Yesterday, I received my first ever “Ditch Digger” certificate at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a newly constructed two-sided bench that is made almost entirely out of cob, doubles as a kid cave, looks like a rocket ship and redefines the image of the “love seat.”  This was just one slice of the entertainment at this year’s harvest festival/garden party at Songaia.  Other activities included a goat show, personal pizzas made in the cob oven, and a questionable attempt at blackberry mojitos.  From a newcomer’s perspective, I’d say this year’s garden party was a huge success.

It also might have been the most Songaians I’ve seen so far in one place.  By now, Max and I have gotten to know the community pretty well, or at least had a chance to meet everyone at some point if not eat breakfast at their house.  We’ve also gotten to know the garden pretty well, at least enough to identify some things here or there and not get lost.  It was nice, however, to finally combine it all, to not just get the community together in one space, but to bring it all together in the garden.  

That’s not to say the two are ever really separable.  Even if you’re not hanging out in the garden most days, you’re most likely eating from it at some point, and it would be extremely difficult for someone to overlook the pounds and pounds of produce that nobody really know what to do with.  

Still, something felt particularly important about taking time to recognize just how impressive the harvest from the garden has been, and how many people it has been able to feed.  As Katie likes to put it, “abundance.”     

     Yesterday’s celebration was also a reminder that this is probably not your typical “wwoofing” experience.  Just from the little research I did before stumbling upon Songaia, most farms seeking interns seem to be just a single family of four or five individuals, not forty-five (or so), and I don’t imagine many other wwoofers get to participate in Monday evening sing-alongs.  

As my fellow garden slave hinted at in his blog post, it did not take long for us to realize that we really lucked out in finding this place.  Just the experience of working in the garden, learning about permaculture and getting to spend all this time outside would have been enough to know that coming here was a great decision.  But to have on top of that the opportunity to hang out with so many new and interesting people has really made this experience particularly special, and leaves no doubt that we are in the right place...  Looking forward to another month.

...and to be honest that really doesn’t clear much up now does it? Nevertheless, we pulled up to Songaia on Sunday August 5th to start our two-month stay as garden interns, or how Brent so lovingly puts it “garden slaves.” While my expectations may have been unclear, it is safe to say they were greatly exceeded. 

Upon first seeing the garden I remember thinking, “that is pretty small! How much work can it actually take?” The answer being, a lot… The amount of production that comes out of the garden has been a complete shock to me. Never before could I think issues such as having TOO many plums could exist, but trust me, they do. There really is always something to be done no matter how much you do; it really is incredible. 

Wow the summer has certainly flown by, and I’m sure the plants would uproot and take off into flight if they could too. That is just how successful the garden has been!

In the last month so much has happened. To begin, Songaia got its first two WWOOF workers, and working away is something they certainly have been doing a lot of. Thanks to Adam, Max  and Doug, the garden now has a complete irrigation system in the new food forest. With a little more time adding further drip lines, the area will be prime space for more food and whatever else tickles our fancy.

If you haven’t noticed yet, harvesting has been in abundance. Many people have put in time gathering, freezing, drying, and even just cooking all the tomatoes, beans, plums, cucumbers, zucchinis, kohlrabi, potatoes, and even eye-popping dahlias. While we’ve realized that we may be in over our heads with plums and green beans, the rest of the food has certainly been a delight.

The next task is to prepare for winter. We’ve already started knocking over buckwheat, which was a great space saver, and have started planting Swiss Chard. While we are just at the beginning stages for winter plans, it is never too early to get ready to eat and eat…. at another time of year.

A special thank you goes out to Katie for all the extra help in the garden while Patricia was been out of town. Also, we’re delighted to welcome Patricia back from her long trip. With a full garden team back in the swing of things, we’ll take a bite out of, well, the garden of course.

I’ve done it all, and I’d like to say that I know it all too! LOL

Let me preface this statement by first saying that when I started in the garden I knew diddly-squat. I’d like to think that I knew at least the name of some plants, and sure I’d moved a plant from one pot into the next before, but now my knowledge has grown exponentially. Thank you garden team for all the skills, for you are all beautiful people!
So, as to having done it all, I now have. 

Another thing that contributes to my “I’ve done it all” attitude is the fact that I got nipped by parsnip.

It turns out that if you get the juice of this plant on your skin while being exposed to UV rays, it creates a reaction that becomes light-sensitive and turns into a form of eczema. Awesome! Let this part of my smarty-pants attitude be a warning that it’s not a fun experience. (That would explain why I sometimes walk around with one purple glove on, even though you could also think that I’m starting a new fashion trend.)

After learning more than my fair share of the garden life recently, it’s time to step indoors, take off my glove, and have a nice glass of tea.

Yesterday I mixed soil to prick out plants (which is taking a bushel of plants and separating them into their own pots), transplanted into the ground, dug up weeds in a bed, mulched a new bed of plants, and harvested. Today I brought water to a bed of plants all on my own, and tomorrow is composting day (which, frankly, is feeling like old habit now).

