Garden Updates

May 24, 2026

Hi All ~

Happy Memorial Day weekend!!!!

I will be in the garden tomorrow from 9 AM to 10 AM watering. You are welcome to join me, but of course it's a holiday so no pressure.

And, we have a lot going on at the farm because we have started our experiment. Nancy and Terry came and took soil samples on Wednesday the 20th, please see their comments below:

Soil Test:

"Nancy and I met at Mission Farms Wednesday and took 2 samples from Bed 3 and 1 sample from Bed 11.   We sampled about 5 areas in each section, pulling the top layer away and going down 6-8".  Nancy took photos of the beds.   

The samples were shipped to Waypoint yesterday.    The test will include: Salts, pH, Extractible Nutrients including Nitrogen and TEC,  Organic Matter, C:N, Moisture.   No texture test, I believe Lisa tested that in the past.   The beds have a high level of OM which isn't ideal for testing texture. 

Usual takes about 2 weeks for the results.   Matt is checking to see if Waypoint will provide a discount to MG."

Experiment :

We put one and a half cups of blood meal on rows one through four, each row is 75 ft.². We mixed that into the first 3 inches of soil (we removed mulch first, and then put mulch back).  On those rows, we also did a compost extract using seacoast compost one and a half cups per 5 gallon water bucket, mixing vigorously and then sifting it and putting it in a watering can and using it as a foliar feed.

We did the same application to row nine, we did compost extract only to row 10 and blood meal application only to row 11.

Mary Elliott took photos of the rose and the process, please see Google link below.

We will be taking pictures and writing down our observations.  A Google doc has been started by Nancy. I think we will keep our own Google doc and then combine them. As our experiment progresses, we will be sharing the results with the Master Gardener.

This is all very exciting to me as we can learn together.

St. Francis Center Tour

We had a fabulous tour of St Francis Center last Monday.  Carol was our tour guide and did a fantastic job. She showed us the clothing program where they provide clothing for their constituents, La Casita, which was the genesis of St. Francis Center, Siena Youth Center where they do after school programs and summer camps and tutoring. We were treated to a tour of their food program and how they distribute food, we got to see Holy family school, the classrooms and a few of the students.  It was very inspiring, and I'm not doing it justice, but if you would like more information, please ask the gardeners who are able to attend: Mar, Mary, Jeanne, Karen M., Diana Christine and her adorable little one. (photo below).  Did I miss anyone?  Great tour.

Garden Tours

Kathleen and I did a Garden tour of Mission Farm this morning for the San Mateo Arboretum Society. It went very well. It was about 16 gardeners very interested in regenerative agriculture, California natives… A very impressive group and was very fun.

The Garden right now presents a lot of learning opportunities so it's fun to explore that with others as well.

On Friday afternoon, I hosted a group of homeschool middle schoolers for a garden tour, that went well also.

Citrus Pruning

Kathleen has graciously offered to do a citrus pruning class for us on Thursday, June 4th at 10:00am. I think we were a little over enthusiastic with our pruning so she will go through some corrective pruning and how to prune citrus in spring and how in summer.

What to do in the garden this week 

• Unfortunately, the gophers got two more tomatoes. I have one that I brought from home that we can plant, but if anybody has an extra tomato plant, please feel free to bring it in. We will plant them in Gopher cages.

• The squirrels have started to harvest the apricots. They've gotten about half of them so far. They're not all colored up, but the ones that are colored up are rapidly being eaten by the squirrels. Open to ideas.

• We will leave the remaining lemons on the lemon tree so it can draw from the fruit. Kathleen will explain that to us on Thursday, June 4.

• Let's seed radish in all rows that aren't over planted.  We have French breakfast radish after all those seeds are gone. I might order a different radish that's more recognizable although French breakfast radish is delicious.

• Deadhead the roses in the hedge row.

• Water the hedgerow.  Please remember to water the soil and not the plant. Please try to keep the plant leaves dry and water at soil level.

• We can harvest a few heads of broccoli. I was obviously hoping to have 100 heads of broccoli, but given our rat problem, we only have a handful. :(

• Wherever you see a green flag, it means there is field bindweed. Please cut below soil level.

FREE:

I pruned my Manzanita in PV and I have lots of branches. If you are a floral designer or know one, who would like big medium or small Manzanita branches, you are welcome to come and pick them up.

