Pantry garden activities really picked up in May.

I found a medium-sized rototiller at Tractor Supply in Whitehall. The store allowed me to purchase it while it was on sale and agreed to hold it for me until Bill Meltzer could transport it to the garden. The tiller is powerful enough to easily rip through the beds, yet it is small enough for me to reasonably handle.

After reading the manual, I was able to spend time rototilling May 16. First was the bed planned for potatoes. It took less than 30 minutes to complete this task, so I went to work tilling the lower bed, which is closest to the Ironton Rail Trail. When this task was complete, I still had some energy, so I proceeded to till the bed intended for sweet potatoes.

Mind you, each of the beds needed a second pass to be ready for planting, but for not yet being in “gardening shape,” I was satisfied with what I had achieved.

Sylvia Lee joined me in the garden May 18 to rake out the weeds, which had been unearthed from tilling. After working for about an hour in the heat, we decided to leave before either of us burst into flames.

During the Memorial Day weekend, rototilling was difficult due to the wheels becoming caked with mud, but the potato bed and the lower bed received the second pass-throughs and were ready for planting.

I ordered Kennebec seed potatoes from Burpee May 10, and they arrived May 19. Sylvia Lee and Fran Worman joined me in the garden May 26 to plant potatoes. Just before Sylvia and Fran arrived, I prepped the potatoes by cutting them into approximately golf ball-sized pieces with at least two eyes per piece.

Sylvia hoed the rows 3 feet apart, and Fran and I placed the potatoes into the rows approximately 14 inches apart. We planted all the rows and still had potatoes left, so Sylvia hoed three additional rows in the lower bed to use up our supply. After the potatoes were covered, Sylvia and Fran transplanted volunteer sunflower plants into the lower bed.

Following their plant sale, we were fortunate to receive 20 sweet pepper plants and 10 slicing tomato plants from The Seed Farm. Sue Butchinski joined me in the garden May 26 to get these plants into the ground. Sue did all the planting while I raked the bed in advance of her progress. I watered, and we both set the cages around each plant.

Johnny’s Seeds sent us a box full of assorted vegetable, herb and flower seeds. We will be able to use some of the seeds this year and next or share with other pantry gardens. Additional sweet pepper plants and jalapeño pepper plants were purchased from Lehigh Valley Home and Garden and will be planted at our next work night.

Zucchini, butternut squash, radish, basil, cilantro, zinnia and sunflower seeds were ordered from Johnny’s Seeds, and sweet potato slips were ordered from Burpee. We expect to get these items into the ground during our work nights over the coming weeks.

A local beekeeper has expressed interest in placing some bee boxes at our pantry garden. More to come on this great opportunity.

At the food pantry in May, we were able to offer a diverse selection of fresh vegetables including red beets, carrots, onions, lettuce, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, apples and grapefruit. Thank you to all the volunteers who bagged up the produce!

We also had pantry volunteers bring in herbs from their home gardens to share with pantry guests. Thank you for your generosity!

Remember, food donations, reusable shopping totes and paper bags with handles may be donated 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays at the RE/MAX Unlimited office at 1080 Schadt Ave., Whitehall.

If you want your donation to be picked up or if you prefer to drop your donation directly at the pantry, call or text me at 610-379-6823.

Happy gardening!

Editor’s note: This column was written by Gwen Herzog, pantry garden chair.