Inventory, July 11, 2010

Just took a quick tour of the grounds at Cherokee to help focus our efforts in this hot time of year, hoping to have something to show for our efforts when school is back in session.

vegetables
The volunteer who was going to lead the vegetable garden efforts has not been able to be as active as she hoped so we would welcome help in the vegetable garden. Produce can be donated to the food pantry or handed out when we are giving out free lunches this summer or eaten by the volunteers and their families. We had some corn kohlrabi and tomatos to feed some of our volunteers at lunch today at A Third Place Community Center. We would love to see several Cherokee School families eating out of this garden. Fall planting is a great idea in Oklahoma, we can extend our gardening season. Right now the grass needs mowing and we need to mulch around the fence to keep grass from creeping under and perhaps use the lasagna gardening technique to smother grass and weeds inside the fence. This can be done by covering the ground with a thick layer of newspaper (10-12 sheets or so) then topping that with soil for planting or mulch for paths. I saw 4 squash or similar plants (planted by students before school was out) that are growing into what is taller and taller grass, we need to mulch this area so the squash wont accidentally be mowed.

front beds
the front beds are looking great, recently weeded and mulched but the grass is tall and setting seed which I am afraid will blow into the beds when the area is mowed. Considering the budget crunch it would be great if a volunteer could at least mow a perimeter around the beds in front. We are also looking for a volunteer per bed so we each have a specified area to call our own.

south garden, the bird banquet
the trees planted near the bird feeder south of the school will be a pain to mow around, if we could mow this area very short then mulch and keep filling in with shrubs and trees till its shady enough to have fewer weeds that would be great, we also need benches to help with birdwatching classes.

numbers
while taking the tour i finally got around to counting. We have planted around 38 trees and 52 shrubs. Dont make me count the daffodils perennials seeds vegetables groundcovers....as soon as it is cool enough we will resume filling in the flower beds and planting groundcovers under the shrubs, my goal is thick enough plantings to disccourage weeds.

An Introduction to Lasagna Gardening