Photos by Mary Elliot:

You mentioned during today's work session that the soils group would like documentation about activities at Mission Farm.  I photographed each planting bed in the study before we began applying blood meal and/or compost.  I also took a few photos / videos of our work today.  The link below contains the items and should be viewable by anyone you wish to share it with.  

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ivz2DhiN_u2M-9_FycmdiarNm-ffuKUT?usp=sharing

March 15, 2026

Hello….

Welcome to July, in the middle of March… 🥵

As you all know, we are now on city water. It has been about two weeks. We have watered the garden three times and it is turning out to be about 100 gallons per watering. Probably only half the garden is planted out right now, so I suspect that number will go up and certainly will go up during warm/hot weather. This is a very interesting experiment for me… as we have used 305.7 gallons of water... I am really watching every drop. Honestly, it's fascinating and I'm looking forward to all of your ideas on water wise vegetable gardening.  I would like to show everyone how to turn off/on the water.  ?Would anybody happen to have a washer I could borrow so our Dramm Redhead doesn't leak where it's connected to the hose??

Since we're going to be in the high 80s/low 90s days this coming week I am going to propose that we put floating row cover over the cages for our vegetables to give them a little shade/relief from the sun. Brassicas want to be between 60 and 70°. They actually benefit from a little kiss of frost and here we have it in the high 80s and they are not going to be happy, especially tender new seedlings. Unfortunately, given that, we will probably have to be watering every other day to get them through this next week. I stopped in yesterday to give them a drink.  Please note you always want to plant out tender little seedlings on a cool and overcast day, but we are in a bind and so we're going to have to go against best practices… sigh!

Also, I want to do a huge shout out to everybody who was there on Thursday and continued to work after I had to leave at 10 AM. You all did an absolutely fabulous job planting out all of the seedlings and covering them and watering them in. It really looks terrific!!! thank you!! And huge thanks to whoever put the hose away. I know I am completely neurotic around that, but honestly, it saves me a half an hour if it's done correctly. 😝. We will have a hose lesson on Monday!  🤗

When walking up the driveway from the cul-de-sac, please notice the gigantic ceanothus to your right under the redwood trees. I think it's snowball slurry it is gorgeous (white flower). And also, please notice the Ribes sanguineum that is in the corner by the steps to the back porch. It's starting to fade, but I just absolutely love that ribes.  Please help yourself to cuttings.

A little bit of housekeeping. There is a bathroom in my parents cottage that you are welcome to use now that there is no barn. Just let me know if you need to use the facilities and I can show you how to get there. And as mentioned in last week's newsletter, there are ample Wood Chips if you want to take some home. Just bring a garbage can or whatever's convenient to transport them (yay… go carbon!!)

We have a very busy week ahead and a shout out for all hands on deck!!  We will not be harvesting as we had too much other things to do!

Monday and Thursday - let’s (I will bring a print out of this!)

• Cover all of the planted rows with floating row cover to provide some relief from the sun. Attach it to the cages where possible. Does anybody have the small binder clips that would help us do this easily?

• Bump up the cilantro, fennel and parsley to Master Gardener 3 inch pots using Lyngso bagged soil (black wheelbarrow) and putting the tags in the back left hand corner. We need to do a nice job with these seedlings as they will be for sale at the Spring Garden market and we need to put our best foot forward.

• Bump up our tomato and eggplant and pepper seedlings. For this, please use the soil that's in the large green wheelbarrow and we have enough 3 inch diamond pots that we can use.

• Feed the white and blue borage for Spring Garden Market

• We will be planting out Belstar broccoli in rows 9 and 10 (interplanted with peppers).  Finish the Gypsy broccoli in row 11.  Cauliflower and cabbage in rows (now raised beds)… 6 and 7.  

• Let's choose some of our biggest cauliflower and cabbage seedlings to plant out rows 17 and19.  Finishing up our spring plant out. (Please see planting 10-step planting method below)

• Let's check the broccoli and rows 12 through 16 to make sure it is all thriving if it is not please check the whiteboard for a variety and replant where any broccoli is missing

• Please check  Row 18 … well watered… alive… on trellis …. sugar snap peas.

• Bring up the re-bar from along the driveway up to put in the corners of each row… since we will be dragging hoses… we need "hose bumpers"

• Relocate any Yarrow from row 16 into the front yard of 65 Mission Trail (maybe wait until next week, when it is cooler)

• Let’s do a hose winding/unwinding lesson : ) …. Looking for a hose washer …. If you have one laying around!

