We have a big week coming up at the garden! On Tuesday, we’ll be planting 250 strawberry plants and could use your help getting them in the ground! This will be a multi-stage process and we’ll have 3 beds to plant, so there’s plenty for everyone to do. On Thursday, we’ll be gathering at Tonya and Mike Proctor’s home (NOTE: their home, not their office as previously stated) – 115 S. Salem Street for our annual fall harvest dinner.

Strawberries/Tuesday – Here’s the slightly complicated back story. Strawberry plants up and down the east coast are testing positive for neopestalotiopsis (see this link if you’re interested in more information) This fungus is wreaking havoc on nurseries and growers. Not only can it cause total crop loss, but it can also remain present in the soil from one year to the next. It has been predicted that growers who raise strawberries in the same fields will be particularly hard hit. Thankfully we have two of the best resources in our backyard – NCSU and Country Farm & Home in Pittsboro. Many of researchers working on neopestalotiopsis are at NCSU so we have great information there. Country Farm & Home is a family-owned farm store that goes above and beyond for their customers and community. Melinda (the owner) searched high and low and eventually organized a refrigerated truck from a grower in California when all the nursery growers on the east coast ended up testing postive for this fungus. So sometime this morning the truck should arrive in Pittsboro with 585,000 bare root plants for farmers, gardens and growers in six states. I will pick ours up and then we need to get them in the ground ASAP.

Fall dinner/Thursday – At 6pm, we’ll gather at the Proctor’s home at 115 S. Salem St. You can park along Salem Street or in the parking lot of Apex Baptist Church across the street. You and your family are invited. This will be a potluck, so please bring enough to feed those coming with you plus 1 so we’ll have a variety of delicious dishes to share. Extra credit if you bring something made with a garden crop and/or the recipe so we can share it on our website. Tea/lemonade and water will be provided and you’re welcome to BYOB for anything else you’d like to drink. (We’ll have a cooler of ice.) We’ll enjoy each other’s company, great food and conversation about our successes, challenges and plans for next year.

I hope to see you all on Tuesday and Thursday!