Mid July is a big transition time

Time to replant cool weather crops, and start harvesting some cherry tomatoes! We will harvest the rest of the lettuce, replant some things, plant carrots, harvest potatoes, etc..

Could it be more humid?

Some photos of the garden

Here is a view from the garden. Even more has happened since I took this photo.

April is the cruelest month!

I am behind, and neither the weather nor my personal schedule is cooperating. Darn! I am trying to finish up the seed orders - I found one more source for the rattlesnake beans! I need to write/disseminate planting information for the gardens as promised. I need to start some seeds, but we are going away over break. What to do? Practice good enough gardening! I will start them late, and that will have to be good enough. We are planting on Earth Day, and want to register with the Green Thumb initiative, but the most important thing is to get the salad beds ready with some topsoil.

It takes a village - again!

Four more beds! Thanks to McPherson's for donating the wood, Kris Dimmick for getting the wood to the playground, and Joe Fedorko for building the beds - in such rotten weather, too! Thanks in advance to the Lawler family for the dirt and wood chips, and people who brought in newspapers - let's see what can happen with three days of nice weather!

Most of the seeds are in for the sale, but we have been out of stocked and back order on a few critical items. I found most of them from other companies on-line, but it will cut into our profits a bit. Sharon and Alexa Murray are going above and beyond in their repackaging efforts - the result will be much superior to what I would have done. On that note - the 3rd and 5th graders did artwork that was supposed to go on seed packets, but it turned out to be too expensive to reproduce into labels, so we didn't follow through, but please admire them upstairs in front of the art room.

Amazon.com: Sackets harbor garden books

Amazon.com: Sackets harbor garden books

I hope this is a link I made to books that I use over and over for reference and inspiration. Most of them follow the philosophy of no-till gardening, and planting in beds or wide rows to maximize production, and using fixed pathways to minimize compaction. I know many people who are hooked on tillers, but apparently they destroy the soil over the long run, and kill the worms who do they good work in the soil.

Flower Memorial Library has an amazing gardening section - I have taken all of these books out there before deciding to buy them, and many more that I didn't buy. Look online at www.ncls.org and you can even have them sent to Sackets for pick-up.

Don't forget - the planning and the dreaming is half the fun!

Grow the right crop at the right time!

Previously, we learned about plant parts that we eat. With Carrots and beets, we eat the root; with celery and asparagus, we eat the stem. With lettuce and kale, we eat the leaves; with artichokes and broccoli, we eat the flower. With tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, squash and green beans, we eat the fruit, which is the part that forms after the flower and contains seeds. With corn, peas, and dried beans, it is the seed itself that we eat. We even made a video about the plant parts we eat!

Understanding what part of the plant you are trying to grow helps a lot in trying to plan a successful garden where you are doing your best to create the ideal environment for the plant you are trying to grow.

Fruits and Seeds Like it Hot!

1. Fruits and seeds generally need a long, hot growing season (except for peas)
   

2. We start many of the fruits inside, because they need a head start in order to produce fruit. An exception is beans, zucchini and cucumbers, who produce fruit in about 50 days.
   

3. Most members of the seed group and the gourd family don’t like their roots disturbed, so where we have to start them ahead, we use peat pots.
   

4. Some fruits, and basil and okra, are especially sensitive to chilly air, so we wait an extra week after the last frost to put them out.

Roots and Leaves love it Cool!

1. Leaves and Roots generally grow more quickly than fruits and seeds, and like cool weather best.

2. When it gets too hot, some leaves, like spinach and lettuce, just give up, and they go to seed (bolt).

3. Roots can generally grow all summer, but they taste better when they grow in cooler weather.

If you continually plant more roots, you will have a continual supply to harvest.

5. Some leaves, like swiss chard, kale, and lettuce, can have their leaves cut for salad, and grow leaves back for a continual harvest. These are called “cut and come again” plants.

We also learned about plant families, and similarities and differences within families. We learned that even though potatoes are in the same family as tomatoes, they are roots, and they can be planted 6 weeks before frost. Tomatoes are killed by frost and like it hot. But they can share the same pests and diseases.

Seed Sale a Success! Let's start planning!

I just placed the order for the seed sale and we were very successful! Thank you for your orders and for those of you who got additional orders from friends and family. We had sales of $745.00 (plus $102.00 of seeds for our garden). We sold a lot of Zinnias, Cosmos, Sunflowers and Herbs, and by buying lots of the top sellers in bulk, we were able to save almost $200. Fedco gave us a group discount of $179, which brings us down to $484.00 that we paid to Fedco. So overall, we earned $260 for our garden plus $100 of free seeds. That’s the good news. The exciting part of all this is that we get to repackage over 500 packets of seeds. If anyone would like to participate, the seeds should be in two weeks from now.

We will also be looking for help in finishing the garden. We will need to build 4 additional 13 foot beds, or 4 six foot beds and 4 7 foot beds. These need to be built before or around Easter to get ready for our salad gardens. If you are able to help with this, let us know. If you are not handy with wood, there will be plenty of opportunities for helping in the future.

This Thursday, we will be learning about time and temperature, or which vegetables like to grow when it’s hot and when it’s cool, and how many days does it take for them to be ready to harvest. We will then select vegetables for our spring garden.