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.