As expected, the cabbage seeds arrived last week just in time for planting. I checked the almanac, found Friday to be a great day to plant seeds so I started fifteen 48 count flats. Some will be for me and some for Southern Ground Farm where we'll start a demo/kitchen garden for the campers to enjoy. I kept a heat mat under the racks holding the seed flats and I'm happy to report the germination rates were excellent. Today I backfilled the sites where the seeds didn't germinate. I was surprised to find a lot of weeds also sprouting with the cabbage. Generally potting soils are sterilized to prevent weed seeds but there they were.  I snipped the weed seedlings so that issue is done with.
  Tomorrow, the plastic lumber posts for the water spigots will arrive so I'll be working that project. I was planning on 4x4 treated lumber but after digging the holes for the posts and seeing the standing water I opted to go with the recycled plastic 4x4 posts.
  This week the first load of soil for the renovated beds arrived and was of suspect quality. I had nightmares of that first growing season when the soil turned into a brick in the hot summer sun. So I had a serious chat with our supplier and we've come up with a recipe for a good soil mix...2 parts compost, 1 part soil and 1 part sand. Now as long as he can get us a homogenized mix we'll be in business. Certainly it will help him and us if we can get a stretch of dry weather, it will make his mixing easier and our filling beds easier.
  At the garden centers now you can find seed potatoes. I bought one package each of the 3 potato colors available for use by the fourth graders at Kedron. We won't be planting those anytime soon as it will be awhile before the soil will be warm enough to plant. I'll store the seeds potatoes in the fridge until it time to plant. Tomorrow the student growers will plant hyacinth bulbs for indoor forcing. That will give us lovely scented flowers in about 4 weeks. Tomorrow the students will also get their math lesson as we evaluate the soil test results and measure out the necessary inputs for the raised we have in the school courtyard.

   It's time to start the new year and as you read in the newsletter we use the off season to make improvements to the garden. Hard to believe we're entering our 5th growing season, congratulations to those of you that have been with us since the beginning...some of you were the first to put down deposits before we even had a site identified.
  As mentioned in the newsletter, we have started the process of replacing the lumber bed frames with a long lasting recycled plastic lumber. This product will outlast a lot of us and is a visible representation of all the plastic water/soda bottles and milk jugs people recycle. So keep recycling! Originally we would have liked to have used this plastic lumber but budgeting constraints prevented that. The plan is to gradually purchase plastic lumber for all the beds but accept the fact this will be a multi year project.
The new deeper lumber beds will be stocked with fresh soil. An added benefit is the deeper beds will help with the drainage issues. I thank all of you that took the time, effort, and money to raise your individual beds. Obviously you've invested a lot in our community garden and in time you'll get the plastic lumber and additional soil.  I will make one proposition, if I get at least 10 gardeners to pay ahead for 3 years we can order additional plastic lumber. I require at least 10 due to the shipping cost involved.
  The El Nino weather pattern has dumped copious amounts of rain over the area including the garden. I've identified areas where we'll install French drains to carry off the excess water. More importantly, we're going to raise the water hose bibs out of the ground valve wells and they will be mounted on posts. No more reaching into stagnant water to turn the water on and off.
  We have a new pavilion, let's put it to good use. And electricity too!
  In the meantime, I put a stack of seed catalogs in the garden library box. I've ordered all my seeds and it's Christmas in January as packages show up at my doorstep. For the record, cabbage seeds get planted  as soon as they arrive sometime in the next 10 days. "Farao" cabbage did wonderfully for me both as a spring and fall crop.
  Here's looking forward to a wonderfully productive growing season,
   Larry