Preparing your bed for winter

Fall is here, and it is time to prepare your garden plot for the cold months ahead.  By following some of the tips below, your fall efforts will result in a better plot come spring!

Please clean up any dead plants in your plot. Chop thick plants like broccoli and tomato vines with a hatchet before putting them in the composter. Follow the composter instructions. 

Feel free to leave kale, spinach, lettuce, tatsoi, or other hardy vegetables in your bed.  This is also the time to plant garlic for harvesting next summer!   Local garlic is still available at the market, and also at the Pig and Olive butcher shop on Bath Road. Split the bulb and plant each clove individually, about four inches apart, in a dense square. Garlic is easy to grow and is ready by mid July, leaving space to grow something else.

We also recommend mulching your plot with shredded leaves. The best amendment for clay soil is shredded leaves that have weathered for a few months. A 6- to 8-inch layer of shredded leaves rototilled into your plot in the spring will turn your clay into soft garden soil. 

Your neighbours are already starting to bag leaves and put them at the curb. You’re free to take them, leave them in the sun to dry, then crunch and shred the leaves. Spread them on your bed and leave them exposed for the winter. By spring, they’ll be semi-composted. We plan to rent a rototiller in April (on a non-rainy day, we promise!) so we can all have 10 minutes to dig our garden. Please note that leaves left whole will just blow away, and those that don’t will form a thick leathery mat rather than leaf mulch.

If collecting and shredding leaves seems like too much work, the next-best type of amendment is a large bale of peat moss. (Note that Canadian Tire never puts it on sale, so there’s no advantage to buying it early.) Peat moss blows away in the slightest wind, so don’t put it on your bed until you’re ready to dig it in. Don’t worry about the acidity—Kingston sits on limestone, which constantly neutralizes acid soil.

Harvest Party on Saturday!

If you haven't already, please RSVP for Saturday today.  Looking forward to seeing everyone, and don't forget to bring money to sign up for a plot for next year! 


Plans are underway for an awesome harvest party.  There will be games and activities for children outside (weather permitting) starting at four o'clock.  If you are itching to sing or play an instrument, there will be an open mic session before dinner so please bring your singing voice and any instruments you have at home!  


We are planning to sit down to dinner at 5:30.  If you could bring your own plate from home that would be helpful. Tea and coffee will be provided.  The annual general meeting will follow dinner.


Afterwards, extra hands would be appreciated with cleaning up the hall and church kitchen.



Kate

Fall clean-up

We're planning a trip to the City compost depot with all the sticks and heavy material which has accumulated in our compost piles.  Soon we will arrange for a truck or trailer to accomplish this task.  If you're willing to help load it up, please e-mail Cheryl and let her know your evening availability.  We'd like to get this done definitely before Thanksgiving. 

In the meantime, rotten produce can go into the black composters and extra plant matter can be piled beside the composters if you want to remove it from your plot already. 

All plots should be left in tidy, weed-free condition by the end of the growing season.  Crushed autumn leaves will make a great addition to our soil so if you're raking leaves at home, please bring them to the garden rather than sending them to the city compost!

 

Harvest Party coming up!

On Saturday, October 22 at 4:00pm, join us for a Harvest Party.  This will be a great chance for current and new members to socialize and to give feedback and suggestions for next season!

We'll meet at the garden (and in the church hall), and music and games will be followed by a potluck dinner!  If you'd like to contribute to the party planning or entertainment, please contact Cheryl.
 
Just a reminder, if you wish to keep your garden plot for next year, you must register and pay for the plot BEFORE OR AT the Harvest Party!

Canning Workshop - Success!

Thank you to everyone who made it out to the canning workshop/demo tonight! You will see some pics above of our workshop outcome! I was very happy to see you all get your hands dirty and participate! I love passing on the knowledge I have gained and the lessons I have learned through my own years of experience with preserving and canning (which has now been 12 years). A BIG thank you to Mike and the church board for offering the church kitchen for the workshop - it was an excellent working space!

PS - keep me posted on your "take home jars" hope they taste great! :)

New Pictures Added - Garden Album

Lots of tomatoes are turning colour in our garden! It's that time of year again when we have tomatoes on our brains! Join me for the canning demonstration on Tuesday August 23rd at the church to see how to preserve your tomatoes and enjoy the taste of summer all year long!

What's up with the kale?

The red Russian kale has head rot. That's when the head of cabbage family veges rots. Hence the name. This is the first time I've ever seen head rot, so I'm just learning what it is.

Head rot is an airborne disease, so there's no way to avoid it. If your plant is susceptible, it will get it. The risk factors are heat and humidity when the head is maturing.

However, check out the red cabbage and the green kale -- they're not infected. That's probably because the green kale was planted as seed, not as seedlings, so it hasn't been maturing in the humidity. Either that, or the green kale just isn't as susceptible.

The red cabbage isn't affected probably because it's late maturing. Only one of the heads is close to being mature.

If you plan on growing kale next year, consider planting one of the sturdy green varieties, and start it in the garden from seed. If you do grow red kale, grow it from seed. You can plant kale up to July 1 for a fall harvest.

Also plant your kale so that it has lots of air. Avoid crowding it or placing it in the shade of another plant.

