ARLINGTON — The Arlington Community Garden benefited from a donation by Cedar Grove Compost. The compost facility gave three pickup trucks full of compost just in time for the Arlington Garden Club’s work party March 28. The compost arrived March 27, said garden club member Judy Ness.
Arlington residents Jim Davis, Chuck Randall, Mike Bledsoe, Keith Sarkisian and Mike Conner helped by picking up and unloading the compost at the garden, Ness said.
On the very rainy Saturday morning, 14 members and friends of the garden club cleaned beds and prepared them for the upcoming vegetable season.
“The garden club could not have done this without the help of these volunteers,” Ness said.
Ness also clarified information in last week’s Arlington Times about the upcoming garden club workshop.
The Arlington Garden Club’s monthly Turn Your Thumb Green workshop will be held later in the month this year and not on the second Saturday as usual.
Community garden coordinator Bea Randall, who is also a Master Gardener, explained that the the garden club will hold it’s monthly workshop during the city’s Arbor Day Celebration Saturday, April 25 in the gazebo at Legion Park and not on April 11, but Master Gardeners will use the time in the community room at the Arlington Boys and Girls Club for another session of “Grow Your Own Groceries” from 10 – 11:30 a.m. April 11. The club is located at 17750 59th Ave. NE, east of the Arlington Airport.
At the Arbor Day Celebration in Legion Park, Mayor Margaret Larson will be the first speaker at 10 a.m. honoring trees for Arbor Day, one of the requirements for qualifying as a Tree City USA.
After Larson speaks to attendees, members of the Arlington Garden Club will make several presentations.
• New techniques for growing tomatoes
• Growing vegetables in new style containers
• How growing vegetables in the Pacific Northwest is different from the rest of the U. S. A.
• New ideas in vegetable gardening
• And if time permits: How to select a site for a new vegetable garden
Also on April 25, the Arlington Garden Club’s annual plant sale will take place at the City Hall Plaza, where the “Mayor’s Garden” will be blooming colorfully. The plant sale runs from 9 a.m. until noon and will include a bake sale.
“That is for those who run down to shop the plant sale without eating breakfast first,” Randall said.
The plant sale features starts from the gardens of the club’s many members, including everything from rhododendrons and dahlia bulbs to pre-planted containers ready for the growing season.
The Grow Your Own Groceries free presentation on April 11 will explain to gardeners what they should be doing in the vegetable garden this month. The Master Gardeners will explain the tricks of growing plants from seeds, how to handle transplants successfully, ways to maximize the heat from the sun in your garden, how to deter cats and other pests, why you need to rotate your crops and how to do it, how to maximize your yield, tips on growing onions, potatoes, strawberries and how best to use compost.
