Monday, January 30, 2012

Creatin' Compost. Cultivatin' Community!








A big "Thank You!" to all the new volunteers who came out to the garden yesterday! We planted a forest of diverse salad greens, buckets of bunching onions and REBUILT OUR COMPOST SYSTEM!

We arranged 9 pallets, used an array of tools like saws, screws, drills, crow bar and our hard working hands to construct the vessel that will house our dynamic compost pile.

Nik Dyer of Purple Carrot Gardening described the needs and elements for any successful compost pile to work, including the ideal dimensions of 3ft * 3ft (which informed our use of wooden pallets), ample moisture, a healthy balance of organic matter: greens (nitrogen) and browns (carbon). Following these simple guidelines, we created conditions for the microorganisms of our pile to stay healthy and fed, while heating up and breaking down the organic matter we add to the pile.

The final product!?! Nutrient rich, organic matter to put back into our thriving rooftop garden system!

Look out for the next edition of our Sunday Workparty/Workshop coming up on February 19th from 1-3pm.
VERMI-LOVE with Booka Alon of Roots to Fruits and Kitchen Garden SF.
Booka will teach us about the benefits of Vermi-composting (composting with worms) and we will build a few worm bins for the garden.

RSVP grazetheroof@gmail.com Read more...

Monday, January 16, 2012

Winter in the Garden + REFRESH our COMPOST








It has been an unusually warm and sunny winter in San Francisco. I know gardeners all over the city who are praying and dancing for rain as well as happily harvesting greens, brassicas, fava beans and radishes from their unusually productive winter gardens. At Graze the Roof we're loving the sun, yet also dancing for rain! ...

This last week during our volunteer workday we harvested a hefty 11.5 lbs from the garden, getting us to a comprehensive 50 lbs since we began our weekly harvest in early November of 2011. When we got to the basement to hand it over to the kitchen crew, we bumped into one of the prep cooks who delightfully dug through the bag of fresh greens, herbs and bulbous radishes! He was excited to work with such fresh and tasty seasonal fare!

In other news, the Graze the Roof crew is visioning for how we want to continue increasing food production as well as designing and building out more niches on the roof, to gather, learn, teach and be...lots of great projects on the horizon! Join us on Thursdays from 10a-2p to be a part of this visioning and support the development of our rooftop garden!

We will be offering more opportunities for the community to experience and work in the garden on Sundays this season. Our first Sunday workparty of the year will be Sunday January 29th from 10a-3p! We will round out our workday with a potluck lunch! Bring something delicious to share!
...
REFRESH OUR COMPOST
As gardeners in this fine city, we are learning how important living, breathing soil is to any successful garden community. In our rooftop garden story, we are growing all our goodness in containers. The soil is a dynamic medium that needs a lot of attention. In the spirit of this new year, we want to re-build our compost system to heighten the efficiency and fertility of our soil. Our compost system needs to be REFRESHED and RENEWED. We will be building a classic 3-bin system with pallets and chicken wire. WE NEED YOUR HELP! Join our special Sunday workparty to rebuild our compost!

January 29th 2012
9a - GLIDE Celebration Service
10a - GTR Workday begins...
10:30a - Tour of GTR
11a - GLIDE Celebration Service
12:30 - Tour of GTR
1p-3p - REFRESH OUR COMPOST workparty!
3p - late afternoon potluck! Bring a snack to share! We'll harvest a great big salad from the garden :)
*****(bring your own bowl/plate and utensils)


For a special treat, consider starting your Sunday off by attending one of GLIDE's celebration services at either 9a or 11a. These gatherings of song, compassion and community are inspiring and a great way to connect to the heart of GLIDE.

Feel free to contact Lindsey Goldberg, Project Manager of GTR (grazetheroof@gmail.com) with any questions concerning the workparty and/or other Graze the Roof related inquiries!

Happy gardening! Read more...