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Accuweather's forecast for March

Hi All, we now have a weather station on line at the garden. You can view it here.


Sunshine Community Gardens Spring Plant Sale

When: Saturday, March 2nd, 9 am - 2pm.

Where: 4814 Sunshine Dr.

More Info

3/4/2024 - Plant Sale Update

There is still a wide variety of tomatoes and peppers remaining from our sale. The plants are large and healthy and the garden is open during daylight hours. Plants are $3/each. They are in the greenhouse.. You may pay using the posted PayPal app or by cash or check and putting payment in the case box. The sale will continue through Saturday.

Plantsale lists for 2024

Tomatoes (.pdf)
    Tomato Tent Map 1 (Large & paste)
    Tomato Tent Map 2 (Medium & cherry)
Peppers (.pdf)
    Pepper Tent Map (includes tomatilllos & eggplant)
Eggplants/Tomatillos (.pdf)
Herbs (.pdf)

All 4" pots are $3.00.


Disposing of Plant Waste and Composting at Sunshine

Dumpster

  1. No plant material
        Take all Sunshine generated plant materials to compost area
  2. No trash from outside Sunshine
  3. Take recyclable items home to recycle
  4. Take home any trash you can

Disposing of Sunshine-Generated Plant Materials and Waste

All plant material and waste generated at Sunshine should be disposed of in the Plant Waste Pile in the compost area. This includes khaki weed, diseased plants, and woody stems. No plant material from outside of Sunshine should be put in the pile. Outside vegetable kitchen waste may be deposited in the vegetable kitchen waste pile as explained below.

Vegetable Kitchen Waste Composting

Do you want to recycle vegetable kitchen waste? You are welcome to bring it to Sunshine and deposit it in the vegetable kitchen waste collection pile and it will be converted into compost.

Things we can accept

  • Vegetable and fruit scraps (PLU stickers should be removed)
  • Coffee grounds
  • Eggshells

Things we can't accept

  • Animal products - bones, meat, hair, droppings
  • Paper - paper sacks, cardboard, sheets of paper
  • "Compostable (biodegradable)" utensils, plates, food containers
  • "Compostable (biodegradable)" plastic bags
  • Cut flowers and florist waste from flower shops
  • Bread and processed food
  • Coconuts
  • Corks
  • Branches and cuttings from vines, shrubs, bushes, trees
  • Grass clippings

And please, take off the PLU stickers (as a home composter, these really are a nuisance).
Please empty your collection containers (another opportunity, to recycle) for reuse.
You can drop off your vegetable kitchen waste any time the gate is open. Our compost area is in the southeast corner of the garden. Please follow the signs when you drop off. No plant material not generated at Sunshine other than vegetable kitchen waste may be disposed of at Sunshine.

Gardener Rules for Using SCG's Compost

  1. When harvesting compost, put any plant material left in the screens in the Plant Waste Pile and any nonplant material such as plastic in the dumpster.
  2. Put any rocks you have retrieved from the compost pile into the ruts in the driveways throughout the garden or in the trash buckets which you dump into dumpster. Never put rocks in any grassy areas in the garden. Mowers do not like rocks.
  3. Do not create debris piles around the harvest pile.
  4. Return all tools and wheelbarrows to the tool shed but leave the trash buckets in the compost area.
  5. Please remember that compost is a common resource and share accordingly.

Garden Tasks - By Steve Camp (April 16, 2022)

Howdy! I hope everyone is having a great planting season so far!

Workdays often evolve into social events! SCG is a fantastic place to meet new friends and learn both new and old gardening techniques. There's a wealth of knowledge here and experienced people that love to share it.

New Gardeners

There are several new gardeners at SCG! Please don't hesitate to introduce yourself and y'all get to know each other a little and share garden knowledge and tips. Let's emphasize the Community in Community Gardens.

Hose Connections

Please do not connect hoses with aluminum fixtures to our brass faucets. These two metal alloys will chemically bond, effectively welding them to each other. If you have them connected now, be aware that if there are problems with the faucet, your hose may have to be cut in order to get it off.

Additionally, please read handbook and site rules. Any hardware (hoses, sprayers, nozzles, splitters etc.) attached to garden faucets and maintenance of said items are the responsibility of individual gardeners, not garden staff.

