Last Saturday our Open House was a great success! Beautiful weather and dedicated volunteers and partners helped to introduce our garden and South Wake Conservationists to the wider community. A wide variety of native plants were sold. Kids planted seeds and learned about pollinators. Master Gardeners answered questions and lots of folks toured the garden and many joined! This annual event is a great way to get the word out about all the exciting things we do. Thanks to everyone who helped make this event happen!

Please come out and help us harvest spring crops and transition to our summer crops. We planted 4 rows of tomatoes Tuesday and there’s lots more to come. We have several needs we hope you’ll consider to help keep the garden on track to grow healthy organic produce and get it to our neighbors in need:

• Volunteers needed to pick up compost from Neighbor Up (formerly WWCM) on 1st Fridays, 2nd Fridays and alternates to fill in for regulars – pick up expired produce from this Apex food bank for our compost bins. Transport multiple 5 gallon buckets with lids to the garden and dump in the compost bins and top with leaves. We have a rotation of folks who help with this and need a few more. Detailed instructions and buckets provided. Can be done at your convenience.
• Volunteers to transport produce to White Oak Foundation on 5th Thursday mornings in the summer and alternates to fill in for regulars – pick up freshly harvested produce at the garden and take it to White Oak Foundation in Apex
• Volunteers to transport produce to Holly Springs Food Cupboard on 5th Tuesdays and alternates to fill in for regulars – pick up freshly harvested produce at the garden and take it to Holly Springs Food Cupboard on Tuesday nights – training and instructions provided!
• Compost turning and plant wish list – checkout our Sign Up Genius for opportunites to get a free workout turning the compost bins at the garden. Compost is critical to rebuilding our soil and turning it is a regular maintenance task. This is usally done in pairs around the middle of the month at your convenience. This Sign Up Genius also includes a list of native pollinator plants we’d like to add to the garden. If you have plants you’d like to split from your yard or purchase, please contact Anne or Penny before you bring them so we can plan where they need to go.

If you can help with any of the first three tasks, please contact Anne at anneh21@gmail.com or 919-616-6659. We hope to see you all at the garden soon. If you know any rain dances, please do them non-stop and come to the garden and teach all of us!