So you see, I’ve seen the process through from start to end, and I’ve loved every minute of it. When do I get my own bed now to take  care  of?! :-)

After the first day of the cob workshop, I pause to reflect; what all did I do today? Before today the garden and cob folks collected many materials that have come to serve us well, such as straw hay, clay, sand, pavers, cement rubble, and especially people. So, thinking back on my day…..

To begin today all of us “cobians” mixed 6 parts sand with 4 parts clay into a fine mixture, and then water was added.

Even though the cob workshop seems to be a priority on the list, it is by no means the only thing going on in the garden. Many of you may have noticed the huge load of compost that was delivered and eventually went toward fertilizing (and then mulching) the tree food forest.

Also, the keyhole garden has been completed with new vegetables, and (thanks to Tom!) the aisles leading throughout the garden are weed-free and are taking on beautiful shape with some new pavers.

 After that the fun began as we all took off our shoes and pranced about trying to create the perfect texture and substance of the natural mixture. Finally we added the straw hay, also with our feet, which works to reinforce the wet mass we just smoothed out.

With all the building materials we were able to create a great foundation for the bench as well as get quite far on the cob oven. It was a day of truly playing in the sand!

The garden life never stops, but at least the weather is turning in our favor. As the sun comes out so does the squash, and we’ve planted enough recently to have quite the harvest eventually. However, while we wait for the squash to emerge we’ve already been in over our heads with mountains of chard. We harvested over 14 pounds in the last two weeks, so eat up!

Also, please mark your calendars for the cob workshop (see the workshop tab for info). We’ve managed to clear out a space in the permaculture garden for a beautiful cob bench which will overlook both the garden and the new pond that is planned for the meadow. The cob oven is planned for the space between the garden and the common house, and if you can only make it to one workshop then the final one would be best as we will be making a cob oven pizza. Yum!  

The permaculture garden has been filled up with new goodies which we will have to wait for (surprise, surprise), but strawberries are in full bloom. If you haven’t stopped by for a fresh, juicy morsel you should definitely check it out; although, I can’t imagine that they will all be eaten. It seems like every day they multiply! I swear I’ve eaten more strawberries in the last two weeks than I have in the last ten years. Ha ha.

What I love most about summer (Isn’t it summer already?) are all the flowers. They are so abundant, colorful, and smelly. I’d like to say they all smell good, but that certainly isn’t true. Even while I may not be attracted to them all chemically, I sure love to look at them.

However, what loves the flowers even more than I do are all the bees, and tons of bees there are, always zooming by. In fact you’d better watch where you’re walking because a bee is likely to fly right into you, and it is best to avoid both the pain of a possible sting (which I have yet to encounter) and the death of a beautiful, and much needed, bee.

As a bit of information I figure that everyone needs to be aware of is the issue of “colony collapse disorder” which means that whole beehives are randomly dying or going missing altogether. The problem is still unknown but there is some idea about it having to do with chemicals being used around plants that bees visit for nectar and pollen. So, for the sake of the bees, please don’t use chemicals!

Also another bit of information, did you know that honey is actually bee throw up? Ha ha. Yup! They drink nectar and then throw up the honey. It’s quite fascinating really. So, next time you think about your child throwing up, consider the fact that nature may actually be able to use that waste. I wouldn’t give it to the bees though, because their job is already packed full of slurping, carrying pollen to and fro, and of course taking care of their beautiful queen.

While the strawberries are tasty, so is the clay that we plan to use to build a cob bench and a cob oven. Yup, I ate clay today. It’s got a mineral flavor, but mostly it’s devoid of flavor. Patricia, the garden manager, decided that the strawberries would be her favorite meal of the day and I’m inclined to agree.

So I hit my head today, and I’m pretty sure it’s a result of all the amazing strawberries going to my head. It’s hard to keep my eyes looking up when I am intently focused on finding the most beautiful strawberries imaginable.

Aside from all the tastiness there has been some great creativity going on too. With the help of others, there is now an amazing bamboo teepee to give the beans a place to play and also a bamboo square arch trellis to decorate the new entrance into the permaculture garden.

Even more important, we’ve finished a great heap of compost and have mulched the daylights out of every part of the garden. No water will be able to escape our hard work, and soon our taste buds will reap the rewards.

The basil in the green house has been hooked up to water , and in both the garden and in the raised beds we’ve planted beans, squash, radishes, peppers, carrots, lettuce, beets, and more than could fit on one dinner plate. 
In fact, today we harvested enough lettuce to feed one hundred homeless people.

What more can this amazing garden do? 
The soil is happy. 
The bugs are happy. 
The plants are happy, 
and the people are happy. 
Simply perfect!

Too bad the compost bin didn’t produce quality soil at one point, but luckily the mulch that resulted from it was plenty useful.

In addition to a great time preparing the land and doing some planting, I've encountered some cool creatures!  This is the longest worm I've ever seen...

...and the biggest slug I’ve ever seen. Jeepers!!

Plus, there are new baby goats that can help mow down the weeds that are still left in the garden.