T-shirts have arrived!

The t-shirts arrived earlier this week! I'll be wearing mine today at the farm, while I see how much water may still be on the garden plots. (And did I hear right it's supposed to rain again today?)

If you ordered a shirt, stop by the front desk of the Heritage Center today from 9am-5pm and grab your shirt!

Living on the edge

The edges of your garden plot are the most important -- and most overlooked -- place in your plot.

1. WEEDS

That's the first place I look for weeds -- if you can keep the edges of your plot clean, I am less likely to be concerned about weeds in the center (unless they're going to flower). Especially consider the weeds along the edge between your plot and your neighbors' plots. Gardeners often consider this no-man's land and figure the other person will weed. I consider this the first place to weed, since this is the main reason why weeds are a problem (wandering from one plot to the next).

I am not as concerned with weeds right along the grass walkways, but it's good for you gardeners if you keep that area clean. Staff gets the mower close to the plots, but then there's usually a bit of weed-whacking necessary. If you want to protect any veg you have growing close the walkway, keep an extra little area clear of weeds, or just chop them down yourself, and then staff won't need to weed whack there.

2. POSSESSION

Also keep in mind a little bit I learned the first day in my property law class in law school: if a neighbor's apples fall on my property, they become my apples. If your tomato plants drop a tomato in another plot, by virtue of being planted so close to the other plot that branches overlap the airpspace, that tomato now has a new owner.

3. WANDERERS

Some of the plants we grow get pretty big -- squash & cukes get long and viney, tomato plants get pretty wide. While a neighboring gardener might appreciate a tomato falling on their plot once in awhile, they are less likely to look happily on a squash plant bullying its way into their plot. If you have planted squash, cukes or melons in your plot, you are responsible for keeping it in your plot. If you have planted too close to your plot edges and your plants are uninvited visitors in the next plot, please prune or otherwise corral them. Next year, consider planting your vining plants in the center of your plot, and leaving enough room around tomatoes for their full growth.

This applies to the edges of your plot along the walkways, too. Any plants wending their way into the walkways will get mowed eventually if not promptly pruned or corralled.

This is the one time I will let someone use a small piece of fence on the edge of their plot -- to keep vines in. But keep any fencing or containment clearly on your plot, and make sure you have enough room in your plot to weed around the plant. In other words, don't take up any of your plot neighbor's space.

Spinach, Apple, And Walnut Salad

Serves 4.

2 Golden Delicious Apples, cored, cut into large dice
4 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 (5-ounce) packages (8 cups) of baby spinach leaves
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons honey
2/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, chopped

Toss apples with 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice. Place spinach in a large bowl, remove long stems and bruised leaves. Whisk together remaining juice, olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt, and ground pepper to taste. Toss spinach with apples and dressing. Divide between four bowls. Top with cheese and walnuts.

Enjoy!

WFCG T-shirts are ordered

Thanks to everyone who ordered t-shirts! I put the order in today for 54 t-shirts, and they should be here next week. When they arrive, I'll set up a pick-up time and let you all know.

54 shirts ordered -- wow!

Weeds and other Friday fun facts

A weed by any other name... is a terrific source of nitrogen for a compost pile. So do us a favor and put your weeds to good use in the compost bins, not in your plots!

Here's a primer on the main 6 I've seen out in the community garden over the past year... plus the one who has been the subject of the most disagreement. (Read on to find out why.)

Lamb's Quarter

Lamb's Quarter

Type: Broadleaf annual

Size: To 4 feet tall and 18 inches wide

Appearance: Scalloped leaves have gray undersides.

Control: Mulch to prevent it; pull plants by hand

   

Smartweed

Smartweed

Type: Broadleaf annual

Size: To 42 inches tall and 30 inches wide

Appearance: Upright plant with pink or white flowers in summer and fall and lance-shape leaves often marked with purple chevrons.

Control: Mulch garden areas in spring to prevent it; pull plants by hand

 

Canada Thistle

Canada Thistle

Type: Broadleaf perennial 

Size: To 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide

Appearance: Spiny, gray-green leaves and purple flowers.

Control: Mulch to prevent it in landscape areas; dig it out by hand.

Note: Thistle has an extensive root system that can grow several feet out from the main plant. This makes it great for using in compost bins or homemade fertilizer.

 

Pigweed

Pigweed

Type: Broadleaf annual

Size: 6 feet tall, 2 feet wide

Appearance: Tall plants with a taproot; hairy-looking clusters of green flowers.

Control: Mulch garden areas in spring to prevent it; pull plants by hand

 

Ragweed

Ragweed

Type: Broadleaf annual

Size: To 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide

Appearance: Finely cut green leaves are almost ferny.

Control: Mulch to prevent it; pull it out by hand.

Musk Thistle

Musk Thistle
Type: Broadleaf biennial
Size: To 6 feet tall and 18 inches wide
Appearance: Prickly leaves off of tall stems topped by heavy 2-inch purple flowers.
Control: Mulch to prevent it; dig it out.

And the one at the center of several vociferous arguments last year...

