St Francis Sustainable Garden: 2013 Summary

Dear All,

Congratulations on a stewardship well done this past garden season, and thank you for your efforts on the following:

THE TOTAL HARVEST OF ALL CROPS IN 2013 WAS 212 POUNDS, up significantly from (2012) last year's 97.9 pounds (due to drought) AND almost twice the harvest from 2011 which was 125 pounds! (see attached color coded chart from Patrick Sherry)

Additionally the Sustainable Garden treasury is solvent and comfortably in the black due to successful fundraising events (i.e., spring seed and plant sales) and donations (a special thanks to Joan Meagher for her outreach and persuasion of our donors). 

2013 Main Events Recap:

• Apr 6-7: Seed Sales after Weekend Masses
• Apr 20:  Compost Haul
• May 18: Garden Bed Preparation
• May 18-19: Seedling and Plant Sales after Weekend Masses
• May 23: Seed Potato Planting with St Francis 5th Graders
• May - Sep: Daily Watering and Weeding, as needed (Special thanks to Fazekas, Jensens, Sherrys, Julie, Joan and Katy)
• May - Sep: Biweekly Delivery of Produce to Perry Nursery School (Special thanks to Jensens and Sherrys)
• Sep 27: Potato Harvest with St Francis 6th Graders
• Oct 12: Fall CleanUp - Time, Talent and Treasure "Meet and Greet"

Additional Highlights

• First harvest of garlic (planted previous Oct) in early spring
• Earliest planting of cool crops of spinach and sugar snap peas
• Initiated Michigan native plant project with donations, sales and plantings
• Revitalized hillside garden bed south of Parish Office for potato and bush bean crops and Michigan native plants
• Removal of ice storm damaged cedar trees allowed expansion of bramble patch (red and black raspberries)
• Obtained City of Ann Arbor compost bin for weekly debris pickup (Thanks to Dave Barera)
• Involved St Francis school children in potato crop planting and harvest (Thanks to Wendy Lemke)
• Explored natural remedies for plant health (e.g., chive solutions for squash plant mildew)
• Donated extra flowering plants to Peace Garden near west front school entrance

Future Improvements

• Replace mesh barrier in main garden due to nesting, not eating bunny invasion
• Replace/reconnect a couple of wood boards of raised beds in main garden
• Set up/test hoop house (new donation of materials from Ace Hardware) next year in main garden
• Clear/convert second hillside garden bed south of parish office for plantings
• Use/plant cleared areas from fallen/removed cedar trees
• Involve St Francis School in Seedling/Plant starts in winter 2014
• Complete more grant applications/initiatives with local businesses and organizations

Thank You

• Donors:  Downtown Home and Garden, Ace Hardware, Meijer's, Turner's, Ann Arbor Native Plants
• Sponsors: Father Jim (and now Father James) and Scott Wright (e.g., communicating time and talent recruits and maintaining the blog: http://sustainable-garden-project.blogspot.com/ )
• Dave Barera and operations staff on equipment storage and retrieval
• Previous and new volunteers who have actively participated in garden activities and events.  Apologies for not specific volunteer citations/thank you on ALL the numerous other and behind the scenes activities.

God bless you, ALL.

In Christ,
Erich Jensen and Rose Sherry
Garden Coordinators
734.771.8511 (Erich's cell)

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THANK YOU to everyone who was involved in the harvest project!  The families at Perry Nursery School literally ate it up this year :-)  Everything was snatched up and used.  

Here is a great story about how your garden affects our families:

One afternoon a young mom came to pick up her daughter.  The girl went to the counter and pointed to the rhubarb and asked her mom if they could take some home to eat.  The mom picked it up, turned it over and over and looked very perplexed.  I asked, "Can I help you?"  She said, "What is this?"  I explained what it was and how it could be cooked and used.  She said she did have internet at home and I suggested that she look up some simple recipes and to have fun with it.

Here is why this story touches me.  A mom and daughter learned something new.  The daughter was excited over being able to take something home - something she had never seen before.  The mom gets to be a hero - she didn't just say "no" to her daughter, but explored the possibilities and was willing to try.  I never did find out the results, but that memory will stick with me forever.  Thank you!

Sandy Williams, Development Director at Perry Nursery School of Ann Arbor

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Belated Thank You: St Francis Sustainable Garden: Oct 12 "Meet and Greet" Garden Clean UP

Dear All,

Many thanks to our volunteers, veterans and new, who came to cleanup the gardens on the cool and very sunny Saturday morning about 2 weeks ago.

