5 Years After

Five years have passed sine we began the Center Avenue Community Garden in June of 2010

June 29th 2010. First load of tree chips arrive

Here are some photos of the garden today.

Not too inspiring perhaps at first sight. These Sunflowers and lone Swiss Chard plants are growing in areas that have received no irrigation water this year! These photos, taken yesterday, demonstrate the effectiveness of storing water in mulch, in this case 5 years worth of layered tree chips.

 

Ripe Peaches on a tree in the tree circle gathering area. These receive drip irrigation.

Ripening grapes on the white arch

 Our compost bins are in pause mode. We are saving water ... but they are too dry to decompose.
The coffee grounds in the bin on the right are a weekly gift from Trader Joes on Concord Ave.

We are only watering the lower row of raised vegetable beds through the end of next month. Then we might see how the water budget goes and perhaps open up the upper row for some planting of cool season crops in August. That would be Beets, Kale, Lettuce, Peas and Swiss Chard.
I see CACG continuing into the next five years. It serves the community as a place of education, inspiration and recreation. I am grateful!

Food Forest Completion in Benicia

Mulch is our friend

 

 

We began this one back in March. Here is a video from Joshua Thayer "The Plant Guy"

 

 Above. Planting a berry patch.
Below. The rock covers a mulch shield, part of the greywater system buried at least 2" below the mulch and serving the Apple tree in the top left hand corner. The brown pipe is a Netafim drip irrigation line. This one delivers 0.9 gph at 12" spacing.

 

 

The Mannions are moving!

We so appreciate their uplifting spirits and enthusiastic participation in bringing the CACG to where it is now. They have gifted us with hours of inspired work for which we are very grateful.

They are moving to Folsom CA in mid July.

We are excited for their new adventure and wish them well.

There will be a chance to say goodbye in Pleasant Hill Park with a causal BYO-Dinner from 5pm to 8pm, on Thursday, July 16th, in case anyone is available to swing by.

 

With love to

Colin discovers carrots

 




A family of 4 in June 2013

Jim, Karen, Brenna, Colin and Ryan Mannion

 
And finally -

I try to remember that ...

Happy Fourth !

 

David

925 286 7225

davidmudgegardens@yahoo.com

 

After a Strawberry Moon

A "Swarm Shelter" plant pot is hung in a tree to attract a swarm. It attracted this swarm which declined to enter and spent the night outside.

This happened on June 1st. In my experience this has been a slow and late swarm season. Not as many as usual and later in the season (which is normally March to June). Also many swarms have been smaller than usual ... but not the one pictured here, who now occupy a hive in Martinez.

Ripening Fruit at CACG

Santa Rosa Plums

Peaches

Boysenberries

'Lemon Queen' Sunflower with bee

Crop Swap

A scene from our Crop Swap on May 27th. There was everything from burlap sacks and framed pictures to lemons and plant starts.
Our next Crop Swap is on June 24th 2015. Please show up and say "Hello" to the neighborhood even if you don't have anything to swap this time.

Miss May

Congratulation to Turiya our Chicken of the Month for May 2015. We don't know the pedigree of most of our hens. We do know that Turiya is a Buff Brahma because she, together with India, were purchased as a day old chicks from Concord Feed She wanted to be a broody hen last month. That was not to be because we don't have a rooster and no new chicks, to become future hens, are required at this time. Here she is taking a dust bath.

An Urban Farm Tour

Urban Farm Tours 2015 ~ Walnut Creek & Concord
Saturday June 6, 2015 9am-3pm
Tour start 9am Mt Diablo High school 2450 Grant Street Concord
A foray into the suburban wilderness out Far East Bay tour features sites ranging from a modest suburban retrofit to a sprawling permaculture paradise. All sites feature water wise gardening. and food production. You will see edible landscaping, bees and chickens, pollinator habitat, greywater and rainwater catchment, intergenerational gardening and much more. Your ticket includes a tour or our staging area , 3 farm sites, a 4th special interest site, plus morning hospitality and simple farm fresh lunch prepared and provided by the students of Mt Diablo High School Hospitality & Tourism Academy. To spread visitors out evenly, your itinerary will be set for you in advance and available for you at will call the morning of the event. Once you have your itinerary you will drive yourself to the various sites. For those who wish it, we’ll try to arrange carpooling onsite by group the day of. We recommend getting to the staging area by 9:30 am at the latest, however someone will be at the staging area all day to greet you.

Event Page http://www.iuhoakland.com/events.html#WC
Featured Sites: http://www.iuhoakland.com/uft2015wc.pdf
Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1475038
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/696411770470832/

Tree Chips are Free

Hopefully a useful service to the community.
You are welcome to collect tree chips from our pile at CACG. You will find the pile at the top end of the garden close to the White Arch. We try to limit our stock pile to two tree company loads in order to keep the garden as tidy as possible. Help your self and we will call for more when we need them.
They are a great resource as a mulch. They keep the soil cool around roots, prevent evaporative losses from the soil, smother weeds, hold and store moisture, breakdown to provide nutrients and much more.

Oh. You will have to load yourself!

If you need a whole load delivered to your driveway I would suggest calling Bartlett Tree Experts (925) 934 6306
They have been reliably supplying chips to CACG since we began in June 2010.

Curb Cut

I was delighted to see this water harvesting design built into the new landscaping at The Willows in Concord.

Facing the REI store on I680 side

Water runoff from the parking lot is allowed to infiltrate back into the water table through this median strip. A great start, and could this strip be growing food one day?

Check out The Rodgers Ranch in Pleasant Hill for their series of classes.
Or click here Initives

More soon. Enjoy your gardens!

David

925 286 7225