New Name, New Blog

We have renamed our collective. Our new name is The People's Republic of Produce.

We have also moved blogs. Please join us at http://thepeoplesrepublicofproduce.blogspot.com.

Garden Work Day May 11

Exciting things are happening at the garden! We got approved receive a free compost bin from the city of Portland so that is a major score! Also, C.J. was able to secure some broken palates that will be used to construct additional compost bins. Several of us will be at the garden plot constructing compost bins and conducting garden maintenance this Tuesday (May 11) from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. If you are available - please join us!

Rachel has reported that the hail of the last week or so really took a toll on our sweet baby plants. Thank goodness we also planted seeds! Rachel and I will get together soon to discuss how and what damage control will be necessary after the hail. Stay tuned!

Finally, we will soon post a maintenance / work schedule on the blog - that will probably go up sometime next week. Keep watching http://sharecropspdx.blogspot.com. Also, if you have pictures from the work day, please send them to me!

Ground Breaking Was FANTASTIC

Today could not have been more exciting or more successful. We had so many people from the community working the dirt together to build out our dream community garden. Way better pictures to come, but in the meantime, here are a few shots emailed in from an iPhone journalist.

The Prequel

Big action will happen out at the St. Johns Community Garden tomorrow! In the meantime, here's a last look at the field "before."

Join Us On Earth Day!

Earth Day - Garden Work Day

ShareCropsPDX

First Build Out Work Day = April 24, 2010 (Earth Day)

Who: YOU and anyone interested in gardening in St. Johns

What: Ground breaking and building of the St. Johns Community Garden @ Red Sea

Where: St. Johns Community Garden @ Red Sea across from Red Sea Community Church located at 7535 N. Chicago Ave. Portland, OR 97203. The garden is the plot of open urban land facing Chicago Avenue spanning from North Leonard Street to North Central Street.

When: Saturday, April 24, 2010 from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm

Why: ShareCropsPDX is an intentional urban-farming initiative that exists to grow the best local, organic produce to be given the lowest income people in North and Northeast Portland neighborhoods. We grow as much as we can and give away all that we grow. We envision PDX neighborhoods checkered with intentional garden plots that exist to feed, educate, and sustain all those who live there, especially those who would not otherwise experience the benefits of healthy, local, organic food. Grow with us, Share crops with Portland.

How: Please bring yourself, a sack lunch, some water to keep you hydrated, any gardening tools or supplies you may have (see needs list below), and any friends who love to garden or are interested in learning. Don’t worry if you’ve never gardened before, team leaders have all the plans ready for the build out and we just need interested volunteers! Come and stay as long as you are able, or come late and stay until the end.

Thanks in advance for helping us serve North Portland residents by revitalizing this urban space. We hope this garden will be such a smashing success that we will be invited to farm other available urban plots.

Keep Watching: http://sharecropsPDX.blogspot.com

Needs List:

• Two folding tables
• Left over or unused potting soil
• Two 100 ft. hoses
• Lavender starts
• 10 hoes
• 10 shovels
• 4 rakes
• Garden hand tools
• Twine
• Ground stakes
• Caution tape
• Coffee grounds
• Newspaper
• 6 Hammers
• Used / empty garden planters / pots (plastic or clay)
• 8 Sharpie markers (black)
• Bring your camera to document the work day
• 6 large wooden palates
• Bring your gardening gloves if you have a pair; bring extras if you have extras
• 2 Wheel barrels
• Small rocks, seashells or sand (for re-potting tomatoes)

sharecropsPDX Seed Starts

J and I headed out to a farm to take advantage of a friend's very generous offer to "babysit" our seed starts in his heated green house. We had a blast carefully filling and charting our starts for SEVEN (yes, you read that correctly SEVEN) flats of seed starts. The tomato flat had 36 large start pellets, but the other flats were the standard Jiffy variety that house 72 little seed babies. You do the math... this would have been a monster job to tackle alone. We cannot wait to go back and check on the babies in 10 days. We will be even more excited when we plant the starts in the the new community garden in St. Johns!

Me with the tomato flat and J with a "regular" flat, also filled with tomato seeds:


Some of our tomato starts:



All of the flats, COUNT THEM! We put the babies under newspaper so as to not sun shock them while we worked. I cannot think of a better use of our morning paper: