Vallejo People's Garden 

Tico, Chon, and Doug working on shortening the height of the pergola. The pergola area will be our outdoor classroom. It will be nice to have a shade structure in this area. It gets so HOT in the garden and there's no place to hide from the heat of the sun. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait for the pergola to be complete as VPG doesn't have the funds to purchase the roof of the pergola :-( When we were cutting down the snap peas, we found A LOT of aphids. We also found a lot of ladybugs. According to the National Geographic : 'Most ladybugs voraciously consume plant-eating insects, such as aphids, and in doing so they help to protect crops. Ladybugs lay hundreds of eggs in the colonies of aphids and other plant-eating pests. When they hatch, the ladybug larvae immediately begin to feed. By the end of its three-to-six-week life, a ladybug may eat some 5,000 aphids'. WOW. No wonder there were a lot of ladybugs in the bed of snap peas. Stacy and her daughter Kinse

Come on by Saturday, May 28 from 9am-12noon and help us install the last irrigation pieces to our raised beds. Bring your hat, gloves and water bottle. For more information, contact VPG @ (707) 733-3874.

Julio installing the sink at the Vallejo People's Garden! YAY Julio! New volunteers at VPG: Charlie and Rachel, here watering the citrus trees. New volunteer Harry McCray deep in the compost bin. Good way to step in at the Vallejo People's Garden Harry! Dennis getting a good workout unloading compost. Tom unearthing and discovering purple potatoes in one of our beds! Our first purple potato at VPG! Rachel with a frog she found at the Vallejo People's Garden.

Friday morning, May 20, I went to the garden to open the shed for Julio Orantes who reported for his community service volunteer work. At the lone bench located on the Oscar Street side, I saw a woman in deep conversation with a young girl. Initially, I thought it was Tessie with one of her wards. The woman waved at me and said," Hi, Elvie, it's me. I hope you don't mind me escaping to the garden for some quiet time with my student." The woman was Margaret Clark, Principal at Mare Island Elementary School, who was trying to calm a student by taking her away from the classroom to the garden for some quiet conversation. I said, "Go ahead, take your time, this is what the garden is for." The sight of Margaret with her student having some quiet time in the garden is beautiful to me. It proves that VPG can be a place for healing and refuge. Too bad I did not have a camera to record that magic moment. But I am sure everything worked well with

Here's a big THANK YOU to Charlie Hildebrand and Steven Lu for helping us set up our website! At left is Charlie and Steven with the nine lbs of organic produce donated to the Christian Help Center.

Though it was cold and a little wet this morning, the Garden Tour was a success. We had a lot of new visitors to the garden and we even sold one of our wine barrels. YAY! Pictured here is Amanda and Tom with one of our wine barrels up for sale. On another note. Welcome back Dennis! Dennis recently returned from vacationing in Greece for a month. Thanks to Dennis, Curtis, Russell, Tom, and Tom (pictured above) for loading compost to several of our beds! WHEW!

The Community of Gardens Tour is this Sunday, May 15th from 10am-3pm. One of the stops is the Vallejo People's Garden. Garden Tour tickets are available at the Vallejo Museum (734 Marin St.) or at Zoey June Gift & Garden (1426 Tennessee St.). Don't miss this great event! Or stop by our community garden to volunteer. Bring your gloves, sturdy shoes, and shovel to help us add compost to a few of the raised beds.

Enjoy the outdoors? Enjoy working with volunteers who are like-minded and want to serve the community? Want to become part of the VPG Board and contribute to its future success and sustainability? Any and All are welcome to attend the upcoming Vallejo People's Garden Board meeting! When: this Sunday, May 8th, 2011 @ 5pm Where: at the Success Center (located on Azuar near the Elementary School) *if weather permits, the meeting will be held at the garden, behind the Success Center. *if it rains, the meeting will be held inside the Success Center (entrance on Azuar). Please spread the word, come learn about the community's new garden, and bring your innovative ideas with you this Sunday! There will be food, friends, and fun discussion of the future plans for the community garden.

Everyone welcome!  We'll be transplanting squashes and melons, moving mulch, and planting more starts. Bring your gloves, hat, and water bottle. Moschetti Espresso is once again providing their amazing coffee free to volunteers!