Mares Eat Oats and...

Our Community Garden is also an experimental garden. During the last four (4) years we've been learning how to garden and to figure out how things work and don't work. Last year we killed most of our tomato plants because we applied an "organic" bug killer when it was too hot out: the plants all shriveled and died. This morning I laid to rest the last blueberry bush out of the 20 that we planted. Some things have worked, like our black berry canes, and somethings haven't. One thing that looks like it is working is an experiment with oats.



Last fall, and again this week, we planted oats as a cover crop in a couple of under performing beds that don't do well because they are under a treeline and stay dry and stay in the shade. Oats, however seem to do well there and add lots of organic material to the soil and keep the weeds out. The bed above, filled with baby oats was planted about 2 weeks ago.



When the oats grow up they are pulled out of the ground (by hand). The soil left behind is full of fairly rich organic material and ready for another crop of oats. The picture above shows a bed in the process of being "harvested."



The stalks that have been harvested are laid on top of the beds producing vegetables. Oat straw makes perfect mulch and, if the heads (seeds) sprout it is all good because it becomes green mulch and also helps keep the weeds down. The bed seen in this picture has some sweet potato vines that your community gardeners planted the first week in June.



It looks like we're about a week away from picking peppers (the green bells above are growing along the west fence line) and about two weeks away from what looks like today a bumper crop of tomatoes. We have four (4) types of tomatoes growing so there will be plenty to go around.

If you visit the garden you can see that we're also experimenting with containers. Our plan is to go to school this year (in the garden) and then next year be experienced and helpful resources for members who would like to container garden at home.

The community garden is your garden. Stop by any time, feel free to pick anything you can use, and enjoy this beautiful space. You will find that the garden is a good place to pray and another cause to thank God for His many blessings.