Aerial View of Garden Site

Here's another look at "our garden" site, taken from Google Maps. There's an arrow in the top right hand corner of the column describing the Anglican Church. If you click it that column will disappear to the left giving you a better look at the Pace property. Use the < > ^ v keys to move your view to the left/right and up/down; see the Pace house (grey roof, long driveway), Zeke's building (purple roof), Brevard Road, etc. You can even take a long view using the minus sign at the bottom of the slider below the "little man" and see how close the property is to McDowell and High Vista Drive.

So far Sharon Bonnville, Jim and Nancy Dhom, Susan Marlan (new neighbor on Sourwood; moves in May 2011), Zeke and Faye Mitchell, Bob and Laurel Schmidt, David and Mary Turner, and Mike and Sharon Willen (seven families) have expressed their firm interest. We are meeting next Saturday, April 2, at 1 pm at Mike and Sharon's home to discuss. I'd love to hear from more people, whether or not you plan to continue with the garden project and whether you want to continue receiving garden news.

• will we each take an allotment and garden that area or will we decide jointly what crops to plant and tend and share the harvest?

• are there tools we own and can share or do we want to purchase some materials, tools together

• are there any fruit and/or nut trees/shrubs we want to put in this year so they will provide food in the future?

• do we want to add any features to the garden such as a mulch pit, a bench, a trellis? Can we build them?

• are we each willing to contribute an agreed upon amount of $$ to get the garden started (e.g. plowing and soil amendment costs)

• if we want to garden separately together, how much space do each of us want/need? If you're not sure how much space you might need to grow what you want to grow on your own, here's a neat online garden planner from Gardener's Supply Company. It's free and tells you how many of each type of veggie can be planted in one square foot of land, plus tips on the growing needs for each.

• if we are planting together,  how will we organize workdays/tasks?

• Any other ideas, questions/concerns

We Have Seeds

I attended a meeting of the Food Resilience Working Group of Transition Hendersonville last night and came away with loads of seeds from the seed swap that started things off.

I've got acorn squash, sweet basil, shiny black beans broccoli, green dragon bush beans, brussel sprouts, cucumber, leeks, mesclun greens, yellow summer squash, red cherry tomatoes, orange cherry tomatoes, and rich sweetness asian melon. I've got a couple of ways to plot and apportion the garden area - but so far only a couple of folks who've said they're interested. Please RSVP ASAP that you want to share in the garden and whether you are available to begin planning either this Saturday March 26, 3 pm or next Saturday, April 2 at 1 pm. I don't expect that we'll have many meetings, but we must organize somewhat to get started in the right direction. Now is the time to turn the soil so the grass that's there will die before it's time to plant.

Here are pictures of the seedlings I started in my sun room about ten days ago. So far only the sweet peas have popped - and I have more than I need. If you want some, give me a call. I've also already planted some heirloom tomatoes from last year and spinach. Oh, and a sweet onion that I bought at market that began to sprout roots and shoots on its own, so I stuck it in a pot to see what develops.

We Have An Opportunity

Zeke Mitchell has lived in High Vista since its early days. In addition to his 9 - 5 worklife, Zeke takes on landscaping projects in our community, so he knows how to garden. The building where Zeke stores his equipment is .5 miles down Brevard Road, toward Rte. 280 and behind it is the home of Mike Pace. Zeke asked Mike about the possibility of establishing our group garden on his 11 acres and Mike agreed.

I'm posting pictures, but when you walk the property you'll really get excited. See the pictures here:  Imagine your veggies growing strong.

Let's get together to talk about how much land you each want, what resources we can use cooperatively, and any other organizational topics I'm proposing Saturday March 26,  3 - 4:30  pm
or Saturday, April 2, 1 - 2:30 pm

Please rsvp to highvistagardeners@gmail.com  to say whether you are available either of those days.