More garden pictures! Why not.

Here's a little butterfly buddy on our lavender.

Maria's sunflower!  That's a flower with the right name all right.

Bees are so photogenic.  Supermodels of the insect world. This one is in Natasha's onions.

June bug!  I love these bugs, they're such little minivans. I took this picture right before s/he buried his or her little head in the dirt.

Raphael's cactus

I don't know who this is but s/he is in Carolyn's plot.

Can you believe it?  A shed is arriving!  Compliments of Alek and Thom Deason.

In other news we have two new gardeners in the garden:  Laura Derderyan in plot #7 and Sue Jekarl in plot #2!  Welcome, Laura and Sue!  Sue is easy to spot because she has purple hair.

These two replace the Deasons who ran out of time to keep up their plot and Scott and Martin who sold their house and are moving far away to the north. We wish them the best in their future endeavors.

Magic Beetle

Here's a cuteness picture from fellow gardener Julia (plot 15) of what she calls "one of those VW bugs having fun with my fennel." When I was a kid we called them June Bugs.  Aren't they spectacular?

MRECG on Your Garden Show Site

There we are, listed on this website called Your Garden Show.  Take a look if you like:

http://www.yourgardenshow.com/users/MontereyCommunityGardenGal/monterey-eco-community-garden

it's a pretty useful site and it's free.  You can look up plants, see other gardens, check out the almanac, etc.

There's a section where you tell them your USDA hardiness zone and ours is 9b.

Here are a few tips from the 9b August almanac:

Seed starting for those plants which need a long, warm growing season: Gain time by soaking all but the tiniest seeds. A simple method: scatter the seeds on a damp paper towel, roll it up, put it in a plastic bag. Unroll daily to see if dormancy has broken.


Summer's here and the time is right for planting warm weather veggies: corn, beans, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, squash, and pumpkins. Get these in the ground ASAP.  You can also plant broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts now to harvest next winter.


Pick fruit and veggies the minute they're ripe.

Pruning Tomatoes

Here's an article from the LA Times about pruning tomatoes that could be helpful:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2010/07/tomato-pruning-techniques.html

New Garden Pictures

Hey everybody, this is your buddy Hannah who has just been given access to the Garden Blog (thanks Joan and Anthony!). For this premier contribution here are a bunch of garden pictures I took yesterday.

Joan's poppies with a nice little bee

I think these are Scott and Martin's daisies

omg Karen's magic ten bazillion cherry tomatoes! She attributes her tremendous yield to our own homemade compost from our own compost bins.

A few plots in the morning mistiness

Bronwyn and Melissa's Gigantor sunflower

Here's a little cutie for scale--Gigantor is in the upper left.

Have you noticed the new plaques on Joan's plot?  It's #1, right by the road. The steering committee made these to thank the generous groups and individuals who contributed money and resources toward making our garden happen.  

Here's our tiny strawberry plant tipped with dew

Okra!  By Bronwyn and Melissa

I think these are the Bass family's brussels sprouts

Elena's peppers!

Melanie's onion doing its spirited impression of a firework

Melanie onions in repose

Compost bins!  Please, no crazy weirdness in the bins.  Karen and I harvested one the other day and found plastic things and some odd insulation-like black foam.  No good.  If you'd like to harvest a bin too here's how:  Check the bottom for earthy soilness (just look through the slits), and if you see it take the cover off, remove the top third of the bin and set it next to the full one and start shoveling the bin contents into the empty shell.  Then move the next bin layer on top of the formerly empty one, keep shoveling, and at the bottom you'll hopefully see composty magical goodness.  Put the magic on your plot, put the lid on the bin and watch life bloom.

Adios, everybody!  Next post coming soon!