• Lisa to water the basil in the green house, brassicas and peppers in the mini-green house and the big green house.  Water the newly planted broccoli (rows 12-16), chard/brassicas ( row 2-5) sugar snap peas (row 18).  When watering water each seedling for five seconds, let it soak in and come back and water it for an additional five seconds. Then check with your Finger to see if the water is going down at least 1 to 2 inches. If you have to do a third or fourth time, five seconds each, please do , until the soil is saturated down an inch or two.  Oddly enough watering is one of the most difficult things in gardening to get it right!  Please always water at the base of the plant seedling … Unless it is a seed bed and then it needs to be evenly watered throughout the bed.

• When putting plastic pots away, thank you for putting "like with like". That way they stack better and we have room to store them. I have been using my 72 cell trays for 18 years and even though they're plastic, they are holding up well as long as I store them correctly and out of the sun.

How to plant a seedling at Mission Farm…always plant on a cool and overcast day

1. Chop and drop the existing non-edible plants. If it's an edible plant, chop it at soil level and give it to the chickens

2. Move irrigation lines out of the way

3. Spread a quarter to a half inch of compost from the bins over the whole row.

4. Spread your mulch… It is much better to do this before you plant out then after. You can use the straw, grass clippings from the compost pile or partially decomposed Wood Chips.

5. Put your irrigation lines back in and use landscape staples going across a row so they can easily be found (I can show you this step)

6. Lay out your well watered seedlings in a diamond pattern

7. Move away a little donut of mulch, about 4 inches across, put in your soil knife, make a deep hole (annuls deep, perennials high), drop in your seedling. Best to do the muddy up method where you take the engineered soil off of the roots and put it directly into the native soil. If you want to wash off the soil, you can always put a little bit of compost in a bucket with water, and inoculate those little roots with the existing microbes. I can show you this step if you have not done it before.  Please note on super hot days (not recommended for plant out) we might not do the muddy up method.  Put a little "stake" by your little seedlings so it's easily identified and tracked for watering and viability.

8. Thoroughly water in at base of plant

9. If a brassica, after you water, please sprinkle some OMRI Sluggo around the base of the plant being careful not to hit the leaves of the plant

10. Cover either with floating row cover, individual cages, wire mesh, bird netting, using poly tube and rebar.

Lastly, a few resources… from a German study that increase in plant diversity is an important driver or equestrian, carbon, and maintaining moisture I think you all know I am a fan of Joe Lamp’l. He curtains very similar to how we do and he has a free organic gardening seminar. Please sign up if that appeals to you.  

Happy Gardening.

Lisa

PS I dictate a lot of my emails, so please read between the lines!!!

March 8, 2026

HI All ~

Another lovely weekend… and WARM week ahead…. Hoping for a few more storms.

A heads up to everybody … the well/creek water is no longer available to us so we are now metered on "city" water. So we will have to make each drop count. This will be a good experiment for us as we've always been a little casual around our water use but now we will need to be 'water wise' with our techniques. The hose has been connected to a meter and we have a new meter coming that we will plug into the irrigation system. We'll probably do that in a week or two but right now we'll just need to hand water as we're going into some warm weather over the next 10 days.

Is anybody going to the GEC and could pick up a flat of strawberries that they kindly grew for us? We will be planting them in our new raised bed.  The GEC volunteers are there on Wednesdays.  If nobody's planning on going there, I will email Norine/Kit to see if they could bring them to Kit's house in Redwood City and then we could pick them up from there.

If anybody needs Wood Chips, please help yourself to the pile down by where the barn used to be. You can use our 5 gallon buckets or bring garbage cans.

Let’s

• Water the basil in the green house, brassicas and peppers in the mini-green house and the big green house.  Water the newly planted broccoli (rows 14-16), chard ( row 2) sugar snap peas (row 18)

• Harvest oranges, lemons, chard, kale, broccoli.  Please have on the harvest table by 10:00am (round table under the olive trees 

• We will be planting out broccoli in rows 9 through 13. Prep rows (weed), plant out, water, Slugo, cover.  We will plant in blocks of 4 feet skipping 2 feet and 4 feet again for rows 12 and 13 (as these rows will become home to our tomatoes come April 15). 

• Start planting our raised beds. Let's see if our artichoke plants are big enough, they will go in row one along with strawberries .

• Let's choose some of our biggest cauliflower and cabbage seedlings to plant out rows 17 and19 .

• Let’s uncover Row 18 has sugar snap peas and train them onto the trellis.

