Let the Plant Sales begin!

As I hear about plant sales in the area, I'll try to post them here.

A great place to start is our very Grove plant sale on May 18 and 19 for plants to beautify your home inside and out.

On that same weekend, check out this sale coming up at the Kilbourn Park Organic Greenhouse for organic veg seedlings.

Garfield Park's sale of organic veg is before Mother's Day, on May 4.

The Talking Farm is located nearby in Evanston -- it has already started selling cold weather seedlings, and will be bringing out the warm weather seedlings on May 11. 

I've volunteered with Friendship Park Conservatory's plant sale, and I can say personally it's got a great selection of flowers and veg -- but their dahlias are really something special. Good timing, too, for Mother's Day shopping. 

Farmers & the rain

As antsy as we gardeners might be to get in the fields, farmers need to get into their fields for their livelihood -- and the weather ain't cooperating. Check out this post from Illinois Farm Families' blog for one farmer's thoughts on our recent flooding.

Another garden plot design

Here's another plan, growing fewer types of veg but more of each. Check out a larger version of the design, plus the plant list and growing timing, online here.

Garden design ideas

One of the gardeners who attended my Garden Design class on April 13 asked if I would post sample designs for the community garden plots, so here goes Sample #1. (I'm using the GrowVeg planner I found on Mother Earth News' site.)

Here's the overall design:

To see the plan online with a list of plants needed and sowing/harvesting information, click here.

If you're interested in an explanation of my planting choices for this sample, read on!

First thing, I've kept a 1' wide walkway all the way around my plot -- that's the light brown. This is give  access to the north and south sides of the plot, which neighbor other plots. On the east and west sides, this is so I remember to leave adequate space between my plot and the grass walkway, so none of my plants sprawl in the grass and get mowed.

I've put the zucchini on the west side for maximum sun. Their vines sprawl and take up a lot of space, so I've given them just under 3 square feet apiece. Since the vines won't sprawl until mid to late summer, I'm going to plant bok choy and Swiss chard in the same space. These greens will be more than ready to harvest by the time the zucchini vines need the space. I've also included nasturtium, an edible flower that also has a sprawling habit. The nasturtium will attract pollinators to the zucchini and help to cover the soil, suppressing weeds. 

The next section to the east holds a mix of sweet and hot peppers, as well as eggplant and sweet alyssum. Both of these veg like full sun. I'm also planting a lot of sweet alyssum around these plants to create a living mulch and attract pollinators. The alyssum is short enough not to block any sun.

Moving further east:

This is the first section with real height to it. Tomatillo plants can get 4-6' tall, but they're not dense plants, so I'm not worried about them shading anything. One tomatillo will give me just enough fruit for salsa for the end of the summer and possibly for canning.

I'm putting in 4 tomato plants. I'm going to stake them using the Florida weave method (click here). I've arranged them not in an east-west orientation, but tilted to the southwest to get the most sun, since they're sun lovers. I've tucked basil around their feet, since I know I'll have space down there because I remove the bottom 6" of tomato leaves. I'm also adding in borage (an herb with edible flowers) and cosmos (an airy, tall flower) to attract pollinators.

I've tucked just one cabbage to the east and slightly north of the tomatoes. I don't need much more than that for my family. I've also tucked cilantro and sage to the south of the tomatoes. Herbs are easy to tuck here and there, because they usually don't take up much space.

The height in this section comes from the cucumber trellis.  I've decided to trellis my cukes on a leaning trellis like this. Cukes sprawl, but this way they'll sprawl up instead of taking up more ground space. I'm planting radishes all around them to repel cucumber beetles, and I'm planting lettuces underneath the leaning trellis -- they'll like the afternoon shade. I'm also planting sunflowers near the cukes, since I heard that they'll make the cukes sweeter -- it's worth a try! Just north of the cukes I'm tucking some parsley and more cosmos.

Finally:

The height in this section comes from a circular trellis for growing beans. They like full sun, so they'll get the morning sun and most of the afternoon sun -- the gap between the beans and the tomatoes means the beans won't get a ton of shade from the west from the tomatoes. I've paired the beans with lots of marigolds to repel pests. You can actually tuck marigolds all over this plan, wherever you have space. They're like a multivitamin for a garden.

And then we've got beets, carrots and onions. They'll get morning sun, which they all like, but a tad of shade from the west, from the cucumber trellis and the bean trellis.

So this is my first sample for you. I know it's not perfect -- if you've got thoughts or questions, post them in comments, and I'll address them as I can.

In the seed-starting factory

It's nice to see flowers blooming, even if it is on a 2" tall marigold in my basement. The collards are also purpling up nicely. Spring in my basement!

The above picture shows part of my setup in the basement. I had been starting seeds under fluorescent lights on a stand in the corner of my bedroom and on a shelf in the basement, but I needed more space. Then I noticed I had a terrific spot for starting seeds -- a wire bookshelf then being used to hold cleaning equipment. I spent a happy afternoon moving the supplies, then started stringing up work lights from a big box store. It's important to keep lighting 2-4" away from seedlings, so I used the chains that came with the lights and cable ties. As I need to move the lights higher, I snap off the old cable tie and insert a new one through a different link in the chain, hitching it up higher. Works like a charm. 

It's Twitter time

While we're waiting for the soil to dry, why not check out our new twitter feed? My username is @JenatWFCG, and I'll be posting items of gardening interest there as well as here. See you on Twitter!

Happenin' in the Greenhouse

Several of you have asked if we can use the greenhouse attached to the south side of the Heritage Center. Wish we could, but it's the basis of a really cool partnership program at Wagner Farm:  NSSED's Be@theFarm program. Check out more information by clicking here and here.

The secrets of soil (aka, why we're not tilling the garden yet)

We just got back the results from our soil sample test, and we're waiting eagerly (I'm eager, the farmers perhaps are not, since they'll do the real work) -- ok, I'm waiting eagerly to till & amend the soil, based on the soil test recommendations.

Here's the problem, though -- the soil is still too darn wet! I'll keep you updated, but this next week looks a wet one as well, so no promises.

Meanwhile, soil. If you want to learn more about it, click here to check out this usenet group with a long discussion on soil for gardening. Meanwhile, some info from that site that might be helpful.

On why working with wet soil is a bad idea:

B.01.07: What is Soil Structure?
Soil structure is the way in which the sand, silt, and clay particles are grouped together. The drainage capacity of the soils and the ability of the soils to make nutrients available to the plant are functions of soil structure.

B.01.15: What is compacted soil and how is it corrected?
Compacted soil is soil with most of the air squeezed out. A good top soil should contain as much as 25% by volume air which is needed to support plant growth and the soil organisms. Tramping around in moist beds is a sure way to compact the soil and is something that is best to avoid. The passage of soil macro-organisms, and particularly earth worms, going back and forth through the soil repair compacted soils. Compacted soils can also be corrected by digging in additional organic material.

Although it may seem overly technical, I think you can never pay too much attention to your soil. It's the bedrock (joke intended) for your garden, and deserves respect.   The link above also has a terrific information on the differences between topsoil, potting soil, the difference between organic amendments and fertilizer, and raised beds.   Enjoy! And stay warm!

Thinking about that garden plot

If you'd like to learn a bit more about vegetable garden design, check out my class this Saturday at Wagner Farm. I'll be teaching about plant needs, square foot gardening, how to graph and plan -- basically tools and techniques to help you get the most out of your garden space. 

If you'd like to attend, click here to register online (scroll down to the April 13 class). Here's a little tidbit to get you interested -- did you know some veg might be ok with a little shade? Especially in the afternoon.