The Oak Park Community Garden

The catalyst, the whole reason the Oak Park Crop Swap even started, is finally here and it's open! That's right- Oak Park has it's very own community garden. The garden is located at 12th Ave & MLK. There are still spaces available, if you haven't had a chance to check out the garden, we have a virtual tour for you.







Okay, it's a bit of a blank slate right now, but that will change as more people claim a plot and plant their gardens.

We planted our plot on Sunday and made some progress.

By the end of Sunday, we planted 2 types of onions, 2 types of basil, chives, zinnias, marigolds, spinach, chard and a wildflower mix. This is a great time to get your winter garden started!

Check out that fancy compost bin!

That a community fruit tree!
So, it's probably difficult to see but there is a small butterfly in the zinnias. As soon as the plants went in, a few tiny butterflies were immediately attracted to the plants! Imagine just a few months ago this was an empty, trash strewn, weedy lot, now it's a place for community to gather, people to grow food and even a small urban wildlife refuge! Thank you members of the Sacramento City Council, SHRA and the Parks and Rec Department for making this possible!

Garden Tour

On August 31st we had the 2nd Crop Swap Garden Tour. We enjoyed a beautiful day, not too hot, many people rode their bikes, others drove and a few walked. Visiting gardens in Oak Park is a lot of fun- there are many backyard oasis's. Below are some pictures from our gardens.

My Garden of One

Our backyard, with its dozen or more trees, is very shady - great for keeping things cool, but not ideal for having a vegetable garden. So this year I decided to try growing a garden in the one place in our yard that does get a lot of sun - along the back side of the house, about 5 feet off the ground. I used a Topsy Turvy planter and one cherry tomato for my experiment.

The Topsy Turvy planter is a simply-designed planter that hangs either on a pole or from a wall bracket, like mine does. The novelty in this planter is that you grow your plant... upside-down! Well, the plant is planted upside-down, but as I quickly observed, it immediately begins to grow right-side up. Within one day, I noticed my little tomato seedling begin to curve upward, and after just a few days I could see it grow steadily taller, as any plant would. It's pretty amazing to see, and made me wonder at the versatility of plants.

The trick to this planter is that it simply makes use of the plant's natural tendency to respond to light (phototropism) and gravity (gravitropism). Influenced by a hormone called auxin, plant stems tend to grow toward light and roots tend to grow downward. Although I can't see them, I would guess that the roots of my tomato are clustered at the bottom of the planter, firmly holding the tomato in the planter. I've filled the top third of the planter with rich compost (from my worms, of course!) and when I water (daily!) the nutrients trickle down toward the roots. The planter allows gravity to bring food and water to the roots, so I would expect that there might be fewer and finer roots on this plant than in a traditionally-planted tomato, as they do not need to seek out nutrients, nor are they needed for structural support.

All-in-all, this planter was a good compromise for me - I still got to have a "garden," even if it is just a garden of one plant! I plucked my first tomato last night, and WOW - sweet!

PS - I am signing up for a community garden plot at MLK and 12th so I might have a bigger garden next year.

Come to the community gardens TODAY to reserve a plot:

Thursday, July 28th, 6 pm

MLK & 12th Ave.

$25 for a 10'x10' plot and $50 for a 10'x20' plot.

An additional $25 is required as a cleaning deposit.

Worm Bin Construction

Our first Crop Swap of 2011 was a huge success! We built worm bins- 9 to be exact. The process of building a worm bin is easy.

Step 1:
Obtain solid color plastic bins (we purchased ours from Home Depot). Drill holes around the sides of the bin:


Step 2:
Shred newspaper and place in bin, then get newspaper damp



Step 3:
Release the worms!





Step 4:
One very happy worm farmer!



Of course once the worms are brought home, they need to be fed. Worms like to eat kitchen garbage and produce "black gold" to be used in your garden. It's a win, win, win situation. And since the worms were purchased from a bait shop, 600 worms were spared the fate of meeting a fisherman!

Start of the 2011 Season

The Oak Park Crop Swap will begin it's fourth year of operation in July! And as I write this post, the Oak Park Community Garden is under construction. Going back 4 years, we were at a meeting at NeighborWorks Sacramento, determining the best way to get a community garden in our neighborhood. We knew it would be a very long process, and that is before the severe budget crisis the City of Sacramento is now facing. Fortunately, with the help of community members and members of our City Council, Oak Park will have a community garden of it's own at 12th and MLK. Unfortunately, it probably won't be ready for the beginning of the Crop Swap, so we will hold the Crop Swap at McClatchy Park where the Farmers Market is held (every Sat. from 9:00 to 1:00) until we are able to join the community garden.

The Crop Swap was a result of that meeting, we wanted Oak Park to have access to a gardening community and that is what we have all been creating for the past four years. Personally, I have learned so much from the Crop Swap and developed more friendships with my neighbors just by participating in a simple weekly event for a couple months out of the year.

Looking forward to a new season in 2011!

Here is what's growing in my garden:

The lettuce is doing great! The cool, rainy weather has helped the lettuce grow and not bolt!













Nasturtium and green beans. I love nasturtium, seeds were planted three years ago and every year it self seeds and grows beautiful plants.

Water Use and Soil Surveys

On July 27th, Ed talked to us about drip irrigation materials and methods. He mentioned the WUCOLS, which is the "Water Use Classification of Landscape Species." You can look up the water use data for your plants in our region, published by the University of California Extension.

On August 3rd, Garrett talked to us about soil care and chemistry. He mentioned the USDA Soil Survey, which you can use to find the soil type and characteristics found in your own yard.

Good Bugs / Bad Bugs

Learn which bugs to keep around and which bugs to evict from your garden. Sometimes the ugly ones (like ladybug larvae and centipedes) are the good guys who defend your plants from pests. And sometimes the pretty ones (like the harlequin beetle) are the ones munching your veggies!

Bill Maynard talked about some of these at the crop swap this evening, and showed us an illustrated identification card from Mac's Field Guide. You can get a full-color, laminated guide from Amazon for five bucks.