“Project Green Thumb”

Last year (2010), I had grand aspirations of planting a vegetable garden at the bottom portion of our vineyard #2, where a combination of water moving through the vineyard, as well as water created by our pond, made it much too wet to grow quality wine grapes.  We pulled out a half-acre of Petit Verdot, and I hated to see the land being used for nothing more than mowing, so I planted a short row of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and collard greens.  Everything did wonderfully, and I ended up pleading with people to take home the vegetables, because, of course, I had so many and they all came at once.  Who knew nobody likes collard greens?

So this year we’re really going for it.  We’re planting a 30 ft x 60 ft, and a 10 ft by 70 ft, garden with more or less every vegetable you can name.  Peas, beans, lettuce, kale, onions, peanuts,  peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, kale, collards, broccoli, squash, cucumber, watermelon, cabbage, cantaloupe, et cetera, et cetera.  The entire produce aisle, right next to our third leaf Merlot.  The soil has been prepared, we’ve put in trellising for peas, beans, and tomatoes – the land is just pleading to be planted.

Pepper and tomato seedlings hardening off

 We’re inviting our employees and customers to help out in the garden, if they’d like (because certainly I’m not doing all the work).  I know a lot of our Estate Club members, and regulars, live closer to D.C. and don’t have much (or any) land where they can plant flowers or vegetables.  We’ve got plenty, and so we thought we’d share what we have, as well as the bounty (all the collards you can eat!) in exchange for a few hours of planting or weeding or watering here and there.  Plus, there’s always a glass of wine waiting at the end of the gardening day.

If you guys would like to be a part of this, our plan is to open the garden to volunteers on Tuesdays and Sundays, all day, whatever time works best.  We have a number of people lined up to help, but I am hopeful that we can get more, because the more people we get involved, the bigger we can grow the garden, which means more veggies!   If you think you would like to volunteer, or would like more information, feel free to contact me at nate@sunsethillsvineyard.com.