Pewabic Street Community Garden

Garlic, Shallots and Bulbs

2011-10-05T18:19:00.000-04:00

O todo e a parte ? ...DSCF0778a
by SantaRosa@Flicke

As sad as it is to see summer fade and plants wither, fall can also hold a lot of possibilities. In fact, this is the perfect time to plant garlic and shallot bulbs for next summer.

Last year, Sarah provided a link to a post from the Vegetable Gardener site that talked All About Garlic. This article is terrific, with tons of information on growing, harvesting and cooking with garlic. It's so good, we're resurrecting it.

Shallots can be grown in the same way.

So if you decide to plant garlic and/or shallots, you will definitely be rewarded with plenty come spring!

Purslane: So easy, it grows like a weed!

2011-08-05T13:53:00.000-04:00

A noxious weed or super leafy green?

Surprise! What you know as a really annoying weed is actually a super leafy green. Common purslane (or portulaca oleracea) is a annual succulent that is capable of growing in very poor soil and drought conditions. It is eaten almost everywhere in the world and is very expensive.

Just the other day, the wife of a Chinese student visited the garden and saw that I was pulling a bunch out out and begged me to stop. I believe she said it sold $5/lb in China? In my research about the plant, Simply Recipes seems to confirm this value.

All parts of the plant are edible (stem, leaf and seed). It contains high amounts of Omega-3 fatty acids (particularly alpha-linolenic acid), along with vitamin C and A as well as dietary minerals: magnesium, calcium, potassium, and iron. Historically, it has also been used medicinally for constipation, inflammation and an assortment of other ailments.

Purslane can be prepared in numerous ways: salads, stir-fried and soups. There are numerous recipes for purslane floating around on the internet. So, when you pull purslane out from your bed, take it home and give it a try! Personally, I'm eyeing this greek-style pesto recipe.

Long-Standing Traditions: Sharon's Tomatoes

2011-06-05T23:20:00.000-04:00

Tomatoes by Ajith_chatie@Flickr

Tradition is defined as a long standing ritual or belief that is passed down through the generations and is still in practice today.
Occasionally, these traditions get lost in the shuffle of new information, methods and technologies. However, sometimes it's nice to go back to our roots and discover that what worked before can work very well, even now. One of these gardening traditions is Sharon's method for planting and growing strong, healthy, and productive tomato plants.
Sharon's method was passed down from her mom, whom she claims to have produced the BEST tomatoes!

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:Tomato SeedlingsEpsom SaltEgg ShellsWater
1. Dig a large, deep hole for your tomato seedling.2. Add a handful of Epsom salt and a few leftover crushed eggs shells. This will provide the plant with magnesium and calcium. 3. Fill 1/2 to 3/4 of the hole with water.4. Place the seedling into hole and fill the rest of the hold with dirt until it is level with your bed.
I can attest to the fact that Sharon's tomato plants, from last year, grew vigorously and large. I had a serious case of tomato envy!

Sweet Melodies and Vegetables: Houghton Elementary School 4th Graders Visit the Garden

2011-06-04T21:41:00.000-04:00

4th Grade Students from Houghton Elementary School

On Tuesday, May 31st, the Houghton Elementary 4th Grade art class visited the garden to hang beautiful clay bells they created.

The students were inspired by the Ben's Bells project of Arizona. The goal of the project is to:

Inspire, educate and motivate each other to realize the impact of intentional kindness and to empower individuals to act according to that awareness, thereby changing our world.

Hanging bells.

Upon entering, the students circled the garden and proceeded to hang their bells on each fence post. This was followed by the singing of the "Shalom" song taught to them by Mrs. Campbell. The field trip ended with a rousing game of "Ideas and Community" Tag. In the end, a fun time was had by all. A video of the event can be seen on TV6 here.

Racing past the idea.

Mrs. Hall's 4th grade class.

On the following Thursday, Mrs. Hall's 4th Grade class made the annual trip to the garden to plant in their specially designated beds. With help from garden volunteers, the children learned about growing vegetables and flowers from seeds and small starter plants.

Pulling lots of weeds

One of the beds has been turned into an experimental greenhouse to see if it will improve plant growth and increase production. In the fall, the students will harvest their garden and enjoy a special lunch specifically made from the vegetables they had grown.

Additional photos can be seen in the garden slideshow.

Boot Camp for Seedlings

2011-06-03T23:45:00.000-04:00

Wind burn

While we may have turned the corner on spring, don't be too quick to pull the trigger on transplanting some of your delicate seedlings.

Spring weather can have nasty effects on delicate seedlings that were started indoors. Dangers abound! Frost, wind, sun and rain can wreck havoc on your seedlings and can easily put you back to square one.

Prior to setting your seedlings into their beds, you'll need to adapt them (or as About.com puts it: send them to "boot camp"). This is called "hardening off". Hardening off is where you gradually expose your seedlings to the outdoors in order to acclimatize them to the outdoors.

You can see, first-hand, the damage that has been done from the strong winds we've experienced these last few days.

If you haven't hardened off your seedlings before planting, there are a few things you can do to protect them:

Light Frost: Cover with a light cloth. The best is not to plant until after the last frost date.
Wind & Burn: Stake your plants and set up a wind barrier. Burn occurs when the wind wicks moisture off the leaves. For those who have plots on the west side of the garden, it may be prudent to tie burlap to the fence to block the strong west wind.
Sun: Some plants prefer shade and do poorly if subjected to intense heat. These plants are best grown on the north side of your plot.

A little protection can go a long way.

How to Make Your Own Garden Trellis

2011-05-04T12:59:00.001-04:00

Spring has sprung and the Pewabic Street Community Garden is revving up for another great growing season! Welcome back to old members and a hearty Hello! to new ones.

If you're quick off the mark, you can put down a bunch of cold weather crops like lettuce, cabbages, spinach, radishes and peas. You've be quickly rewarded for your efforts.

While planning your summer garden, you'll probably need a few trellises to hold up those heavy tomatoes, peas, pole beans, etc. Sarah found a webpage that talks about how to make your own garden trellises. It has a lot of great lashing techniques.

Learn Lashing and Make Your Own Garden Trellises [instapaper version]

On another note, let me re-iterate what was written by both Paul and Sarah on the pscg mailing list in case anyone missed it:

I wanted to make sure that everyone saw this information from Paul—I second Paul's point about asking questions—please ask for help—we're all learning together and the garden is successful when we're all working together.

