Garden Update: June

We can’t help but pat ourselves on the back. Mother nature played a small role, as well as this most recent heat wave, but mostly we succeeded! This past week we pulled in a great harvest of kale (an additional 6 lbs, which doesn’t sound like much but it looks like a lot) and 2 pounds of peas, both of the English and Snap variety. Every week we harvest more vegetables, it is a reaffirmation of all the hard work gardening is. Though our garden’s addition to our monthly intake of food seems negligible (Urban Gleaners rescues nearly 45,000 lbs each month), growing healthy food as a supplement to our gleaned food is rewarding. We hope that our Field of Greens garden will eventually expand into an educational program that encourages children (especially those of food insecure families) to fall in love with growing their own food. If gleaning is a “powerful weapon in the fight against hunger” as we often claim at the Urban Gleaners office, then so is farming! Every child should be equipped with this hunger-fighting tool in their tool belt.

Although we can wax poetic endlessly on our garden successes, we’ve had to admit defeat in one of our planter beds. Nothing turned up except a healthy and robust crop of weeds. During a 3-hour work party we weeded, tilled and turned this last bed in a reckless attempt to fit one more crop in for summer harvesting. We planted Pattypan Squash and Heirloom Round Zucchini; both varieties are guaranteed big producers. When has a melon or squash plant ever failed you?

But most importantly, we have more pictures. The garden is starting to look as good as the food it produces tastes. Enjoy this feast for your eyes!

– Fact: Every time you throw away an apple you are also wasting 70 litres of water –