Harvesting the Bounty!

Jai Shri Mataji! 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We are really happy to update you all on our little garden project in the land of Canajoharie. Our collective effort on work weekends have started showing off results. And, by the grace of our Divine Mother, we are seeing the fruits and vegetable plants already blossoming and started bearing fruits.  

Successes:

• Zucchini - The little scallop squash (known as patty pan squash) have already started being harvested. Yogis that are here on the weekends or on the land during the week are getting to enjoy eating what becomes ripe! Pictures below

• Cucumber - Oh, do we have cucumbers! Already about 15 have been harvested, and many more to come! Yum!

• Herbs - Doing well. The basil, tulsi, and parsley are the strongest in the row, but mostly all of the herbs are doing well.

• Tomatoes - We have started getting cherry tomatoes! We have so many tomato plants, so we expect many tomatoes as the Summer continues.

• Watermelon - The fruits are growing well. 2-3 should be ready in a few weeks. We had to unexpectedly harvest our first watermelon this weekend due to a branch breaking, cutting off the melon’s supply, so as a result, we got to test it out! Sweet, but not yet fully ripe. We will let them grow bigger to allow for them to grow even sweeter as they grow larger!

• Chilies (recent additions) - doing very well!

• Watering system - The automatic water supply system is working smoothly to water the plants twice a day. 

• Weed suppression - The weeds in the garden are nearly non-existent, due to the landscape fabric we used.

• No pests aside from slugs (and an occasional Dog (Lady, the land dog!) who runs through the garden but mostly does not (!) trample the plants... phew! (Thanks, Lady!)

With these successes, there are a few challenges which we have faced since the garden began. It is a wonderful process of learning and making mistakes. We look forward to all of the lessons to learn in the days to come!.

Challenges:

• Slugs - slugs ate most of our corn and sunflower seeds and germinated seeds, so we are working to fill in those areas with other plants. The slugs were only a problem in the last two or three rows, where it is more wet. Reducing the amount of straw mulch helped, but we will keep working as the last few rows are the most topologically depressed, and may need help to drain out a bit more. We are still observing this area for the moment. We will take any needed steps when we are sure of the problem, and the solution!

• Some seeds did not germinate (spinach, etc.), and some didn’t transplant well (fennel) - Immediately after our planting weekend, we were hit with a heatwave in Canajoharie. And it just so happened that the batteries on the watering timer died during the beginning of the heatwave, too! This likely contributed to the seeds that did not ultimately germinate. We are filling in those empty areas with other plants. We aren’t following our initial garden plan, but are learning a lot regarding what that thrives in this garden. This will also help us to plan better and better in the coming years.

Recent work:

With collective efforts in the last couple of work weekends, the following tasks have been completed:

• Kept the cucumbers and watermelon “in Line” (making sure they stay in their rows by moving arms to stay in their respective rows)

• A little weeding (negligible) - weeds are not a big problem due to the landscape fabric.

• Transplanted corn and sunflowers in order to group the same plants together (neither corn or sunflower transplant well, so some transplants did well, some didn’t, as expected)

• Added more plants to fill in the existing spaces where some plants died/didn’t take to transplanting well/didn’t germinate. We have added a few more flowers (hibiscus, salvia, echinacea, bee balm, speedwell,  more sunflowers, and other wildflowers), and fruits, veggies, and herbs (cantaloupe, some spicy chili plants, tomatoes, lemongrass, bell peppers, ornamental oregano). 

• The perimeter of the garden was trimmed in order to prepare for the fence installation this week.

Upcoming work:

We still have gaps in the garden due to unsuccessful germination and/or transplantation. To fill them and fill the garden, we are planning to continue to add more in the following plant categories —

• Some local medicinal herbs - planting them in the garden will educate us to identify them and know their benefits. 

• Local wildflowers - We have a variety of beautiful flowers around the land. We are planning to transplant them in the garden to attract more pollinators, which we need for the successful fertilization of the vegetable flowers! Some of these flowering plants are perennials (they will return next year). 

• More vegetables (yum!)

• More beautiful flowers, to have blooms all season long, to attract pollinators, and raise cut flowers. We are looking primarily for perennial flowers to help establish an ongoing cut flower garden as part of the Grow Garden.

• Wood garden name stakes are ready to be painted so plants can be clearly identified from a distance. Paint and brushes are waiting to be used!

• Signs to be designed to post along the fence exterior to provide an accurate map of the completed garden, answers to FAQ about the Canajoharie Grow Garden, and more.

• The contractors (Amish) are scheduled to install the fence this week (week of July 23rd)

Please let us know if you have any suggestions on any aspect of the garden or plants or flowers etc. We would be happy to incorporate any creative ideas that you may have! And do come to Canajoharie to help our collective garden grow! Sign up to volunteer at www.nirmalnagariusa.com, and keep track of what's happening in the Grow Garden at https://nirmalnagari.wixsite.com/growforcanajoharie

!! Jai Shri Mataji !!