"The drip watering system will be activated later this month. Josh and Paul will flush the lines and activate the hoses over the next week or so and work together to maintain the entire system through this season. If you run in to problems (such as leaks) that you are not comfortable fixing, please turn off that line that is leaking using the yellow tap, and send an email to this list.

IMPORTANT: While doing your initial weeding, digging, and planting, please move the drip lines out of your way so that you do not puncture them.

If you are not sure how to handle the lines, just post to the list and someone will meet you at the garden to show you how they work. My motto is: Do not be afraid to ask "dumb" questions, they are easier to handle than "dumb" mistakes!!

We will be looking in to "organic" disease control over the next couple of weeks. For pests, I would suggest looking at the sticky yellow cards for flying insects, foil or cardboard squares around your brassicas, Slug Go for slugs - Slug Go is an OMRI approved slug killer that uses oatmeal and iron phosphate. If you are considering a product and you are not sure, just look for the OMRI seal of approval."

That's it. Have fun and see you out at the garden!

Stop paying for so many city garbage bags!

2011-04-24T18:30:00.003-04:00

At $1-2/bag, it is expensive to throw away trash in Houghton. You can easily reduce the number of bags you use by simply composting your food scraps, yard waste and other organic material. A series of compost bins in your yard can easily handle all of your food and yard waste during the summer but what about winter? As we all know, Houghton has some LONG winters! An easy and cheap solution is vermicomposting (aka. worm composting).

Happy Tiger Worms by Tim Musson@Flickr

Worm composting can be done year-round indoors. It is neither messy nor smelly. The result is worm poop or what I like to call: "Black Gold". This soil can be used to enhance nutrients to plants as well as enhance soil structure and drainage.

Worm composting requires 5 items:

Bin

Bedding and Water

Worms

Food Scraps

By Tim Musson@Flickr

Worm Bins: Bins can be wood or plastic. A lot of people convert plastic bins that can be easily purchased at Walmart. The size of your bin depends on the amount of waste your household produces. The general rule of thumb is 1 sqft per 1 lb of garbage generated. Worms like it dark, warm and moist but not hot or cold. So keep your bin where the temperature remains between 55-77F.

Bedding: Worms like a fluffy material to burrow through and for you to bury the garbage in. Newspapers, paper bags, cardboard, leaves, sawdust, and dry grass clippings can be used. A handful of soil or sand should also be tossed in to assist in digestion. The bedding should be slightly damp.and fluffed to create air space. This allows the worms to move, as well as control odors.

Worms: Redworms should be used. These can be obtained online, at bait shops, nurseries or, in my case, free! from the soil in my outdoor composting bin. For approximately 1 lb. of food waste, you will need 2 lbs. of worms. 1 lb. of worms will eat about 4 lbs. of food scraps every week.

Food Scraps: Feed your worms only non-meat organic waste. Such as:

Vegetables

Fruits

Eggshells

Tea Bags

Coffee Grounds

Paper Coffee Filters

Shredded Garden and Household Waste (leaves and newspapers)

Limit citrus fruits as it makes the soil very acidic and encourages fruit flies to breed. Worms also dislike the over-powering smell of onions.

Do not add meat, oils, dairy or pet/human waste.

The end result:

Compost by lindsy.dee.bunny@Flickr

Here are some additional in-depth resources on how to make and care for you own worm bins:

http://www.savvygardener.com/Features/worm_composting.html

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/easywormbin.htm

http://compost.css.cornell.edu/worms/basics.html

http://permaculture.wikia.com/wiki/Worm_compost

http://www.watershedactivities.com/projects/winter/wormbin.html

http://wormcompostingblog.com/

http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/topic/vermicomposting/pubs/earthworms.pdf

http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/topic/vermicomposting/pubs/ag473-18.html

Update 04/25: I saw this very amusing article on TreeHugger about worm "towers". These towers allow the worms to spread the compost for you! Sounds good in theory. I may put it to the test in the garden this summer. Found another in-depth article from Milkwood.net, where a worm tower was put into practice in a garden.

Got AeroGarden?

2011-03-13T20:30:00.001-04:00

If, like me, your Basil plants were hampered by the cold weather last spring and destroyed by the early frosts last fall, you might want to think about investing in an Aerogarden and grow them indoors like I have been doing.

I got my first Aerogarden last spring, a model called VeggiePro, and grew tomato plants in it. I cannot say they did all that well because although the plants grew really well, I did not have a supply of bees in my office and had to pollinate the flowers myself.
The timing of the pollination seems important and I found I was missing more than I was pollinating. On top of that the flavor of the tomatoes were nothing special (but neither were the garden ones come to think of it). I stuck it out until I had picked the last tomato and then decided it was best not to grow anything that really needed pollination again. Enter the Basil . . . . . .

In November I purchased an international basil kit for the Aerogarden that contained seven different varieties. My Aerogarden model comes with six growing ports, so I put one aside to plant later. Deb and I were harvesting basil by early December and are still harvesting. The forte of this device is definitely the production of herb. I am amazed every time I cut off a bunch of leaves for salad or a sandwich and come back to find the plant is already sprouting again. Just last week the plants were getting a bit large so I cut every plant down from about 18 inches to under 12, which gave us enough leaves to make over one pint of superb Pesto. The plants were little more than stalks with a few token leaves I left to help photosynthesis, but they are already bursting out of the leaf nodes and generating more yummy Growth! When they say to can cut back basil almost indefinitely, they are not kidding. So for the price of a $15 kit (bought on Amazon), we have enjoyed over six months of basil harvest without the risk of frost.

Last week, I bought another Aerogarden. This is called the Aerogarden Classic 7, and has space for seven pods. It came with the "Gourmet" herb kit, which contains Genovese basil, Dill, Thyme, Mint, Oregano, Globe basil, and Lemon basil. Having grown the globe and lemon basils before, I decided not to plant those this time and replaced those seeds with another Genovese basil and a Cilantro. When I grew the Globe basil during the fall I found it was such a small plant that it was shaded by the larger basils, and the lemon bail is still growing in my first Aerogarden.
Genovese is the classic Pesto basil, so having two will be great. In the original "International Basil" kit I got Napolitano, Lemon, Thai, Globe, Red Rubin, Marseille, and Genovese. The Napolitano is truly amazing. It's leaves are large enough that you can put two on a sandwich just as you would a lettuce leaf, and it has an excellent anis-basil flavor. The Marseille and Genovese are pretty much the same, while the Red Rubin has almost s faint clove-like flavor. The Aerogarden company also allows you to custom build your kits, and in future I think I will take that route. The custom herb kit costs $4 more, but at least you get the plants that you really want.

