Hello NSP Friends and Volunteers,

This is our last gathering of the season and our most fun; The Second Annual Stone Soup Garden Party!

This Sunday, October 11, from 2-5:00 p.m. we will be enjoying the fruits of our labor, a delicious soup from our gardens expertly prepared by Bella's Deli and cold autumn beer from Twisted Pine Brewery. There will be music around the fire with amazing local artist Lara Ruggles as well as garden tours, games and scarecrow making. We will also be raffling (and selling) boxes of local and organic fall produce.

Come and enjoy a beautiful fall afternoon with community, This Sunday October 11 from 2-5:00 p.m.

We hope to see everybody there!

Sarah
303 258-0607


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Notes from the Garden's Volunteer Coordinator
Here are few emails sent to volunteers, to give you a sense of their work and accomplishments:

Late October (final days of the garden):

I wanted to sent out an invitation to join us for a final day in the community gardens, when we will be cleaning up, putting beds to sleep, and making sure we are reading for winter. We also hope to be planting wintering crops and some cold hardy greens. Best of all, we have a new purple tool shed that needs to be painted with fairies......

We have several teen center volunteers committed to this time, so if you can make it this is an excellent opportunity to mix up the community, work together and recap on a great growing season. We are also looking to connect with our regular volunteers to see how we can improve our volunteer program for next year.

We hope to see you one more time in the dirt!

Late August (volunteer appreciation):

Well, its been one heck of a season, and I hope that you all can come out this Saturday, September 6th to enjoy your hard work. This party is for you guys!!!! Please bring your friends and family to mingle and support the gardens.

Know that your name will be on hand so that you can get your soup and bread for FREE! The Stone Soup will be made with the fruits of your labor, as the bulk of ingredients will be harvested in the garden! We also will have great gift bags for you all with seeds, chai, teas, etc. so show up and get your booty! (If you are not able to come, please email me so that we can have your perishable goods stored for you for a later pick-up, or please plan on having someone else get your bag).

HARVEST and GETTING YOUR SHARES:
Also, the following Sunday the 7th we will begin harvesting the remaining garden crops. Best eaten fresh, we plan on harvesting beginning at 10:00 A.M. This includes all of those gorgeous lettuce heads, kale, turnips, beets, squash, tomatoes, etc. While some of the garden is still not quite ready for harvest, we have officially entered the frost season and we would hate to loose anything to the cold weather. Help yourself to these crops, knowing that there are about 20 volunteers who will be picking, so leave some for everybody! (If you are out of town or cannot be there sometime within the day, please let me know and if it is appropriate we can work out picking your portion. ) Feel free to pick whenever you can throughout the day and we can say by Monday that everyone has had a chance?

As far as tomatoes, feel free to pick a few green ones and ripen them in a paper bag. We can try to keep them covered, but severe weather would do it, so let's get 'em while we can! Remaining small crops like carrots and onions that are not mature yet should be left for a few more weeks (lets leave a few leek too, at Jason's suggestion).

Get back to me with any concerns about this harvest schedule!

EVENT DAY VOLUNTEERS AND TOURS
In the last few days leading up to the party, please put some extra effort into weeding and making the garden look great! The idea is to show off our hard work and inspire people to garden and give NSP money! Any extra love will show.

Also, we could use an hour of volunteer time from everyone who attends. There will be raffle tables, food and beer tables, and the role of garden tour leaders to be filled and if everyone gives an hour we will be more than covered!!! Please let me know if we can schedule you for a shift!

The following day we could also use 1 or 2 people to serve soup and bread again at the Neder-Nederland running race.

Mid June (watering, keeping logs):

Yesterday was a great day in the gardens. AmeriCorp provided 9 strong and enthusiastic volunteers and we accomplished a lot in a few short hours. The posts were set for our tool shed and more seeds and plants went into the ground. Most of the beds are full at this point and within the week we should be done planting.

There is some confusion about the watering system and turning things on/off. Please note that the watering system should BE ON AT ALL TIMES, DO NOT TURN OFF FROM HOUSE OR AT TIMER BOX. The water has to be on at both places for the system to work, so please leave the settings where you find them. Typically the timers on the black hose (timed system) should read Frequency "8 hours" with a duration of 10-15 minutes. This means that every 8 hour cycle the water will spray for 10-15minutes. The spray wand (green hose) should be set at "ON" and "NOW" at the timer box.

ALSO: Please, please, please read the log book when you check in. This is my most certain means of communication with everyone, and the only way to get done what needs to be done. I left out starts to go into the ground last Sunday and a full week of shifts passed without any being planted. I am not sure if this is due to the book not being read or people feeling uncertain about planting starts. If the latter is true, let's try to get into the gardens together so that you can feel more confident and learn a bit more about the gardens in the process. (If the book is not there on your shift, it is because I am updating it. Assume the usual: check for extra watering, weed, organize,etc.)

Once again, thank you all for your work. It was great to see several of you out yesterday. We'll be in touch about more work days in the future. The shed is going up and will need to be painted (I have a hot line on some free colored paint and some other colors for a mural. 8ft. x 8ft canvas!