Farmers' Market Discount for Volunteers!

Do you want to learn organic gardening techniques, work outside, and spend time with fantastic, interesting people? Come volunteer with Heirloom Gardens!

We're looking for volunteers to contribute time to our gardens in NW Denver. You can help with garden maintenance, harvesting, CSA preparation, farmers' market selling, and more! Plus, if you volunteer 10 hours a month, you'll receive a 25% discount on all Heirloom Gardens produce. So, if you contribute 10 hours in June, your discount will begin in July (just in time for the bounty of summer veggies!).

To sign up as a volunteer, go to:

http://www.meetup.com/Heirloom-Gardens

and click "Join this Meetup Group"

Once you join you'll have access to our calendar of events, and you can RSVP for anything that interests you. I look forward to seeing you in the gardens!

Rappin' to "I Want a Goat"

So, apparently there's a classic hip-hop spoof called "I'm on a Boat." I've never seen it, but it's the basis for this spinoff, "I Want a Goat."

The video was created by a woman named Debbie, who spent 6 months in some of the poorest villages in India. Debbie saw how a goat could literally change the life of a family -- or a whole village. Debbie is working to establish "goateries" in these villages with great success.

One big caution... this video carries a "Parental Advisory." Elephant Journal called it "explicit lyrics for a good cause." It's a hip-hop spoof, so there's plenty of use of the m----- f------ phrase. Not suitable for kids.

But, if you adults aren't offended by the profanity, it's a good video -- and a great cause.

NPR: Taking Tomatoes Back to Their Tasty Roots

Hmmm... when I read this, all I could think was "Why not just grow/buy local tomatoes that naturally have 'real' tomato flavor, instead of trying to genetically tinkering with store tomatoes?" It's interesting that this is what folks are looking at as a solution, rather than admitting there might be a flaw in the system that mass-produces tomatoes in any season.

"Scientists in Florida have a noble aspiration: They want to restore the supermarket tomato to something that tastes more like a tomato than a piece of cardboard. The researchers say it will take a combination of psychology and genetics to accomplish their goal..."

Click here to read (or listen) to the full story.

Serious Eats: 10 Secrets for Making the Most of Your CSA

In honor of our first CSA/NSA pickup day... some lovely tips from Serious Eats on how to make the most of your CSA share. My favorite is tip #2: Wash and prep all greens before putting them away (although the tip about cooking lettuce is also kind of interesting).

Click here to read the full list.

Uncle Sam Wants YOU...

Diggin' It Up

This year Heirloom Gardens is tending to 11 yards in the NW Denver area, with a total space of over 26,000 square feet. 

Our yard-to-garden transformation activities have been dubbed "Big Digs," and they're truly memorable. With a crew ranging from 9-18 people, we take yards and remove any sod, dig up weedy patches, till in soil amendments, mark beds, and cover crop paths. We're usually able to do this in about 3-4 hours. Let's hear it for teamwork!

Below are a couple of our Big Dig sessions. At some point soon we'll post a complete set of "before and after" pictures of all the gardens.

This is the yard that will become Eli's garden. It's a 2500 square foot front yard.

The team getting to work. Look at that action shot!

The side view. The neighbors came by while we were digging to ask what we were up to, and they ended up becoming members of our NSA!

Tilling and marking beds.

A particularly nasty spot of grass. We were lucky to have a tree expert volunteering with us this day, and he taught us exactly how much space to leave when digging around trees.

Jessica is cover cropping the garden paths with Dutch White Clover. It's a nitrogen-fixing crop (meaning it improves the soil), and it forms a living mulch to keep out weeds and retain moisture. Plus, it's pretty!

Brenda helping to lead the team. She is one of our HG apprentices for this year, and Eli's garden is one of the ones that she oversees on an ongoing basis.

Finishing up...

Some of the crew that made it happen. Jessica, Chad, Brenda, Michelle, Denise, Stacie, Betsy, and Sundari.

This will become Sharon's garden... or what I like to call "The Lake Garden." Isn't it beautiful?

Deacon ran the sod cutter so we could roll up and remove the sod (we found it a good home on Craigslist), and then he ran the big tiller for us.

Working and chatting.

All done and ready to be planted!

It's a Jungle Out Here!

We started our first seedlings in the greenhouse in mid-February, and over the past few months they've been growing steadily from little whippersnappers into blossoming (literally) plants. 

Late March in the greenhouse.

Starting to get big...

Mid-May, and most of the tomatoes have graduated to our big milk crates. It never ceases to amaze me that these plants each grew from just a little seed...

...yeah, we've got a lot of plants.

Slightly smaller ones under the tents (the greenhouse is full).

Of course, we always leave room for Artie! The greenhouse is the perfect place for a catnap.