Center Avenue Community Garden Update: October, 15 and 22, 2011

October 15th, we built an Herb Spiral in what I call the Lobby area of CACG. The various sized tree rounds are circled to form a mound that by next year will be a mound of medicinal and culinary herbs. The filling is horse manure and tree chips with a little soil on top. A layer of cardboard separates weeds below from this new growing medium above. We have not planted any herbs here yet. Probably better to wait for the mixture to settle and a little rain would most certainly help to break it down into beautiful soil.

Playing by the completed Herb Spiral on another day.

There are actually several herbs already growing around the garden’s perimeter. There you will find Rosemary, Lavender, Oregano and Sage. In the raised beds you will see Basil, Comfrey and Spearmint.

We also planted out some Broccoli starts from 6 packs, the usual weeding, and deadheading.

We are currently harvesting: Collards, 3 types of Kale, Spring Onions, Cucumbers, Peppers, Tomatoes, Eggplant, Swiss Chard, Carrots, Squash and Pumpkins. Actually we would have liked to keep the pumpkins as decorations for Halloween, but they disappeared! We would better have put up a Please Leave sign, given that we had so few. No worries.  Next year there will be an in-ground planting and many more pumpkins to share with the community.

The re-purposed white arch that was originally a feature at the JFK University Garden in Pleasant Hill was securely anchored at the parking lot end of the garden. It will form the official entrance from the First Baptist Church’s parking lot direction. There will be a diagonal path dissecting the entire CACG area and leading to the almost faux entrance at the intersection of Flame Drive and Center Avenue.  This is designed to give ease of accessibility and an open invitation to newcomers exploring the many components of the garden. We want these entrances to say Welcome and Come on in and look around, sit for a while.

Just a Note:  the white dimensional lumber appearance of the arch might draw a raised eyebrow from Permaculture purists . . . perhaps not the first choice of a low carbon footprint system. However, it was free and only one day away from a dumpster when rescued. Also we need to constantly be aware of the generosity of the First Baptist Church of Pacheco in loaning us the land. In this we need to graciously transition from the mainstream architecture of the church property to the more earthy features of our garden. The plan is to adorn (or engulf) the arch and the picket fence (requested by the church) with grapes and kiwi fruit.