September 2019 E-Newsletter
A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.
Gertrude Jekyll
Featured Instagram Photo of the Month: A Basket Full of Garden Tomatoes
Upcoming Garden Events:
Sep. 14 - Saturday Workday - 9:00 AM – Noon
Sep. 21 - Board Meeting - 9:30 AM
Sep. 28 - Smart Gardening Workshop - Beginner New Window - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Sep. 29 - Sunday Workday - 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Oct. 05 - Fall Planting Workshop with Christy Wilhelmi - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Oct. 05 - Greenhouse Fundraiser - Noon - 1:00 PM
Useful info:
- We made it through the summer without too much heat and now we roll the dice on our early fall weather. Autumn in Los Angeles can be sneaky. Just when you’ve packed up your Labor Day barbeques and started dreaming of fall wardrobes and pumpkin-spiced everything, the winds begin to change direction and the thermostat reaches into the triple digits. It’s hard for a gardener to know what to do and when to plant during these seasonal transitions. But then again, gardening is always half planning and half luck. There are a few things that you can be doing with confidence: pull out your summer plants that are no longer producing. Throw away tomato plants in the trash and compost the rest. If you’ve been growing summer crops in abundance, you might not have had much time to do much else but harvest and water. Now is the time to mulch your path and pull up all those pesky weeds. Clean out your mailbox and make sure to look hard for any brown or black widow spiders that might have taken up residence. Start your fall/ winter crops indoors if you're not planning on purchasing seedlings. Your beds might be a little worn out from the heaving feeding summer crops, so it’s never a bad idea to mix in (or layer on) some compost or fertilizer. Greens and carrots and beats can go in the soil now if you can provide them some shade should a heatwave hit.
- October 5th will be the next greenhouse fundraiser, so you’ll want to have some beds prepped and ready by then. The next sale will feature three colors of cauliflower, collards, five varieties of green and purple cabbage, red and green kohlrabi, bulbing fennel, two varieties of Brussels sprouts, four varieties of kale, leeks, celeriac, cilantro, Italian parsley, dill, chervil, multiple varieties of sweet peas, lots of different types of salad greens, fava beans, snow peas and sugar snap peas. That’s a lot of inspiration for the cool-weather gardener!
- If you feel like you need some more advice on fall gardening, you can join OVF vice president and Gardenerd founder Christy Whilhelmi for an 1-hour Fall Garden Planning class at 9:30 AM on October 5th. Christy will walk you through the process of what to plant where, our planting calendar and more. Christy is super knowledgeable about the microclimates of the OVF garden and plants that do well here. The talk will end by 10:30 AM so you will have time to use some of what you have learned to prep your beds before purchasing plants at the fundraiser.
OVF Announcements:
Volunteers Needed
OVF docents are needed to host a garden tour on 9/7. Please contact Andy Morris if you can help.
Tomato Tasting Results
Thanks to everyone who came to the 11th Annual Tomato Tasting. The event was a huge success with around 70 different tomatoes submitted for tasting. This years results were quite the surprise. Usually, the sweet, orange cherry tomatoes steal the show but this year the top finisher was a green zebra followed by three “black” tomato varieties. The winners are as follows:
- Les Hairrell from plot L1 B18 submitted a Green Zebra that was the runaway favorite, garnering 23 votes!
- Nancy Nyberg and Dean Cleverdon from plot U1 G16 submitted a Black Beauty that was absolutely stunning, garnering 11 votes.
- Tara Crow and her son Blake from plot U1 G6 had not only the youngest winner, but also the most liked cherry variety with their Blue Cream Berry. They received 7 votes.
- Anna Littles from plot U1 F24 submitted some Black Pearls that were simply delicious. She received 6 votes.
A big thank you to everyone who submitted tomatoes for tasting and all those who came to sample and vote. Extra thanks to those that helped organize and run the event. Lastly, a thank you to the Marina del Rey Garden Center and Merrihew’s Sunset Garden for donating prizes.
Featured Photo
Check out this photo of an enormous Kellogg’s Breakfast tomato submitted by Richard Nortman in Phase 2 Plot A36. The seeds came from garden master Ed Mosman who had saved them from a previous year.
As always: we want to hear from you! Send us an email, reach out on Facebook, or tag us on Instagram @oceanviewfarms.
That’s all for now. Happy gardening!