In the meantime, consider harvesting your red kale while most of it's still edible. Cook kale the way you'd cook broccoli (e.g., steamed 3 minutes for salads, stirfried with other veggies, cooked into quiches and frittatas, etc.). Dutch, Polish, and German recipes for traditional kale dishes are available on the web. And there are even recipes for making "kale chips."

When you have 25 tomatoes

At this time of year, a gardener can end up with the happy misfortune of having 25 ripe tomatoes sitting on the kitchen counter. Or 40. Whatever -- same problem.

Sure, you can give them away to the neighbours. Or lob them at politicians. But ideally, you'd want to eat them.

Here are a few ideas for taking on the tomato pile.

1. Fresh pasta sauce

You'll need one or two cloves of garlic, some herbs (like parsley or basil), some sharp Italian cheese (like parmiggiano reggiano, asiago, grana padano, romano), and olive oil. If you want a complete protein, rinse a half-can of romano, cannellini, or kidney beans.

Dice up lots of tomatoes. Mince or press the garlic. Snip the herbs.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Stirfry the garlic till softened. Add the tomatoes and herbs and let it bubble till the mix reaches a consistency you like. (Less cooking time leaves more of the light, fresh tomato flavour and texture, but longer cooking time deepens the flavour and softens the texture.) Cover to prevent drying out. Add beans and some salt and pepper toward the end. If it starts drying out, add a few tablespoons of the pasta water.

Meanwhile, cook your pasta. Then pour the sauce on top and cover with grated cheese.

2. Canned tomatoes

Canning tomatoes is easy if don't bother peeling the tomatoes. That's what takes up all the time.

You'll need small or mid-sized mason jars, tongs, oven mitts, a jarring kettle OR a large potalong with a round grate that fits in the bottom (so that the jars don't sit directly on the element), a medium-sized pot for heating the tomatoes, a mason jar funnel, and a ladle.

Wash the jars in the dishwasher to sterilize them the night before. Have screwtops and fresh lids handy.

Wash the tomatoes. Cut off the woody tops. Cut extra large tomatoes in half. Meanwhile, fill the large pot with 5 inches of water and get it boiling. Sterilize the ladel and funnel by setting them in water as it boils.

Put the tomatoes in the mid-sized pot, add a dash of salt and (if you're Italian) some ripped basil leaves, and bring it all to a boil.

Immediately scoop it into the jars, pressing the tomatoes down and removing trapped bubbles. Put on the lids, screw to finger-tight (not super-tight), and place in the boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

Remove the jars and let them cool rightside up.

When you go to use the tomatoes in a stew or chili, the skins will still be there. After a minute of cooking, they'll loosen and roll up. They're easy to see and grab with a fork if you want to remove them.

NB: Never try to jar yellow or orange tomatoes. They don't have enough acid.

3. Bruschetta in a Jar

If you'd like to make bruschetta, email me directly for the recipe nancy (at) nancymucklow.com.

Canning workshop for garden members!

Do you have a surplus of produce?  Are you looking for creative ways to use the fruits of your labour?

Canning is a great way to set aside a taste of summer for the cooler days ahead!

Garden members are invited to join Lisa for a canning workshop on Tuesday, Aug 23rd, from 6-8 pm in the church hall. 

 

July 30th Harvest

Check out the beautiful assortment of veggies that I harvested today. Some items came from my plot and some from the communal bed. Yum!

New Pictures Added - Garden Album

More pictures of our garden have been posted to the album - take a peek and enjoy! By the way my daughter (Anna) loves the bean tee-pee and the tire play area!!

Saving Tomato Seeds

The tomatoes are ripening. We are trying to collect free seeds for everyone for next year. If you're growing an open-pollenated tomato, here's how to save the seeds.

1. Scoop out the seed pulp.
2. Put it in a fine metal sieve.
3. Use a scrubbing brush and your hands to remove the pulpy coating off the seeds. Then scrub the whole mess with paper towel to remove the seed coating. Make sure each seed is free of its coating.
4. Place the seeds on a fresh paper towel to dry overnight.
5. Pick the seeds off the paper towel and put them in a labelled paper envelope.

If your seed come from the communal plot, please give the envelope of seeds to Nancy.

How to tell if your tomato is open-pollenated

Google the name of the tomato. If the terms heritage, heirloom, OP, or open-pollenated come up in the descriptions, then the seeds are worth saving. If the term hybrid is included, the seeds are not viable.

Never put tomatoes in the fridge. Tomatoes lose their flavour when exposed to temperatures below 10 degrees.

New Pictures Added - Garden Album

This is an exciting time of year!!! I am sure most of you have picked from our communal bed (or your own plots) and have enjoyed munching on fresh veggies! It`s hard to believe that all of these big beautiful healthy plants came from tiny seeds, but here they are...and they look and taste excellent! Check out some new pictures in our garden album:)

New Pictures Added - Garden Album

Last week I picked some of the mixed lettuce in the communal bed and enjoyed a wonderful fresh salad from our garden! It seems like our garden is growing by the minute now! Check out the new pictures and the veggies that have popped out.

Growing garlic

Why do you garden? It's a lot of work. You wouldn't be doing it for no reason at all.

