Workday in the Produce Patch

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about some work we helped with in the Produce Patch:  https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/05/preparing-produce-patch.html

Monday was a scheduled workday for Jimmy and Regina's church family in the Produce Patch. Folks were SO happy to have something to do outside their homes!

Sunday evening, Carl and I helped Jimmy test out the transplanter:

Regina had ordered bare rooted sweet potato slips (1000 of them...)

I was separating them into individual plants as much as possible (we ultimately found that having them separated but then gathered into a handful was the best technique)

There were two seats on the transplanter -- the device in the center between the two trays is where the bare root plants were to go...

A closer view of the V-shaped devices that deliver the plants to the ground and plants them

Branding of the device

 Have you ever seen the episode of Lucy in the chocolate factory... this was something like that... unfortunately (maybe fortunately!), no video of Carl and my performance!

This is a link to the site of the company who makes the transplanter: https://mechanicaltransplanter.com/pages/bare-root-transplanters

Monday, the work crew arrived by 8:30am... 

Folks started on various tasks...

One of the squash plants coming up that we planted a week or so ago - with the blue coated seed attached to its leaf!

Folks were working all over the patch

Placing supports for the row cloth over the collards, and tilling between the rows of plastic mulch

Enjoying being outside and being together, at a distance

Laying out the row covers that act as bug deterrent

Planting cucumbers - the lady on the right is making the holes in the plastic mulch and the person on the left is sliding the seeds down through the pipe into the hole - someone later came along and watered them

Additional work going on

The green pepper plants are looking good

Row covers in place over the collards

Then it was time for the transplanter

Here you can see it in action - look how quickly those v-shaped receptors for the slips come around!

Some oak leaves put down in the rows between the collards covered with row covers to act as weed deterrent in the rows

Beautiful!

It was fun being with church family, even if it wasn't our personal church family, we're all family!