Food Bank Plots

I tend three food bank plots at the community garden where I garden. My 2012 food bank plots are shown in the schematic below. Click on the image to see a larger version. The eastern most plot has only two rows. The beet starts were donated by a local nursery. The beans, potatoes, squash, pumpkins and cucumbers were all started from seed through direct seeding at the plot. The tomatoes were purchased as transplants. The sunflowers are volunteers.

Striped cucumber beetles arrived in force on June 16. There was nothing the evening of June 15, but by mid-afternoon on June 17, my pumpkins (seeded in late May) were covered with them. I dusted with diatomaceous earth, a desiccant. The infestation abated, but there are signs every day of beetle activity.

The berry patch in the eastern most row is made up of mixed strawberries collected from various locations at the garden and transplanted at the end of the 2011 growing season. The raspberries are a golden variety that were donated in 2009 by a gardener who planted them along a perimeter fence. A Himalayan blackberry eventually took over that area along the fence, not to mention grass and weeds, so I salvaged the raspberries and planted them in a garden plot. I ate a few ripe ones today.