Organic Community Garden
at Apple Acres

Garden News

On April 16th, the Community Garden held its committee meeting and an educational lecture by Barbara Taylor-Laino of Midsummer Farm in Warwick.

On the 20th we held our first workday. We got lots of work done, and everything at the garden's looking great! We'll have our Opening Day on Sunday, May 19th, from 11 am-1pm. At this event there will be regionally-appropriate organic seedlings from Midsummer Farm and Two Pond Farm for sale.

Our committee for Water System and Fence Maintenance has decided on which components to get for our solar pump, and will soon be ordering and installing it. They're planning to re-install the fence posts at the front gate so that the door will open and close more smoothly.

The Tools and Pest Control committee has done an inventory of the sprays and other applications, and is working on replacing them with new batches. Some tools are being repaired.

Our Garden Events committee is planning more events for the season.

The committee for Composting has moved the site of green plant material and weed composting to within the enclosure. There are now two wood frames on the grassy area near the front gate. We'll be putting uninfected green plant material here, preferably on the pile we've already started. Brush continues to go to the old site, the pile beyond the left back gate. There's some good compost available in two piles out back.

We're deciding between wood chips and straw for mulching the paths, and are looking into where to procure either of these.

As of now, we still have one plot available at the garden. If you're interested in joining a group of friendly, passionate, knowledgeable gardeners, contact Russ for more information.

Special Thanks...

A special THANK YOU goes out to Paul Vanderveen, who donated a very large truckload of wood chips to the organic community garden. 

Paul is the owner of Paul Vanderveen Landscape Contractors LLC, a full-service landscaping company since 1977, right here in West Milford.

It is this kind of partnership with individuals and businesses in our community that we are all about, and that we want to recognize and promote.

Thank you, Paul!

Dates to remember

Opening day, where there will be organic seedlings from Midsummer Farm and Two Pond Farm for sale, will be at the garden on Sunday, May 19th, 11 am-1 pm. We'll be given a tour of Midsummer Farm in Warwick on Saturday, June 1st, 11 am, and a tour of Two Pond Farm in West Milford on Saturday, June 15th, 12:30-2:30 pm. Our midseason clean-up day at the garden is July 13th 10 am-2 pm.   Barbara from Midsummer Farm will hold a seminar at the garden on Tuesday July 16th, 6-8 pm, we'll have a Sustainable West Milford meeting at the garden on the evening of Monday July 29th. Alison Hosford from Two Pond is slated to teach about seed-saving at Hillcrest on Tuesday September 17th, 7 pm, and our closing workday at the garden is Saturday November 9th, 10 am-2 pm. We'll announce other events as we schedule them.

For more information about their on-site workshops, which begin in February, visit Two Pond Farm and Midsummer Farm on the web, or e-mail Allison Hosford of Two Pond,  and Barbara and Mark Laino of Midsummer.

Established in 2007, this all-organic educational garden lets family members have a hands-on educational experience while growing their own healthful food and flowers. In addition to individual plots, the garden will continue to support the Ample Harvest food pantry network.