• Re-bar the new shelf in the greenhouse for stability.

• Relocate any Yarrow from row 16 into the front yard of 65 Mission Trail.

After everything is planted out and has had a chance to grow to 6 to 8 inches will start some cover cropping with California natives.

Thank you all… see you tomorrow (spring ahead - time change noted).

Best!

Lisa

🍊🍋🌿

March 1, 2026

Here we are at March 1… But it's feeling like July.

Lots of exciting things happening in the garden, and now that we are in March, we can start direct sewing lots of seeds… Arugula, beets, bok choy, cabbage, carrots, chard, cilantro, collards, dill, fennel, kale, lettuce, mustard, greens, parsnips, peas, radishes, spinach, and turnips.  We will not be doing all of those, but we will be doing some of them!!

And a huge thanks to Team Debbie last Thursday who brought her daughter Michele and granddaughter Kate who were instrumental in getting a whole bunch of cauliflower and cabbage potted up along with harvesting almost 200 pounds of citrus at neighbor David's house.  Also… team Thursday was Martha (she is BACK!!), Diane, Elia and Qing!!  Great teamwork!

You will see when you arrive on Monday that Luis is helping us put in raised beds in rows one through five. Even though we are not long for Mission Farm, we will be leaving Adam and Rayna in good shape for gardening where they will not have to struggle with gophers. We'll still need to cover things for other critters.  SOIL RECIPE:  the raised beds will be filled up with 1/3 existing soil (the mineral element), 1/3 compost (for water and air holding capacity and to feed the microbes) and 1/3 Wood Chips (for a carbon source for the microbes).  As the carbon is digested, we will continue to add compost and Wood Chips, but the mineral portion will stay in place so we will not be adding additional garden soil over the years.

Let’s

• We are going to start potting up our basil. It's ready to be bumped up into the Master Gardener 3 inch pots using the Lyngso potting soil (bagged) for SGM.

• Relocate any Yarrow from rows 12 through 16 into the front yard of 65 Mission Trail.

• We will be planting out broccoli in rows12 through 16. Water, Slugo, cover.  We will plant and blocks of 4 feet skipping 2 feet and 4 feet again. As these rows will become home to our tomatoes come April 15. More on that below.

• If any of the raised beds are complete, we will start planting out rows one through five with cauliflower, cabbage, beets, chard, seedlings, and seeds

• Let's choose some of our biggest salines to plant out rows 17 and19 with broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.

• Row 18 has sugar snap peas…. Let’s check… can they be uncovered and trained onto trellis?  Seed on other side of trellis.

• Water all seedlings in both greenhouses (finish any potting up)

• I bought a new shelf for the greenhouse, assemble the shelf 

After everything is planted out and has had a chance to grow to 6 to 8 inches will start some cover cropping with California natives.

Rows 12-16: I think everybody knows by now the reason we interplant broccoli with tomatoes is to keep the verticillium load down. Only broccoli does this. We will also be interplanting with some basil and probably some buckwheat too… Trying to get those seven or eight families in each row!  Then everyone cooperates instead of competes!

Donations:

192.5 lbs of citrus to SFC… YAY!  Huge thanks to David Weiss for his generosity in letting us harvest!

February 7, 2026

Good morning fellow gardeners,

I am in Boston where it is 24° and snowing!! 🌨️ i’m here for a long weekend with Ryan and I get to meet his marketing team at the Boston Red Sox on Monday which means I will not be in the garden!!

However, Diana is happy to lead the charge!!

If you could please continue to pot up all the broccoli into 3 inch. I think most of you have done this with me before, but you can use the dribbler to get it out. You can shake some of the soil off of the roots,  tuck it into its new pot. Make sure you water it well (Dramm redhead) and then put it on the table with the frame (by the compost pile) with bird netting over it. Make sure you put a label on the 20 x 20 tray as we have Gypsy, Belstar and Thompson. Pease go ahead and put the seeding date which should be 1/12 and the up-pot date (2/9 or 2/12).

Also, please continue to prune the deciduous fruit trees. Don’t worry about pruning the plum, which has the Plum Bud Gall Mite (thank you, Madeline for the ID) but all the rest can be pruned. Again, Diana can lead the charge on this activity as well.!

Please feel free to harvest any oranges 🍊 that are ripe. They can be stored in boxes in the shed if we can’t get them to the food bank.

Also, I am going to have another long weekend next weekend so I will not be there on Thursday the 12th (but Diana will be) or Presidents’ Day the 16th.