Velvetleaf

Velvetleaf

Type: Annual

Size: To 7 feet tall -- and quickly

Appearance: Large, floppy leaves with a velvety feel, and small yellow flowers.

Control: Mulch to prevent it; dig it out.

I get it -- velvetleaf has soft leaves, pretty flowers, and quick growth. It can seem like a sunflower until the moment you realize it's taken over your plot and it is not something you planted. Velvetleaf is considered a major weed of Illinois cropland because of its quick, almost miraculous growth, and the fact that its seeds can remain viable in soil for twenty years.

Yup, you read that correctly. Let this guy go to seed, and you've got a major weed problem from when your baby is in diapers until she's almost legal to drink. Do us all a favor: unless you KNOW you planted sunflowers in that exact location, if you see a plant looking like this one, yank it right then and compost it.

Spicy Zucchini with Garlic and Parsley

Spicy Zucchini with Garlic and Parsley

Ingredients:
 - 1/4 cup olive oil
 - 2 garlic cloves or you can use jar form
 - 1 - 1/2 pounds zucchini, washed, trimmed and cut into 1/4 inch rounds
 - 1 teaspoon dried red chile flakes
 - Kosher Salt to taste
 - 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
 - 3 tablespoons fresh minced parsley

Directions:
In a large skillet, combine olive oil and garlic and cook on medium for 3 minutes. Add zucchini, chile flakes and salt and cook in a single layer on medium until golden brown on both sides. Stir to prevent overcooking. Add vinegar and scrape bits off bottom. Cook another 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in parsley and serve. Makes 4 servings.

Recipe from Taste of Italia, January / February 2012 issue.

Wagner Farm Dairy Breakfast

Take a break from gardening on Saturday and join us for the annual Wagner Farm Dairy Breakfast!

We had a blast taking the old timey picture in the poster -- can you spot me?

In my spare time...

I also garden at home. No veg, there, because I've got a plot at Wagner Farm, but lots of flowers.

I don't have pictures of my largest bed, because I haven't trimmed the hedge behind it yet, and it looks ridiculous. This is a bed I created around an old horse chestnut tree, which has since been made into wood chips. This bed is a lot of peonies (Paula Fay being my favorite), with wild geraniums, allium, chives, catmint, rosemary and roses, plus an evergreen. We got this evergreen 12 years ago as a seedling from a booth at the Glenview Street Fair, and I tucked it into this bed behind the horse chestnut almost as a joke. Over a decade later, it's growing really well and has taken over tree duties in the bed.

My favorite combo -- hot pink peonies and coral/yellow roses.

I'd love to see pictures of your home gardens, too!

Cold Cucumber and Avocado Soup

In a blender, combine:

1 cucumber, partially peeled, seeded and cut into small 2" cubes

1/2 Avocado

2 Scallions

1 Cup Sour Cream

1 Cup Chicken Stock

2 Tablespoons Lime Juice

Salt & Pepper

Blend well and adjust seasoning.

Enjoy on a hot summer night!

Organic fertilizer

Now that a lot of plants are planted, you might be thinking they need a bit o' feeding. Wind, cold temps, too much water -- these all can stress out your plants, and some plant food can help with that as well. Even with the terrific soil we have, different veg need different types of nutrients. Leafy greens generally need more nitrogen, and fruiting plants could use a small amount of nitrogen, potash and potassium (see blurb on NPK at bottom of post).

Before you go running to the store, think about a few things:

1. Anything you use in the garden must be organic. No Miracle-gro, nothing with an ingredient list full of synthetics. If you want to purchase organic fertilizer, I suggest nurseries like Pesches, Lurveys, Reds or Chalet. No matter the source, it must say "organic" or "OMRI" on the packaging. Even the word "natural" may not mean it's organic -- if you have questions, snap a shot of the label and email/text it to me.

2. Ingredients you might find in an organic fertilizer include worm castings, kelp extract, fish bone meal, alfalfa meal, seaweed extract, plant hormone, calcium, aged manure, among other things. 

3. You can also make your own organic fertilizers. Here are some examples --

Using common weed leaves: to add a dose of nitrogen

1. Harvest your leaves, nettles, weeds, seaweed etc and place them in a bucket with a lid.
2. Fill the bucket with water.
3. Wait two weeks.
4. Dilute the concentrate to look like weak tea before you use it.

Epsom salt: to add magnesium and sulfate (esp. for peppers, tomatoes and peppers

1. Combine 1 Tablespoon Epsom Salt, 1 gallon water in a watering can
2. Use the solution to water your plants.
3. Repeat once a month.

My favorite organic fertilizer is worm castings -- those I get from my vermicompost bin and those I purchase. The NPK is worm castings is around 0.1-2 for each macronutrient, depending on what the worms were fed. Worm castings and general compost are both like multivitamins -- low levels of macronutrients, but with terrific micronutrients, humus, and microorganisms.

NP-what?

