Salford/Advent Garden Update, August 1

Greetings fellow gardeners, last Saturday we planted our fall plants. Cabbage, Cauliflower and Broccoli. Then this week it turned into a scorcher again. Young seedlings are very susceptible to heat. I have been watering as much as I can to keep the young plants from frying in the high heat. So far out of 630 plants we may have lost 3 so far. I will continue to water as much as I can until we get a little rain.  The planting was a big job along with harvesting. We dug up the last of our potatoes, over 160 lbs. And they are really nice. We trimmed the onions and somehow fit all that into our small cooler shed.  The onions got a little wet and we have been losing a few to spoilage. I will have to come up with better solution to dry them next year. Tomatoes are looking really nice. I have not watered them in a couple of weeks and along with no rain the splitting has all but stopped. I will eventually have to run the water at least to give their roots a wash.  Even with a good group of volunteers we were unable to finish all of what I wanted done. Just too much work to go around. We did not plant our red beets, turnips or fall string beans. I am hoping to get that done this week. The summer string beans are in full flower again, hopefully that will lead to a second harvest from these plants. Eggplant, Lima beans, Green peppers and Zucchini round out the harvest menu. You may have noticed our new pad next to the garden. This is where our new shed will be placed next week. 

Thank you to everyone who worked in the heat and humidity to get our fall planting done. August can be a hot one too, I am very thankful for the volunteers who are willing to put in the time when the heat is on!  Steve 215-872-6616 [email protected]