The garden is resting

Thanks to a special member, the garden has been tilled and put to bed for the winter. We planted a rye and vetch cover crop to help stabilize and add some organic nitrogen to the soil. We also planted garlic for an early summer harvest in 2012! Until next year, THANKS members for a successful season.

Garden Potluck!

This Tuesday, August 23rd we will have our regularly scheduled  work session starting at 5pm which will be followed by our Annual Garden Potluck at 6:30!  The potluck is a great way to meet fellow gardeners, hang out with friends and eat delicious food together.  Please bring a dish to share, along with your own dishes/utensils.  Beverages will be provided! 

Watching out for the Garden!

Hello Dear Hardworking Gardeners!

Before I delve into our weekly work session, I want to thank Phil and Trish for being diligent  and watching out for the garden.  Trish confronted the guys taking off with our cabbages (mystery solved!) and produce after a second week in a row.  Although we want to maintain an open fence policy and encourage all of you to work/harvest during the week if the Tuesday session does not work for you, we also want to make sure that all of our dedicated gardeners benefit from the efforts they have put in. 

If you encounter people you have ever met before in the garden feel free to introduce yourself and ask how they are involved.  If they are not involved, please tell them about the garden, and feel free to give them info on how to get involved (I will be putting some brochures on the garden board on the side of the shed), but make it clear that produce is only for garden members!   You will either meet a new garden member you haven't met before or you will help us weed out people that may just be mooching off our hard work.

I also want to remind everyone that the garden should be a supplement to your weekly vegetables.  With 35 members and Grow Another Row, we want to make sure everyone gets a piece of the pie so please take/harvest with that in mind...there is PLENTY to go around!!  And will only have more as the season progresses!

On to this week's session: We have our weekly garden session tonight from 5-7pm.  We will be addressing weeds (the ever constant battle, we had a GREAT session last week, let's repeat that!), removing dead zucchini plants (in to the garbage since they are infested with squash bugs), and harvesting:  onions!, green beans, ripe tomatoes, tomatillos, okra, eggplant, cukes, chard, kale, basil...etc!

See you tonight!!

Ilana

Squash Bugs: a call to arms!

sad squash plant :(

ATTENTION gardeners!  there is an invasion going on in the garden, and unless you want ALL the squash plants to look like this (on the right!)  then we MUST join together in a unified front.  this is a call to arms (or in the case of an organic gardener, your fingers and feet).  every single time you are in the garden this summer whether it is to work or harvest (hopefully both) please take a minute to inspect the zucchini plants.

eggs!

FIRST: turn over the leaves and look for clusters of eggs that look like this (on right). they may also be paler brown to yellow to white.  then, use either your thumb and finger, or a rock on either side of the leaf to CRUSH the eggs.  they are resilient little things so you'll have to use a little effort to squish them completely.  it's ok if the leaf gets a little bit crunched in the process, the eggs must be destroyed.

 

nymphs

SECOND: if the eggs hatch out, they produce nymph squash bugs, which look like this (on right).  these little greenish critters will start sucking the juices out of the leaves and stem and pretty soon start doing in the plant.  to prevent this, we have to get them too.  once again, bring the fingers and thumb together to crush.  if there's a big infestation (recent hatch) of these and you have some organic soap spray with you feel free to spray a cluster of the little nymphs.  the soap spray will suffocate them.  be careful adn try not to spray too much of the plant.

adults! mating pair!

THIRD: and finally are the adults.  as seen here (a mating pair!  getting ready to lay eggs!  don't worry, they are now in the land of squash bug heaven).  look near the base of the plant to find these.  they are fast, but they don't bite.  pick them up and either squish them with your finger-thumb or put them on the path and step on them, quite firmly!

i know, this is a violent post and i am not a supporter of violence.  but we have a problem and there are only so many of my lunch breaks that i can try and tackle the squash bug invasion alone.  if this is not taken care of almost daily we will lose all our squash plants, so get on it!  (and if you can't find any eggs, nymphs or adults, feel free to do some weeding :) )

~ilana

SQUASH BUGS!