Perhaps everybody can enjoy a day off on the 16th and I will see many of you on February 19… when we will be harvesting citrus at David’s house on Jane/Landing.

The following week starting on the 23rd we will start seeding our tomatoes and herbs!

🌿 

Thank you for carrying on!

If somebody is in the garden 9th,  12th and 16th, if you could please water the peppers in the greenhouse and water the broccoli seedlings in pots!!!??!!

Many thanks 🙏🏼 

Lisa

February 5, 2026

HI All ~

I wanted to give a shout out to Madeline Bakarich (2017 MG) who researched and identified the Plum Bud Gall Mite.  Madeline attended a pruning workshop that Kathleen and I gave, and we were curious about a growth on our plum tree. Madeline tracked it down.

Please check your plum trees, and if they have Acalitus phloeocoptes report it to San Mateo County department of agriculture.  This mite is in Santa Clara county and spotted in San Mateo county starting in 2019.

https://www.smcgov.org/agwm/plum-bud-gall-mite-pbgm-acalitus-phloeocoptes

Happy winter pruning.

Lisa

November 29, 2025

Hi All ~

As we wrap up 2025 I want to pass along my thanks to all of you!  And I hope you all had a lovely, warm and peaceful Thanksgiving!

Our last event of the year is Monday,  December 1st 9 o'clock to 10 o’clock. For our annual magnolia wreath making.  Please join us if you can, please note reduced hours.  Karen Flores will be leading the way in bow making and wreath making.  Please bring a wire wreath frame, or two …. If you want to come a few minutes early, you can help prune the magnolia leaves so we have plenty for the wreathes.

Also, I want to thank you for your extreme patience with me since August.  I have been very busy and I am afraid the garden has suffered from it… I am truly grateful for each of you who have kept things chugging along in my absence.  I am up to my eyeballs in easements, road ownership, HOAs, CC&Rs, contractors, contracts, attorneys, accountants, realtors, etc… my time is no longer my own, and I am afraid this will continue for some time to come.  I am truly appreciative for all of you who pick up the pieces and ran with it!  Thank you, really.

I am very much looking forward to seeing you on Monday!  And, again, in mid-January.  

Warmly,

Lisa

Lots of donations last Thursday, thanks to apples from Alison and persimmons from Elia’s friend, and some from the Mission Fram's tree plus tomatoes (still!!… such a mild fall)  … 67 pounds to St. Francis Center and 72 pounds to Samaritan House.  An excellent year for donations… again and again, thank you for all the hard work!!

November 16, 2026

Good morning…

Awww… rain!!!  And the earth is happy!

This week looks a little iffy as rain is forecast for both Monday and Thursday… But I'm going to be in the garden Monday rain or shine as we need to harvest everything from the lower garden. As you all know, changes are afoot and we are getting my parents house ready to be put on the market and the four raised beds to the west are on a different lot so it will be a heavy harvest of everything in the lower garden (the beds will be taken out later this week).

We will do a fun sheet mulching project together on Monday… thank you Jerry for securing huge amount of cardboard!!!!!!

Lastly, I have a friend (Alison - many of you have met her as she volunteer in the garden)… has an enormous apple tree that we can harvest to donate the apples… we have a lot to do on Monday, so this will be a Thursday project.

I. This week in the garden

• Complete harvest of the lower garden plus upper garden - have on harvest table before 10:00am

• Sheet mulch with field bind weed section (see method below)

• Cover crop sloped orchard with mix with clover and Ca wildflowers

II. Donations

We skipped Thursday due to rain… but still a good showing for Monday

11/10: SFC:  28 lbs!!!  thanks Elia!

III. Upcoming event

Mark your calendars for your last MAGNOLIA wreath making party!!!  Please join us on Monday Dec. 1st to trim the magnolia and make a holiday wreath.  The usual, bring a wire wreath, and we will supply the rest.  This will be lead by Karen.

Please note our reduced hours of 8:30 to 10 o’clock… as we tuck the garden away for winter.

Lisa

We will rake away the wood chips to get to existing soil, leave the weeds, add compost, wet cardboard, compost and then put back the wood chips… let’s see if this helps with the field bind weed.

November 9, 2026

HI All ~

Well… an odd week ahead…. It will be close to 80 tomorrow… and then it looks like heavy rain on Thursday.  If rain is heavy, we will cancel Thursday… if drizzle, we are still on.

