PALM 2010 Begins

I know what you're thinking. It's still 2009, in fact it is still summer (at least for another few days). But along with the new school year, the planning for PALM 2010 starts now. The first PALM meeting is the Sunday after Labor Day (this year September 13). It will be a potluck picnic held at 2:00 in Granger Park in Dewitt Township outside of Lansing. Basically we use the meeting to discuss last year's ride, select people for next year's staff positions and site coordinators, and to select a route for next year. Typically there is not much of a battle for staff positions. In general we find out where we are short. But the route...

This year we will be doing a more southern route. (We alternate northern and southern routes.) People come up with proposed routes. We discuss them. (How are the roads, the traffic, the schools? Any long days?). We vote twice, once to narrow the choice down to two routes, and once to pick the candidate route. Now the work begins. Before the next meeting, the schools we hope to stay at are contacted and a route is mapped out. Sometimes we can't get the schools. Sometimes there is no good way to get from one school to another. Generally we have to change one or two schools but we've had years where we had to change 4 schools. So even when a route is picked, it's not over.

This summer I noticed more finches than usual. They seem to like a particular blue flowered weed that is growing in vacant lots along my running route. I've planted some cone flowers and Black Eyed Susans in front of my house. They are also supposed to produce seeds that finches like, but no finches yet. Another case of weeds overpowering the flowers.

I've expanded my vegetable garden this year. I was able to get some green peppers and some eggplant. Not a lot, just some, but better than last year when I got none. My turnips grew like weeds, but my beets didn't do so well. And, of course, I like beets more than turnips. This year I'm having success with zucchini: I have one plant that produces all that we need. My tomatoes are doing well, especially the Amish Paste tomatoes, a pear shaped variety. I put a raised bed behind my garage where there used to be an alley. I planted some carrots and parsnips there. Amazingly the carrots are doing well, but the jury is out on the parsnips. And I have enough basil for pesto! However my broccoli failed miserably. I planted butternut squash which wandered everywhere, produced big leaves, flowers, and one squash which the dog ate. At least I got some of the cucumbers.

Summer

Another thing I notice when I get back from PALM is the fireflies around my yard. This summer has been so cool (after the 90 degree day on PALM the next 90 degree day was August 8) that they have been around well into August.

After PALM the highpoint of my summer is the Detroit Urban Garden and Farm Tour put on by the Detroit Agriculture Network. I've mentioned the Garden Resource Program in Detroit, Highland Park, and Hamtramck. This year there are 244 community, 48 school and 517 family gardens participating, up 45% from last year. This your the tour was on August 5. You could take one of three bus tours or two bike tours. The tours started at Catherine Ferguson Academy, a Detroit public school for pregnant and parenting teenagers that has a farm with chickens, goats, rabbits, geese, ducks, turkeys and a horse plus a garden that produces food for both animals and students. All of the students are involved in the farm. Read more about gardening in Detroit here.

I took the Central City Bus tour and saw some gardens in the Highland Park area. One of the nice things about this tour is that you get to see some of the older distinctive homes in Detroit. Some of them are gorgeous, some of them need a lot of work, but even those show what they were. We saw a couple of first year community gardens, one started by a church for outreach and one by a community group that was trying develop a source for fresh vegetables for the neighborhood. The last garden, the Gloryland Community Garden near U of D, has a cistern, bee hives, flowers, vegetables, berries, and fruit trees laid out like a park. Afterward we all returned to Catherine Ferguson and ate some of the produce from the gardens at a reception.

Back to PALM. Our first PALM meeting will be September 13 in Lansing. It will be a picnic where we bring a dish to pass. We will be picking a route for 2010 from the proposals that people bring. If you would like to be on staff (and we are always looking for new staff), email us. I will post more details in a later post.