Squash Bug!

If you do head down to the garden this week to do a little work, keep on eye on the squash plants as the SQUASH BUG has infested! The only promising organic means of exterminating this unsightly creature is to squash him between your thumb and forefinger! If we stay on top of eradication we'll have healthy squash all season, which, that being said, the SB has already gotten to a few squash plants.  Yikes!

For those that do NOT know what the squash bugs or the eggs look like, see this VERY helpful link sent by our very own Jerry Stringfellow: 

http://www.elperfecto.com/2010/06/25/squash-bugs-what-are-they-and-how-to-get-rid-of-them/

Jessie: that was a squash bug that you brought over last week for inspection! Good work --- they must perish! That was a HUGE adult and if you could only imagine how many babies come out of those eggs. Squash the bugs away!

One other word of caution w/ all of this unusual rain we are having: please do NOT pick the beans when the bean plants are wet as it spreads bacteria to the plants.

End of June Pics

Garden at the end of June, coming in nicely!

   

Squash flowering!

Corn...growing slowly and steadily.  Fingers crossed for it!

Tomatoes ready to be staked and suckered.

Last work session of spring + springtime recipes

Happy Flag Day!

Tonight will be our last work session of the Spring as next Tues. will officially be SUMMER! 

Tonight we will be focused on: 

• Suckering tomatoes 
• Beginning to train the tomatoes to the stakes 
• Drenching the corn 
• Drenching the nasturtium 
• Pulling weeds! 
• Replanting cucumbers 
• Harvesting kale, chard, and broccoli 

NEEDS: 

• More stakes for more tomatoes! Please bring them if you have them. Anything tall and slender, like a tamarisk branch... 
• Boxes & plastic bags for harvesting (especially for when we have bounty for Grow Another Row) 
• Twine for training tomatoes up the stakes 
• Organic Cucumber seeds (we need about 8 seeds to replace what hasn't sprouted in a few of the mounds!) 

Please bring whatever you have on this above list to our work session this evening. 

Here are two recipes to help you utilize our garden's bounty. The first one showcases a succulent weed which is popping up everywhere (especially in the cracks of my back patio!) 

Purslane Pesto 1 bunch purslane
1/2 of a lemon’s juice
1/4 cup macadamia nuts
1/2 clove garlic
1/4 c or less olive oil added slowly until it reaches desired consistency
salt and pepper to taste

Blend up in food processor and enjoy! Serves two. Excellent over salmon, and a medley of roasted onion, new potato, sweet carrots, and cutting celery greens. So delicious! 

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Roasted Broccoli with Soy Sauce and Sesame Seeds 1 lb. fresh broccoli florets (see trimming instructions) 1 1/2 T olive oil 1 T soy sauce 1 tsp. sesame oil 1 T sesame seeds, toasted 
Preheat oven to 450 F (or use 475 and shorten the cooking time slightly.) ---OR---  forget the oven and marinate the broccoli then toss it in your stovetop or outdoor grilling wok!  
Cut broccoli into pieces about 2 inches long. Then cut through stems just to where florets start, and break apart so broccoli is in same-sized pieces. (This method of cutting through the stems and then breaking the broccoli apart also eliminates the mess when you cut broccoli and small bits fall off.) 
Place broccoli in plastic mixing bowl and toss well with olive oil, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Arrange in single layer on baking sheet and roast 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, stir and continue roasting 5 minutes more, or until broccoli is tender-crisp and slightly browned on the edges. 
While broccoli roasts, toast sesame seeds in a dry pan over very high heat for 30-60 seconds. When broccoli is done, put it back into plastic bowl, dump in sesame seeds, and toss again. Serve hot.

 

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Toodloo spring...see you again next year.  
(image from DesignSponge)