We use grass clippings a lot to help us retain the water and control weeds

What it takes to grow a successful Veggie Garden in Holladay!

Without adequate sunlight, you will be spinning your wheels trying to grow veggies. So last fall, this is what we spent a LOT of time doing, cutting major branches down and pruning to get the sunlight on our garden! NOTE: Don't try this at home. Hire a professional. We did and it was a smart move.

Feasting on fresh salad every night is a REAL treat!!

Besides Veggies, our flowers are growing great also!

The flowers are so beautiful! I love planting and growing flowers!

Paolo and Michel building our Vertical Garden Fence

After we cleared the ground, we started forming our plots back in March

For borders, we use broken tile, wood, brick, stones, rock, PVC pipe, metal sprinkler pipe

In Feb. 2009, we burned a bunch of branches in our pit.

Some of the resources we use often - especially the storage buckets!

In April we participated in Earth Fest held at the U of U on Earth Day.

We drink and work! All ages love Lemonade!

Our Rich Compost

Harvesting Tomatoes in the fall of 2008. We LOVE tomatoes!

2008's Harvest and some of our garden members from a year ago.

A very small sample of last year's harvest, 2008! SO YUMMY!!!

Some of last year's Garden Group, in 2008.

2009 Harvest has begun!!

Because of all the moisture and cool weather, we have LOTS of delicious lettuce and spinach ready to pick. If you would like some, try and come today if possible. I leave town again tomorrow, Thursday until Sat. evening. Besides the lettuce, the PEAS are just about ready!! I just picked one and it is SOOOOOOOOOOO delicious!!! They are a little small and could probably stand to wait one or two more days but not much longer than that.

If you come today, come and pick just a few and see how good they taste. Besides peas, lettuce, and spinach, I have LOTS of BAGELS to give away TODAY only!!

Email me if you can come today and pick up food since I will be in and out all day today and will work with your schedule.

Just a reminder since we will be harvesting a LOT more food soon:

1) Garden members are the only ones allowed on my garden properties and invited to come and get food from the garden. Because of our recent problem with some UNKNOWN people dumping a ton of organic debris at our largest garden up the street from my home, we are all being extra cautious when we see people on our properties.

Always bring your Garden Membership Card with you to identify yourself if I'm not there. You are not allowed to bring friends or neighbors to work in the garden OR to pick any of our harvest. If they are interested in joining our group, they may contact me to sign up.

No one is allowed on any of the properties except at the assigned times UNLESS you have contacted me first and received permission a head of time. All of my property owners are now watching extra closely to to see who comes on their property (especially if they look like they might be ready to dump something) so we don't end up with another bad situation.

2) As you work in the gardens, be sure and keep track of your hours on the back of your card. To receive full benefits in our group, (enjoying the abundant harvest) you or your immediate family must be logging some time working in the gardens.

3) When you come to my home, please remind family members (kids especially) that they are there to work in the garden. My trampolines and slack lines are off limits. I have four trampolines for my summer trampoline aerobic classes that I teach. You can sign up for that class if you like.

4) The Garden Schedule is posted on the Garden Blog. Please come at the specified times, even if I'm not here. Walk thru the plots, pick weeds as you see them, straighten borders, put grass clippings on all of the walkways. Everything is growing RAPIDLY - including the weeds. Continue spreading grass clippings on all of our finished plots. We have an enormous amount of grass clippings up at Susan's Garden - our largest garden, up the street from my home. Beth and Paolo are back from Italy and Bell will oversee the garden work on Thursday evening so please come if it's not raining.

Thank you for EVERYTHING and for making this garden SO amazingly beautiful!!! I'll post recent photos soon! You won't believe what you see, it's getting so big!!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxAre you thinking of building a waterwise garden?

Are you thinking of building a waterwise garden? An important aspect of
creating a beautiful waterwise landscape is proper design planning. Come get
inspired while walking through the newly expanded Jordan Valley Water Conserva­tion Garden Park with a Master Gardener guide. Tours run for 1 hour and no
registration is required. Visit www.conservationgardenpark.org
Location: Conservation Garden Park (8215 S. 1300 W., West Jordan, UT)
Starts May 20th. Runs Wed nights at 6:30 pm and Sat mornings at 9:00 am