Johnstown Northridge Food Pantry needs your help

This food pantry in our neighborhood is need of donations. We'll be taking over some of our harvest later in the summer, but they need help now. Here is their message:

The Johnstown Northridge Food Pantry (website) needs some food. We had 100 families come in May, 96 in June and July has been busy too. Many are losing their unemployment because benefits have run out, some have had their married children and families move back home for one reason or another, the children are all home for three meals a day and other reasons.

We need jelly (but not peanut butter), canned potatoes, peas, tomatoes, fruit of all kinds, canned meat of any kind, muffin mix, soda crackers for soup, shampoo and dish soap, and anything else you can eat or drink. Thank you for any help you can give us. Nothing is too small or too large. Our hours at the pantry are at your convenience. Just call 740-924-2835.

Ruth Krumm Pantry director

Important group work session: Thursday, 22 July 6:30pm

Well, this morning's group session turned into a solo session. I was able to get a lot done, but there is still much to do. The session planned for Thursday is important to get the garden ready for harvesting. We have already lost some areas to weeds, and if we can't get the weeding done this week, we'll lose some more.

If you aren't able to make it on Thursday night, I encourage you to come out on your own during the week. I'll post some details at the bottom on what needs to be done. With a few people helping out, the work should not take long at all.

First I mowed down weeds around the tomatoes, peppers, squash, and melon. Then I hand weeded the squash and pumpkins which are doing really well. I also hand weeded the peppers which are small, but are still coming along.

Next I laid down black cloth around the peppers and squash to suppress further weed growth.

What still needs to be done (in order of priority):

1) Hand weed the melons, tomatoes, and beans. This would be easy to work on if you just have an hour some time during the week and want to come out on your own. The melons are in a short row just north of the squash (visible in the left hand side of the first picture.) The tomatoes are in two rows (seen in the picture below). The beans are in one long row and one short row just north of the family and individual plots. These are in serious need of weeding. I believe there are parts of these rows that have not been weeded since they were planted.

2) Lay down more black plastic around the tomatoes and melons. We'll work on this Thursday night.

3) Add more twine to the tomato trellises and time the rest of the tomatoes higher up on the stakes.

3) Start weeding around the two new rows of corn. This time the corn has germinated nicely. By picking up the drip tape and moving it out of the way, it should be easy to hoe the two rows to keep the weeds down. The soil was just tilled and the weeds are starting to creep back in.

4) Weed the raspberries and put up the trellis wires. Also, secure the grape vine to the metal posts.

Once all of this work is done, we can start worrying about how we will schedule picking the vegetables.

Group work session: Sat., 17 July - 9am

It's just about harvest time and we need to get some work done in the garden. We'll meet at 9am this Sat.

Our main task will be weeding. Most of the vegetables need to be weeded, including:

-melon

-squash

-peppers

-tomatoes

-beans

-3 sisters garden

If you can't make it Sat., we would really appreciate your help whenever you can make it. You are welcome in the garden any time. The melons, squash, tomatoes, and peppers are in rows over by the grape vine, so help yourself.

Garden updates

I'm behind in posting pictures from the garden. These are from a group work night a couple of weeks ago. The garden is really coming along.

We have had some really great help in several areas. We had some new friends of the garden come out to trellis up the remaining tomatoes and another volunteer tilled under a large section of the garden so we could replant corn.

We have also had a neighbor volunteer to water the garden as needed.

We still need lots of help weeding and soon we'll be picking vegetables.

What still needs to be done

We got a lot of great work done during our short notice work night. The tomatoes were trellised, most of the beans were weeded, and two rows of corn and sunflowers were planted.

We are still in need of volunteers to water the garden once in a while and there is still more weeded to be done. The rest of the beans need to be weeded and the tomatoes and peppers are getting crowded again, too. I don't think we'll have an organized work night this coming week, but people are welcome to come out and help when they have time.

By the way, here is some proof that anyone can participate in gardening. This is my wife with our 4-month-old son who was doing a little weeding out in our plot.

Waterers needed

We have been unable to find a timer system that is compatible with the low water pressure our tank produces. (It uses only gravity. Next year, we will install a pump and move the tank over to the church to collect rainwater, eliminating this problem.)

So, we need to get some volunteers who are willing to water the garden. Watering takes between 45 minutes to an hour and consists of turning on the spigot at the tank, waiting 20 to 30 minutes, turning the spigot off, attaching the other hose, and repeating the process. Besides turning the spigot on and off and connecting/disconnect the hoses, there is no work required.

We are looking for people who might be willing to water on a regular basis (Wednesday is already covered) and on an intermittent basis. If you are available and interested, please let me know. We really need your help. Thanks