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The “New Normal…
Today’s Seattle Times had an interesting article by Janet I. Tu, “‘New normal’ Food banks much busier, despite better economy” that talks about the increasing number of visits to local food banks. While a lot of people think the economy has mostly recovered during last few years, this article provides some alarming statistics including: “In the Seattle area, some food banks are getting more visits now than they did during the recession. At the 27 food pantries in the Seattle Food Committee coalition, the number of visits (including delivery of food to homes) went up from 928,656 in 2007 to 1.1 million in 2009 and to nearly 1.4 million last…
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El Nino and planting fall/winter crops
After this unusually warm summer, my gardening partners at our Giving Garden plot have been wondering how long the warm weather is going to last. While I usually plant a crop of lettuces, chard, kale and collards for the fall, I haven’t had much success growing year round. This year might be different though thanks to El Nino! Cliff Mass, noted local meteorologist gives more information about the weather potentially coming up this fall and winter in a mynorthwest.com article: Experts predicting warmer fall, winter for Western Washington If indeed we experience a warmer fall/winter, what are you planting as your late season crops? Do you have any suggestions for…
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Planting quantity verse harvest quantity
Ever wonder how much produce your plot will produce when you plant seeds or seedlings? Diane Brooks from Delridge Giving Gardens sent us the results from their garden last year. Here’s some numbers from Delridge P-Patch Giving Garden that might help new gardens understand what they can expect from their plantings. The list is the plant, start or seed quantity = pounds harvested. For example, for 16 tomato plants, they harvested 58 pounds of fruit Plant # of plants or seeds quantity Pounds harvested tomato 16 plants = 58 pounds hot pepper 16 plants = 6 1/2 pounds beets 60 plants = 8 pounds zukes 3 plants 95 pounds Patty…
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SGGN Sprouts – Learn about our greenhouses!
Each February, community volunteers refresh their seed-sowing skills and begin planting lettuces, kales, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetable varieties that grow well in Seattle. As successions of seeds are sown in the greenhouses, winter blankets of burlap and leaves are removed from Giving Gardens in the city’s P-Patches. Starts continue to leave the greenhouse through late May and are distributed to waiting Giving Gardens across Seattle. The seedlings help extend the growing season and increase harvests, allowing more produce to be donated to food banks, shelters, and meal programs. Vegetable varieties are tailored to food bank requests and ensure that different cultural communities receive familiar and favorite foods. We…
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P-Patches in Seattle