Update from Letitia

Sunday we took out the peas, planted lettuce, beets and pickling cucumbers. The cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins and muskmelons have mold, so Vikte did some research and found three non-toxic sprays (vinegar, hydrogen peroxide and borax mixed with water) to combat the mold. We tested all three.

There are lots of seedlings in the garden, so be careful when weeding. If there is any doubt if it's a weed or a seedling, let's leave it in the ground.

We need signs for the beet and lettuce seedlings that were planted Sunday.

Garden Captain
Or boss or whatever you want to call it. Betsy suggested that we take turns leading in the garden each week. The person who is responsible for each week needs to make a to-do list prior to when we start Sunday morning and then bring the list to the garden on Sunday. The August schedule is as follows.
Ausust 2: Mark Domin
August 9: Meg
August 16: Suzanne
August 23: Vikte

Watering
We have had more cool temps and more cloudy days this summer than usual. We discussed the mold on Sunday and decided that a likely suspect is excess moisture comibined with lack of sun/heat. We also discussed watering and came up with some suggestions.
Seedlings need to be watered every day, unless it rains enough to water them.
Established plants may not need to be watered every day when we have cooler temps and clouds.
Established plants, when the weather is cooler, do better with a deep watering every couple of days than with shallow waterings daily.
Some notes on what was watered when may help waterers. Suzanne & Diana provided a waterproof container, notebook and pens. Waterers can write down what they watered to help subsequent waterers decide if the established plants should be watered.
Don't be shy - stick your finger into the soil to check the moisture if you are not sure if plants need more water.
The garden should be watered as early in the day as possible, particularily given the recent weather. That being said, everyone understands that waterers may not be able to get to the garden until late in the day.
We will also list when we planted seeds and where in the notebook so that waterers know where seedlings are (might help with accidental weeding of seedlings also).

Mold Spray
Here is a list of which plants received which remedy for mold so that we can watch to see what works. (Vikte - if I am wrong about any of these, please update.)
Right half of zucchinis (as you are facing Vikte's house) were sprayed with peroxide.
Left half of zucchinis were sprayed with vinegar.
Pumpkins and cukes were sprayed with borax & water mix (1 cup Borax to 1 gallon of water).
Melons with the peas and the new cucumbers were sprayed with vinegar.

Raspberries
We discussed planting raspberries on the hill and determined the following. Vikte said that she will be raspberry captain.
We would like to plant 3 horizontal rows of raspberries on the hill (from the top down to the Mack side).
The first step is to till the hill.
We should not need to buy any raspberry plants. We can transplant from Vikte's yard.
We need to decide if we will amend the soil. Raspberries grow in several yards on the block and a couple of people mentioned that they seem to do well in a variety of soil conditions. We discussed leaving the soil as is and just planting or amending the soil but we did not reach a decision.
Rob, can we use your till for the hill sometime in August?

Garden Tours

Hi All,

Two weeks from today is the time we would normally have our community potluck. But on August 5th the Greening of Detroit and the Detroit Agricultural Network hold their annual urban garden tour! The plan is for our group to have a field trip! We will get a chance to see many other community gardens as well as some large backyard gardens.

We should each sign up individually for it (sign up is a must - it sells out). There are 4 tours to choose from, one of which is a bicycle tour. Clem and I did the bicycle tour last year which was very good. I think it would be fun if we all did the same tour and I'm thinking we should do the Eastside tour - since we are eastsiders!

All tours leave from the Catherine Ferguson Academy (in itself a wonderful thing to see) on the near west side at 6:00 sharp. There is a meal at Catherine Ferguson after the tours. (Registration begins at 5:00 - last year we got there a few minutes before 6:00 and we were okay)

I realize some people may want to go right from work, but for those of us who are starting off from Grayton it would be good to carpool.

I'm attaching a link to a link (DAN and The Greening Websites are hard to navigate) that will let you sign up for the tour. Let me know what your plans are. It would be good if we can all get on the same bus. As always, kids are welcome.

http://blog.eatlocalfood.com/2009/07/2009-urban-garden-tour-is-wednesday.html


Betsy Breckels

Pick, Pick, Pick!

Hey guys. Just a heads up--come down and start picking the vegetables. And don't be shy and just pick a couple beans here and there. Take enough for a meal for your family. The more you pick, the more the plants produce. Right now the zucchini, beans, and cucumbers are producing like crazy. We're giving the peas another week or so before we yank the plants. It's starting to be payoff time, so eat well and enjoy!

And thanks everyone who worked today. I think we got quite a bit done. Once again, you guys rock!

This just in!

We're getting a bunch of fall vegetables from Earthworks. So we need to expand the beds a bit. We're planning on meeting down at the garden around 8 A.M. on Thursday morning to expand the beds and plant. If you can make it, that would be wonderful. Don't feel obligated.

Mark

Watering

For these hot dry months Vikte and I decided you all could use our hoses for watering. We guesstimated it would cost about $20.00 for the 2 months and we'll deduct that from the kitty. (It turns out a meter would cost about $100.00 - not really worth it.)

So if the rain barrels are empty hook up the hoses to Vikte's or my or both spigots.

Be sure to give everything a good soaking now that we are not getting much rain.

Also be sure to pick zuchinni, cucumbers , beans , Basil and parsley often.

Betsy

Let it rain! In the mean time...

Hello Trusty Waterers.

Notice that there are new seedlings that need to be generously watered. They are in the former beet bed and the former potato bed. They are marked (not prominently) chard, beets, lima beans and cilantro.

Okay I'll go back to my rain dance now.


Betsy

Reacp

Notes from Betsy:

Hi all,

Steve was a very informative speaker last night! With taking his advice we can extend our growing season well into October! He asked at the end if he could join us on Sundays, I took a poll of most of the core members and a majority is all for it. Frankly we need his expertise. I plan to call him this afternoon and let him know that we'd be honored to have him take part in our group.

I plan to order seeds today as well. We will need lettuce, radish, beets, carrots (I won't order the short stubby kind everyone was dissin' last night). I think I got all the seed packets he gave us but if some one has more please let me know. If you're yearning for a particular crop let me know. Lisa from Earthworks said she would get us a distribution of transplants including kolrabi, cabbage, kale, among other things.

Already I think we've had a great bounty. Be sure to go down and pick dill, parsley and Basil whenever you need it. Zuchinni and cukes are on the way. Get your zuchini recipes out! We should have more potatoes (the kids should definitely take part in this harvest!) this week but next year we can definitely plant more --- maybe we can use the garbage can method and it won't take up any garden space but will give us lots of yield. (not for fingerlings though from what I understand.)

A few weeks ago on Sunday we all went around the garden and figured out together what needed to be done, made a list, and then went right through the list. I think that is a good model. I plan to do that again this week and every week so please be ready to do this.

Both of our speakers mentioned books. Patrick had suggested an organic gardening book by Elliot Coleman. I have not read it but I did go to the workshop which was very interesting.

Steve mentioned Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Polan. (I'll throw in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver). If you're interested in reading Omnivore's Dilemma, both Tish and I have copies we would be happy to lend to you. If you want the reader's digest version go see Food Inc. at the Main theatre.

Also it is time to cough up another $10. The group owes me $24.00 for rain barrel faucets and plants. plus I'll be buying seeds this week. Please drop an envelope in our mailbox. So far I'm very impressed with how cheaply we've done this whole thing. Impressed in general with how when we work together we pulled off this amazing bountiful beautiful garden.

Betsy Breckels
betsybreckels@gmail.com