It is time to put the garden away for winter… we will continue to add a little compost to each row, make sure each row has mulch either by chop-n-drop or by us adding hay. The upper Orchard needs some chopping and dropping, and I might see if we can borrow the mulching lawnmower. I'd like to toss out some California native wildflower seed to cover crop both the upper Orchard and middle/sloped Orchard.

Let's harvest what we can. Heading towards mid November there's not as much, but surprisingly, we still have some tomatoes which we could ripen countertop or leave our tomatoes in until frost finally gets them.  We are now headed into two/three months of less than 10 hours of light so plants will just be stagnant.

With SNAP being in flux, please feel free to bring fruits and veggies from your home gardens … Last week Janet brought in beautiful pomegranates… They're all appreciated. I'm also cleaning out my pantry of canned goods that might help during this difficult time for many.

And, although we won’t need many boxes come winter (and we need to greenhouse space) … I called of the ’no box’ too soon… and we still need some more to get us through November.

I. This week in the garden

• Quick harvest upper and lower garden - have on harvest table before 10:00am

• Add compost to every row that doesn’t have compost already added, chop and drop every row (but not the veggies planted or native flowers), OR add hay mulch.

• Chop-n-drop the upper orchard (or mow) … add Ca wildflower seeds.

• Cover crop sloped orchard with mix with clover.

• 
  

II. Donations

We are still going strong into Nov. almost 100 lbs!!!  WELL DONE gardeners!!

11/3: SFC:  46 lbs!!! Just F&V.. … thanks Elia!

11/6 SH: 53 lbs… included some butternut squash!

November 2, 2025

Good morning…. I hope everyone is enjoying an extra hour of sleep!!

It has come to my attention that the Garden is getting away from us and we really need to finish up our seeding …  and tuck the garden away for winter.

As you know, we will be taking all of December and the first week of January off. And for the month of November, I think we will reduce our hours to 8:30 until 10 AM, after this Monday.  This Monday, we will need to roll up our sleeves and try to tackle every row as they need a significant amount of chopping and dropping, seeding, light layer of compost, water in, cover to protect the seeds.

Also given the precariousness of the SNAP program right now, I'm hoping we can get a quick harvest in from 8:30 until 9 AM and then tackle the rows.

Thank you for bringing food scrapes to the chickens… they love it!  I think we can slow down on box brining… as we move into winter and will need the greenhouse for plants.

I. This week in the garden

• Quick harvest upper and lower garden - have on harvest table before 10:00am

• experiment: move half of the peppers in black bags into the green house, water.  Leave the other half in the garden to over-winter.

• Chop and drop every row (but not the veggies planted or native flowers), seed (short season greens and root veggies), cover crop, add compost, water in, cover, write on white-board

II. Donations

We are doing very well for the tail end of October… still will over 100 lbs per week.

10/27: SFC:  22 lbs… thanks Elia!

10/30 SH: 94 bls… WOW… Drew!

I know I am not to send photos so I don’t clog everyone’s email/photo files… but the continued tomato harvest is incredible!!  And so appreciated this time of year by the food banks.

III. Upcoming event… and favor…..

• Mark your calendars for your last MAGNOLIA wreath-making party!!!  Please join us on Monday, Dec. 1st, to trim the magnolia and make a holiday wreath.  The usual, bring a wire wreath, and we will supply the rest.

• FAVOR!!  Is anyone a member of Filoli and has the membership where you can take a guest??  I was thinking we could take a field trip to Filoli this Friday, the 7th, at noon, to see the trolls before they leave on Monday, the 10th.  I let my membership lapse… but I would love to see the trolls…. I think you need to make a reservation, yes?

October 26, 2026

Hello All ~

It is nice to get a little moisture … then back into sun this coming week.  We will focus on getting all of your seeds in before November is upon us.

I want to thank everyone who came to the Regen Ag update on Monday… and especially Terry L, who I put on the spot, but, as always, she doesn’t disappoint!  So much deep knowledge.  We have a short summary that Terry shared, plus some other resources below.  And, also, thank you for the all the yummy treats.

Other notes:

• I usually take tomatoes out mid-October… but, miraculously our seem to be going strong, so let’s do an experiment and see if they are killed by frost or go kaput.. our usual first frost in Woodside is October 15th (last frost April 15th) … but we have yet to have a frost day… and the tomatoes are still producing… so we will let them go.  A plant will not experience growth with less than 10 hours of sunlight (November 20, 2025-January 21, 2026)

• We will keep all of the plants in the lower garden going until they die from frost or give out. After that we will remove/chop-n-drop them and the lower garden will become a California native garden for the foreseeable future. We're consolidating our efforts into the upper garden, which will feel more community like anyway!  In the meantime… let’s harvest down there!  This will be an experiment on how long our tomatoes/eggplant/squash keep producing.

