Straw bales held moisture for the roots, but that also caused straw to decompose

Good morning! Does it seem a bit cooler and a little less humid here this morning? That gives me hope that soon the heat will break and it's the start of our months of perfect weather here in Yuma!

This morning we are going to leave our comfortable spot at the tables in the Tropical Garden and move up to the Vegetable Garden. Just make a right turn on the main sidewalk, then a left on the brick path and here we are. That was a short walk but we have a lot to talk about here.

As you’ll note on your map, which you cut out of the July 12 issue, this area is marked Turf Samples. You know that our map was in the process of being updated. Since turf needs to be mowed weekly and we can’t eat it, we decided to have a vegetable garden.

Have you been reading Kurt Nolte’s Crop of the Week in the paper every Sunday? What nice articles to let us know what grows in this area. We will not be growing all of those vegetables here, of course, but we do hope to have a few that will be available for everyone to see up close.

A little background information here before I go on. This garden was dedicated in April of 2004. Now every April it has become a tradition to have an ice cream social to celebrate. Of course, you are all invited as it is your garden.

At the 2006 event when I gave the garden update, I said, "Some day we want to have a storage building in the shape of a barn right up there." That very next week, Frank and Pat Cooper came forth with an offer to help us with that project.

We were so excited to be able to start on that dream. It was a long, hot, troublesome summer but thanks to Sandy Silvas we kept plugging along. We dedicated the Cooper Barn in November. Now we wonder how we managed without it.

I think of this area now as a farm, too. I have many fond memories when I was young of staying with my cousin on their farm.

I know not everyone gets to do that so some day I hope we can have animals here, too. They will have to be wooden cutouts or made of cement but how fun it will be for children to come and maybe pet a pig or pretend to feed the chickens! See real vegetables growing. Maybe even help plant or harvest. A great lesson for them in where our food comes from before we buy it from the store.

That brings us to our beautiful new raised beds. Some ask why raised beds? When you come to see us on Tuesday mornings and see the maturing group of the volunteers who maintain this garden for your enjoyment, you will understand why we decided we needed raised beds.

You may remember seeing the straw bales we had here for a couple of seasons. Judy Miller saw the idea on the Internet. Val Colvin, Marlena Parrott and Judy managed to get the straw bales donated. That provided us with instant raised beds. That was a very interesting project, which you’ve read about before in the Desert Gardener column.

It was amazing how well things grew - how those bales held the moisture for the roots. But that also caused the straw to decompose.

The timing was good. In May of 2006, the Pecan Grove Garden Club donated money for our permanent raised beds. And yes, see, they are good places to sit, too, while I talk on and on.

We have wanted to have a compost area, too, and when the straw bales began to decompose, that told us to get busy with that plan. They moved them over here to the side and added more water and it was amazing how quickly we had compost ready and were able to mix it with the soil in our raised beds.

We have Mark Hall of NETAFIM to thank for our irrigation and Judy Miller for installing it! Now this fall, Judy and her committee are planning the fall garden.

As you can see, we have a lot of little projects going on here, too. See these bricks? Bob Moody walked on them! Maybe even put them down on their patio. Almost all of these were salvaged from the Bob and Elizabeth Moody home. We’ve put some around the barn and we plan to lay brick around the raised beds, too.

Next week is the 10th and last of this series. No more garden areas to visit but we have some loose ends to tie up. I have more information about the garden for you and then I’ll let you go early so you can take a stroll by yourselves and review all you have learned about the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden at 2200 W. 28th St.

Next week, let’s meet again at the tables in the Tropical Garden.

---

Ellen Gardner, a Master Gardener who writes this column for the Federated Garden Clubs of Yuma, can be reached at 343-4020 or at gardner3028@netzero.com. For information about the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden, visit cals.arizona.edu/yuma/horticulture/moody_garden/index.html or for information about the Federated Garden Clubs of Yuma, check out gardencentral.org/azgardenclub/westerndistrict.