Take Monday off this month. 

We're going to.  Everything at the garden seems to be running smoothly and all of our current plans are on track.  As such, we decided to cancel our July planning meeting that would normally be scheduled for Monday, July 18. See you all at the library building in August though, to share thoughts and ideas for the fall season.

Our off-the-grid irrigation is off the charts!

Who needs city water to grow a garden? A couple of heavy rains this week is all it took to fill up our 550-gallon cistern and all seven of our 50-gallon rain barrels.  

The water is fed into the cistern from the metal roof of our next door neighbors Adam and Patti Ann Rugland (they’re new garden members, too… welcome!), and can then overflow into the barrels through a connection of pipes that was designed and installed by Ricardo Bonilla (pictured here) with the help of Tim Baker and Tony Perilla.

Our gratitude to this able team of “hydro-engineers”, and thank you once again to both the Tampa Garden Club and the Hillsborough County’s Neighborhood Relations office, whose funding grants have made it possible for us to develop this efficient, eco-friendly irrigation system for the garden.

Coalition of Community Gardens to meet again, Saturday July 23.  Everyone is invited to participate!

Here’s an excerpt of an email we recently received from Kitty Wallace at the Tampa Garden Club and Coalition of Community Gardens --

This is a reminder for you and your gardeners to attend our next coalition meeting at the Hillsborough Extension office on Saturday afternoon, July 23.  I am not sure if we set a time but how about 2:00? Thanks to Lisa Meredith for making the arrangements for us to use the building, 5339 County Road 579, Seffner 33584.

Topics: 
- How does your garden get through the summer?  
- Status of the MPO, Health Dept. grant

See you there.  Bring a little snack to share.  
Kitty 

***

We’d like to see at least two representatives from S.H.C.G. at each of these meetings, but more of us is even better.  Everyone can come, and if you do we guarantee you’ll meet some great people there.

And taking place earlier that same day…

Here’s something else you might want to check out… we also received this email from Lynn Barber, Florida-Friendly Landscaping Extensions Agent for Hillsborough County – 

We wanted to provide you with the opportunity to attend our City of Tampa Water Department sponsored event on Saturday, July 23, 2016, from 8 am – 12:30 pm, at the Hillsborough Community College – Dale Mabry Campus, Tampa.
 
This year, our FFL 101 theme is: Landscape Selections That Save Time, Money and Water! We have several vendors and a plant diagnostic table. So, bring your plant questions, leaf and insect samples. We hope you will be able to attend. Please register at: http://2016ffl101.eventbrite.com. Thanks.
 
Lynn Barber, Extension Agent – Florida-Friendly Landscaping
UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County
http://hillsborough.ifas.ufl.edu 

We need “Garden Nannies” to nurture seedlings for our fall planting.

We’ve got a good inventory of seeds of all types, lots of planting trays, and plenty of our own homegrown organic soil from compost.  Now we need some people power in the form of “Garden Nanny” volunteers to start our fall seedlings at home.  Can you commit to growing a tray or two on your porch or patio?  If you’d like to help, please contact Colleen at info.shcg@gmail.com and she’ll arrange to get meet with you to hand off the necessary supplies and answer any questions.  Thanks!

Lend a hand, make some friends, and help our garden grow. Saturday mornings, 9:00 am to noon

Planting, weeding, watering, harvesting, and tending the compost and the garden worms... these are a few of the regular tasks essential to our ever-bountiful community garden.

We gather for a few hours every Saturday morning, pitching in together to keep it going and keep things growing.  So please join us if you can this weekend.  

Sunscreen and garden hats are recommended, and bring some water to stay hydrated.  

We look forward to seeing you!

All the best,
Your friends from Seminole Heights Community Gardens
www.seminoleheightscommunitygarden.org