September 2020 E-Newsletter
Gardening adds years to your life and life to your years. – Unknown
Featured Instagram Photo of the Month: Cherry Tomato Harvest
Upcoming Garden Events:
Sep. 12 - Saturday Workday - 9:00 AM - Noon (Workday reservations are now open. Click on the pomegranate photo on the OVF home page to go to the reservation page. You will receive a confirmation of your reservation.)
Sep. 19 - Board Meeting - 9:30 AM
Sep. 27 - Sunday Workday - 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Useful info:
- After a cool, damp July the heat of August was a welcome change - at least for our heat-loving plants. Expect more heat this month and next and plant accordingly. Cool-season crops can get off to a rocky start when temperatures hit triple digits during a late summer/ early fall Santa Ana event.
- In a welcome sign that things are ever so slowly crawling back towards normal at the garden, the greenhouse shelves are once again home to baby seedlings. If you like to start seeds at home, now is a great time to start your fall plants. Some seeds that you can start now include cauliflower, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, chard, salad greens, cool weather herbs like dill, chives and chervil. Summer crops are heavy feeders. As you pull out your summer plants, its a good time to start amending your soil with compost. When planning your fall garden, try to avoid planting a heavy feeder like cauliflower where you previously had a heavy feeder like a tomato. It can be tricky in a small space! This useful guide will tell you which plants need the most and least amount of nutrients in the soil. Once you have your soil prepped, you can also starting planting from seed. Things like lettuce, radishes, carrots, beets and edible and sweet peas can be sown directly into the ground. For a full list of inspiration, you can visit the Gardening in LA Blog. I sure wish someone at the garden would put together a guide for OVF and our unique climate (and microclimates). Anyone want the job?
- This is your yearly reminder to clean out your mailbox and looks for spiders. Brown widow spiders are becoming a common sight at the garden and they love the heat.
- Ed Chair Andy Morris wrote an article for the Living Brentwood magazine featuring Ocean View Farms. You can check it out here.
- Lastly, thank you to everyone who submitted tomatoes for the virtual tomato tasting. Stay tuned for an update from Andy on where you can view the tomatoes.
OVF Announcements:
The OVF Greenhouse is back in business for its 9th year!
After a thorough cleaning by Marie Green and Nina Rumely, including removal of 12 wasp nests, the greenhouse is now home to many seeds started by the greenhouse crew. Some of the cool season vegetables started are various varieties of cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower and kale. A complete list of what is available for sale will posted on the website about 2 weeks before the October 3 sale. The sale will be just like going to the grocery store. Further details to come.
Owl Wanted
Gayle Jones presented the idea of an owl house to be installed at OVF. She says that owls are good hunters of rodents at night. So a group of us got together to plan for installing and building an owl house.The group consisted of the following members:
Gayle Jones
Bob Gallion
Ron Fine
Ed Mosman
It was decided to install the house on my plot because I already had a 20 foot steel pole serving as a Hawk roost. There are several of these throughout the garden. My plot is E51 Phase 3L. The pole was removed from my plot temporarily to take it to the recycle area to mount the house and hardware on the pole. The owl house was ordered as a kit that required SOME ASSEMBLY. It weighed 40 lbs. Bob Gallion added a squirrel barrier and support brackets for the house as well as a roosting porch for the owl. Gayle installed nice straw for the house and put 2 coats of sealer on the wood. The following pictures are of installation day (Workday, Saturday 8-8-20])and the crew that installed it. It required a 4 foot deep hole to house the 2 inch 4 foot steel pole that the 20 foot steel pipe fit into. The pole was raised by all in the picture (it was extremely heavy).
The entrance to the house faces east so the owl will not endure the cold westerly winds.
-Ed Mosman
Install crew from left to right: Brett Magnuson, Gayle Jones Bob Gallion, Ed Mosman and Kevin Durkin
OVF Not Accepting Recyclables
Please do not bring your recyclables to OVF. Ed & helpers are not going to the recycle center as no social distancing is being practiced. Please use the blue recycle bins at your home or apartment.
Help Needed
The arbitration committee is looking for interested volunteers. At least 2 years of OVF membership is helpful and familiarity with the Rules and Regulations. Please leave a note in the president’s mailbox in the wheelbarrow shed or use the contact us form on the website
OVF Donates collects your excess vegetables, herbs & flowers every Sunday from 3-5 PM at Gate 4 at the top of phase 2. Now more than ever, people in the Los Angeles community need your help thru your food donations.
Changes to Lower Phase 3
Lower Phase 3 in the south-west corner now has a lot more sunshine as several trees were recently cut down. The plan is for that new open space to become a resting space for members in that part of the garden, the better to enjoy your hard work. Some umbrellas and chairs will eventually be placed there once the tree branches are moved up to the chipper.
There is a pile of wood chips down there for anyone to use as mulch as well as many logs for firewood. Help yourself.
OVF Sign Refurbishment
A special thank you to Karl Lisovsky and Dean Cleverdon for helping to make the garden’s street entrance a little more spiffy. Karl took the small sign home to refurbish it and Dean and Karl worked together to reinstall the sign.
A little history on this sign from Ed:
The city installed the top part of the sign many years ago. OVF paid $1400 for this service. OVF (Karl Lisovsky) added the little sign below the big one. After 2 years a wind storm blew the sign down. Thanks to Dean and a crew of OVF workers they reinstalled it in cement casings which have lasted up to the present time.
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!