Wednesday July 24
Hello everyone! Calli here, sharing some notes on current happenings at The People’s Lot.
Last month we decided to switch the Third Sunday gatherings to the third Thursday of every month. Sunday afternoons were too hot and summer weekends tend to be full enough already. The third Thursday we encourage everyone to bring a dish made with local foods. This is an attempt to taste the variety of produce available during the season and to share recipes and tips for utilizing the abundant harvest. We have outlined some topics that are relevant to the season that will allow us to bring questions or share stories of our experiences with those topics. We also added a work party/volunteer opportunity every Thursday from 6:30-8. I’ve really been enjoying my time touching base with the plants and neighbors on those cooler evenings. Please feel free to drop by any Thursday to help out or just hang out and chat with fellow plant lovers.
This past Thursday the topic was crop rotation and the food theme was cucumbers, tomatoes, and zucchini. I started the day thinking I would bake zucchini bread but the heat made me switch gears and make a cucumber salad instead. I had some cucumbers, parsley, and radish from the Wyck farm and purchased some local tomatoes from Weaver’s way. I used a simple dressing of red wine vinegar, honey, and olive oil and all the flavors were so fresh!
Tasks for the evening involved watering all the plants. When I water I am also checking on the health of the plant and assessing whether or not it needs care beyond water. This week the basil needed the flowers pruned(to encourage more leafy growth), tomatoes needed to be supported and gently guided up the fence, flowers that were finished for the season were cut back, weeds were pulled, and I noticed an insect situation on the cabbage that I needed to research.
Usually, before pulling a weed I determine whether it’s invasive- as in hard to pull once it establishes itself, whether it’s edible or medicinal, and whether leaving it be for the time being would protect the soil until there is another plant to take its place. This week I discovered some weeds that I hadn’t known before so I used my Picture This app to identify them. Turns out they were all beneficial in some way! Needless to say, I left them in place and look forward to learning more about them.
Here is what I discovered and some short excerpts on their benefits:
Horseweed
Virginia Threeseed Mercury
Spanish Needles
Virginia Creeper
Horseweed
Often dismissed as a mere weed, is actually a pollinator magnet. Its tiny flowers are a big deal for bees, butterflies, and other nectar-seekers. These insects are not just casual visitors; they're vital players in our ecosystem, performing the critical task of pollination. Horseweed's blooms offer them a rich source of sustenance, especially during the fall when other food sources can be scarce.
Virginia threeseed mercury (Acalypha virginica)
Also known as Virginia copperleaf, has many benefits, including:
Wildlife
The seeds are a food source for birds like mourning doves and swamp sparrows, and deer eat the foliage in the summer and fall.
Soil health
The roots help stabilize the soil, which prevents erosion and promotes a balanced ecosystem.
Pollination
The plant attracts beneficial insects that help with pollination and pest control.
Spanish Needles
Any herbalist will tell you that Spanish needles plant, or bidens, have an amazing capacity for healing.
Common Name: Spanish Needles, Beggar’s Ticks
Botanical Name: Bidens spp.
Energetics: Cool, moist
Taste: Bland, aromatic, astringent
Sometimes called Spanish Needles because of its sharp, clinging black seeds, this humble weed has an amazing capacity for healing. Lovely, vaguely fragrant, and common, what sets Bidens apart from many other plants is the fact that it’s a very effective mucus membrane tonic. Good herbs of that class are notoriously hard to come by. The most well known plant with that title is Goldenseal, the over used and much abused poster child of industrial herbal commerce.
Virginia Creeper
While this plant does have a tendency to be invasive it adds a lot of vibrant color and attracts beneficial insects and birds. Some sources point to the berries being used for medicine.
In other news… We have been lucky enough to get rain just as our barrels have run dry, however it’s been stressful not knowing if we’ll have enough week to week. We’d like to get a bigger system set up in order to collect more rain water at a time. This entails cleaning out plant debris from the proposed location, gathering a water tank and getting it to the lot, building a structure to hold the water tank high enough to allow a strong water pressure, and placing pipes and spigots leading into and out of the tank. I’d love to get a work party together to do the initial cleanout. If you’re interested in helping to get this project underway please show up on a Thursday evening or message us to choose a day/time that may work better.
Until last month we had been using soil and compost from the recycling center. The plants were growing slowly, not thriving and had a lot of pests. My intuition was that they weren’t getting enough nutrition or retaining water. So we switched out the soil and are now using purchased bags of potting soil. I’m happy to report that our tomatoes and basil look great, the cabbage and onions are healthy and thriving, and the peppers are producing!
As we continue to learn about growing in pots, addressing challenges, and celebrating our harvest I hope that the People’s Lot Garden will become a place where folks gather to learn and grow together.
I look forward to meeting new faces!
Every Thursday 6:30-8
Located at 18 E. Church Ln. near Uncle Bobbie's and Market Square
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