A Quarantine Surprise

Leaving a garden plot for a month to hide from the coronavirus, my expectations were low as to what I'd find when I finally returned. Well, for all of the seeds that don't germinate, the powdery mildew, the aphids, the rodents...sometimes things turn out unexpectedly...for the better.

Planting under a row cover is new to me, but I've been watching a lot of Charles Dowding YouTube videos and he swears by them. Just before the shutdown, I transplanted a few golden beet & leek seedlings into my new plot at Los Prados Community Garden that was sheet mulched with cardboard + 20 bags of Lyngso compost. Then the stay-at-home order hit.

When I returned to the plot last week (fully masked & gloved), I was shocked. Apparently the little rain that we had was enough:

A whole crop of beets was pushing up into the row cover - fantastic!

I hope you all have been able to enjoy some time in a garden space during these uncertain times. As you can imagine, the need for food assistance is growing dramatically. This week we restarted pickup & delivery of garden produce from local gardens to the Samaritan House Food Pharmacy. If you have some extra room in your garden or patio, please consider planting additional crops that can be donated to Samaritan House.

Please reach out if you garden produce you'd like to donate (bill@growsanmateo.org).

Best,

-Bill S.

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