Christ Church Garden

What Up With That

texashillcountrygarden — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:57:08 +0000

What has been -

Green bean harvest! We have had three consecutive weeks of big bushels of green beans harvested. I keep forgetting to get pictures of them to post here, but trust me, they look like green beans and there are a lot of them.

The green bean plants are a bush variety that I forget the name of, but I think I remember that they were a Burpee’s proprietary variety. Whatever their name, they were bred (not genetically engineered, everyone calm down!) to produce early and heavily and without regard of their own well being. When the plants were only eight inches high they were already producing beans that were six inches long. You have to be careful snapping the beans off or you’ll uproot the entire plant, which, only thinking of making your beans, never bothered to put down a big root system either. I’ve never seen naught like it.

Also, tomatoes are up and making fruit. None is red, yet. But we have faith, to go with our works.

And praise God for the rain! Wonderful stuff, that.

What is Yet to Be -

The awesome (it’s a core value!) McAlister / Chilton small group is coming out this Saturday to work and will be doing some or all of the following -

pray! for those we serve, for those who serve, in thanks (also feel free to add any other prayers as they feel led. We are that kind of laid back group at the garden)
harvesting green beans
maybe start the harvesting of tomatoes (any that are better than 1/2 red)
run soaker hoses (two, now. Thanks, Seth!)
hand water the melon seedlings around the fence
weed! – the bermuda grass and tree shoots and assorted what-not are out in force. They must be dealt with.
fertilize with the water soluble fertilizer on all plants
The garden as it looked last Saturday.

What Up With That – April 15th 2013 edition

texashillcountrygarden — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:48:17 +0000

The garden is growing well. We have tomatoes going strong, green beans blooming and cucumber seedlings coming up. No sign of watermelon or musk melon seedlings, but the garden is good at teaching faith and patience. Ok, less garden metaphor and more pictures -

Cucumber Seedlings, with Seth Henry’s irrigation system

‘maters, with sign

The garden as it looks this week. Please note the new beds outside the west fence.

1st green bean of the year!

As requested by

all who read it, no haiku

today. Oh. Sorry.

Upcoming Event at the main Genesis Garden site with the whole GG Gang!

texashillcountrygarden — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:59:04 +0000

On Saturday April 20th, we, the gardeners of Christ Church, are invited to join Steven Hebbard and the main Genesis Garden crew at a work day in their garden.

It will be an awesome (that is a core value of ours, right? Right!) morning of prayer, work and fellowship with and for the Lord.

This is how it will go, per Mr. Hebbard -

The event will start for the prayer service at 7:30am sharp, at 5800 Johnny Morris Rd 78724. After the prayer service, around 8am, we’ll be launching into the various work teams at the various locations. The only two locations people will be at that day are the Model Park and the Village property. The Village is at 9301 Hog Eye Rd 78724.

The work teams will break down and join us for the First Fruits brunch around 11 at the Model Park. The day will be over around 12 or 12:30 at latest (though I’m sure some will need to leave early, we’re hoping to encourage as many as possible to come and join us through the end of the Brunch. The Brunch is a gift event. That means, no cost except the gift of oneself! But… if someone, from the storehouses of their heart, wants to bring a brunch item, such as fruit, or something for the breakfast tacos, let Heidi know and we’ll refrain from providing that.

Also, it would be especially awesome if anyone from Christ Church who wants to come signs up for a team at the following GivePulse link: https://www.givepulse.com/group/153-Genesis-Gardens-A-Program-of-Mobile-Loaves-Fishes

What Up With That – April 11th 2013 edition

texashillcountrygarden — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:48:58 +0000

The Gorman group was out and accomplished all of their task, as we all knew they would, as they are awesome. There is a rumor of garden pictures from them to be posted here soon. Including one photograph of a very striking earthworm. We can all look forward to that.

This week in the garden will just be light maintenance as needed. If anyone would like to join me there, email me and we can work out a time. Probably 9 or 10 am or so.

I promised (threatened) some added ridiculousness, so, a haiku -

it Has; recEntly

rained here in, our, Fair city -

we are thankful !YeS!

(please note random capitalization, incorrect punctuation. This is art, people.)

What Up With That – mid spring edition

texashillcountrygarden — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:39:01 +0000

I keep waiting to post until I can up load all the garden photos / write an exhaustive history of what the garden has been up to, but that has not been happening. So how about a whirlwind mid spring update -

the winter veg is gone! It was awesome (a core value, mind you) but it had given it’s all and the youth group ripped it out to make room for …
Spring planting! – bush green beans are in and up (including in three new beds on the west side of the fence started by the McAlisters and finished by the youth). Also, tomatoes are in now, too. Small cherry / plum variety only this year. Easier to grow, more of the them, easier to beat the birds to harvest, better for out of hand eating. Just better, then. Thanks to the Mazuelos for giving us a natural gardener gift card to use to buy our spring plants.
Seth Henry replaced our sagging drip system that was wont to blow apart at inopportune times with a soaker hose system of his own design. Just to let you know, Seth, we are all counting on you.
The garden is mulched. Thanks to the Mays’ son for getting the good people of his neighborhood to donate mulch to us as part of his boy scout fundraiser!
The Whip In is still the place to be while you wait for the garden to be well soaked.

