Sacred Garden Sanctuary Newsletter for January • 2012

We have completed our first chicken "tractor", painted in lovely ivory and green. The picture shown on the right shows it in its functional but uncompleted state --the picture was taken before we put a permanent 2-section hinged roof on top. It is working very well now and the chickens love it. It does have one minor disadvantage that during winter it shades the bed to its north. This will be minimized as spring progresses, and also by moving it around frequently.

Dan has replaced the circle garden gate with a new properly hinged and extra-sturdy gate that should last many years.Nikki added some colorful paint to it and some of the structural posts of the circle garden.

We have also completed the "greenhouse" shown in the last newsletter issue, removing the frame inside it and placing glass panels on top, some which are hinged. Thanks, Dan and Nikki for completing this project.

We have decided to eventually extend the garden area to include the area west of the pond and possibly to the east as well. We will build the domes in a semi-circle  north of the pond, rather than surrounding it. We will be drawing a layout on paper of the semi-circle where we will be building domes and determine how many domes will fit in the semi-circle. We will also be finalizing the design of the domes

 Members and Guests

Another passing: Edwin's cat Goldie suffered a paralyzing embolism and had to be euthanized. This was very sad for us all. She was only 4 1/2 years old, and such a sweetie. Bye, Goldie.

Good news, we had a visitor this month, Jose (see picture on right) and he has decided to join the community, and will be returning mid-February. Welcome, Jose!

We also had a brief visit from Shannon, a fellow market vendor, today and he is planning to try out an overnight visit some time in the near future. 

We are also hopeful for a visit in February from Dan and Barbara from Albuquerque, NM and possibly their friend as well.

We are continuing the dialog with Jay in Michigan and others about potential visits and business proposals. It appears that Edwin and Jay have reached a verbal agreement on a website contract that Edwin will develop for Jay. This will bring in needed cash flow to the Sanctuary and provide funds for more building projects and garden expenses. Through his businesses, Jay may be able to contribute the labor of some of his employees and students, when we need a large crew to get big things done. Our many thanks to Jay for this offer.

 The Garden

We are continuing to expand the garden beds and have completed 2 1/2 beds so far this month. We are trying to dig at least one bed per week and are close to being on track with that schedule.

As you can see in the pictures below, the out-planting of  lettuce, cabbage, pak choi, and snow peas was a success..Some of the cabbages and lettuce have been attacked by critters so we now have row tunnels on the beds where we have these planted. We are trying out planting winter wheat in with the potatoes in one bed and alfalfa in another. This should help build soil and give more for the hungry chickens to eat. 

Nikki is the "mother" in charge of all the plant "babies" and is doing a wonderful job with the cell trays and larger transplants as the babies grow. Thanks to the new "greenhouse" we have more space for a nursery.

 Other News