Weeds & More Mulch

Since we planted one month ago, its been exciting seeing the garden start to take shape. I'd say it's doing okay over all. We had a lot of rain in June, especially early, and the weather was a bit on the cooler side, so in general growth seems a bit slower than normal. But temps are picking up, and we should be able to harvest some things in the next couple weeks.

I've had a lot of game day staff members ask about the garden, including why we're doing it. I think the most rewarding part so far has been the opportunity to explain the project to interested people and chat about the good that it will do in the end. We recently placed two banners (Thank you, Ann, for designing it!) at the garden site, so fans understand what the project is about and who helped make it possible.

Yesterday we did our first thorough maintenance of the garden. The weeds were getting pretty bad, so it certainly took us a while to get from one end to the other. Mary Lee Lehr (ballpark customer service), Sarah Heth & Ann Mollica all turned out for the big event. Thanks ladies!

We thinned out the radishes and beets. I planted a couple small rows of chard in an area where some radish seed didn't take. And, Isaac and I got another load of mulch to add in, which meant another lesson in gardening from the attendant (Ali...otherwise known as Vladimir) at the Whitman Avenue yard waste site...good times.

Beets are slow but sure.

Another layer of mulch should help with the weeds.

Kolrabi is going strong.

Pole beans are on their way...

Planting Day

So, by May 26 (yesterday), the danger of frost should be pretty much gone, although you never know in these parts. I've always vowed to plant my garden at home before Memorial Day Weekend, so I pushed for the same in this case. It feels like today was the hottest day of the year so far, so we should be clear.

I had a handful of things to finish up in the front office in the morning before digging in. Schroeder's delivered the plants around 10:30 am. I had to make a quick run to the garden center for a few last minute things and I was ready to go around noon.

We had to install a couple poles in which to grow 'pole beans.' Karri at Lakeshore cleaners gave me some tips on how to construct them. With a few modifications and fill-in materials, we ended up with one 6-ft pole and one 5-ft pole. I used starter plants around the 6-ft pole and seeds around the 5-ft pole. I'm excited to see if this works for me as well as it has worked for Karri in the past.

After the poles were set, the rest moved along fairly quickly.

I big thank you to Ann Mollica and Alli Jensen for helping with the planting. It was quite a warm day, so thanks for lending a hand ladies! Ann is also responsible for most of the photos I'll be posting on this blog. She's pretty amazing with the camera.

From west to east, the planting order is as follows:

Pole Beans, Peppers (bell & jalapeno), Tomatoes (big boy & roma), Onion (red & yellow), Kolrabi, Beets, Radish, Zuchinni and Eggplant. The beets and radish were planted from seed. And... thanks to the Lehr Family, we had nice bright colored paint sticks to label our rows.

After planting I recruited Isaac Bray, another front office staff member, to assist me with some 'grunt' work. We headed over to Appleton's yard waste site on Whitman Avenue to round up some mulch. The attendant gave us quite an eduction in gardening as he's been doing it for 40 years. 45 minutes later, we left with a trailer full of rich mulch to top dress our garden.

Much to our dismay, the skies opened up as we were pulling into the ballpark, so we ended up storing the load of mulch in the shed for the night to keep it from getting soaked.

This morning, Isaac was kind enough, on his off day, to help me spread mulch before heading to the Brewer game. Thanks I-Money! We laid it down thick in hopes of keeping out as many weeds as possible, which is a challenge when gardening a plot of ground for the very first year.

Lastly, we put the fence in place and then stood back to admire the work.

The grounds crew was curious about the whole project. The garden is somewhat in their territory behind the fence. They are used to seeing overgrown weeds in that space. Adjacent to the garden is their sod farm, used to patch the field as needed. The grounds crew received a pallet of fresh sod today, and rumor has it, they'll be laying the excess around the garden, to give it a nice finished look.

Here's a shot of me explaining our finished work.

Should we or shouldn't we?

The idea jumped into my head after chatting with a business owner that I ran into this past winter. We chatted for a while about how a growing number of companies are planting gardens on site for all sorts of reasons. What about a garden at the ballpark? Would it be too much work? Would our staff be on board? What would we do with the produce?

The decision was basically made on two facts:

1. I really enjoy gardening.

2. This would be a great community-based project for the Timber Rattlers.

So, we moved forward and the project was made possible with the help of a few staff members and a couple generous contributors. A special thank you goes out Ron & Karri of Lakeshore Cleaners (N. Richmond Street, Appleton) for preparing the garden plot and for providing us with their special mix of compost, which I'm told grows some of the best tomatoes around! Shroeder's Fox Valley Greenhouse, De Pere...Thanks Kevin!... provided us with all the starter plants to get the garden rolling. And Home Depot (Westhill Blvd.) chipped in by donating the garden fence.

The garden space is located just outside the fence off the left field corner of the ballpark.

Here's a look at the space with preparation in progress on May 20, 2010.