John Schommer, Rose, Patrick and John Sherry, Erich and Ann Marie Jensen, Joan Meagher, Nora, Frank Jr, Julie, and Frank III Fazekas cleared and composted all annual vegetable plants from the garden beds, turned over the soil by shovel to mix in straw and bean plants (i.e., good source of nitrogen), and inventoried all the materials in the storage bin.  (see attached photos).

Erich Jensen returned this past week to empty the rain barrel, bundle the vegetable stakes, gather the 100 foot heavy duty hose (donated by Meijer's), store the watering cans in the bin, stack the tomato cages and generally gather all these materials in the garden for pickup and storage by the St Francis maintenance crew.

The Sustainable Garden ministry activities for most of the volunteers will take a winter break, and hopefully we will see/meet you in the early spring (i.e., email/call in March).  In the meantime, the garden and fund raising coordinators, Erich, Rose and Joan will continue our behind the scenes organization and plans for the 2014 garden and outreach/fundraising with community.  If  you would like help with any of these efforts, please let me know.

(P.S.,  Joan has just informed us that Ace Hardware will donate materials to build a hoop house for one or more of our garden beds). 

It is always great to hear the "good news" in more than one way.

In Christ,
Erich Jensen and Rose Sherry
Garden Coordinators
734.771.8511 (Erich's cell)

St Francis Sustainable Garden: Oct 12 "Meet and Greet" Garden Clean UP

Greetings to Current Garden Crew:

Welcome to New "Time and Talent" Recruits:

Thank you very much for your past and future efforts with the St Francis Sustainable Gardens.

Our next event will be a combination "meet and greets with treats" and "fall clean-up" day for Saturday, October 12 (NOT a home Football game Saturday) at 9:00 am.

We will welcome the new time and talent recruits for a quick garden tour and then proceed with fall cleanup of the gardens.  Fall cleanup should be only 60 - 90 minutes or less depending on the number of volunteers.

As usual this activity will involve removing and composting the existing "annual" plants and turning over the beds (Please bring a large shovel and/or pruning shears, if you have these tools available).

If leaves have fallen, we will also mulch and add to the plant beds.

Lastly, we hope to empty the rain barrel and clean out, inventory, and repackage the storage chest of materials and equipment.

Once again, many thanks to the 2012 - 2013 volunteers.   The harvest was bountiful throughout the summer (Patrick Sherry is currently tabulating the final numbers) basically finishing with 36 pounds of red and Yukon gold potatoes from the potato dig with the St Francis six-graders who helped last Friday.(see example photos including "hugging carrots").

Dress for work and weather!

In Christ,
Erich Jensen and Rose Sherry
Garden Coordinators
734.771.8511 (Erich's cell)

Picture is worth a Thousand Words: Garden Harvest: August 5:

This picture highlights the result of your hard work!

Many thanks,  Erich and Rose

                       

Garden updates

Garden updates - August 5

Hello, The garden harvest seems to be in full swing.  Today, the following was harvested and delivered to Perry Nursery School:

• 6 containers of tomatoes (roma and cherry)
• 2 cukes
• Yellow Squash
• 4 onions
• 4 containers of pole beans
• Dill, Thyme, and Chives

 
Everything was well watered today.  Yellow and brown leaves and other debris were removed.  Dill plants and one tomato plant restaked.   Note:  The tomato plants are heavy with fruit, and the added weight is causing the cages to tilt, so take care.
 
All potato plants have been mounded with additional top soil.  (Thank you Erich and Joan).
 
Also:  HAS ANYONE SEEN THE SECOND PAIR OF PRUNING SHEARS?  HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO LOCATE FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS.
 
The beds are weed free....thank you to the many hands for removing these plants!
 
Regards,
Erich

Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 

Hello, Patrick has written a very nice summary.
 
Ann Marie and I met Rose this morning, and assisted (a little) with the pole bean supports.
 
Other activities included substantial cleanup including:

• Deadheading daisies and comfrey, and some, but not all of the day lilies on the perimeter
• Completing the peas harvest and removing most of the dried peas vines
• Removing dead rhubarb leaves
• Harvesting, packaging and delivering cherry tomatoes, onions, yellow squash, zucchini, lemon thyme, oregano, and dill for Perry Nursery school
• Transporting city compost bin for Tuesday a.m. pickup
• Watering compost bins and most of main garden with rainwater only
• Noting good healthy fruit on cucumber vines and tomato plants

 
Because of Vacation Bible School, watering and weeding was not done for the potato and native plant garden.
 