One reason to garden is to produce foods that you can't buy. Ground cherries come to mind.

So does garlic. For the past three years, only garlic from China is available in supermarkets. Not only is it tasteless, but it's been ferried and transported from the other side of the world, wasting precious fossil fuels on a vegetable that grows well right here. (Secretly I wonder if China keeps all the good garlic for themselves and ships us the garbage.)

If you long for the good ol' days of tasty garlic, you might want to consider growing your own. And now is the time to start finding some garlic to plant.

Steps in growing garlic:

1. Visit the market in early July to find locally grown garlic.

It should be available very soon. (My garlic is already harvestable, a good two weeks early due to all the rain.) Ask the vender a lot of questions. Where was it grown? What kind is it? When do you usually plant it? Do you have other kinds?

Consider visiting a few stalls and getting a variety. One popular garlic for Ontario is known as Music -- developed by a Mr. Music in Uxbridge, Ontario. Remember that each clove will produce one bulb, so buy enough for a year's worth of garlic plus enough extra bulbs to plant in the fall.

As an alternative, you can order seed garlic from seed stores for delivery in September. But they'll be more expensive.

Do not, do not, do not try to plant grocery store garlic from China. I promise it will be tasteless and not worth the effort.

2. Store the bulbs in a cool, dark place.

Cool, not cold. (Never refrigerate garlic -- it develops mould.) The back of a cupboard will do, as long as it doesn't get too warm there in the summer.

3. Plant in mid fall.

In October, you'll probably be pulling up your vegetable harvest and composting your plants. At that time, the CPCG will probably arrange for a delivery of soil amendments to dig and rototill in so that the beds are ready for planting in the spring.

Once that's all done, around Halloween, prepare a square in the corner of your garden for garlic. Sprinkle in some organic fertilizer or a scoopful of good compost and dig it in a little.

Separate your bulbs into cloves, leaving the papery coverings intact. Poke each clove into the ground, pointy-side up. Cover the cloves with soil but there's no need to push them down really deep. Plant in a square of tight rows, not in a long, single row. The cloves don't need more than 3 inches of space on each side.

When finished planting, gently step all over the bed to press the soil down. Then cover it with leaves, straw, or wood chips. Garlic is very frost-hardy, so don't worry if the tip starts to grow through the mulch before the snow cover arrives.

Then forget about it till spring.

By the way, if you like shallots, plant them at the same time in the same way. I've found that grocery store shallots grow just fine in our climate and produce a sweet-tasting shallot.

Next year

In March, you'll notice the garlic tips poking through the mulch. At this point, you can rake the mulch aside and get rid of it, in case it's harboring any insect eggs. Or you can just leave it in place -- it's your call.

Give the garlic bed another sprinkle of organic fertilizer and gently rake it in. Keep the bed as free of weeds as possible throughout the growing season.

In June, the garlic plants will grow a graceful, curling flower stalk known as a garlic scape. Snap off the scapes to promote good bulb development. Use the scapes in soups, stirfries, and oriental cooking.

Once the garlic has seven leaves and seems to be drying out in early July, it's getting to be time to harvest it. As a precaution, I always check with the organic market venders to find out if it's time to harvest yet -- they're very helpful. If you leave the garlic in the ground too long, the bulbs will start to open, and they won't store as well.

To harvest, loosen the soil with a pitchfork and pull each garlic out of the ground. Let the garlic dry outside in the sun for at least a week to help develop a strong bulb cover. You can do this on your back deck, but farmers just leave the garlic sitting in the field.

Once it's completely dry, brush off any remaining soil and dirt. Trim the roots off the bulbs. Then either cut the stems or figure out how to do that cool braiding thing.

Store your garlic in a cool, dry, dark place. As long as the garlic doesn't freeze, it will be good till next summer.

If it's still early in the summer, plant a quick-growing vegetable where the garlic was growing, such as lettuce, broccoli seedlings, or beans.

July 9th Garden Picnic

Mark your calendars! Everyone is invited to a garden picnic on Saturday, July 9th at 11:00 am.

Meet your fellow gardeners, share tips and delicious food, and enjoy surveying the fruits of our work!

More details to follow.

New Pictures Added - Garden Album

New pictures have been posted to our Garden Album. I've added dates to the bottom of the pictures so you can see just how fast things grow in only a weeks time. The difference from week to week is amazing! Check it out!

Gardening workshops in Kingston

Be sure to head to the Sunnyside Garden Party this Saturday, June 18th for good food, good folks, and good workshops!

Square Foot Gardening – June 18th, 11am-12pm, Sunnyside Community Garden (on MacDonnell at Brock)
Square Foot Gardening is a condensed, all natural method of gardening that grows more food in less space, with less time, less water and less work. Learn more about this innovative approach to urban gardening in a one hour workshop facilitated by Wess Garrod of WillGrow Gardens, and see a sample garden close up.

Garlic Growing and Natural Pest Control – June 18th, 1-2 pm, Sunnyside Community Garden (on Madonnell at Brock)
Familiarize yourself with ways to control pests naturally, including growing garlic.  Participants will learn about planting and growing garlic and will be invited to make a natural pest control potion that saves money and avoids poisoning. Facilitated by Tim Lyon of Main St. Market.

The workshop series continues...

