April - GMG Garden
4/2/25: This blog post will get updated throughout the month. Keep checking back!
Week 1: Preparations for Planting & Weeds
📅 Wednesday, April 2 at 5:30 PM
We’re doing a great job with weeding. And now we have the torch!
Torch the area for the extended potato row
Get a handle on the white-top weeds
Adding more city compost to the potato rows
Broadcasting cover crop that complements what we decided for the warm season rows - click the maps above for specifics
We can also do some more direct-seeding of cold-tolerant crops and flowers that can take a little cold!
Starting the trellising
Garden Prep at Home: Hardening off seedlings that are ready to go from our winter sowing! Specifically cold-tolerant plants including leafy greens
Thursday 3:45 - 5 PM: Mary K will be there with One Stone students to start on their row and get some help putting the drip line back in the larger area of the garden.
Week 2: Starting Potatoes!
📅 Sunday, April 6 at 11:30 AM
Bring all potato starts to the garden!
Laying down cardboard: Use non-glossy mostly unprinted (or one color matte), ideally staple- and tape-free cardboard to cover the entire area (two layers if possible).
Large cardboard can be sourced from Bob’s Bicycle on Fairview, or from furniture places. We want large thick stuff to avoid ANY gaps. Ideally double thick.
Smaller cardboard boxes = weeds.
Planting & Mulching:
Spread city compost and/or woodchips in 2 ft parallel strips, with 1 ft between them.
Place seed potatoes 1 ft apart on the cardboard, using your foot (heel to toe) to measure.
We’ll use pavers to mark where we can maintain the rows from.
Cover each spud with 2-3 quarts of compost (start with 2, add 1 later in the season).
Mulch rows with wheat straw to retain moisture and keep soil temperature below 80°F.
Wet everything down to prevent it from blowing away.
Maintaining the Crop:
A moderate amount of hilling the potatoes will be needed through the season using soil, straw, or woodchips to protect from sun exposure.
Just covering any spuds that breach the surface to keep them from turning green.
Use fresh compost to manage pill bugs and apply diatomaceous earth (DE) for pest prevention.
Tuesday 10:30 am : One Stone students are going to start planting out their row. We’ll also wrap up the relocating of the Native Plants.
After that’s done, Kayla offered to make a call to the city to request Compost for that area.
If we don’t get all the plants relocated with the students help, I’ll ask Co-op Gardeners to help.
📅 Wednesday, April 9 at 5:30 PM
Trellising continues
Transplant hardened-off cold-tolerant crops
Continue direct seeding cold-tolerant crops and flowers
Thursday 3:45 - 5 pm & Tuesday 10:30 am One Stone Students: Whatever we don’t finish with the trellising we can probably do with One Stone students who want to know more about garden set up.
Week 3: Drip Lines & Dump Truck Fun
📅 Sunday, April 13th at 11:30 AM
Drip line extension: We will work on adding more drip irrigation to increase our growing capacity as needed.
Sometime this week we’ll be working with a dump truck Shawna and Greg have access to in order to get our massive weed pile and other random weed-waste piles up to Diamond Street. And return with wood chips.
Week 4 & 5: Weeding, Trellising, Direct Seeding
The following applies from now through Sunday May 4th.
📅 Sunday, April 20th at 11:30 AM
Woodchips on cardboard in the walkways!
Weeding the Fairmont row
If we want to help out the One Stone crew, we can weed their rows too, to prepare them for planting. I’ve made some suggestions on the planting guide.
Getting our Trellises in order
With the help of a post driver, getting metal stakes on either side of each Hugel Row
Relocating the great pole structure from Michael and Shawna’s rows to the double tomato row. 3-4 people needed. Kayla’s got the vision.
On going through May 4th
Doing the rest of our cold-tolerant direct seeding around the planting chart. Updated 4/20 (top of page). A print out will also be at the garden.
Hardening off/preparing our winter sown seedlings.
Waiting to transplant tender, warm season varieties until May 10th
Potting up those that are getting too crowded - they’ll need to be covered at night or brought into a garage. If they’ve been winter sown, and outside all winter, bringing them inside a house could be too warm.
Please read this blog post for more detail on preparing seedlings.
Happening at the garden:
Friday 25th 2:30 pm: Fairmont Students plant their row out!
Friday 18th 2:30 pm: Fairmont Students clean their row! - Had a scheduling miscommunication. I’d like to help them by weeding this for them.