A bit about nutrients: you might have seen a three-number marking on different fertilizers, like 16-9-9, or 4-0-0-. This lets you know the NPK contents: n=nitrogen, p=potash, and k=potassium. The numbers represent the ratio of the nutrients to each other and their volume in the container. For instance, Gardeners Supply sells "Gardener's Best Organic Tomato Fertilizer" with an NPK of 8-5-5. This means it has 8% nitrogen, 5% potash and 5% potassium. That adds up to 18% macronutrients in the bag, with the other 82% of the bag being filler and micronutrients. I've never seen a fertilizer that has an NPK that equals 100, by the way, not even close!

Compost v. mulch

This is a quick post, to clear up some terms and perhaps some misconceptions.

Here's the definition of compost: Decayed organic material used as a plant fertilizer.

Here's the definition of mulch: A material (such as decaying leaves, bark, or compost) spread around or over a plant to enrich or insulate the soil. 

Many things can be used as a mulch, as mentioned in the definition. 

There can be synthetic mulches like permeable fabrics, gravel, recycled class or shredded plastic. None of these are allowed in our community garden. We allowed permeable fabric last year, but we're still digging out pieces of it from the soil this year, so we nixed its use.

Of the organic mulch options, we allow straw (not hay, which has seeds), newspaper, cardboard, cardboard paper, general compost, cocoa nut mulch, cotton burr compost, aged manure, leaf mold, shredded leaves, grass clippings, and mushroom compost, among others. 

There are two organic mulch options that we do not allow in the community garden: wood chips and shredded hardwood. These are probably the most recognized types of mulch, because they're very popular in landscaped areas. These are not good options in a vegetable garden for two reasons: they decompose slowly, and they suck nitrogen from the soil while decomposing. Most veg need whatever nitrogen is in the soil, so tying it up with wood chips is going at cross-purposes.

I think some confusion came into the garden because I -- and other gardeners -- tend to use the terms "mulch" and "compost" interchangeably. I apologize! 

Usually when I talk about compost, I'm referring to compost as a soil amendment -- something that will add nutrients to the soil. Usually when I talk about mulch, I'm referring to the allowed organic mulch options above -- to blanket bare soil, conserve water, and suppress weeds. But really, I'm talking about two different purposes for the same materials. The leafmold that you can mix into your soil to improve its structure and add quick nutrients can also be used as a thick layer on top of your soil to conserve water and suppress weeds.

Ok, so this wasn't so quick. But I hope it made sense!

The dreaded cucumber beetle arrives (dum dum dummmmmmm)

Here it is:

Here's what it can do:

There is no avoiding the cucumber beetle. It overwinters in the soil, it has a broad travel range, and it affects more than just cucumbers (add squash, melons, pumpkins and gourds to the list).

So is there any good news? First, if you can get your cuke/squash/melon/pumpkin/gourd plant to a healthy size, then it can withstand having up to 50% of its leaves demolished by this beetle before the plant will call it a day. Second, there are organic ways of handling the problem.

First, try row covers. Row covers are made of special fabric which allows in sun and rain but keeps out pests. Using row covers for several weeks will give your plants time to grow and strengthen. Once the cuke starts to flower, however, you need to remove the row cover so the plant can get pollinated. 

The row cover below is suspended over the plants on top of thin metal hoops. You can also drape row covers gently over your plants without hoops, securing the edges to the ground with rocks or garden staples.

Second, mulching (using an organic material as a blanket on the soil) can deter cucumber beetles from laying their eggs at the stems of your cukes. The baby beetles that come from these eggs cause the damage shown in the middle damage picture -- eating the plant roots.

Third, delay planting the cuke family. Cucumber beetles typically emerge in late May, which is usually just after we've planted our cuke family veg. Delaying planting can allow your veg to miss the first, and heaviest, wave of beetles. The problem here, though, is that you may not have enough time to get a good crop by the end of the season -- check your cuke seeds and choose a quick harvest time.

Fourth, kaolin clay is both organic and a protective film against cucumber beetles. Mixed with water, kaolin clay forms a sticky residue on the leaves, and apparently this causes "excessive grooming" for the beetles, which then have little time to chew up your plants. Kaolin clay washes off after a heavy rain, so it needs to be reapplied both every 2 weeks and/or after a heavy rain. At harvest time, kaolin clay will wash off with a little effort and is not apparently toxic for people.

Fifth, plant radishes and onions in and around your cuke. Radishes germinate really quickly, and they repel cucumber beetles, so even if you don't like to eat radishes, try tossing a bunch of seeds around your cuke (and other affected veg) plants. Onions seem to repel most insects, so it wouldn't hurt to throw them in the mix.

Sixth, sticky traps of yellow tape are a pretty effective control. You can purchase these at a nursery or make your own with yellow plastic cups and special glue for this purpose ("Stickum" or "Tangle-Trap"). 

Seventh, a mix of neem oil and karanja oil (both organic) have been shown to be effective sprays against cucumber beetles. I haven't found a source of this mix, though.

Eighth, pyrethrum is an extract from chrysanthemums, and it is toxic to cucumber beetles. There are two problems with it, though -- it's toxic to just about every bug as well (including beneficial insects), and it's easier to find the longer-lasting synthetic form (pyrethin) than the organic form (pyrethrum). The synthetic form is not allowed in our garden.