Oak Park Community Garden, California

The first bumblebee of the season! These plump, furry docile bees are important pollinators of fruit and vegetable plants! Attract them to your parcel by planting flowers with flat, single blossoms so they can easily access the pollen. Welcome fuzzy friend!

Red dahlias, white stocks, and blue forget-me-nots from the garden. A floral remembrance for Memorial Day

Red Hot Poker (aka Torch Lily) plants are perennials which produce nectar-rich flowers on tall showy spikes that attract hummingbirds. This show-stopper is in Kate’s garden. She says that the plants multiply from year to year. Plant in the fall for spring/summer bloom.

The narrow-leaf milkweed plants at the garden are beginning to bloom. The flowers are so very unique and delicately beautiful! It’s the only plant that Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on. The caterpillars eat the leaves and the butterflies drink the nectar. Looking forward to some Monarch visits this summer!

Fava beans, also known as broad beans, are healthy to eat, good for the soil and easy to grow. Plant the seeds in the fall for an April/May harvest. The beans contain many vitamins and minerals. The plants themselves add nitrogen back into the soil, particularly if you leave the roots in after harvesting the beans. Plus the plants are attractive and low maintenance. To top it off, the bright green beans make a beautiful addition to salads and other recipes.

It seems that tomatoes are very popular at the garden. If you walk around and look at the parcels already planted for summer, you will notice that almost all of them have tomato plants. I think that these gardeners must all agree with this quote: A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.-Laurie Colwin (author) There’s nothing quite like a fresh garden-grown tomato! Everyone is looking forward to the first juicy, flavorful bite.

Jeff H.’s gardens are performing very well. He says he is harvesting a lot of carrots. His lettuce is lush and ready to pick. The tomato plants he recently planted are already setting fruit. His onions are ready to pull up. Maybe the secret to his success is that he makes his own rich compost!

The Pollinator Garden, (parcel B3, aka The Orchard), has recently gotten a facelift. A couple of struggling trees were removed, new pollinator-friendly plants were added, and a new sign was designed (thanks, Ava!) and installed. It’s looking good! Take a look the next time you are at the garden.

Mindy is hard at work weeding her parcel with her brand-new hoe. She has her special new raised bed boxes almost completely planted for summer with zucchini, strawberries, peppers and tomato plants. Looking good!

This weekend Tara, accompanied by her mom, brought a huge and healthy selection of her organically-grown-from-seed plants to the garden for us to peruse and purchase. Tara is working on her Girl Scout Gold Award focusing on sustainable gardening in the community. Today many of her plants (tomatillos, peppers, tomatoes, squashes, melons and more) found homes in our garden community. Thanks Tara!

Some surprise January color in the garden...a California golden poppy, pink and white cosmos and BJ’s bright yellow St. Patrick rose.

We are not the only community garden which has seen an increase in interest during the pandemic from people wanting to start growing their own veggies and flowers. This article (see attached link) states that even in England they have noticed this happening. The article mentions that research has confirmed what we gardeners already knew: community gardening offers a multitude of benefits, including physical exercise, stress relief, friendship, connection with nature, and a sense of tangible accomplishment. YES! Contact us if you’re interested in a parcel and being part of our community. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1255349

To start the new year, Fred added an extra level of protection from critters that are looking for free meals from his garden. He was approved to surround and cover his parcel in small-gauge (1 inch) chicken wire. It’s looking good, almost like garden chainmail , and just about finished. Won’t the critters be surprised!

Weeds are on the rise, including stinging nettles! They are sprouting up in the aisles and in some of the parcels. They are tiny right now, but we all know how quickly they will grow, especially with rain in our current forecast. Take an action hoe from the shed like Amanda, scrape it over the surface of the soil and then smooth the wood chips back. Easy-peasy! Or scuff your shoe over the mini weeds and then smooth things over. Taking care of them now means no need for backbreaking labor later on. Keep your eyes open for weeds around and in your parcel and whack them!

Olga’s borage plant, also known as starflower, is starting to bloom. The flowers are attractive to bees, and are a subtlety sweet addition to salads and a garnish for dips and drinks. The fuzzy stems and leaves are edible when steamed like chard or spinach. The plant itself is easy to grow as it reseeds itself quite readily.