New Eden Community Garden

Cob/Clay Oven Workshop Starts Friday June 25. One and Two day Options Now Available.

Garden GAL — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 13:05:43 +0000

A one day option for the Earth Oven workshop is being offered in response
to requests from people who would like to learn about natural building
techniques, but don’t have the time to attend a three-day event.

Saturday and Sunday will both be great days to join in the fun of mixing
cob from clay, straw and sand. You’ll learn about basic construction,
sourcing local materials, firing and baking techniques and the joy of
engaging with others in a rare and earthy experience!

Please understand that a one day session will provide a good introduction
to cob construction. It will not teach the complete oven building process.
Some might find that a combination of Saturday and Sunday would offer the
best overall experience.

Each one day option includes lunch and beverages during the day. The cost
for a single day is $75.

To register for the one day option, click this link

http://www.mktix.com/mktixrun/shared/mknporun?dir=mvarts.MKT-902.MKT-902&page=mkeventlistfrm.jsp&DisplayType=detail&Parent=NEC-E17224

Below is the full description for the 3 day workshop:

Build an Earth/Cob Oven in Newbury,
June 25, 26 & 27,
9AM – 4 PM
Fee: Sliding scale $175 to $ 350 Preregistration required. Go to www.newedengarden.org/workshops to register. For more info call Erin at [masked].

Come up to to New Eden Community Gardens of First Parish Church and learn from Jonah Vitale-Wolff of Hudson Valley Natural Building on how to build a beautiful and durable earth oven using natural, native materials. Earth ovens, also known as cob ovens, have been used for centuries in outdoor settings to bake bread, pizza, meats, beans, pastries and more. These ovens are a wonderful gathering point for outdoor events!

This workshop is appropriate for homeowners, community organizers, artists, landscapers, masons and builders. All skill levels welcome!
After Saturday’s workshop, participants are welcome to stay for one of New Eden’s wicked fun garden parties.
The First Parish Church is located at 20 High Road in Newbury . We are near the Newburyport train station and transportation from the train is available upon request. Go to the workshops page on this site to preregister at Meerkat Tickets. If you are choosing the one or two day option contact Erin and erinstack@comcast.net

Biointensive Workshop Saturday, May 22nd Shitaki Mushroom Cultivation Saturday May, 15th

Garden GAL — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:25:25 +0000

Intro to Biointensive Growing at New Eden Collaborative of First Parish Church
Saturday May 22, 10 AM –Noon Preregistration: $16, fee $18 Day of event.
This workshop will introduce you to a system of gardening that can produce
high yields in small areas using a method that draws on French Intensive
systems and a bit of Biodynamic methods.

This hands-on experience will teach you:
How to prepare a planting bed
What nutrients to add to the soil from local sources
Heirloom vegetables choices
Companion plants for small plots
We will also do an earthworm census and a simple test to determine soil
composition.

Youths from age 12 are welcome with an adult companion.

Call Charlotte Dion for confirmation- (978) 290-2225

“No Till” Double Dig and Sheet Mulch Rescheduled to Saturday, May 1

Garden GAL — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:27:29 +0000

Due to the nasty weather this weekend, Charlotte Dion’s Double Dig and Sheet Mulch workshops are rescheduled to Saturday, May 1st. Now those who could not make it this weekend will have a chance to participate in these exciting workshops on the “no till” approach to organic gardening. During this workshop participants will perform a simple soil test for nutrients and another test for soil composition. Join in on an earthworm census which will provide lots of insight into the basic soil health.

Chicken Wisdom

m_cluck — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:16:41 +0000

The girls are growing up and boy are they cute. As the guests of honor at the work party they were a huge attraction. The time is coming for us to distribute shares of the chicken co-op. Please go to our Poultry page above and download our chicken covenant if you are interested.

Also join us for some chicken wisdom on April 20th, when we welcome John Dodge of Dodge’s Agway in New Hampshire, for a Raising Poultry workshop in Holton Hall from 6:30-8:30. (This workshop will be free of charge.) Folks who have filled out the covenant should come at 6:00pm. You are required to attend this meeting (or have someone responsible go in your honor) if you wish to be considered for the co-op. After the lecture we will have a lottery drawing to see what lucky people get to have a share this first year!

For now please enjoy the latest pictures of the girls. I am sorry I didn’t get these up sooner!

New Eden’s Spring Workshops Series begin April 17th

Garden GAL — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:34:27 +0000

New Eden’s Spring Workshops are here!

We are very excited about our upcoming Spring workshop series. In addition to our tried and true organic gardening classes through NOFA and our own Green Artist and NOFA certified instructor Deb Cinamon Whalen, we now have more specialized classes in organic gardening. We also have a series of workshops on raising chickens, growing mushrooms, and a 3-day workshop on building a clay bread oven with guest instructor Jonah Vitale-Wolff of Hudson Valley Natural Builders. New this year, is our on-line registration through Meerkat Tickets. Register Online or go to Workshop Page

Please note that Sheet Mulch and Double Dig workshops have been postponed until May 1st rain date.

Opening Work Party and Potluck – Was a Blast

Garden GAL — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:05:07 +0000

Saturday’s record turn out for a New Eden work party was an auspicious start to New Eden’s 2010 growing season! The weather was glorious and everybody was in goods spirits as we started the beginning of new friendships and reconnected with old garden buddies. More than 30 gardeners and their families showed up to build our wood chip paths, tighten the garden fences, hook up the hoses, and refurbish our compost piles. We got a lot of work done. Thanks to the efforts of Barbara V. and the donation of wood chips from Hatheway Landscaping, we have made a great start to creating beautiful paths through out the garden. Thank you JT for putting our compost in order.

