Progress at Bethlehem Lutheran in West Oakland

The first thing we did today is replace the wooden fence that was covered in ivy, rotten and falling over. We had to cut down part of the fence in order to get the two truckloads of soil into the space. Then last week, when there was a storm the make shift fence blew down and broke.
I was able to get two rolls of chain link fence from an individual in Oakland who had recently lost their job and was happy to get rid of it in exchange for $20.
Then, we set up the drip tape and the irrigation system that would handle the daily watering of our produce.
Then we planted some leeks (as seen above), onions, carrots, beets, green beans and lettuce. It was a very productive day and it felt good to see the garden really begin to take shape and get us one step closer to a harvest!

Ready to Irrigate Means We Need Drip Tape!

Hi Everyone!

In the last post I told you that we have beds ready to plant food in. How exciting! All told our beds will provide us with over 1,000 square feet of planting space. As you may well imagine that much space is difficult to water with just a hose and spray nozzle. This means we need a drip irrigation system using drip tape to properly water our crops.














(Hand watering is ok for seed trays)




















(Hand watering is not ok for 7 more of these beds!)

This link has a picture of what I mean by drip tape. It also has a short rundown on how drip irrigation works. It's a good way to irrigate for large scale food production, and soon when we move beyond the two beds we have ready right now, it will be critical to the livelihood of our crops.

As always you can check out our wish list and learn a little bit more about our intern Pete, the person to contact if you can help out!