• Thanks to Jerry for putting the greenhouse door back on.

• Please remember when you plant or seed any given row that you put it on the whiteboard

I. This week in the garden 

• Upper and lower: Harvest: tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, broccoli, figs, pomegranates (Elia comes at 10:00am- please have everything on the harvest table by then)

• Chop-n-drop rows 2-7 and seed (fast growing greens, lettuce, radishes, plus some kale).  Seed among the tomatoes.

• Re-seed sugar snap peas along the trellis (I will start some in trays as well)

• Cut Field bindweed below soil level (please do not pull) lots of it

II. Donation 

It is amazing to me we are in mid/late October and still donating so much.. over 100lbs!  

10/13 Elia to SFC 33 lbs.

10/16 Drew to SH 70  lbs. 

October 12

Good Morning…. 

Tomorrow is a holiday for St. Francis Center… so we won’t be harvesting for donations, but we will start to harvest tomatoes that have some color to ripen countertop and we will donate in a week or two.  I will need volunteers to take tomatoes home to ripen.  We will start taking tomato plants out, depending on how much fruit they have.  October is one of my hardest months in the garden because it's so difficult to take tomatoes out, but we're really in our last week of getting any plants in the ground. November (and even late October) it's too late to seed or plant anything, and we won't be planting out again until February/March.

Like last year, we will be taking all of December off and the first week of January. At the end of November, we will probably have our last magnolia wreath-making Christmas party (funny to even mention Christmas!!)

• If it is pouring tomorrow morning, garden time will be canceled.  Thursday’s forecast looks rain-free. 

• Please remember when you plant or seed any given row that you put it on the whiteboard

For the upcoming class on Monday, October 20, please PARK at 1101 CANADA RD and walk up to the garden from there. We will be doing work that day on Mission Trail, so it will be closed to traffic.  All MG’S are invited and I will let them know to park there too.

I. This week in the garden 

• Mulch as necessary 

• Plant broccoli rows 13-15. Plant, water, sluggo, cover!

• Seed rows 1-5

• Seed sugar snap peas along the trellis and fences on rows 17 and 18 (last chance to do this)

• Cut Field bindweed below soil level (please do not pull) lots of it

• Clean, scrub, and organize our garden shed - it has gotten a little out of control

• Put the door back on the greenhouse - we have some rudimentary tools in our toolbox

II. Donation 

10/6 Elia to SFC  lbs.

II. Photos 

If you have any photos of Mission Farms from the past or present, please send them to Drew.  We would like to post them on our website for all of us to view.  Email them to missionfarmsca@gmail.com

October 5, 2025

Good Morning…. 

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Exciting news!!!  Drew has your new website up and running!! He did a beautiful job… and also wants your input!  If you have any spectacular photos (which I think you all do) please email Drew for easy instructions at missionfarmsca@gmail.com.  We will be adding content over time and resources.  I am so happy about this.  I will no longer include photos with my weekly emails, as to not use up your storage… but they will live on the website.

Other notes:

• We will be taking our tomatoes out next week to give ourselves a little time to seed and plant out before the end of October is upon us. To that end, let's do a hard harvest of tomatoes.

• We will keep all of the plants in the lower garden going until they die from frost. After that we will remove/chop-n-drop them and the lower garden will become a California native garden for the foreseeable future. We're consolidating our efforts into the upper garden, which will feel more community like anyway!  In the meantime… let’s harvest down there!  This will be an experiment on how long our tomatoes/eggplant/squash keep producing.

• Please remember when you plant or seed any given row that you put it on the whiteboard

I. This week in the garden 

• Hard harvest, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, broccoli, grapes, figs (Elia comes at 10:00am- please have everything on the harvest table by then)

• Mulch row 19 - we now have hay.

• Prep rows 13-15 for broccoli. Plant, water, sluggo, cover!

• Seed sugar snap peas along the trellis and fences on rows 17 and 18

• Cut Field bindweed below soil level (please do not pull) lots of it

• Clean, scrub, organize our garden shed - it has gotten a little out-of-control

• Put door back on greenhouse - we have some rudimentary tools in our tool box

II. Donation 

We continue to donate lots of nutrient dense food.  This is impressive given the time of year!. Well done, please see photos below.