Roads and Parking

  1. Speed limit is 3 MPH. (Primarily for safety, but also to keep the dust down.)
  2. Sunshine's roads provide access to plots and common areas. Gardeners should not
    1. Park on roads except to unload a heavy load from vehicle
    2. drive on roads when wet
    3. drive around barriers
    4. drive into another gardener's plot, or
    5. put plants or other items in the road.
  3. Cars may not be left idling while at the garden.
  4. Park only in the front parking area or your common area. On weekends there are parking spaces on Sunshine and 49th Street.

Handbook and Site rules specifically state that Parking on garden roads is strictly prohibited. Park in the parking lot or common areas only. When the emergency vehicle enters SCG, they may (I hope not) be coming to assist You. How inconvenient it would be for them to have to wait for folks to move cars.

When you're done with your project, please close the lids.

Priority Tasks

Maintaining common paths and common areas. If you have plants extending into common paths, trim them. The common paths are designed to allow the biggest wheelbarrows that we own to traverse them unimpeded.

TSVBI:

  1. Weeding paths in TSBVI garden and wood chip areas on west side. (This is normally needed. Try to get out roots. Be sure to smooth out paths after weeding to facilitate TSBVI students moving around garden).
  2. Picking up trash in compost area and along fence lines.
  3. Cleaning the street curb gutters of dirt and debris buildup. (At places in the curb gutter along Sunshine Dr. And 49th St. soil has built up and grass is beginning to grow. Scrape off with shovel and put in wheelbarrow. If debris is gravel it can be put in low places in the parking lot, otherwise, destination is dumpster.

Regular:

  1. Mowing (Please check area around trailer and greenhouses). The mowing season is picking up (if it ever rains, it will pick up exponentially. It's way easier to keep it mowed than try to catch up when it gets overgrown.
  2. Maintaining common paths. (Gardeners are required to maintain a 2' strip of common paths adjacent to their plot.)
  3. Mowing and cleaning up overgrown/messy places in common areas.

Note: TSBVI hour tasks can also count as regular hours.

Your Zone Coordinator may have more tasks than are listed here. Contact them if you feel that you have run out of things to do.


Plant Sale Pictures

Pictures courtesy of Charles Hale


Gardeners' Picture Page

If you have pictures you want to share on the Sunshine web site Sharon has created a new feature that will allow you to do this.

Navigate to the upload page to upload your pictures.

Go to the Gardener's picture page to see the pictures. Click to see a larger view of each picture.

Problems/Comments? Contact Sharon at scgardenweb@gmail.com. Thanks.


News Article

The Garden That Gives Together By Zoe Erler, The Philanthropic Enterprise


Sunshine Updates

Updated Texas A & M AgriLife Vegetable Planting Schedule

Last year a new vegetable planting guide was published. Of note, tomatoes transplants can be planted the last week of February. Gardeners, watch the forecasts and plant at your own risk.

What Vegetables Grow Well Together

Many times I'm talking to fellow gardeners and am asked "Do you do companion gardening?" Well, yes and no. I subscribe to the theory that "If it tastes good cooked or served together, then it should be able to be grown together". My gardening neighbor tried to grow pole beans with onions on the outside of the beans and swore he'd never do that again because he did not get any beans. I do plant an overabundance of onions around my tomatoes and peppers, but only because there is empty space on the outside. By the time the onions are ready to be taken up (early-mid May), the tommies are just starting to go strong, so no energy is wasted growning the two together. Besides, alliums are supposed to be good bug repellants.

As I was searching for a particular webpage, I came across this article which explains in more detail the ins and outs of companion planting.

(If you come across an article you would like to share, please send the link and maybe an explanation or anecdote to scgardenweb@gmail.com. Thanks.)


Pictures of Fall Transplanting


Video of the opening moments of the 2017 plant sale.

Watch video of the March-in on March 5, 2016.

Courtesy Berkley Bettis

Video from the Plant Sale 2015 -- courtesy Berkley Bettis


2014 Tomato Test Plot Results





Welcome to Sunshine Community Gardens' website

Please feel free to contribute recipes, hints, pictures, links, comments or anything else you feel that will help this website become a gardener's reference and home.

Send email to Sharon at scgardenweb@gmail.com.

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Garden Thoughts

Calendar

Ongoing

Board Meetings

Second Tuesday of every month.