So, if you love fresh herbs year round and do not want to be at the mercy of the weather, you might want to consider an Aerogarden. They start at under $60 (on Amazon anyway) for a 3 pod unit up to almost $200 for an "elite" unit with extra bulbs, a trellis system, extra height, and stainless steel trim. you could even get one that is specially designed to fit in a corner.

Their website is http://www.Aerogarden.com, and if you sign up for a catalog and emails there are often good deals to be had. I got my first one on Amazon, and Think it is a good place to start.

Asparagus: Spears of Love

2011-02-21T16:01:00.000-05:00

Asparagus by muffet@Flickr

For some reason, asparagus is often associated with Valentine Day's dinner. However, in my humble opinion, this incredibly tasty perennial is good any time of the year! On top of that, they are pretty easy to grow. A one-time planting will produce yields potentially up to 15 years.

The one negative aspect is that it takes 2 initial years of growing before harvesting can commence on the 3rd year. However, I believe it to be well worth the wait as it is easy to grow, has quite a few hardy varieties that can over-winter in zones 3-7 and I've heard that it is deer resistant.

If you have extra space in your yard, I highly recommend it. If you are more adventurous, I hear they grow wild in rural Wisconsin. Does anyone know if it grows wild in the UP?

Profile:
Wikipedia
Sun: Full to partial sun
Zones 3-7
Spread: the ferns can grow up to 2 feet wide
Height: 3-7'
Years to Harvest: 2 growing years, harvest starting on the 3rd year and every year after.
Sowing Method: crowns or direct sow

Planting, Care and Harvest:
In spring, plant each crown approximately 6" deep and 15" apart.
Asparagus likes rich compost soil.
Heavily mulch in the early years to reduce weeds as it doesn't care for competition.
Harvest in spring. Snap off spears that are taller than 4 inches.

Commonly Grown Types:
Jersey Knight
Purple Passion
Mary Washington

For more detailed reading:
Mother Earth News
University of Minnesota
GardenWeb Forum (some good tips)

Urban Root Cellar

2010-11-02T23:20:00.000-04:00

By Podchef @ Flickr

Now that you've harvested all your vegetables, do you have a place to keep them? Root cellars are a great way to preserve vegetables over winter. Here's a few article about root cellars and how to make one for yourself.

An Ode to Preserving
Root Cellars are Part of Eating Local
How to Make an Urban Root Cellar

DIY PVC Hoop Bed Cover

2010-10-13T14:35:00.006-04:00

Thought I would share this link from the vegetable gardener web page, which is part of the fine gardening group from Taunton Press. This is very similar to the hoop cover I used this spring, and to the one I have at home to keep creatures off the spinach. The one I used on the community garden was a series of parallel tubes because I was making a tunnel, but if you just want to cover a small area it works great. I used 10 foot pieces from the hardware store and covered them with fleece. I have now found a good source of 10 foot wide fleece through www.Johnnyseed.com. This link is for the light weight material, but they told me the AG-19 will be available in shorter lengths than 500 feet soon.

Here is the full article:

DIY PVC Hoop Bed Cover

Greg Holdsworth, contributorPhoto: Greg Holdsworth (all photos)

As the Fall season makes its appearance by bathing our gardens with cooler air, it's time to prepare for the colder weather ahead. This includes thinking about how you would need to protect your crops in the event of an unexpected overnight freeze or damaging cold winds.This hoop bed cover is very functional and is tough enough to support most of the coverings you would need to wrap around it. It basically takes the concept of a tent and applies it to your garden beds.

It's the perfect solution for raised beds because it can fit inside the raised bed's edges for added support. When the cold weather's safely past, it can be disassembled for easy storage

The list of things you'll need:

• 4 - 1" x 2" x 4'/6'/8' plywood stripping (length will be determined by how wide your bed is)

• 2 - 10' half-inch diameter PVC tubing

• 4 - 3/4" two-hole metal electrical straps

• 4 - 3" four-hole metal corner brackets

• 24 (minimum) 1" wood screws (I used #10 flat head phillips type)

• 2 1-1/2" wood screws

• Drill & drill bit

• 2 - plastic tie strips, wire, string, etc. to anchor the PVC pieces together at the top

• Saw

• Pencil

Skill Level:

Easy to intermediate, depending on your wood building skills.

Construction:

Photo A

1. Measure your raised bed or row to determine the width you'll be making your PVC hoop cover. For the purposes of this post, my raised beds are approximately 5 feet by 5 feet.

2. Cut TWO of the four 1" x 2" plywood stripping pieces to the measurement you determined in Step #1. Then, if you are fitting the PVC hoop cover in a raised bed, subtract 1 1/2" from the length you just cut the first two pieces of stripping. This is to compensate for the thickness of the two side pieces. You'll end up with 4 pieces, two different lengths (Photo A).

3. Gather up your hardware - brackets, screws, and straps.

4. Arrange the four plywood stripping pieces as they will be put together. Place the bracket where two of the wood pieces meet in the corner. While holding it in place, mark the holes with a pencil. Then, drill the holes (Photo B).

Photo B

Photo C

5. Drill the four holes, hold the bracket and wood together as before, and put in the screws (Photo C). Repeat for the remaining 3 corners.

6. Now it's time to screw on the "strap" pieces. Place the strap next to the bracket, and again mark the 4 holes with a pencil. Drill your holes (Photo D).

7. Screw in the strap piece. Repeat for the remaining 3 corners (Photo F).

Photo D

Photo E

8. This where you might be more efficient with a buddy to help out (although I accomplished it alone). Put one end of the PVC tubing in one of the straps. Then, carefully and slowly, bend the PVC tubing over to theopposite corner's strap. Repeat with the other PVC tubing (Photo F).

9. Using a couple of plastic cable ties, wire, string, etc. (whatever you have available), secure the two PVC pieces together (Photo G).

Photo F

Photo G

10. Secure the PVC tubing to the strap by drilling a hole from the opposite side of the wood, through the PVC tubing, and putting in the 1 1/2" wood screw. That way, you don't need to worry about the tubing "falling" through the strap hole.

11. Your PVC hoop cover is pretty much ready for action (Photo H).

Photo H

You can now attach whatever type of cold weather barrier you need to your hoop bed cover. This design is not only lightweight, but quick to make and scaleable for larger areas (Photo I).

Photo I

Your veggies will thank you for keeping them a little warmer.

