Raytown Community Garden

Want to grow some vegetables in Raytown?

megangrimwood — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:55:49 +0000

Hello everyone!

Starting in spring of 2011, Raytown Community Garden will be offering our raised beds to members of the community, resembling a more traditional community garden. We have two 4′x18′ and four 4′x26′ raised cedar beds. They are all about 18″ deep. Growing veggies, herbs, or flowers with us is ideal if you have limited growing space, seek more community-oriented growing, or have absolutely no idea what you are doing and need some help along the way. The cost per season is $15 for the smaller beds and $20 for the larger ones.

Raised bed, no-till gardening preserves healthy soil organisms, keeps the soil from compacting, allows for more plants in less space, drains excess moisture, and needs less weeding than traditional gardening methods. The Rice Tremonti Homestead, where the garden is located, offers a lovely and peaceful atmosphere for gardening, with lots of open green space, trees, and picnic tables. There’s even a car dealership across the street where you can catch muffled strains of 96.5 The Buzz every so often.

If you are interested in gardening with us next season, email us at raytowncommunitygarden@gmail.com

bright lights and ollas.

megangrimwood — Sat, 15 May 2010 16:58:09 +0000

we’ve made it back for another growing season! this summer we’re going to be selling produce at the downtown lee’s summit farmer’s market (or until raytown gets itself a farmer’s market). we’ve also got a few film showings and potlucks in the works, so keep your eyes/ears open for more information. in addition to the expected veggies and herbs, we’re working on a large flower bed, strawberry patch, and medicinal herb garden. and if we’re lucky, we’ll get to have a few bee hives on the plot.

also, this year we’re experimenting with ollas, or unglazed clay pots, as an irrigation method. the basic idea is to find a terracotta pot with a wide belly and a long, slim neck, and bury it with only the neck protruding out of the dirt. then, by either collecting rainwater or being routinely filled, the ollas provide deep-soil irrigation directly to the plant’s roots. because pre-made ollas are expensive to buy, we opted to make our own by gluing two standard terracotta pots together. you can find more information about ollas here and how to make them here.

Interested in joining the team?

megangrimwood — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:02:13 +0000

Hello everyone!

Raytown Community Garden is planning for next spring, and with the expanding project we’re going to need a bigger team. We’re looking for one or two people to invest some time along with us in this community project. No gardening experience is required, only an interest in sustainable living, local eating, and community. There are just a few, simple requirements:

minimum one year commitment

available one Saturday morning/afternoon a month

willing to drive to Raytown

commitment of 6-8 hours a week

Even though we will need a serious commitment, this project is fun and super laid-back. Aside from actual hands-on garden work, you’ll be a part of making decisions about the garden, helping plan events, and coordinating activities. Here are just a few benefits:

free organic veggies

learning about sustainable living and growing

opportunities to teach classes on a variety of subjects

meeting people within the local food community

learning the fundamentals of how to start and maintain a community garden

great resumé addition

If you’re interested, email us at raytowncommunitygarden@gmail.com. Thanks!

Diana, Rachel and Megan

“she’s touring the facility, and picking up slack”

megangrimwood — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:54:49 +0000

it’s been almost two months since the last blog update (bad!) and local growers and eaters are seeing and feeling the end of the summer season. for raytown community garden, we’re jotting notes of all we learned in this first year and what we’ll definitely do differently next year. for starters, we’re switching up the format of the garden. instead of being member-based, we’re shifting our emphasis to teaching classes and offering consultations to people who want to start gardens in their own yards. (we’ll have more updates on that later.)
but, as always, it’s the little things that make a difference. here are a few mistakes we made — those who are planning on starting their own gardens, take note!

1. trellis, trellis, trellis!
this year, we had neither the resources nor the foresight to plan trellising for the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash. our squash plants ended up being, well, a little too healthy, and we ended up with a squash jungle, rapidly taking over, weaving its curlicue tentacles onto the vines of our cucumbers, peeking its spiky fingers all the way to the opposite side of the garden. next year we’ll have a very special, very trellised spot reserved for our butternuts and pattypans.

