by David Hinks
Augusta Park is the place to be in July! Every Wednesday (and there are five this year!) from 6 to 8pm features music and food. Last week was a great success (even with a half hour of rain – it just meant that we got closer together under the tents!). Come and tour our greatly expanded garden. Our volunteers have been busy pulling weeds, hoeing and spreading straw and chips.
The Augusta garden includes a collaborative community garden as well as individual allotment gardens for which there is absolutely no charge. If you would like to be involved with the garden please let Jeff at Mills Community Support know that you’re interested. Jeff can be reached at jmills@themills.on.ca . We are hoping that gardeners with individual beds will also join in and help with the collaborative community gardens.
Many observers of the gardens are concerned about whether we are missing opportunities to harvest our produce. The following photos show kale, collards and chard after a picking – the general rule of thumb for harvesting these greens is to take no more than a third of the leaves off the plants (the chard may have been harvested a tad on the excessive side) and then give the plant time to recover and generate new growth. If properly managed over the growing season they can be producing really great leaves through the early frosts into the end of October.
Broccoli and cabbage are almost ready for harvest – many of them will be going to the Food Bank this week. If the stem of the primary head of broccoli is cut just below the head they will grow smaller secondary heads that will keep growing into the late fall. Cabbages as well will often grow smaller heads if cut so as to save the bottom leaves.
The Neighbourhood Tomato hosts a weekly ‘weed and learn’ session every Thursday evening through the growing season 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Join us at Augusta Park for a collaborative community gardening session as we share our knowledge, mentor new gardeners, weed our new garden and share some fellowship.
The Neighbourhood TomatoHeads are also partnering with TYPS to create intergenerational educational/hands-on gardening sessions Tuesday evenings at the TYPS garden behind the library from 6 to 8 pm. We have joined forces with several downtown gardeners to help develop additional garden space and are helping to provide gardening resources. This garden includes both individual and communal gardening opportunities.
As our gardens start to bear produce in abundance it is time to make sure that our community wins the “The Great Veggie Grow-Off”!!! The launch of the Veggie Grow-off took place May 1 in Augusta Park. The Neighbourhood Tomato Community Gardens in Mississippi Mills, and the Community Gardens at St.Gregory’s Next Door in Carleton Place, challenged the towns of Beckwith, Carleton Place, and Mississippi Mills to see which town can grow the most local produce for the Lanark County Food Bank in 2014. All you have to do is bring your armfuls of produce to the Food Bank at 5 Allan Street in Carleton Place and make sure that it is weighed and credited to Mississippi Mills. The Food Bank is open Tuesday 9 am to noon, Wednesday 7 to 9 in the evening, Thursday 9 am to noon and Friday 9 am to noon. Try to drop it off first thing in the morning if possible. I dropped off nine pounds of fresh greens from Augusta Park to the Food Bank last Tuesday morning thus giving us a commanding lead over Carleton Place!.
