How a bean vine grows up a trellis

This is a video of a morning glory, but a bean vine grows the same way.

Glenview Spring Seed Swap on May 3

Dori Flerlage, one of our Wagner Farm community gardeners, is hosting a seed swap at the Glenview Public Library on May 3 from 10am-noon. This is a great opportunity to trade your extra seeds to get what you need for your garden, and it's a lot of fun.

Check out the info here and bring your extra seeds to swap on May 3!

Plant Sale at the Talking Farm

Get Ready to Plant! The Talking Farm's Seedling Sales Begin May 3

Choose local, lovingly, and organically-grown seedlings for your garden this year. The Talking Farm will offer 21 different varieties of home-grown seedlings at our sales at the Howard Street Farm, starting with cold weather hardy varieties then moving on to warm weather varieties as spring progresses. As in prior years, we will have red, white, yellow and blue seed potatoes.

Seedlings will be $3 each and all proceeds support The Talking Farm. Seedling sales begin May 3rd and go through June 7th. Each Saturday seedling sale will also be a work day, so feel free to get your hands dirty and shop at the same time!

Details:
2014 Seedling Sales at The Howard Street Farm
3669 Howard St., Skokie
(behind the Tot Learning Center)
10 am - 2 pm
May 3 - June 7

...From The Talking Farm's Newsletter

Plant Markers... and a note about Styrofoam

I spent part of Wednesday doing a final (I hope) clean-up of the garden plots. It was still very muddy, but I picked my way through the area grabbing plastic plant markers, bits of garden tape, styrofoam, and miscellaneous synthetic trash.

Going through the plots this way is meditative, and I got to thinking about what I can do differently this year. Picking up a ton of plastic plant markers -- in the fifth of my clean-ups, and after an Eagle Scout group did a fall clean-up -- has made me adamant about being more thoughtful about what non-synthetic items I bring into the garden this year, and how I want to mark my plants.

There are a lot of good ideas online for plant markers. The plastic labels that come with plants are terrific -- they usually have a picture of the plant as well as plant needs info. But they're small, they crack and break, they get lost under mulch, soil and plant parts by the end of the season. At that point, they're either destined to become part of the soil of the garden, or hopefully they're grabbed during one of the many clean-ups.

So I'm going for taller plant markers this year, or something bigger at least. Something I can see at the end of the season so I'll remember to remove them. Something cute that I won't want to leave behind. Something solid but not hurtful. Something that isn't destined to become part of our soil.

Here are some of my ideas: (all found on Pinterest.com)

leftover bricks

chopsticks

dollar store forks with leftover corks

laundry pins on a tall stick

stirrers from the paint store

rocks (can be painted)

pieces of old terra cotta pots

twigs from my yard

dollar store kitchen spoons

An important note: NO STYROFOAM IS ALLOWED IN THE GARDENS. One gardener used a styrofoam cup to protect the stem of a vegetable plant last year. I missed seeing it last year, but luckily I saw it in this clean-up and removed it. Styrofoam breaks so easily, and there's nothing natural about it. It just doesn't belong in an organic garden. Use an old tunafish can, or a small piece of tinfoil to protect stems, not styrofoam. Thanks!

Forecast from our Illinois State Climatologist (did you know we had one?)

Some interesting words from the blog of our Illinois State Climatologist, Jim Angel.

Here's a quote of immediate interest:

Meanwhile, the latest 6-10 and 8-14 days forecasts (below) from the Climate Prediction Center show increased odds for both warmer and wetter than average conditions in Illinois. The warmer temperatures are welcome for warming up the soils (see Illinois soil temperatures). However, the increased chances for rain could be a problem for field work.

Check out the full blog post here. 

Meanwhile, I did more cleaning in the community garden yesterday. It was pretty muddy, so not good for tilling yet (working with wet soil ruins the soil structure). I'm doing more work each week getting us closer to gardening, so more updates to come.

Upcoming Heirloom Sale at Peterson Garden Project

From the Peterson Garden Project newsletter:

SAVE THE DATE! Our Annual Plant Sale/Bake Sale is coming up!

Fri, May 9th: 10:00am- 4:00pm

Sat, May 10th: 10:00am - 4:00pm

Sun, May 11th: 12:00pm - 4:00pm

We’ll be selling heirloom seedlings, specially selected from Seed Savers Exchange and grown especially for this sale. Plus, we’ll also have delicious baked goodies from local bakeries, home bakers, and pastry chefs AND we’ll be pouring wine on Mother’s Day! Do yourself a favor and mark this date in your calendar. Make sure to stay tuned in our upcoming newsletters for highlights on what to expect at the sale! Click here for details and directions.

(The Peterson Garden Project is a terrific nonprofit in the city making creating victory gardens and encouraging people to grow their own food.)

Garden Design Class On Thursday, April 17

I've been getting some questions about what veg to plant, how many plants to get, what to put where -- and luckily, I've got a class coming up that will answer a lot of those questions!

There's still time to sign up for the HDTV Garden class, here at Wagner Farm on Thursday, April 17 at 6:30. We'll be talking about what to think about when planning your veg garden, learning some software, and putting your basic veg garden knowledge to good use. Open to the public, but for simplicity, I'll be using a template of the community garden plots in our designs.

This was the most popular class last year -- join us!

Plot Assignments

I'll be doing plot assignments tomorrow, April 15 -- a little bit of happy on Tax Day. Check your email in the evening for a filled-out garden map, and then do a sun dance, please.

Which beet are you today?

Seed-Starting Class on Thursday, April 3 here at Wagner Farm

Today is your last chance to sign up for my seed-starting class on Thursday, April 3 at 6:30. Call Park Center at 847-724-6500 or go online at glenviewparks.org. I will cover the why's and wherefore's of seed-starting at home before letting participants loose in the vermiculite and free seeds.

The elegant set-up in my basement