Gardening Zone, Frost Dates and a Calendar

2010-10-01T14:40:00.000-04:00

Garden Rose-hips with Frost by withrow@Flickr

It is useful to know which gardening zone you belong to. Wikipedia defines hardiness zone as:

"A hardiness is a geographically defined area in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing, as defined by climatic conditions, including its ability to withstand the minimum temperatures of the zone. "

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones Map: here

Based on the map, Houghton looks to be in zone 5a. For summer, it is useful in defining how many growing days you have between frosts. For winter, it helps you select perennials and bulbs that will hibernate safely in the ground from our brutally low temperatures.

Now that we're rolling into fall, our first killing frost is likely to come within the next couple of weeks. You may want to harvest any sensitive vegetables sometime soon.

Average Frost Dates Map: here

If you are unsure about which date it is, we have recorded it on our very own calendar! In the future, we will be recording important dates and events on the calendar. Just click the "Calendar" tab at at the top of the blog and it will take you to the page.

Houghton Elementary 5th Graders Gobble Harvest Lunch

2010-09-22T18:02:00.001-04:00

Havest Lunch with Mrs. Hall & 5th Grade Students

Houghton Elementary 5th graders were invited yesterday to a harvest lunch hosted by our community garden and some parents. The meal was intended to show the students how the seeds they had sown last spring produced vegetables that were then used to prepare the harvest lunch.

The kids were treated to:
Roasted Tomato Pasta
Pesto Pasta
Italian Butter Beans

Pickled Beets

Multi-colored Sci-Fi Carrots and Dip

Tossed Tomato Salad

Fresh Cherry Tomatoes

Honey Swiss Chard

Zucchini Bread

and cut flowers from the garden dressed the tables.

The students eagerly tried all the various choices and seemed to greatly enjoy the meal. For many, this was the second time they had participated in this garden activity. At the end of the meal, each student was given a Sci-Fi carrot to take home as a momento of their experience.

This activity of sowing seeds and the harvest lunch will repeat itself again next year with the a new 4th grade class.

Thanks to all the gardeners, parents, friends and teachers for making this all possible!

MTU Class Visits the Garden

2010-09-22T17:09:00.000-04:00

Sarah, Elena, and Tom with Dr. Martin and Students

Dr. S. Martin's Anthropology class from MTU stopped by last week Tuesday to see the garden. Many questions were asked as students learned about how the garden functioned, it's challenges, history,and mission.

What Does the "Community" in Community Garden Mean?

2010-09-17T22:05:00.000-04:00

The Pewabic Street Community Garden was started four years ago as a "volunteer organization that provides friendly gardening spaces to the surrounding community." We've always had an open door policy and welcome the public to come and visit.

However, some people seem to be mis-interpreting what "Community" means when they hear about the "Community Garden". Here is how a "community garden" is defined in Wikipedia.

The definition of a community garden is defined as:

"Unlike public parks, whether community gardens are open to the general public is dependent upon the lease agreements with the management body of the park and the community garden membership. Open or closed gate policies vary from garden to garden. There is no 'off the shelf model' of a community garden, however; they provide a green space in urban areas, along with opportunities for social gatherings, beautification, education and recreation. However, in a key difference, community gardens are managed and maintained with the active participation of the gardeners themselves, rather than tended only by a professional staff. A second difference is food production: Unlike parks, where plantings are ornamental (or more recently ecological), community gardens often encourage food production by providing gardeners a place to grow vegetables and other crops. To facilitate this, a community garden may be divided into individual plots or tended in a communal fashion, depending on the size and quality of a garden and the members involved."

Photo by pilgrimgirl@Flickr

This is where the misinterpretation occurs. Unfortunately, some of the community believe that the vegetables and flowers are free for anyone who wants it. Hence, the "Community" in community garden. Over the last number of weeks, we have had a dramatic increase in the number of non-member visitors who have helped themselves to the available harvest.

Actually, the Pewabic Street Community Garden is a membership. Each member rents a bed for $30/year.These are beds they have rented with the understanding that whatever they grow is theirs to harvest. It is heart-breaking for members who have worked very hard to raise these awesome vegetables for their families to eat.

So, while we wish to continue encouraging the surrounding community to come and visit, we also ask the public to respect the hard work of the garden members. Please do not take any vegetables and flowers.

If you are interested in becoming a member, please read our FAQ/Rules page about how to get in contact with Sarah.

Building a Soup

2010-09-11T16:41:00.001-04:00

Here's a great recipe from Sarah!

=========================================

Building a Soup: How to Improvise Your Own

From "How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show" by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift
Copyright © 2008 by American Public Media

The Three Opportunities: You can dictate the character of your soup by how you decide to start cooking it.

1. Bold and sturdy flavors come from starting the soup by fast-browning the onions and some of the vegetables in good tasting oil or butter over medium-high heat.
2. Mellow flavors are achieved with slow-stewing onions and key ingredients, like herbs, in a little fat in a covered pot over low heat.
3. Clear, true flavors come from simmering everything in liquid with no pre-sautés.

A Basic Formula:

2 parts onion
1/2 part garlic
2 parts members of cabbage family (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.)
1/2 part carrot
1/4 part celery with leaves
1/2 part root vegetables (celery root, rutabaga, turnips, etc.)
1 part leafy vegetables (salad greens, chard, kale, turnip greens, mizuna, dandelion, escarole, endive, collards, etc.)
1 part dry white or red wine
Water as needed

Note: Wine is a powerful flavor booster because alcohol opens up flavors that neither fats nor water release. Also, red wine is high in umami, a chemical component of some foods which heightens flavors. So be generous with the wine. Use white wine in pale soups, red in dark ones, and anticipate 1/2 cup for every 8 cups of liquid. Contrary to rumor, all the alcohol in wine and other spirits does not cook off.

More Opportunities:

Asian fish sauce is another taste-building soldier because of its umami content. Half a teaspoon in a soup for four or six lifts flavors.
Consider pan juices from roasts, sautés and stews to be gifts. Ridiculous amounts are charged for little pots of their commercial equivalents, and you can have them for nothing.

Whenever you brown something and there is a glaze or browned bits on the bottom of the pan, add a little water and scrape up the sticky bits and brown film over heat. This is where a flat-bottomed wooden spatula is indispensable.
Pour the liquid into the individual sections of ice cube trays. Once frozen, turn the cubes into labeled freezer bags. When you need to boost the character of a pan sauce, a soup or a stew, pull out one or two cubes and cook them into the dish. Each cube equals about 2 tablespoons.

• Most tomato sauces make good soup. Dilute them with broth or water, enrich them with cream, puree them for a smooth soup or leave them chunky served with crusty croutons and fresh herbs.
• Finish soups with a squeeze of fresh lemon, or a favorite vinegar. It is like placing an exclamation point at the end of a sentence — the soup's flavors brighten up.
• A spoon of plain whole-milk yogurt or sour cream has saved many a dull bowl.

