Finishing part three of the fall festival linen quilt class: embroidery. All the pomegranates. Shout-out to Freeman’s Creative in Durham for all the new linen yarn they’ve gotten in lots of color if you’re looking for nicer Italian linen yarns in North Carolina. So many colors!
Also, finished our 50-60 local RTP community gardens survey in an attempt to figure out how to survive a century extreme drought next time. Some community gardens failed too, but a number sailed through with no problems which are worth sharing. The ones doing the best are 40-50 raised beds with fertilizer around a water central source from wells and rainwater barrels for easy watering. Little libraries, benches, food pantries, and counting scales feature heavily. Many churches have an adopt a bed program for roughly $10-20/year to cover costs of fertilizer which is clever. Small children’s books are loved. Edges of the gardens often have fences with pretty passion flowers, herbs, and grapes on them to produce 1,000-2,000 lb/year on average. Some gardens are doing closer to 5,000-8,000 lb/year, but that’s the exception. It is nice to see more experienced gardeners being successful.
Hope that helps as you get ready to plan your fall garden. Have a great week all!