The Gorman Group will be out this Saturday. No doubt they will accomplish their entire to-do list and then some -

Fertilize with the liquid fertilizer on the leaves and soil of all plants
Weed any Bermuda grass you see
Reorganize any mulch washed out by the rain
Put new twine up on the cedar post in the second tomato bed, copy the twine on metal post in the first bed
Plant cucumber seeds in the empty bed and in among the green bean plants (move the mulch and leave the soil exposed about 2 inches around where you plant the seeds)
Plant alternating watermelon and cantaloupe (musk melon) seeds along the entire fence (outside, but directly adjacent to the fence) We’ve already prepped the soil some there but add some of the granular fertilizer (white bag) and greensand (black bag) then till some more around each planting – about two/three seeds every two feet
Pray!
No watering, that garden was taken care of by actual rain this week!

That is all for now. Maybe pictures or an essay or haiku or two later or next week. Let us all hope so.

What Up With That – February 12th 2013 Edition

texashillcountrygarden — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:03:57 +0000

What has been -

Sorry, I’ve been busy (and lazy. What a dreadful combination) and this is a two week update -

I went out with the family and ran the drip and made a harvest the past two weeks. Special thanks (again, always) to Seth Henry for taking the harvest to MLF.

The garden continues to rock along but we are almost done with our fall / winter season.

What is yet to be -

The youth group is coming out this Saturday afternoon! Yes!

I am going to put them to work pulling out all of our winter plantings. I think we are going to try to sneak in a crop of beets that we will then pickle and can with the MLF genesis gardens team. Maybe a big canning party! More on that to come as the plans are solidified.

What Up With That – January 22nd 2013 edition

texashillcountrygarden — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:41:47 +0000

What Has Been -

As promised, the D/M group was out and was awesome. They reported a big harvest, including one of the purple cauliflowers. Purple cauliflower? Crazy stuff, kids, crazy stuff.

They did not photograph much besides this shot of the snap peas -

They noted that the peas were kind of going crazy and pulling each other down. Maybe their time has passed? I am debating leaving them in until spring planting (tomatoes, cucumbers, et al) as a cover crop, even if they are done producing peas. My question is, as always, is that the best use of the space? Are they still fixing nitrogen (you have to love those legumes!) even as they play out? These are questions I should pose to Steven Hebbard. I’ll let everyone know his ruling on the question.

What is yet to be -

This weekend Seth Henry and I will meet up and work the garden in the morning and then, after making sure the Whip In is still in good form, we will be playing pitch and put at Butler Park. I can not say enough good things about Butler Park. Centrally located, laid back, well manicured greens. OK, the last one is not true. But if you haven’t played there you should. Also, if you think golf course reviews are out of the purview of a church garden blog, think again. Butler Park slips in under “generalized awesomeness”.

In short, if you would like to, please join me and Seth at the garden, or the course, or both this Saturday.

What Up With That January 16th 2013 edition

texashillcountrygarden — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:02:26 +0000

A brief update -

I went by the garden and harvested. It was a good harvest -

Doesn’t that look good? If you are confused, let me assure you, yes, it does look good.

I didn’t water because it rained a ton over the last week, praise God! We love rain!

What is yet to be -

The Denning / McAlisters will be the first group to work the garden this spring when they come out this Saturday. I may have already mentioned it, but it bears repeating – they are awesome (a core value of the garden). They come out and serve and bond and bless. Jealous? You needn’t be. You can come out and be awesome, too. Check out the spring schedule, pick a day, let me know, come and let the awesome flow.

What Up With That – Happy New Year Edition

texashillcountrygarden — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 19:06:22 +0000

Now is a time to look back on last year’s highs and lows, and to look forward to this year’s plans, right?

No? I’m too late for that? Thank goodness, I hate those gushy end of year wrap-ups. We just did that, do we have to re-live it already? How nostalgic are you?!

Maybe I go too far. It’s good to look back at where you’ve been. This year, the garden went from an idea to a groundbreaking to actually producing vegetables for the homeless of Austin. Right on!

What’s up for this year? Hopefully more of the same. Community building, food producing, good-work doing garden love. Who can’t get behind that?

Here are some pictures of the garden and it’s bounty from this past month -

Spring Garden Volunteer Schedule!

texashillcountrygarden — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 18:44:22 +0000

Yes! It is that time. Sign up your small group, your family, your ladies auxiliary, your mens auxiliary (what, you thought that only women could auxiliaryize? Men can, too. It is 2013, get with it!) – it is Spring garden schedule time!

As you can see, we are pretty open, so come out and do some good, or even awesome, with your chosen people.

January 12th
January 19th - Denning / McAlister
January 26th - Henry and Evans (to be followed by pitch and put)
February 2nd
February 9th
February 16th - Youth Group
February 23rd - Denning / McAlister
March 2nd
March 9th – Nehme / Stumberg
March 16th
March 23rd
March 30th – McAlister
April 6th - Gorman
April 13th
April 20th
April 27th
May 4th
May 11th
May 18th