The girls getting to know each other.

Our New Eden chicks were the guests of honor on their first foray outside. They seemed to have enjoyed themselves. I know that the young and the young at heart enjoyed playing with them.

My Beneficial Garden Bug

m_cluck — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:24:07 +0000

30 degrees and sunny. A perfect day to double dig 4 beautiful beds. Brian, Jake and I got a late start, but began digging around 9am. Jake got exceptionally dirty and despite my efforts ate his first fistfuls of grass. Trench after trench, our bodies are aching today, but it feels great to have accomplished so much. A bit behind schedule, I’ll be dropping seeds in my flats tomorrow. It may have taken all day but the results will be worth it. Here are some step by step photos of our double dig journey. I didn’t take a final photo because it was dark when we left. – Ah, digging by headlight!

Time to Start Those Indoor Seedlings

Garden GAL — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 04:42:32 +0000

As temperatures dip tonight to fifteen degrees its a pleasure to look at all my little seedlings waiting patiently for last week’s

Pressing seed blocker into moistened seed starting mix.

tease of balmy weather to be more consistent. Different vegetables thrive under different growing conditions. Most members of the cabbage (Brassicaceae) family are cool weather crops and need to be multi-leaved young plants when they are set out in mid April. Broccoli and Cabbage should be started indoor as early as 12 weeks before our average last frost date of May 15 so they have enough time to come to maturity before the hot weather arrives and they become toast. Many of the veggie members of the Nightshade or Tobacco family (Solanaceae) such as peppers, eggplants and tomatoes are tender, warm weather vegetables that require a longer growing season than our New England climate can provide. Time is running out for starting pepper and eggplant seedlings as require a 9 week head start when they are planted around Memorial Day. The time for planting tomato seeds is around April 1.

Putting pressure on the seed block compresses the soil into 2" square soil cubes.

This year at New Eden, we invested in a couple of soil blockers to make our own dirt seed blocks. I used some left over seed starting mix and they held together quite well until I left a few out in last weeks deluge .

Charlotte Dion, our Permaculture expert and all around garden mentor, recommends Eliot Coleman’s ( 4 Season Gardening) seed starting mix:

Mix together

2 10-quart buckets of sustainable peat or choir, 1/2 cup lime, and 2 cups of azomite (mineral rich, volcanic ash).

Add

2 10-quart buckets of sand, 2 more buckets of peat or choir, 1 cup of phosphate, 1 cup of greensand, 1 cup of bloodsandmeal and 1 more cup of azomite.

Mix well and add

My first soil block. See her little dimple for placing the seed? Isn't she cute?

1 10-quart bucket of compost and 1 bucket of soil and mix again. Add water until soggy and start making blocks.

This sounds like an amazing formula for uber seedlings. I’m going to try this next year.

While the brassicas like cooler temperatures to germinate like the 50’s and 60’s. Peppers and Eggplants like it warm into the higher 70’s and 80’s. To get the warmer tempatures I put my nightshades by the furnace and cover them in a plastic bag so they do not dry out. Keeping seeds in plastic till they sprout is one way to make sure they stay evenly moist. Make sure you look at them daily as seeds will sprout more quickly in room tempatures and you don’t want to” keep them in the dark” once they sprout.

After the seeds have sprouted, it is best to water your seedling from below so as not to drown your tender seedlings to help avert the dreaded “damping off” fungus. Make sure that your seedlings get enough sunlight or at least 14 hours exposure via gro-lite or florescent lights at just a 6 inches above the plants to keep your seedlings from getting leggy.

Introductions!

m_cluck — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:54:11 +0000

Here are the girls… They don’t have names yet. This is a privilege we are reserving for the first term chicken co-op share holders. We hope you’ll get to know each of them and love them as we do. (I will be adding more information about each chick in time…Breed, qualities, likes, dislikes, etc…)

Aren’t they wonderful. I am in love…

-Mary

The Chickens Have Arrived!!!!

m_cluck — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:42:59 +0000

The new home. All ready for the move in!

14 baby chickens, living in an old dog crate, what could be better. Today we went and purchased 14 baby chickens from the local Agway. 3 Aruacanas, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 3 White Leg Horns, 3 Gold Comets, and 2 Barred Rocks. We should have a rainbow of eggs in just 20 short weeks.

We took care to keep the chicks warm when setting up their temporary home in Erin’s basement. An old dog crate will create the perfect, cat free environment, complete with pine shavings, chick waterer, chick feeder, and an adjustable heat lamp. (Thanks Mike!)

Soon we will begin the process of finding share holders for our chicken co-op. I will post again soon with information about how to express an interest. Until then my to do list gets longer but more exciting by the minute…A coop raising, a chicken run, a chicken tractor, and of course lets not forget our ducks! (Coming in just a few weeks.)

Keep checking in to find out more about whats to come. We will of course need share holders for the Chicken-Co-op, but we will also be offering information here, as well as formal classes for those who are interested in raising chickens in their own back yard. More Soon… cluck, cluck, beGawk! -Mary

Happy girls...first lunch in thier new digs.

Yummy!