Thank you to everyone for your continued hard work, in particular, the weeds are always at a minimum.
 
In Christ,
Erich Jensen
 
P.S.  The cedar tree stumps have been ground up and/or removed.  The black and red raspberry bushes are thriving, and we should have a very nice bramble patch (and harvest of berries) next year.
 

Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 
Hi everyone, this is Patrick!

On Friday, we harvested over a pound of peas. That finishes the pea season. In order to keep nitrogen in the soil, which is one reason to plant peas, the peas must be removed by clipping the stem at the bottom, instead of pulling the root up. The root eventually decays and makes the soil nitrogen-rich. I saw 1 cherry tomato red-orange and almost ripe and a few not far behind. If you see pear tomatoes, they never get red, they are ripe when they are yellow. The cucumbers are supposed to get 8" - 10" long, which we harvested 7 on Friday already, including one from Matthew. We harvested a few peppers, including a bright red chill red one. 

Mom spotted two baby bunnies in the garden. The first was found near Luke and the other jumped out of the nest she found among the tomato plants. We also temporarily fixed the pole bean supports. They were starting to tip over and come apart. 

I also looked back at the notes on Monday and noticed that pole beans were harvested. I was wondering if you harvested pole beans or if you harvested beans from Paul. The ones that are ripe in Paul right now are the ones near the short white fence. The ones that are near the white fence I am saving for seed. We also found a yellow squash in John too. There should be a couple more yellow and a zucchini ready to pick by Monday.

Mom is planning to stop by the Garden Monday morning after dropping us off for VBS. She's planning on working on strengthening the pole bean supports and help with the peas. 

Thank you,  Patrick

St Francis Sustainable Garden Update

Dear All,   Ann Marie and I, Erich, went to the garden today [July 1, 2013].

Activities:

• Harvested peas and recorded; two small containers and one small cuke and delivered to Perry.
• Did NOT water any of the gardens (rain barrel is overflowing; imagine that)
• Weeded main and potato gardens
• Trimmed more branches and invasive trees along row of cedar/arborvitae trees
• Opened up and stirred compost bins to get rained on
• Filled city compost bin and hauled to street
• Trimmed back several clump of yarrow in perimeter
• Trimmed comfrey in perimeter and composted across 3 bins
• Trimmed daisies inside fence and outside (fallen on other plants like dill, marigolds, iris, etc
• Cleaned up dead/yellowed leaves of rhubarb plants
• Repositioned tomato branches within cages

Regards,
Erich

From: Erich Jensen - Mon, Jul 15, 2013.
Subject: Belated Spring Summary of St Francis Sustainable Garden Activities

Dear All, Belated and continued thanks to our volunteers (and the church management) for a great start to the 2013 garden season!  The spring has been wet and warm and the gardens including the new potato and native plant beds are thriving as well as the main garden and its adjacent beds of rhubarb and brambles (raspberries and black raspberries).  Here is a brief recap of the activities (with attached photos) to date:

20 Apr 2013:  Compost Day

Bob and Joan Meagher borrowed their friends pick up truck again and were met by Frank Fazekas and Ron Yonkoski at the Ann Arbor Compost Center on this early Saturday morning.  Delivering the compost to St Francis within an hour, they were joined by Erich and Ann Marie Jensen and Rose and Patrick Sherry who helped haul and shovel most of it onto the newly cleared existing bed just south of the parish offices.  Some compost was piled and stored near the compost bins for use along the main sustainable garden perimeter.  It was a clear, crisp, and collegial morning, and many thanks to all, in particular, for Meaghers for the truck, and Erich for the extra wheelbarrow from a neighbor.  Dave Barera supplied a current city water bill, so the load of compost was free.

18 May 2013: Potato - Michigan Native Plant Bed Preparation Day

On another beautiful sunny and warmer Saturday morning, Erich and Ann Marie Jensen, Julie White, Frank Fazekas, Joan Meagher and Katy Derezinski removed all weeds and spread and tilled the compost from 20 April  into this recovered bed.