• A spoonful of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese in a bowl of soup saves the blandest recipe. It does even more for a good one. Never throw away the rind from Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Even if the cheese was not premium-priced, you would want to use it all. This could be one of our oldest flavor boosters.

Use it the way Italians do, simmer Parmigiano rind into stews, braises, and every kind of soup. Frugal cooks even cook the rind into the soup, pull it out, dry it and use it again and again. At Parmigiano-Reggiano prices, it's good to know this cheese never dies.
Those cooks have known all along what scientists uncovered only recently, Parmigiano lifts, amplifies and melds the flavors of other ingredients in a unique way. Research shows the cheese is loaded with what is called the “fifth taste,” or umami, which acts as a catalyst to enhance other flavors. So tightly wrap those pieces of rind, and keep them in the refrigerator or freezer until the opportune moment arises.
Parmigiano–Reggiano is one of those foods that is adopted like children into the family. Like the burger, hot dog and fries in America, in Italy Parmigiano is the cheese everyone knows on a first name basis.
It wasn't just family frugality that led to saving the cheese rind when the rest of the cheese was gone. The sense I have after spending a lot of time in Italian homes, is that in Italy, saving the rind is like respecting a beloved relative and keeping her safe.

• Fresh herbs torn and scattered over a serving of soup brighten and refresh it.

• The unexpected combination of olive oil and fresh-ground black pepper works with any Mediterranean style soup, especially the bean and lentil varieties.

• Mediterranean-style soups take on whole new personalities with a last-minute seasoning called gremolata. Usually it is used on Osso Buco, but gremolata is a lot like pesto in the way it complements so much.

In a food processor mince together the shredded zest of a lemon, 1/2 tight-packed cup flat-leafed parsley and 3 to 4 large garlic cloves. Moisten the mix with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Spoon a little into each serving of soup.

Thickening with Flavor
Cream soups were traditionally thickened with flour as well as cream. For a modern, lighter take, thicken with flavor instead of starches or fats.
For bean soups, crush a cup of the beans and return them to the pot. With vegetable soups, stews, and meat braises like pot roast, puree a few of the vegetables that have been cooked in the pan liquid, then stir them back into the pot. In many cream soups you can skip the cream and instead use a good-tasting potato for more substance.

Houghton Elementary 4th Graders Visit

2010-09-10T17:07:00.000-04:00

Elena talks to the kids about the garden.

Mrs. Hall brought her new 4th grade class by the garden today to learn about the different types of vegetables and flowers that are growing there.

The students were very eager to learn about new vegetables, talk about the ones they grow at home with their parents and to have a little nibbles on various herbs and cherry tomatoes. They were particularly enamored with the swiss chard, mint, lemon balm and cute yellow cherry tomatoes.

This same class will return in spring to learn about growing vegetables and flowers from seeds and small starter plants. Last year's class, which planted this season's crops, will get to enjoy the fruits of their labor sometime next week at a special harvest lunch hosted by our community garden.

Audio Interview

2010-08-24T14:10:00.000-04:00

As part of a journalism class at MTU, our little community garden was profiled yesterday by a sister blog: Keweenaw Now. In it you can hear a great audio interview done with our garden leaders, Sarah and Elena. Listen to it HERE.

Collecting Seeds

2010-08-07T13:32:00.000-04:00

We're at the peak of summer and harvesting is now underway. While harvesting, you might want to consider saving a few dollars the next gardening season by saving seeds. Here are a couple of very informative web sites/pages that provide very detailed information on how to save seeds.

Mother Earth News: Save Your Own Garden-Grown Vegetable Seed
International Seed Saving Institute

Generally, I find seeds for beans, peas, peppers and various flowers easy to collect.

Planting Fall Crops

2010-08-05T13:57:00.000-04:00

If some of your plants have past their producing prime, it might be worth clearing them away to put down a fall crop. There are many vegetables that can survive light frost. In fact, carrots and radishes often taste sweeter after being kissed by frost. Here are some links that provide good information on this subject:

Renee's Garden: Planting in June/July
Gardener's Supply Company: Plant Now for Fall Vegetables
Univ. of Minnesota: Planting Vegetables in Midsummer for Fall Harvest

All About Garlic

2010-08-03T10:15:00.000-04:00

An interesting article on garlic from the Vegetable Gardener website that Sarah forwarded. Here.

Flexing Our Muscles

2010-08-03T10:05:00.000-04:00

Not only is it good to exercise our muscles working out in the garden but it's also good to exercise our voting rights. So no matter what your position is, please get out there and vote today!

Sarah provided this great link to help you determine if you are still in the voter registry:

https://webapps.sos.state.mi.us/mivote/

Farm Tours - Little Blue Jewels - The Gierke Blueberry Farm

2010-07-31T22:09:00.000-04:00

It's like little balloons of pure sweetness that pop in your mouth...

Today was the first day for the new blueberry season at the Gierke Blueberry Farm. To put it blunty, it was AWESOME! The day was cloudy with a slight mist and there were tons of beautiful ripe blueberries glistening in the bushes. It took a lot of willpower not to graze while picking.

I highly recommend it as a fun thing for families to do together. I saw some very cute oinkers but I believe they also have sheep and llamas too. Kids (and adults!) will greatly enjoy seeing them.

Gierke Blueberry Farm
(Picking starts around the beginning of August and runs likely to early September)

John & Lynn Gierke
37915 Klingville Rd. (Map)
Chassell, MI
906-523-6112 (answering machine)
http://gierkeblueberryfarm.blogspot.com/

Directions: Driving towards Chassell, turn westward onto Klingville Road. It is directly across from Portage Entry Road. The farm is 1.6 miles in. The entrance is on the west side. Follow the path and drive into the back where there is parking. Bushes to pick are on both sides of the parking area. You can start picking immediately without any "row assignment". See about picking below.

Time: Call ahead to the answering machine to see if they are open. If they are, you can go anytime during daylight.

Preparation: Bring your own containers to use for picking. They may have some for you to borrow while you're there but you will still need a container to the blueberries home.

Picking: This is a self-serve operation. You can pick anywhere in the bushes. It's a pretty large area so there should be plenty of space for everyone. Once you've finished, drive back up to the front. Stop at the entrance table to weigh and pay for your berries.

