Vallejo People's Garden 

August/September 2011 issue of Organic Gardening magazine--Guess who's on the inside cover??? Vallejo People's Garden!!! The first picture says: "Thank You Nature's Path Organics!" and the bottom two pictures were taken during our grand opening on April 30th, sponsored by Nature's Path Organics.

One of the youngest member of the Vallejo People's Garden is Kinsey. She's at the garden periodically moving small rocks, carrying 4" pots, playing in the sand, or harvesting veggies. Amanda who is one of the founding members of the Vallejo People's Garden, and who also works for the USDA Forest Service, shows us a cucumber from the first cucumber seedling planted in our community garden. The harvest of sugar snap peas, zucchini, squash, and cucumbers amounted to 20 pounds of vegetables that were harvested today--all donated to the Christian Help Center .

Here's your chance to do some artwork using gourds. According to Guns, Germs, and Steel author Jared Diamond: One of the earliest cultivated plants in many parts of the Americas was grown for nonfood purposes: the bottle gourd, used as a container. Come by on Saturday, August 6 from 9-11am at the Vallejo People's Garden located behind 1055 Azuar Drive, Mare Island, CA 94592 and see for yourself the different things you can create using gourds. Check out the video that our Workshop Video Producer, Evelyn Abston, created : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDZZizVKf5c Wear clothing you don't mind getting dirty. $10 requested donation. For more information, call (707) 733-3874.

YAY! Here's our first Harvest Sharing Program donor, Ann. She said she has a lot of lemons from the tree in her backyard, more than she knows what to do with. She donated about 10 pounds of lemons yesterday, which went to the Christian Help Center. Thanks Ann!

Last Friday was our first health and nutrition workshop conducted by Touro University intern, Lilly Dao, and Christian Help Center residents, Kerry and John. The workshop included talks on how to read a food label, the different food groups, and key health tips, such as eating lean meat, good fats, and avoiding trans or saturated fats . Touro intern, Laura Marshall, cutting up the freshly harvested cabbage from the garden. The red and green cabbages were the key ingredients used for the coleslaw we had after the workshop. Some of the nutritional values of cabbage: The Vitamin A in cabbage protects your skin and eyes, while the outer leaves of the cabbage are a great source of vitamin E, which is good for the complexion. Cabbage is also a good source of potassium, which purifies the body and skin. The Vitamin B in cabbage boosts your energy metabolism and helps your concentration. Raw cabbage supplies as much vitamin C as lemon juice. Its vitamin C helps the mitochondriae (small...

The question came up today: What is the difference between a hay bale and straw bale? According to Nick and Justin (who teaches classes in gardening at USF), hay is the part of the grain (the top portion that includes the seeds)--alfalfa, clover, wheat, etc that is used for human or animal consumption. Straw, on the other hand, is the part of the grain (bottom portion of the grain) used for animal bedding, mulch, baskets, straw bale homes, etc. Nick is holding straw on the left and hay on the right. Here's Nick applying straw as mulch to the garden beds. It's really windy where the garden is located and the weather's been HOT. Sometimes we've had to water twice a day because the beds dry out so quickly. The mulch will reduce evaporation and with the use of our drip system, both will help us save on water and reduce our water bill, which is not cheap! Yesterday, Powell Bros Feed and Pet Supply donated a bale of straw and leftover straw from their barn for our vo...

Volunteer day this Saturday, July 9 at the garden from 9am-12noon behind 1055 Azuar Drive on Mare Island. See old friends and make new ones. We'll have several tasks including planting geraniums, harvesting veggies, and adding mulch to the garden beds. Bring your hat, gloves, water bottle or coffee cup. We'll have freshly brewed coffee! For more information, call (707) 733-3874 or email us at volunteer@vallejopeoplesgarden.org

Today we had a couple of surprise visitors to the garden. Justin who teaches at the University of San Francisco in San Francisco was at the garden today with Vallejo resident James, who was giving Justin a tour of prominent gardens and other landmarks in Vallejo. For those of you not from California, Vallejo is only an hour by ferry to San Francisco or less than 30 minutes by car depending on traffic. If you're ever in town, drop us a note: info@vallejopeoplesgarden.org. We'd love to show you our garden! Pictured here are Justin, James, and Russell at our beloved garden.