Back to work

Could it really be time to start gardening again?  How time flies.  Potatoes growing, beans and corn planted, and individual gardens are being started.  We are all looking forward to another great year for HUG!

Seasons Change

Well, it has been a fruitful and vegetableful summer.  HUG was greatly blessed and was able to bless others with the bounty.  FCC estimated 2000 people through their food pantry benefited from the HUG garden contributions.  As we take a break from gardening, we will be thinking about next year.   Thanks to all who made donations, helped and prayed for the garden.    Great job everyone!

Getting the word out

Harvest is in full swing so I think it is time to go public with some information.  If you haven’t been praying for the HUG group and the crops, now is the time to start.  If you have been praying, thank you.  God has truly blessed this project in many amazing ways.  The word is getting out.  We’ve even received donations from other states.   God is good!!!!   We specifically need prayer to keep the animals out of the crops.  The word has gotten out there as well.  Racoons are reaking havok on the garden.  Pray for protection for all those helping with the HUG project.  Also pray for Jeff and Jamei Boyer as they follow God’s leading to guide the HUG activities. 

Let me know if you have been blessed by HUG.  I would love to start posting testimonies from people involved or affected by HUG.  You can add a comment or send them to harvestunitygardens@yahoo.com

If you have a graden at home and have used all you need and don’t know what to do with the extra, we would be happy to help in anyway we can.  We make regular deliveries to FCDC and Open Door to make produce available to those who need it.  Please contact us at the information below. 

We can also make produce available to you if you are in need of that.  Please feel free to contact us at harvestunitygardens@yahoo.com or you can phone the First Brethren Church at 574-773-4252.

Available for you

HUG has a pressure canner available for your use.  Please see HUG Pressure Canner Checkout Proceedures for more information

Harvest is in full swing.

Thank you for being so patient.  Harvest is coming in full swing.  Here is a schedule and proceedure for harvesting beans in the garden.  Please click on the link to view.  As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contaft me at harvestunitygardens@yahoo.com

 

Harvest Schedule

Exciting Week

It has been a busy week for the HUG crew.  On Tuesday we were picking beans again.  (I’m sure this will sound old by the time the season is over).   No 3 hour marathon this time.  I think we were done in an hour.  Many hands make light work.  Thanks to all who joined in.  What a fun time we had.  Pastor Tom graced us with his presence and some very exciting news.  We will receive a grant from the Brethren Church to buy some much needed equipment and to carry on the HUG program.  Yeah God again!!  Here’s Tom with Jeff and Jamei signaling “Thumbs up!”.  We also had a reporter from The Paper join us so keep an eye out.

We will be picking beans again Thursday morning at 9 am.  If you are interested you can contact me at harvestunitygardens@yahoo.com 

 

We were able to deliver our first batch of fresh produce to the Family Christian Development Center.  Here’s that dedicated crew getting ready to receive the many people that are blessed by the food pantry at FCDC.  We look forward to giving a lot more work to Arveta (see her there on the left?).  I love those ladies (men too) over at FCDC what a heart and dedication they have.  Plus those ladies just crack me up. 

My daughter Bailey (pictured here with Diane) and I had a most enjoyable visit with Diane Martindale.  Here she is donating a huge bucket of fresh picked zucchini to HUG.  Aren’t they gorgeous!  We will be delivering these to some very excited folks this week.  Thanks Diane.  And what a great looking garden she has.  If you have extra produce and don’t know what to do with it, put a comment on this sight or send me a message at harvestunitygardens@yahoo.com 

First Harvest

 

 

Well, we had our first harvest on Tuesday June 30th.  We had a fabulous cool morning for the 3 hour bean picking marathon.  Here we are in the middle of the field picking those beans.  It is hard work but well worth it when you see the fruits (or vegetables) of your labor.   