Prices & Payment: I paid $2/lb. I'm not sure, but this might vary over the season. You can pay with cash or check. However, this is a self-serve and there isn't always someone at the front to take your payment. If so, you will need exact change to put into the payment box, if you are paying with cash. However, I'm sure they would be happy if you made an extra donation too :)

Additional Information: If you'd like to know more, they have a very informative blog as well as a Facebook page.

Sustainable Keweenaw Resource Center

2010-07-30T10:55:00.001-04:00

http://skrconline.net/

A treasure-trove of "green" information! for our local area. There's even a garden map showing all the different businesses, community garden and developments involved in promoting sustainable living (including the Pewabic Street Community Garden!)

About:
The SKRC was established in 2008, by Barbara Hardy and Rick Loduha, as a community service funded and supported by Finlandia University.

The role of the SKRC is to connect individuals, groups, organizations, businesses, institutions, and governing agencies with regionally appropriate resources and solutions for creating sustainable communities in the Keweenaw Peninsula. - http://skrconline.net/

Farm Tours - Hughes Farm

2010-07-04T17:00:00.001-04:00

For many of you, it is probably an annual tradition... but last week, I went strawberry picking for the very first time. I've been wanting to try this for years but it was never clear to me how one goes about it. That is until a conversation with Amy. She recommended the Hughes Farm for their organic strawberries and vegetables. I decided to give it a try. Overall, it was a very pleasant experience with a minor learning curve. It got me to thinking about visiting other farms in the area and profiling them here. So here is the first, in what hopes to be many, of farm tour profiles.

Hughes Farm

(For picking strawberries beginning late June to early July)
Gary & Pat Hughes
53206 Golf Course Rd. (Map)
Calumet, MI 49913
906-337-5185

Directions: Turn east off US 41 at Golf Course Rd. Go past the golf course onto the gravel road for another 1 1/4 miles. For strawberries, go past the entrance of the farm and take a left at the next intersection. A little ways in is the entrance to the berry patch. There is parking inside. If it is too full, park on the street and walk in.

Time: Call ahead. You'll get an answering machine that tells you the next date and time for picking. Generally, it is every other day at 8 A.M. If it is raining, call to re-confirm whether or not they are open. Amy advised me to get there early. I really didn't understand what she meant until I got there. What she means is you need to arrive BEFORE the opening time. At least 10 minutes early. A lot of other people like their strawberries too!

Preparations: Bring your own boxes, baskets or bowls to carry the strawberries home. They will provide you baskets to help pick but they would like them back when you're done.

Picking: They generally charge by the pound. The prices can vary from day to day but is vastly cheaper than organic strawberries at the store. You'll be given a small cardboard box that fits into a wooden carry case. They assign you a row to pick. You pick the amount you want. Only pick what is ripe. If any part of the strawberry is white, leave it. If you do not finish your row, put up a flag where you stop. This way, they can give the remainder of the row to any late-comers to finish. Whatever you do, pick your own row and not someone else. And as tempting as it may be, do not eat as you pick!

Overall, it was an immensely labourous but extremely satisfying experience that is producing fabulously tasty results. I look forward to checking out their farmers market stand later in the summer.

With my 20+ lbs. of strawberries, I made:

Strawberry Jam
Spicy Strawberry Jam
Banana & Strawberry Jam
Strawberry Muffins
Strawberry Preserves

Here's my basic recipe for canning:

Strawberry Jam:
Yield 3 (1/2 pint) jars

Ingredients

3 (8 oz.) canning jar with lids & bands
water
1/4 cup vinegar

1 lb. organic strawberries, chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. butter

Directions:
Sterilize jars and lids in boiling water and vinegar for 10 minutes. The vinegar helps to keep off hard water minerals.

Cook the strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and butter on a low heat setting until everything is blended. Bring to a roiling boil and reduce heat to continue a low boil for another 20-25 minutes until it is reduced and has gelled. You might want to perform the gel test to be sure.

Ladle into jar and seal with lid and band fingertip tight. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool undisturbed overnight. Do the flex test on the lid the next day to ensure a proper seal.

Radish Leaf Soup - The First Harvest

2010-06-23T08:24:00.001-04:00

Here is a great recipe that Patricia Gotschalk posted to the mailing list and has kindly shared with our blog.

===================================================

I pulled some radishes today and in case you don't know, you can make soup from the greens....Here's a recipe I'm going to try:

Radish-leaf soup
Servings: 4

1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 red potatoes, chopped
2 bunches radish leaves, washed and roughly chopped
3 red potatoes, chopped
2-3 cups water
1/2 cup milk or soy milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce for drizzling

Melt butter in a warm pan and add onion and garlic. Saute about five minutes before adding potatoes and greens. Let the veggies cook a few minutes and add water. Simmer until the potatoes are tender. Puree with a hand blender. I don’t like to puree it completely since I prefer a little texture in my soup, but you do whatever you want. Stir in the milk and season to taste. If you want, pour a few drops of good hot sauce (Louisiana is an excellent choice) onto your bowl. You can even top it with minced radishes or green onions if you want to be fancy. This recipe should serve four.

Written by: Patricia Gotschalk

In Full Swing

2010-06-16T18:53:00.000-04:00

The height of summer is fast approaching and the garden is now in full swing. It looks like everyone has settled into their beds and the garden is greening FAST. It's all looking great!

However, there is still work to be done. So this is a gentle reminder to everyone to not forget their obligatory 10 hours of volunteering. It is highly recommended to get those hours done early while there are still some desirable jobs left. No one wants to mow do they? Yuck...Although, if we have a rider lawn mower with a beer cup holder... ;)

So what's left to do?

1. Lay weed blocker and mulch the north/south aisles and around new beds.

2. Refresh the much around the old beds.

3. Build up perennial bed along the outside of the new fencing. (east, west and south)

4. Build a new bed along inside of the south fence.

5. Moving soil into small mounds east of the garden to extend the squash garden.

Oh yeah... and mowing and weed-wacking too. However, weeding in and around your own bed does not count towards the 10 hours.

So get out there and enjoy what summer we do have. We know it won't last very long!

See you at the garden!

p.s. We are still in need of more donated perennials for the new north bed!

Evolving Hillside Perennial Bed Project

2010-06-10T21:30:00.000-04:00

Tom has been hard at work digging up the north hillside next to E. Houghton Ave.that will eventually become a bed of perennial flowers.

Now we need flowers/plants. It will be much appreciated if there are any members or the public at large who are willing to donate some perennials from their garden. According to Paul, if you do, please leave the donated plants on the shady side (north) of the shed.

This post will be updated with more pictures as the hillside transforms!