 

Sat. June 18th 11a.m.-12p.m. Square Foot Gardening

Sat. June 18th 1-2p.m. Garlic Growing and Natural Pest Control

Tues. June 21st 7-8p.m. Direct Seeding and Bed Preparation

Tues. July 5th 7-8p.m. Pest Control and Weeding

Tues. July 19th 7-8p.m. Scything 101

Sat. July 23rd 1-2p.m. Composting

Tues. July 26th 7-8p.m. All Things Garlic

Tues. Aug. 9th 7-8p.m. Permaculture: A Lazy Gardener’s Guide

Tues. Aug. 23rd 7-8p.m. Seed Saving: Beginner-Intermediate Guide

Tues. Sept. 6th 7-8p.m. Bed-Preparation and Care

Helping Hands

Liz Neely's Grade 1/2 class from St. Thomas More School helped out with the planting of our communal beds earlier in the spring. With the permission of Liz, and her students' parents, we can share some delightful photos of the children at work. More have been added to our Picasa album - just follow the link on the left side of the blog.  Enjoy!

New Pictures Added - Garden Album

Veggies are growing and the garden is looking great! Each time I head out I cant believe how quickly everything is growing...our community garden sure is photo friendly. Check out some new pictures in the Garden Album!

Enemies

The cabbage worm has found our garden. Man the cannons! Boil the oil!

Actually, you can just brush them off with your fingers.

Look for small green worms and/or tiny pimple-like eggs on the undersides of the leaves of broccoli, cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts, and related plants. A big clue is the chewed-up holes in the leaves. Once they're brushed onto the ground, they can't find their way back.

Broccoli Heads

The broccoli is starting to head, at least the ones in the communal garden. The head will start as a tight button that slowly expands.

A mature broccoli looks like this:



Harvest it right away, because two days later, it will look like this:



Cut the broccoli just below the head but above the side shoots. Side shoots are mini-heads (actually, one-quarter the size of the main head) that start growing if the main head gets cut off. If you leave the side shoots to grow, you'll get the equivalent of another head in about two weeks.

Karen's Rhubarb Dessert

Rhubarb Dessert

Mix together and press into a 9x13 inch pan:
1 cup soft butter
2 cups flour
10 tablespoons sugar
Bake this crust/base at 350 degrees F

Meanwhile mix:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add 5 cups Chopped rhubarb to this egg mixture and then pour it over the baked crust/base.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes or until golden on top.

New Pictures Added - Garden Album

The garden is looking great! We have accomplished so much in a short period of time. New pictures have been added to the garden album - check out how wonderful everything is looking! Pictures will be posted through out the season capturing our beautiful garden grow, and highlighting fun memories.

Mulch and Beans

First, the beans.

It's time to plant them if you haven't already. There is enough heat to get them germinated. Besides, you want beans before the summer's over, so they gotta git growing.

Quick beans

Soak your bean seeds in a bowl of water on the counter before planting them. Overnight is best. They should be plump and smooth-skinned when fully soaked.

Soaked beans pop up in a few days. Dry beans take a week longer.

Free seeds

There are free bean seeds in the shed. Royal Burgundy is a sturdy purple-podded bean that can tolerate some cool temperatures. Save the seeds for next year. Tendergreen is another seed-saver with some cool tolerance. Both are also good for planting in early August for an early fall crop. There are also two packages of Pinto beans from the Sisters of Providence -- pick them when they're dry and make chili.

Okay, now the mulching

Mulching means covering every square inch of exposed soil with wood chips, grass trimmings, shredded bark, or dead leaves. A one- to two-inch blanket of wood chips will do it. Mulch around seedlings and sprouted seeds, right to the edges of the bed.

We still have tons of wood chips, for free, so it's handy. Get your beds mulched as soon as possible, since rains in June, July, and August tend to be far apart.

Why mulch?

1. Carrying watering cans to your garden every day is a drag. Heck, your arms will be six inches longer by October! Every day? Are you nuts? Who wants to do that? Mulch well just once, and you'll get away with watering once or twice a month for the rest of the summer.
2. The rain barrels are small, and we have a lot of garden. If every gardener waters every day, we'll never have enough water. Once the barrels are dry, you're carrying water from home. Unless you mulched.
   
3. Rain percolates through the wood-chip blanket. It leaches some of the nutrients into the soil and provides a mild fertilizer. But only to gardens that have been mulched.
   
4. Mulched soil is soft and moist. Our clay soil turns to concrete in the sun, and nothing can grow in concrete. But the sun can't reach through mulch, so it doesn't dry out or form a crust.
   
5. The sun's rays break down the wood chips over the summer. By late fall, they'll be dark charcoal-coloured, and some of it will have already composted itself into the soil. At this point, we can rototill the wood chips into the soil for next spring.

Where else can you find something that's FREE that does so much?

Please mulch your garden.

The white butterfly

I just her today, flitting around my garden looking for cabbage and broccoli (HA I didn't plant any!), going methodically from plant to plant. If I'm seeing her in my garden, then she's going to the communal garden too.

I'm talking about the cabbage worm butterfly. Cute, white, wispy. You'll hear your kids say, "Hey! Look at the white butterfly over there!" You'll see it and watch it gracefully twirl over the plants and and sigh and think, My, how lovely nature is!