9/29 Elia to SFC 47 lbs.

10/2 Drew to SH 66 lbs. 

III. Future Classes: date Oct. 20th from 9:30 to 10:30

• Kathleen and I would like to do a refresher class on regenerative agriculture. Reviewing the five principles.

  • Minimize soil disturbance 

  • Keep soil covered

  • Maintain living roots

  • Increase plant diversity 

  • Integrate livestock (if possible)

• We would like to discuss the question… Is that a weed or is that fertilizer? We all know our system is driven by the sun which drives photosynthesis. It is photosynthesis and the storing/sharing of those carbohydrates that are feeding our soil and keeping the microbes alive and well. Let's enjoy a lively discussion.

• Also, we will talk about crop rotation 

• All Master Gardeners have been invited to attend.  Please feel free to bring refreshments.  This will be in the garden if good weather and in the hayloft if raining.

September 28, 2025

Good Rainy Morning All ~

Welcome to fall, now in full quietness…and moisture from heaven!  I am looking forward to some possible rain over the next few days.

Even though it is late in the season, this is the perfect weather to plant out. You want to plant out on a foggy/moist day to help seedlings get established versus hot/sunny/windy days where it's very difficult for them to take hold. We’ll try to get the rest of our broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower planted and prep rows for seeding. We’re running against the clock at the end of September … October is pretty late.

And on the team management front, several of you have stepped into management team positions, which I am very grateful!!

• Janet - will be helping with educational classes (4-6 times per year) and field trips (1 or 2 per year).  Plus printing and bringing the ‘to do’ list each week.

• Jerry - has taken over the lower field and will also be helping ‘run’ the upper field.  I love Jerry’s idea of doing cover crops in the lower field, CA natives, in late fall, instead of veggies this winter - it will be beautiful.

• Drew - has developed a website for us!!!!!  It is still in the works, but should be released soon.  I will not be adding photos to the weekly newsletters, they will now live on the website.  Any good photos please pass along to Drew.

• Diana - will be taking over ordering seeds and possibly other items.  And a HUGE congratulations to Diana as she has been accepted into the Master Gardener program!  Our second MG to come out of Mission Farm :) 

Along with this fabulous team, we still have our founding mamas… who are well versed in regenerative agriculture to ask questions of:  Suzie, Ginny, and Karen.  I hope to do a pamphlet (this fall/winter) on our practices, for all of you to edit/review!

I. This week in the garden 

• Take out cucumbers on the trellis - make way for broccoli and sugar snap peas 

• Seed sugar snap peas along the trellis

• Hand pick snails at 8:30 - give to chickens - this has been very effective in my home garden

• Harvest, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, broccoli, grapes, figs (Elia comes at 10:00am - please have on HARVEST TABLE by 10).  Round glass table under the olive trees

• Mulch row 19 - let’s get some hay from the barn

• Prep and plant out broccoli rows 6 and 7. Cabbage/cauliflower rows 12-16. Plant, cover, water, sluggo.

• Cut Field bindweed below soil level (please do not pull) lots of it

• BIG JOB: Chop and drop rows 12-16 to get them ready for seeding.  Seed: arugula, beets, bok choy, chard, cilantro, kale, lettuce, mustard greens, radishes and spinach 

• Prune back tops of tomatoes and cut off flowers, cut off water

• Lower garden - harvest.

II. Donation 

We continue to donate lots of nutrient dense food . Well done!

9/22 Elia to SFC 48 lbs.

9/25 Drew to SH nice haul. 

III. Future Class - Oct. 20th

• Kathleen and I would like to do a refresher class on regenerative agriculture. Reviewing the five principles.

  1. Minimize soil disturbance 

  2. Keep soil covered

  3. Maintain living roots

  4. Increase plant diversity 

  5. Integrate livestock (if possible)

• We would like to discuss the question… Is that a weed or is that fertilizer? We all know our system is driven by the sun which drives photosynthesis. It is photosynthesis and the storing/sharing of those carbohydrates that are feeding our soil and keeping the microbes alive and well. Let's enjoy a lively discussion.

• Also, we will talk about crop rotation and cover cropping

• Refreshments provided - might be in the apartment/hay loft - depending on weather

Thanks!

Lisa

PS it is Redhawk season… please put food scraps for chickens under the olive tree.