia and Jill mulch.
On Sunday, we came back to harvest most of the lettuce. This had been planted in the fall and had wintered over. Because the winter was so mild, lettuce inside the cold frame was only slightly larger than the lettuce outside. We took 31 pounds to AFAC!
Puwen with a small portion of our 31 pounds.
In late February, we had planted peas in the garden and realized that those closest to the library wall might be too warm eventually. We transplanted these to the tennis court plot, where we hope they will grow up the fence.
Lisa digging up the pea seedlings.
We also built a trellis for part of the peas that remain with bamboo and twine. To see the trellis in construction, click here. We will be putting in another trellis for the remaining peas soon.
The completed trellis.
We’ll also be planting lettuce, chard, and sweet potatoes—a new crop for us—in the next week or so. Check back in to the website or watch for new signs in the garden to see what’s happening! |
posted Feb 15, 2012, 9:40 PM by Andrew Nuckols
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updated Feb 16, 2012, 3:05 PM
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The broccoli and lettuces that we covered before Saturday's cold snap
have survived well. The broccoli is a little droopy, but will probably
recover, and the lettuce in the cold frame looks as though it completely
escaped the cold. The only casualty was a bok choi plant in the square
foot garden where the wind tore the covering loose. We're heading
toward spring!! |
posted Feb 11, 2012, 5:59 PM by Andrew Nuckols
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updated Feb 11, 2012, 6:02 PM
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By L.J. CRYE
The Central Library garden continues to yield cold crops, and attract
the attention of library patrons. It has cabbage, kale, collards,
broccoli, lettuces, bok choi and garlic, along with some chard and
herbs. Earlier in the winter, we installed two cold frames and
transplanted lettuce into them, but the mild weather has been good to
the lettuce outside the frames as well.
Today before the front bringing snow squalls and much cooler weather,
two volunteers harvested oak leaf lettuce, broccoli, kale, and collards
for AFAC. To protect the vegetables from the latest weather, we covered the cold
frames with flannel sheets and placed row covers on the square foot
garden and the broccoli in the main garden. |
posted Feb 6, 2012, 11:25 PM by Andrew Nuckols
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updated Feb 11, 2012, 6:00 PM
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Despite the recent snow, the Broccoli plants are still doing well -- they are producing some side heads for harvest (after the main heads were harvested earlier in the year).  |
posted Jan 11, 2012, 10:42 PM by Andrew Nuckols
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updated Jan 11, 2012, 10:42 PM
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In
spite of about 15F temps on early Wednesday morning, lettuce survived
inside the cold frames, which were covered with flannel
sheets. Lettuce outside the frames mostly survived, but the outer
leaves were frozen. All of the garlic, swiss chard, broccoli, cabbage,
collards, and kale survived! So did the herbs such as chives and sage,
and strawberries and mint, all of which are perennials.
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posted Jan 7, 2012, 7:28 PM by Andrew Nuckols
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updated Jan 7, 2012, 7:30 PM
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On Dec 16th, the mixed lettuce seedlings that were originally
planted as seeds in the raised bed garden (in August), were transplated
both inside and
outside of the two cold frames in the main garden. Two Arlington County
compost bins were added around the corner -- so garden clippings can now
be composted along with coffee grounds from the library. More photos
are available at the Central Library Winter garden Flickr page.  |
posted Oct 31, 2011, 7:20 PM by Andrew Nuckols
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updated Oct 31, 2011, 7:56 PM
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On Saturday, October 29th, the library garden was dusted by an unusual late October snowfall. All the plants pictured have recovered.
(Except for the basil which was harvested). The large hot pepper and some of the
tomatoes have been covered with the row
cover (visible in the "aerial"
photo). You can view the full set of photos here. |
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