Lovely my eye. This white butterfly lays eggs on the underside of the leaves of all brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, turnip, broccoli). The eggs hatch, and out come the tiniest green worms you've never seen (because they're perfectly camouflaged). They eat great holes in the leaves, growing in size like Otto the Goldfish, until they devour the plant.



Agent Orange Unnecessary

Fortunately, it's easy to control the situation.

If you see the white butterfly, then please consider it your job (thank you) to clear the leaves of eggs.

1. Gently turn each brassica leaf over and examine the underside.
2. Look for small pale-green bumps, about the size of one couscous (one coucou? one cous? What's the singular of couscous?!)
3. Gently brush it off with your finger.

Let others know you've seen the butterfly. It will lay eggs for about 3-4 days, so we have to keep checking.

If you see a hole in a brassica leaf, we missed an egg. Turn the leaf over and find the worm. Brush it off the leaf.

You can do it!

Upcoming plantings

Beans!

The soil is starting to warm up. The communal garden will be planting the beans soon.

Currently, we're in the process of moving Barbara's bean trellis to the garden. Once it's in place, and if the weather continues to cooperate, we can plant the pole beans. We'll also be planting a few kinds of bush beans for a continuous bean harvest.

Check the blog again in the next few days for bean announcements.

Peas

The peas are poking through the ground. They'll be looking for some support to climb. If anyone has some garden sticks, we'd appreciate them. Please let Barbara, Nancy, or Cheryl know.

Watch for birds. They LOVE to eat the tender pea shoots when they first come up. If you notice birds in the pea patch, let Barbara or Nancy know. We'd have to cover the peas immediately. Maybe we'll be lucky - sometimes the birds don't find them.

Pumpkins and dry beans

The pumpkin patch needs a bit more time to solarize so that we're sure the edges of the sod are dead. If you're walking by, please check the pumpkin seedlings sitting beside the pumpkin patch. Make sure they're moist. If they're getting dry, simply dip the pots into the puddle for five minutes, then take them back out again.

In a couple of weeks, we'll remove the plastic, transplant the pumpkins, and plant the dry beans in the pumpkin patch. We'll also be adding some flower seeds.

Mulching

Mulching wasn't worth talking about in the muck and rain of May. But June is usually fairly dry. Unless we're planning to haul a lot of water onto our garden beds, we need to mulch.

Fortunately, we have lots of wood chips handy!

One benefit of mulching is that it prevents the soil from drying out. Another benefit is that it helps the clay soil to loosen up. A third benefit is that over the summer, the wood chips will dry out and become compost. So that's three benefits for the price of one-- and the wood chips were free to start with!

If you're looking for a job to do, please add mulch around the base of each tomato and pepper plant, about 1 foot in each direction. The larger cucumber and squash plants could use some mulch too.

In another week or so, we can mulch the broccoli and peas too. But we need to wait for all the seeds to come up first so that we know where everything is.

Tomato Got The Blues

Red-stemming

It should be called purple-stemming. The stem goes purple first. If you don't correct this problem in time, the undersides of the leaves turn purple. If you don't correct that problem in time, the whole plant turns purple. Like this.

Notice as well how the little leaves are pulling upward, instead of branching outward. That's another sign of stress.

Tomatoes need a lot of soil nutrients. If you grow your seedlings in a peat mix, with no real soil and no fertilizers, it will get red-stem.

The solution is to give the tomato a quick dose of liquid fertilizer. Then replant it in rich soil. In a few days, the purple will give way to green.

Small seedlings that get a bit of red-stemming survive just fine. But the longer they're red-stemmed, the lower their chances of producing a good crop of tomatoes.


Tomato Twist

Tomato leaves and branches twist when the plant it stressed. Sometimes peppers do this too.

The stress can be caused by cold temperatures. But it's often a sign of disease.

This tomato has some kind of blight. Note the spots on the leaves.

If your tomato starts doing the twist, pay close attention. It's trying to communicate that something's wrong.



Purple-leafed peppers

Peppers get red-stemming too. They take longer to show signs of poor soil than tomatoes do. If your pepper leaves turn purple, that's a sign that it's been grown in soil that's nutrient-poor.

Avoid giving peppers a big dose of fertilizer until they're flowering and fruiting. Otherwise you'll promote leaf growth and discourage fruit growth. Instead, repot it in real soil.

Leaf burn

Seedlings grown indoors or in greenhouses aren't used to the sun's harsh UV rays. Believe it or not, the seedlings will get sunburn.


Leaf sunburn looks like silvery patches, which soon turn crisp. The plant suffers because of the loss of leaves. It will recover, but your harvest will be delayed.

Always harden off seedlings before planting outside. The general pattern is a 1/2 hour of direct sunlight per day for 2 days, then 1 hour for 2 days, then 1 1/2 hours for 2 days, etc., until you reach a full day.

It takes about two weeks to harden off a seedling.

Communal Bed Planting Bee

Are you a member of the CPCG communal bed? We need you!