Please come and visit!

List of Companion Plants

2010-06-07T16:29:00.007-04:00

I found a nifty list on Wikipedia that gives a nice summary of companion plants for vegetables, herbs, flowers and even fruit trees. It is fairly comprehensive as to who should be paired with who and why.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants

winnie

Renee's Six Do's and One Don't for a Good Garden

2010-06-05T12:15:00.006-04:00

Here is some great advice that Sarah forwarded!

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From: Renee's Garden

Source: http://www.reneesgarden.com/hm-gardnr/resource/do-don't.htm

#1: Don't Sow Your Seeds or Set out Seedlings Too Early!

Be strong: resist the temptation to sow your garden on the first warm spring weekend! Heat- loving summer annuals will not thrive and grow well until the soil has warmed up and spring weather conditions are warm and settled with outdoor night temperatures consistently in the 50 (10 C) range. This includes summer flower favorites like zinnias, sunflowers, morning glories and cosmos, heat loving herbs like all basils, oregano and thyme, and all the many fruiting summer vegetables such as pole and bush beans, summer and winter squash, cucumbers, corn, melons and watermelons, peppers, pumpkins and tomatoes. Read our seed packet backs to find out when to sow seeds if you are not sure.

While it's sadly true that many nurseries sell started tomato plants much before this spring weather standard, there's no advantage to planting seedlings out when all they will do is shiver until the weather warms. Good gardeners know that you'll get excellent results when the weather is right, and poor or no seed germination if the soil is too cold and poor stressed plants if you plant seedlings out too early. Rest assured that seeds planted when conditions are warm enough will catch up and surpass stressed plants that were planted early. Don't be fooled by one or two warm weekends -- wait until the weather has truly warmed up for the season to plant.

If you want to get out in the garden when an early patch of nice weather feels irresistible, use the time to improve your soil and you will benefit all season. There's really no advantage to buying seedlings of warm season vegetables and flowers to get an early start. If you wait until weather conditions are right, you can sow seeds directly in the garden and they will catch and even surpass those early planted seedlings because they experience no disturbance or transplant shock.

If you are determined to start early, be prepared to give your tender seedlings extra protection. This means using hot caps, "Walls -O -Water", black or colored plastic soil covers, or other devices to protect them from cold nights and chilly mornings.

#Two: Do Thin to the Proper Spacing

Our seed packet backs give both the initial distance apart for sowing seeds and also tell you the final spacing to grow them after they have germinated into seedlings. Specifically, thinning to the final spacing means that you take out extra seedlings that have germinated too close together, leaving only those that are at the proper distance apart so they have enough space to thrive and grow to maturity. Do not neglect to thin your seedlings out to the suggested final spacing. Give away or compost the extra seedlings you take out. Over and over, Ive seen proof of the incontrovertible fact that unhappy crowded plants just wont grow or produce well and are more disease prone.

While its hard to acquire the habit of thinning out the seedlings we have nurtured along, it is critical to a successful and healthy garden. Unthinned seedlings can never reach their potential. The crowded plants inevitably tangle together and do no thrive or prosper in the way properly spaced plants do. Properly thinned, evenly spaced plants have the room they need to grow and mature and bear the harvests you expect.

#3: Do build good soil

There is a very simple gardening Golden Rule: the better the condition of your soil, the better garden you will have! The best way is to work several inches of organic material into your garden soil to improve its balance, texture, and water-holding capacity. Use aged manure, rotted leaves, peat moss, compost (the best!) or whatever kind of organic material is available in your area. Adding organic material benefits all soil typessandy soil will hold more water; clay soil will be friable and less compacted, so add it before you plant each new crop as well as at the end of the season. Good soil is essential to having a productive garden.

#4: Do Fertilize Both Organic and Conventional Gardens

Even if you have good soil with a high organic content, remember that most plants need supplementary nutrition in the form of fertilizer for best growth and to produce the abundant harvests we all desire. Whatever product you choose to feed your plants, they should have a constant and adequate supply, especially in sandy soils. Plan to feed monthly at prescribed regular intervals throughout the growing season as it really can make a big difference in getting successful, high yielding plants.

A good rule of thumb is to use a high nitrogen fertilizer during active growth. Then during flowering or fruiting, switch to a low nitrogen, high potassium-phosphorous fertilizer. There are many excellent organic fertilizers available now in both liquid and granular formulations. As longtime organic gardeners, a good, all-purpose, tried and true combination we still rely on is: 1 tablespoon each liquid fish emulsion and liquid kelp per gallon of water.

#5: Do Read Packet Backs First

I take great pride and put much care into writing our seed packet backs myself based on actual experience growing each variety in our trial gardens. The extra flap on the back of the packet is your description of the variety. The text on the back of each packet is my best shot in 237 words or less, explaining how to plant, care and harvest the variety. We really try our very best to provide the information you'll need to be successful. Please don't neglect to use this information as a growing guide, especially if you are a new or beginning gardener.

If you lose the paper packet after planting the seeds, remember you can always review the information on the packet by clicking on that variety in our online catalog and then clicking on the link "more info". Please do also scroll through "Renee's Articles" to look at other how to info. and help we provide.

#6: Do Store Extra Seed Properly

Many gardeners have asked how to store leftover, unused seeds. Renees Garden and other good seed companies seeds come to you with high germination rates, and most varieties will keep easily for the next growing seasons. (Several exceptions: onions, parsley, and lettuces do not always maintain their germination and are best purchased fresh each year.) The worst enemies of successful seed storage are humidity and heat. Never leave leftover seed packets outside in the garden or garage or in an unheated outdoor shed, because high humidity and dampness will ruin them. A sealed mason jar or freezer-weight ziplock bag is an ideal storage container. Keep seeds dry and in your coolest room. Plan to use them the next season.

#7: Do Think in Terms of Early, Main and Late Season Vegetable Harvests

Our vegetable seed packet charts indicate days to harvest for many varieties of seed. They are best used only as a general recommendation, because in our garden trials we have found that soil, weather, and cultural conditions can vary widely from one area to another, even between microclimates in one town. Its helpful to use early, mid-season, and late-season harvest notations on the packet backs as a general guide in comparing different varieties of the same vegetables and in planning successive harvests, rather than using days to maturity as absolute indicators of growing time. You can also refer to our handy When to Plant Chart and our Kitchen Garden Designs. If you want to know how to judge if vegetables are ready to harvest, just check our article: Harvesting Vegetables for Best Flavor.

We're UP!

2010-06-04T15:30:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the Pewabic Street Community Garden blog!