18-19 May 2013 Plant and Seedling Sale

After the Saturday mass and Sunday 8:45 and 10:30 masses, Patrick and Rose Sherry, Erich and Ann Marie Jensen, Joan Meagher and Katy Derezinski displayed  and sold many plants including tomato, pepper, herb, native Michigan plants and more from volunteers home gardens, the sustainable garden and donations from former garden volunteers (e.g., Tracy Nagy) and local merchants (e.g., 5 flats from Turner's nursery and a variety of native plants from Ann Arbor Native Plants) outside the PAC main doors.   Vegetable seeds (from Downtown Home and Garden), wildflower seeds (from Ann Arbor Native Plants) and seed balls (from Perry Nursery School) leftover from the seed sale in April were also sold.  Sales and enthusiasm from parish members exceeded expectation and recorded a new high of nearly $225.  All remaining native plants were planted in the new Michigan native plant bed prepared on May 18.

23 May 2013 Seed Potato Planting with Mrs Verhines 5th graders

On a beautiful cool Friday morning one of the 5th grade classes joined Rose and Patrick Sherry, Erich and Ann Marie Jensen and Steve Lavender, chair of the Sustainability Committee to plant 2 types of seed potatoes donated by Ann Arbor Home and Garden.  After an introduction and background information on the purpose of the Sustainability garden and how to plant potatoes the students enthusiastically planted many seed potatoes.   In the fall these same students will return to harvest and deliver the potatoes to Perry Nursery School.  This activity was recently featured in an article written by Steve Lavender in the Sunday Forum.  Companion planting of lemon thyme and bush beans was accomplished, and all plants are thriving in the new beds

April- July 2013: Other Activities

The weeding and watering schedule was established and the team of volunteers visit the garden almost daily, as follows: Mondays, Erich and Ann Marie Jensen, Tuesdays, Julie White, Wednesdays, Julie and Frank Fazekas, Thursdays, Katy Derezinski, Fridays, Rose and Patrick Sherry, and Saturdays, Joan Meagher.  Because of the abundant spring rains, the garden has thrived, and mostly only required vigorous weeding by the volunteers.  Crops of rhubarb, spinach, sugar snap peas, garlic and now beans and cucumbers have been harvested and delivered fairly routinely to appreciative Perry Nursery School by the Jensens on Mondays and the Sherrys on Fridays.

 

• Dave Barera was able to obtain a city compost bin which has been used regularly for excessive vegetative debris and is located near the other three stationary black compost bins.  Note: City empties this bin on Tuesday mornings.
• Several cedar/arborvitae trees (destroyed in a March snow/ice storm) were removed along the fence line and have provided more space for rhubarb, red and black raspberries which are thriving and spreading for future crops and produce harvest.
• Father Bosco has the rectory patio full of tomato and pepper plant pots from the May plant sale.
• Joan Meagher successfully obtained donations from Meijer's, Downtown Home and Garden, Turners, and Ann Arbor Native Plants which also included a new 100 foot heavy duty hose, garden gloves, pruners, watering wand, stakes, and a rake. 
• Funds from seed and seeding/plant sales allowed purchases of new colorful tomato cages and straw mulch.
• Lastly, the main garden has been routinely visited by a bunny or two as a refuge (we think), as crops seem to have been merely flattened not eaten.  Holes in fence are getting plugged and anti rabbit organic natural deterrant spray has been used, too.

Sincerely and thankfully submitted,
Erich Jensen
Co-coordinator of Sustainable Garden

Potato Planting Project ... June 16, 2013, Forum Sustainability Corner

June 16, 2013, Forum Sustainability Corner:

(Written by Stephen Lavender)

Sustainable gardens require a sustainable supply of gardeners. Fostering a growing awareness of sustainability's importance, the St. Francis School community has embraced the parish's gardening program. The 5th grade students of Ms. Kim Verhines' class recently participated in the St. Francis Sustainable Garden's potato planting project. 

With background and instruction provided by Sustainable Garden coordinators Erich Jensen and Rose Sherry, the 5th graders spent an outdoor class session learning the basics of gardening and the specifics of planting potatoes. Working in groups of two, the students received sprouted potato sections and planted them in the garden's prepared soil.    

All gardeners know that planting is only one of many early steps in a long growing season. Individuals and families from the parish have volunteered to water and weed our sustainable gardens throughout the summer. In the fall a mature potato crop will be greeted by an equally mature group of gardeners. The 5th graders who planted in the spring will return as 6th graders this fall to experience and enjoy the harvesting of their sustainably grown produce. 

Erich captured the thoughts of our community when he commented that "sowing seeds in the garden hopefully means sowing seeds of sustainability in young minds for lifetime commitment." Wendy Lemke from St. Francis School and Patrick Sherry have also been instrumental in supporting and organizing the potato project. We thank them for their efforts and look forward to an abundant harvest this fall for distribution to Perry Nursery School families!