When: Saturday, May 21, 9:30 a.m.
Where: Communal bed
Why: Planting tomato, pepper, cucumber, squash, melon, groundcherry seedlings

Bring a handspade, a big spade, and sunscreen (because it WILL BE SUNNY [shaking fist at sky]!). A wheelbarrow might be handy for laying down wood chips on any new paths.

Drainage

Our drainage woes are receding, thanks to some excellent shovel work on the part of many members.

If you haven't yet, please add a ditch at the base of your bed and gulleys along the sides. If you're in a centre bed, chop a small gulley through the wood-chip paths so that the water can drain away. Standing water in a garden is not good.

Next year, we'll add more soil amendments to loosen the clay. This year, we have to be pioneers and work with what we've got.

Is that gasoline in the water?

Some observant members have noticed a gasoline-like film on top of the water in the gulleys. Is it gasoline?

Closer observation will show that it doesn't look quite like gasoline. It looks more like the greasy scum on the edge of standing-water ponds.

It's most likely a by-product of the compost, combined with the standing water. Think of it as a greasy tea that's been steeping for three weeks. Not good. Let's get those drainage ditches open and flowing.

Are we there yet?

The nights are above 10 degrees but not by much. Cool-weather seedlings/seeds should be planted by now. Tomatoes, peppers, and cucurbits can go out, but they'll be happier when it's warmer at night.

Avoid the temptation to plant snap beans. Only broad beans and purple-pod beans can be planted now, since they're the cold-hardiest of the beans. The next hardiest are the black-seeded beans (the black colour is a hardiness indicator). The least hardy are the pale-coloured beans.

Wait till the beginning of June. Beans needs soil of 15 degrees at night. After that, you can do successive plantings every two weeks until mid-August to get a continuous crop. By August consider seeding a purple-podded bean like Royal Burgundy in case September is cool.

What's up?

Seeds have been slow in germinating, due to the cool weather, but the rain has been very helpful. In the communal bed, the mesclun, kale, and swiss chard has sprouted. So have the peas and green onions. The carrots are just starting. No sign of the potatoes yet.

From the mouths of babes (well, almost)

Liz Neely's grade one/two class, from St. Thomas More School, visited our garden last week.  Not only did they enjoy exploring our new community space, but they chipped in and helped with planting the communal beds and spreading chips on the paths!  Here are their thoughts about their day in our garden:

“I liked when I was pushing the wheelbarrow full of wood chips.”  Teagan

“I liked carrying the grass.”  Dez

“I liked filling in the paths with wood chips.”  Isaac, Talen

“I liked when we were looking at the plants.”  Kimberly

“I liked putting the potatoes in the dirt.”  Audric

“I liked helping make the pumpkin patch.”  Kali, Brilyn

“I liked throwing the rabbit food onto the sod.”  Daniel

“I liked putting the worms on the orange sheet (tarp).”  Tyler

“I liked putting the potatoes in the holes.”  Brileigh

“I liked planting the broccoli.”  Andrew

“I liked planting the cabbage.”  Sophia

“I liked putting the wood chips in the pathway.”  Ricardo

Here comes the weekend!

Smoky barbecues, patio chairs, tall cold drinks – summer’s on its way as the May long weekend rolls in! The weather is supposed to cooperate, so take an hour or two to come down to the gardens and see what’s happening.

As you arrive, notice the tidy arrangement of water barrels along the wall of the church. We’re still fine-tuning the set-up to make watering easier. For now, feel free to fill watering cans from the creek at the edge of the site.

Family Plots

If you have one of the family plots, you’ll see that some members have started a ditch along one side and a drain-away gulley down to the end of the site. Getting that ditch to go all around the garden would be a good idea.

Also, if someone can think of a clever way to put a tube or pipe in the drain-away ditch, that would be helpful. It would be nice if we could cover up the ditches with sod to make mowing easier for the church.

Finally, think about drainage as you plan your plots. Make at least one gulley in your bed to help the clay soil release its water down to the ditch. Use the soil to hill up your bed so that you have a high, dry mounds.

Communal Bed

Thanks to the Grades 1 and 2 classes from St. Thomas More School, four-year-old Andrew Zhang, and a few adult volunteers, one-third of the communal bed was planted on Thursday. Not much has come up yet, but you can admire their handiwork. Everyone was good and muddy by the end of the afternoon, and we all know each other a little better!

Barbara will take over planning the remainder of the garden after she returns from England on Tuesday If you’re interested in helping out with planting tomatoes, peppers, ground cherries, melons, cucumbers, squash, and beans, that work will probably start late in the week. We’ll keep you posted.

If you have time to volunteer over the weekend, here are some tasks that need to be done:

·         Finish building the pumpkin patch: Cheryl, Deb, Bill, and 25 youngsters made a great start in hauling the sod over to the new pumpkin patch. They found that both wheelbarrows and sleds work well. The goal is to build it up to knee-high and get rid of the sold pile, so if you have some time to volunteer, this is an important job. Once the bed is built, we’ll decide if we need to solar-cook it with clear plastic to kill the sod over two weeks, or if we can plant the pumpkins right away.

·         Dig gulleys and mound soil in the empty beds: The south and centre beds of the communal gardens still have piles of compost that need to be raked, and they need some gulleys to drain off the water. There should be a gulley along each of the raised paths. If you have a shovel and can take on this task, that would be great. We may need to add more drainage later, but we have to plan where the paths go first. Keep in mind that the water drains toward the parking lot and toward the back of the lot.

