[RP TownTalk] The Retreat from the Heat

[Vinnie Bevivino]

Dear Community Gardeners:

We hope that you are enjoying the tolerable weather.  Our plants are  
growing wonderfully, and we are looking towards the fall with  
excitement.  We haven't given you a proper update on the garden in a  
couple weeks, and wanted to share what's going on outside.

Garden Update

The cooler weather has brought some great gardening.  The warm  
weather crops are being relentless, spreading just a bit further and  
sending another set of fruits.  I keep thinking its the last week for  
cucumbers, but we've got yet another bucket of them.  Fernando and I  
picked about 20 pounds of cherry tomatoes in the last two days, and  
our refrigerator isn't big enough to hold all the honeydew melons we  
have harvested (they're the size of basketballs!).  And we're  
harvesting okra every day.  I think Margaret, the director of the  
Engaged University, said it best when she said it seems like that  
once plot of grass just wants to be productive.

Looking to the future, we have the brightest green lettuce I've ever  
seen growing.  With the backdrop of the monotone green foliage of the  
melons, tomatoes, and cucumbers, they are seemingly florescent. We're  
going to wait for them to form heads before we harvest them, about  
another month.  We have trays of fall greens such as collards,  
cabbage, and chard waiting to be transplanted.  We're waiting for the  
William Wirt Middle School students to plant them in the garden in  
their after school program, which starts next week.  Our winter  
squash are being their imperialist selves, spreading out into the  
tomatoes and collards.  Yesterday I saw our first little butternut  
squash, a welcome reminder of colder weather to come.  We planted a  
fall carrot crop last weekend, which should be showing itself any day  
now.  Our fall bean crop is coming in nicely, we have both green  
beans and shelling beans planted.  One of our peach trees, which  
started about the size of my forearm about six months ago, is about  
twice the size of my whole body.  When our tomatoes, peppers, and  
melon plants finally give in, we have plans to plant garlic in the  
open space.

We'll be at the Riverdale Farmers Market this Thursday (today!) from  
3 to 7, selling tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, collards, melons, basil,  
okra, and anything else that we can find in the field.  Come by and  
taste the flavors of Maryland.

We're also really excited to have a new employee for the fall.   
Andrea, a University undergrad, is starting with us this week, and  
she's going to be working on community and campus outreach.  We're  
really excited to have her on board, making our work more visible to  
everyone in the neighborhood and at the University.

Upcoming Events

There is ample volunteer opportunities, and the pleasant weather is  
just one more reason to come out.  If you are interested in getting  
your hands dirty, come by any Saturday from 9 to 10.  We'll be out  
there getting the garden work done.  We're putting in weed-free  
paths, weeding, planting fall seeds, things like that.  Nothing too  
strenuous.

Also, we're looking for a graphic designer who can design a logo for  
us.  If you are savy in that field and have a couple hours, let us  
know.  We have the idea, we just need it on a computer screen.  If  
you are comfortable with pen and ink illustration, we could use a  
drawing and scan it instead of designing it on a computer.

If you're a people person, we want to have a harvest celebration in  
the garden this fall.  If coordinating such an event sounds  
intriguing, let me know.

Outside garden activities, there is a Riverdale Community Association  
meeting happening at the Center for Educational Partnership, the  
building that the garden is at, on Wednesday the 12th at 7:30 PM.  I  
will be giving a short presentation about the garden and its role in  
the neighborhood.

Finally, I'm trying to clean up and build this email list.  If you  
know anyone that you would like me to add to it, if you are getting  
two emails for some reason, or if you are not interested in receiving  
these emails any more, let me know.

Take care, happy gardening, and we'll see you at the market.

-Vinnie and the Master Peace Community Garden
6200 Sheridan Street
Riverdale, MD 20737




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