2. find an efficient labeling method.
when starting your own seeds, labeling is important (understatement). we knew this, but we didn’t know that the rain would wash off the plastic labels of almost all our seedlings, leaving us to continually ask, “brussel sprout or broccoli?” while planting. trying to upgrade, we switched to popsicle sticks and permanent marker, but rain, watering, and soil eroded the wood, resulting in the same problem. with your home garden, it may not be such a huge problem — it could even be fun harvesting your mystery plants — but when trying to seed save and sell produce, knowing varieties is pretty crucial.

3. keep up with planting dates.
uh, this one seems pretty obvious. but our mantra of, “we have plenty of time to get those beet seeds in!” quickly caught up with us. make a calendar, and mark definite deadlines of what needs to be in the ground and when. organization!

pattypan & pumpkin

sweet potato plants

corn & squash

grasshopper friend

jungle+weed patch=future food forest

for a few weeks, we attempted to have a small farm stand on-site, but we didn’t have the bountiful produce or the draw to make it worthwhile to keep it up. next spring we’ll be selling produce at a farmer’s market, yet to be determined, so we’ll keep everyone updated on that.

cukes, kale, and cabbage

megangrimwood — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:33:00 +0000

It’s been over a month since we last posted pictures, and things have changed quite dramatically! We now have a vegetable-bearing jungle on our hands and it’s been pretty exciting to see the jumanji-like transformation. Thanks to Diana for the lovely photos taken at our work day last saturday.

harvest!

harvested cabbage

monster squash plants

I just got back from seeing Food Inc., a really insightful look into our national and global food system and why being in control of what we eat is so important. Essentially, it explains our motivation behind starting a project like Raytown Community Garden. If you have the time, please go see it! It’s playing at the Tivoli and the Leawood Theater.

Also, this Saturday, Raytown Community Garden will be at the Raw Bliss Fest. This is going to be big and a lot of fun. You can find more info about it here. Hope to see you there!

Cabbage Worms

rachelfracassa — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:50:24 +0000

Cute little green caterpillars are devastating our poor brassicas. We’re growing way too many to physically remove all the worms. We’re going to try some pepper spray over the next couple of day, hopefully that will work. Several permaculture sites suggest interplanting brassicas with thyme to deter the worms. We’ll be sure to try that in the fall planting!

“now that it’s june, we’ll sleep out in the garden”

megangrimwood — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:13:04 +0000

alright, so much has happened at the garden since the last post! beds are built, soil is in, and plants are growing! we still have quite a bit to do — build a compost bin, landscape the flower beds, finish mulching, and hook up the rain barrels, but things are finally coming together. we even have our first beautiful little chinese five color pepper.

first fruit!

glory of enhkuizen

lettuce!

overview

some of our first year blueberries

soon-to-be eaten

there are a few items we need as things keep popping up — check out the “things we need” tab. if you have any of those things lying around, shoot us an email! tops on the list are a garden hose (ours is now cut in half as a result of mass leaks) and tomato cages.

also, thank you to everyone who has contributed to the garden so far. stop by and see it sometime!

Support Local Growers and Sewers!

rachelfracassa — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:39:50 +0000

Aysia over at Poteest has offered to donate 20% of sales to the garden during the month of May! Check out her handmade wallets!

Fundraising Success

rachelfracassa — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:01:39 +0000

We would like to thank everyone that participated in Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge. We made over $800 at the event. With that money we’ll be able to buy soil, rain barrels, and some of the cedar. We also want to give a big thank you to Gregory Hills Church for letting us use their space at the last minute. It was perfect!

Pictures to come!

rachelfracassa — Fri, 01 May 2009 04:15:06 +0000

We’ve been hardening off the seedling the last ten days or so. I must admit, we’ve learned a lot! Our poor Brassicaceae ended up being the guinea pigs, and the results weren’t too pretty. We lost about 20 of them, mostly by killing with kindness (over-watering). We started transplanting them into bigger cups (donated by Benetti’s!) and figured since the cups were so big we wouldn’t need to poke holes in the bottom for drainage. Wrong. The cups were so deep that we couldn’t tell when to water them (or not to). In the end, we decided to harden off the rest of the seedlings in their original containers and will transplant them later if at all.