Tomato Time?

According to http://www.theweathernetwork.com, night-time temperatures will be above 10 degrees from now until at least early June. So you can consider putting out your tomatoes, peppers, and cucurbits. A basic rule of thumb: If you have to wear gloves to go out at night, it’s too cold for tomatoes.

What does a distressed tomato look like?

·         New leaves are chartreuse: Instead of rich green, the youngest leaves are light green. This is a sign that the roots are too cold to absorb nutrients. The plant needs a dose of liquid fertilizer and something to warm the soil.

·         The leaves round upward like little canoes: Curling leaves is a reaction to the cold, kind of like shivering. Wrap the plant in clear plastic to make a mini greenhouse.

·         The stem turns red: Red-stemming means the plant can’t absorb minerals. Give liquid fertilizer till the stem turns green again.

Why are the lettuce and carrot beds covered?

Small seeds take a while to germinate. They have to stay moist the whole time. Covering seed beds with old towels or T-shirts helps prevent evaporation. After a week, we’ll remove the covers so that the rooted seeds can get sunlight.

Church Plant Sale

The Good Thief Church on Union Street is having a plant sale on Saturday, May 28. If you haven’t purchased all your veggies by then, you might want to check it out.


Nancy

Watch the weather, not the calendar

Some people plant all their vegetables on the May long weekend. This works for flowers, but it isn’t so great for vegetables.

Cool-weather vegetables go in the garden early April to early May (peas, spinach, lettuce, some brassicas, onions). These plants go in the ground as soon as the soil can be worked, provided you have good drainage.

Mid-weather vegetables go in the garden late April to late May (carrots, potatoes, some brassicas, late lettuces, most herbs). These plants need night-time temperatures steadily above 6 degrees, preferably closer to 10 degrees.

Hot-weather vegetables go in the garden late May to early June (tomatoes, peppers, beans, melons, squash). These plants need night-time temperatures steadily above 10 degrees, preferably closer to 15 degrees. Most of these plants get diseases or stop growing in cool soil.

So instead of looking at the calendar, look at http://www.theweathernetwork.com. Find the 14-day trend. It will show expected day-time highs and night-time lows for the next two weeks.

Since this has been a La Nina spring (cool and wet), spring is late. Don’t plan on putting tomatoes out on schedule this year.

If you’re a new gardener, you might want to consider getting a beginner’s gardening book out of the library and reading it cover to cover. It’s handy to know some basic techniques.

Nancy

Turn, turn, turn

Before you plant anything, turn your soil. Using a shovel, dig about 10-15 cm down and flip it over. Do this all over your bed. Then chop the chunks and rake it. This helps mix the compost into the top few cm of clay.

Then form your bed into mounds with water channels between them. This will help keep your plants’ roots from rotting in standing water. Clay isn’t great for gard ening, and CPCG will work on getting more soil amendments for next year. For this year, we have to work with what we’ve got.

Nancy

Where did all the compost go?

If you visit your community garden bed today, you might wonder where all your compost went. The lovely chocolate colour has given way to a slate-grey sludge. That slate-grey sludge is clay. Water doesn’t soak through clay, so it just sits on top. Your compost floated around in the rain, then sank down into the clay. You may not see any compost at all, or you might just see traces of it.

What it means is that you don’t have enough compost. So grab and shovel and get a couple more wheelbarrows-full for your plot before it’s gone.

Nancy

Drainage challenges

Today, the amount of rain exposed drainage problems in our new garden. Both beds were pools of water. Under the layers of topsoil and compost is a bed of clay on limestone. Since the site is so flat, the rain has no where to go.

Nancy dug a ditch around the communal bed today to give the water an exit from the garden bed. The ditch drains to the back of the site. We will have to take a look at the family plots. We may want to consider digging a ditch system there as well.

A new community digs in

 Many thanks to our community gardeners who came together, despite the constant downpour, and helped get our garden beds ready for planting. For more photos, check out our Picasa album.

Let's get started!

The rain and cool temperatures have created a perfect opportunity to get cool-weather plants into the ground.  

Nancy Mucklow has created a handy tip sheet for first-time gardeners. You'll find it linked in the Gardening Tips section of this blog.  She recommends planting your seeds and seedlings in blocks rather than rows to maximize your growing space. She also strongly recommends making row/block markers so that you can remember where the peas and beans are tucked into the soil.

The communal gardening team will be busy this week planting peas, snow peas, snap peas, cabbage and broccoli seedlings, spinach, kale, a variety of lettuces, green onions, potatoes and raspberries! Carrots will have to wait for the end of this cold snap.  If you're on this team, please contact Nancy to find out planting times.

Volunteers from the Enviro Club at St. Thomas More school will be helping us out with the planting. Thanks very much to the students and staff!

-       

Join the work bee on Saturday!

First, a big "THANK YOU" to Parker and his crew for an amazing job removing sod from our garden area! If anyone is in need of some strips of sod, please help yourself to the substantial pile at the back of the church property.