 

                                                                           

 Some of the harvest was delivered to people in our church while the majority was intended to give to the Family Christian Development Center, however, they were closed for a much needed and deserved vacation.  We did some scrambling, made phone calls and literally tracked people down until we found Jennifer and her daughter from the Grace Point Church here in Nappanee to hand over this large and heavy box of farm fresh picked green beans.  They used them for their weekly Tuesday night dinner for the unemployed and underemployed.  God directed all of this (as if I thought he didn’t )because they planned to have green beans that night.  Yeah God!!!!  Our next harvest opportunity if weather permits will be Monday July 6th in the late afternoon or evening.  If you are interested in helping out please send an e-mail to harvestunitygardens@yahoo.comwith your contact information, perferably an e-mail if available and I will send you more details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress

We humans may not be enjoying this warm, humid weather, but the plants sure are.  Here are some pictures of progress.  HUG Garden Progress

Extending the Life of Your Garden

A Long Producing Vegetable Garden

Extend Your Vegetable Growing Season with Minimal Effort

By Marie Iannotti, About.com

It’s easy to become complacent when your vegetable garden first starts producing in early summer. But to get the most out of your vegetable garden, plan on harvesting into the fall or even the winter, where weather permits.

Keeping your vegetable plants healthy is the first key to a long producing vegetable garden. But even the healthiest vegetable plants will finally exhaust themselves setting fruits and will need replacing. With a little planning, you can easily keep your vegetable garden producing in succession.

Here are some simple, but key factors for a long producing vegetable garden and maybe even a whole new fall vegetable garden.

1. Keep Picking Don’t give up and leave those over ripened zucchini on the vines. Once a plants fruits have gone to seed, it thinks it is done for the season and begins to decline. Many plants, like squash, beans, peppers and eggplant, will stop producing new vegetables if the existing veggies are left on the plants to fully ripen. 
2. Water Regularly Vegetables don’t just need water, they need regular, consistent watering. Irregular watering results in diseases like blossom end rot, in cracking and can often make the vegetables bitter tasting. Allowing plants to dry out will stress the plant and cause it to stop producing and to drop whatever blossoms it already has. 
3. Control Insects & Diseases Stop problems while they are small. Plants can defoliate from fungus diseases and a plant with no leaves is not going to produce fruit. 
4. Feed Lightly You’ve asked a lot from your vegetable plants and they could use a little food by mid-summer, no matter how rich your soil is. But feed them lightly, especially with nitrogen. Too much nitrogen will encourage a lot of leaf growth and inhibit fruit production. 
5. Let the Sun Shine In Make sure the vegetables are getting enough sunlight. Sometimes by the middle of summer, there is so much foliage that the sunlight can’t get through. Most vegetables ripen faster in sunlight and produce tastier fruits. Vegetables that languish in the shade of leaves are more susceptible to insects and diseases. 
6. Weed It’s easy to let things slide toward the end of summer, but weeds will compete with your vegetable plants for water and nutrients, just when they need it most. 
7. Succession Planting Planting crops at intervals will renew your garden by having new plants ready to take over for spent plants. Beans, radishes and lettuce can be seeded every two weeks, for an almost endless supply. Seedlings of early maturing tomatoes can be planted to replace plants that are on their last legs. 
8. Fall Planting The cooler weather and shorter days of fall make it a more ideal planting season than spring, as long as an early frost doesn’t spoil everything. Peas, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and greens can all be planted in July and August for harvest in September and October. In milder areas, harvesting can extend into winter.When seeding in late summer, plant your seeds a little deeper than you would in the spring, to take advantage of cooler soil and moisture. Shading the newly planted seeds and seedlings will help protect them from the summer sun. Mulch, row covers and taller plants, like your mature tomatoes, can be used for this.

    

9. Extend the season Cool nighttime temperatures send a signal to many plants to stop producing new fruits. If cool temperatures or a frost are inevitable, cover your crops with floating row covers. These light-weight woven fabric allow light and water to come through, but raise the temperature slightly. If your crops need to be fertilized by insects, the row covers should come off during the day. 
10. Share the Bounty With any luck and a bit of work, you’ll probably have more vegetables than you can use (or drop off on your neighbor’s porch when they’re not looking). Why not consider contributing the extras to a local food bank or a program sponsored by Plant a Row for the Hungry (PAR). PAR is a grassroots program sponsored by the Garden Writers Association, that encourages gardeners to donate their surplus garden produce to local food banks, soup kitchens and service organizations to help feed America’s hungry. There are over 70 million gardeners in the United States alone. That’s a lot of cabbage.

Up and running

The new Harvest Unity Gardens BLOG is up and walking (not quite running yet).  Stay tuned for updates, tips and how you can help.