by Yvette Cain
8/1/2019

Mid-summer Senior Garden Update

While many of us swelter with temps bringing us “the air you can wear,” the plants in Holliston’s Senior Center garden burst skyward with veggies, flowers, and herbs. 

Tuesday’s haul, picked early in the day, included zucchini and summer squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, Asian eggplants, and a single scallion.  Linda Sottile, Assistant Director, looked with delight at the bounty.  She, as well as many others adept in the kitchen, will put the produce to use for Thursday lunches at the Center.  Whenever possible, the staff incorporates the weekly veggie treasures into the menu.  At the request of Linda, more cilantro, celery, and specialty plants were added this year.

Linda’s desk bedecked by Tuesday morning’s garden loot.

Lots of greens are needed for the salads: kale, spinach, and many colored lettuces.  Dill, parsley, oregano, and thyme are used fresh in the dressings and dried for future use.  Green peas and the edible pod peas produced well this spring.  And zucchini has already been used for a salad ingredient. (Did diners think it was a tasteless cucumber?)

The cucumber vines casually drape over the bed. 

The Senior Garden Committee, chaired by Kathy Anguish, is producing for its second summer season.  Three raised beds, a strip bordering the back of the building, and a little pumpkin patch adjacent to the new shed are tended by several volunteers.  (“Many hands make light work.”)  Some volunteers specialize:  the waterer, the planter, the weeder--actually, several weeders!-- and the pickers.  (If you have a special talent and would like to share, contact Linda at 508.429.0622.)  Kathy and I are planning a second planting of some radishes and spinach, both of which did not grow well this spring. 

Infrequent visitors – a stray deer, a woodchuck, a rabbit or two—help to prune the crops, but lettuce decimated by the deer in June has returned with a vengeance in July.  A little squirt from a spray bottle is keeping the aphids at bay, so the garden remains largely organic. 

Tomatoes, cukes, and squash grow along the rear wall of the Center.

The single pumpkin propped up on a plastic pot.

Salvia and zinnias have done well among the fruits; these are used as centerpieces for breakfasts and lunches.  We await the arrival of carrots in the fall, some specialty cucumbers, and Kathy’s dill pickles!  The plants have thrived in Holliston’s weather…we only hope the rain and sun ratio persists!