 

We need lots of help this Saturday to continue the garden preparations.  Three big piles of compost, topsoil and woodchips need to be distributed to all the garden plots so please bring a shovel, heavy rake and (if possible) a wheelbarrow.  If you don't have the tools yourself, we should have extras.  

 

The Saturday weather forecast is looking better and better but we'll be there rain or shine starting from 9:30.  If you don't have the time or strength for this labour, please stop by anyway to support the workers and see what's getting accomplished.  Children, friends, neighbours, picnics,... ALL are welcome.  

 

This is the day to choose your family plot or make suggestions for the communal beds.  We'll also be collecting membership fees (cash please) and signed membership agreements.  

 

Cheryl Fischer

Garden Site Coordinator

It's Official!

The Calvin Park Community Garden Steering Committee is delighted to announce that an agreement with Cookes-Portsmouth United Church was finalized this evening.  The church has generously agreed to host our garden on the expansive green space tucked behind their church.

 

The Committee would like to express it's gratitude to the Cookes-Portsmouth church family for supporting us in this endeavour.  May it bring our community closer together! 

Garage sale a great success!

The garage sale yesterday was a big success! The weather was perfect, we had a steady stream of interested buyers, and we raised $700 for our community garden! This money will be put to good use paying for insurance and soil and starting a tool shed fund.

This was truly a group effort. Thank you to all of you who contributed items and baked delicious treats for our bake sale. Thank you to Nancy, Barbara, Karen, Donna, Kim and Sarah for helping to sell yesterday. Thank you to Parker for the signs.

I would especially like to thank Barbara  Walker for her support before the sale, on the day of the sale, and for her donation of many lovely plants to our successful plant sale. A big thank you to Nancy Mucklow for her advice, fabulous pricing job and for being the earliest volunteer yesterday!

It was great to meet some of the other members of the Calvin Park Community Garden and I look forward to meeting more of you on Saturday May 16^th.

Great job!!

Joanna

Work Bee planned for May

Mark Saturday, May 14th on your calendars!

Rain or shine, we're calling on our community gardeners to join together at the garden site for a work bee.

We'll have the initial sod removal and tilling done ahead of time. Together, we'll add imported soil to the beds and lay woodchips on the paths. 

You'll also get to pick out your family plot, pay your garden membership fees, and get to know the folks that you'll be gardening with all season!

With your help, we'll be ready for planting by May 21st.

Feedback wanted!

If you haven't answered our email poll yet, please take a moment to send our Site Coordinator your gardening options via email.

Our garden plan includes:

1) Family Plots:  At a cost of $20 for the season, you will be provided with a 60-100 sq ft plot where you can grow your own seeds and plants.

2) Communal Gardens:  At a cost of $15 for the season ($10 for Family Plot holders), you will work with other gardeners to maintain shared plots of larger crops (eg: potatoes, pumpkins, squash) and will receive a share of the harvest.

3) Donation and public tasting plots:  All members of the community garden will be encouraged to help maintain these plots, but we also invite community members who want to a chance to socialize and share (or learn) gardening skills, but who aren't interested in taking home produce. We'd ask you to donate at least $5 toward the group insurance.

Please let the Coordinator know which option, or options, are best for you.  If you've misplace the original email, you can reach Cheryl at  calvinparkcommunitygarden(at)gmail.com.

Hopefully the rabbits in the neighbouhood aren't this clever

http://www.arcamax.com/rhymeswithorange/s-861777-491497

Garage sale on Saturday, April 30th

The Calvin Park Community Garden is holding a garage sale fundraiser!

58 Metcalfe Ave.
9:00 am – 2:00 pm
(rain date: Sunday May 1)


Do you have 'treasures" you'd like to donate?
Do you love to bake?

We welcome donations of all sorts, including baked goods! The more we have to sell, the more money we can raise! We can arrange to pick up items if you're not able to drop them off.

Are you looking for a chance to meet the neighbours?

Consider helping out on the day of the sale (for any amount of time). Children and grandchildren are welcome. Teens can earn some volunteer hours - remember to bring your form for signing.


To donate items for the sale, volunteer to help at the event, or both please contact Joanna Cooke at 613-548-7337 or joanna.cooke@cogeco.ca.

Hold onto your spring cleaning "treasures"

There's a fundraising garage sale in our future!

Please put aside any items that you would be willing to donate and watch this site for further information.

Garden vision starts to come together

The Steering Committee and Cookes-Portsmouth Church are still finalizing the requirements for a formal land use contract. At our meeting this week, the Committee drafted a plan and timeline to present to the church Board.

We hope to incorporate several family plots, communal plots for larger crops like potatoes and squash, a shared herb garden, and an accessible raised bed. We'll also include a tasting garden where church-goers and neighbours may feel free to pick a few nibbles to sample.

Our goal, with help from the neighbourhood, is to have the garden beds ready to plant before the Victoria Day weekend.

In the mean time, please don't dump any leaves or clean fill into the city green bins. We'll be looking for lots of organic matter to mulch into the garden beds!

Plans are underway

A community meeting was held last night, and judging by the fantastic turnout there is a lot of support for a community gardening project in our neighbourhood!

We hope to base the project at Cookes-Portsmouth United Church, and discussions are underway.

The organizing committee will meet on Tuesday, March 22nd to work out more of the details. Watch the blog for updates!