We already have a few wonderful articles right out the gate. Sarah reports on Mrs. Hall's 4th grade class as they came by yesterday to plant their garden and Paul fills us in on our new amazing water irrigation system! Be sure to read it as he talks about how to care for your tapes as well as spot watering.

We're also soliciting members for new articles. So if there's anything you would like to write about, please let us know! Anything related to the community garden, gardening in general (tips and tricks) and even sharing your favorite veggie recipes are all welcome.

Happy gardening!

School Event on TV6

2010-06-04T15:09:00.002-04:00

The 4th graders hard at work were profiled on TV6. Catch it all at their website here: http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/story.aspx?id=465997

4th Graders Plant & Grow at Houghton Community Garden

2010-06-04T15:01:00.003-04:00

Written by Sarah Cheney

On Thursday, June 3rd, fourth grade students from Mrs. Hall's Houghton Elementary planted in their three garden plots at the Pewabic Street Community Garden. With help from parents and garden volunteers, the children learned about growing vegetables and flowers from seeds and small starter plants.

The children planted in the newly built raised beds that were made possible by a $7,400 grant from the Michigan Department of Community Health's "Building Healthy Communities" and the Western UP Health Department. The grant helped the gardeners add an irrigation system, seven raised beds filled with new topsoil, more fencing, and two cedar garden gates.

The students will be maintaining the garden over the summer with help from their parents. In the fall, they will harvest and enjoy a special harvest lunch with vegetables only from the garden.

Fun was the focus of the morning planting, but the students also learned about how vegetables grow from seeds and how to grow in our shorter UP season. The community garden volunteers have been working with Houghton Elementary students for the past four years. The garden has been expanded this year to 22 plots where 18 families grow vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, carrots, swiss chard, cucumbers, peas, and beans.

The garden is built on top of the abandoned Pewabic Street and next to the old Houghton High School site. This open area receives full sun exposure and has a beautiful view of the Portage Lift Bridge and Portage Canal. Residents in the neighborhood love being able to grow vegetables here because the backyards in Houghton are typically shady and hilly and it gives them a special opportunity to be with their families and make great things grow in the earth.

The garden is a member of the American Community Gardening Association: http://www.communitygarden.org/. The garden is open to the public and welcomes gardeners to rent plots for a small fee each season. For more information, check out the blog FAQ & Rules and/or contact Sarah Cheney at 483-3754.

Love at first Drip!

2010-06-02T11:13:00.024-04:00

It still has a few leaks and needs a few tweaks, but after the crew spent the best part of this year's two hottest saturdays working on the drip irrigation system, it is installed and functioning. An Orbit Sunmate timer currently gives us one hour of automated watering every day at 6:00am. It takes about 5 minutes for the system to reach full pressure, and from cursory glances it seems that one hour per day is keeping the soil moisture fairly constant. It is important to remember that the soil surface might appear dry, which is normal with drip irrigation. The litmus test is whether the soil is moist below the surface where the water is spreading out and encouraging downward root growth. There should be no need for people soak the surface with hoses because all that does is encourage weeds, spread disease, and evaporate to form nice fluffy clouds that deposit your water on someone else's garden. A hose system is, however, available if you need to do some spot watering to get new plants established. See my later post on spot watering.

The drip system is based on a single mainline running down the East side of the garden from the hydrant to below the garden shed. After running the mainline out of the garden we figured it would be good to install another emitter system to water the flowerbeds around the perimeter of the garden, but that will not get done until after about June 8th.

At the head of the garden are shut-off valves, check valves, and a water filter to protect the system from dirt in the water. The timer is attached to the hydrant and also has a simple mesh filter to catch any large particles such as bits of the houghton water system that have broken free. This is a fairly inexpensive Orbit Sunmate timer ($25), so we will see how it holds up over the season. I was impressed by how easy it is to set up compared to the Claber Duplo timer I have at home, and that the manual watering button on the Sunmate can go for up to 240 minutes.

At each row of beds we take off a single sub-mainline via a pressure regulator and a few angles to hold the drip tapes, which run the full length of the bed. In the image left you can see how the tapes are connected to the mainline by yellow and blue taps. Each of these taps shut off an entire drip tape line and should not be turned off unless you are working on the tapes to make repairs, which I will go into in a later post. We looked at other options for arranging the tapes such as running the sub mainline along the long edge of the bed rather than the short edge and snaking the tapes around in an S-pattern, but this kinks tapes and in the world of drip tape, kinky is not a good thing. Speaking of kinky tape, these drip tapes are designed to be run in a single straight line and not wound around your plants. Any kinks in the tape will restrict flow to the rest of the tape and may create a leak point. The best way to plant, if you have not already done so, is to look where the tape emitters are and plant at those points to guarantee water is dripping close to your plant. If you do feel the need to move tapes closer to your plants, it is better to do this while they are filled with water because this will reduce the risk of kinking. Just press the manual button on the timer, press the + button to give yourself about 20 minutes, and then move your tapes around. When you are happy, use staple to keep the tape in place. On the subject of staples, the tape expands upwards, so there is no need to go hammering the staples down to the ground, give the tape a little space to expand.

We decided to bury as much of the sub mainline feeder tubes as we could after observing several of the installation crews children flying through the air when they tripped on one of the tubes. We felt it was important to try and protect the tubes from damage, and so installed a double-L arrangement at the bed and dug down in to the mulch to burry what we could.

This also looks a lot more attractive and may protect the tubing from the elements, and small(ish) fast-moving objects, like children. We did notice that the pipe clamps we used need to be checked occasionally because as the system expanded and contracted in the heat of the day, and then cold of the water, they leaked, so we will have to keep and eye on that. At the south end of the garden the tubes are still uncovered, as you can see in the first image. This is mainly because the landscape fabric has not yet been installed around the raised beds, and we have pretty much run out of wood chips. If someone knows someone who can loan their truck. . . . . . . .

Repairing Drip Tapes and Spot Watering

2010-06-02T11:12:00.010-04:00

Repairing The Drip Tapes:

We repaired a couple of tapes on Saturday that had sprung leaks during installation and testing, and then I repaired a tape on the North most bed that looked like something had been chewing on it and was shooting water several feet in to the air.

The tapes are easy to repair, and spare parts are in the shed. You can approach the repair in a couple of ways, but the first thing to do is turn off the yellow and blue tap and allow water to drain from the tape. If the tape is damaged very close to the blue and yellow tap, it is probably easier to simply cut off that part and reconnect to the tap, but if the tape is damaged more than a few inches away you will probably need to cut out the damage with scissors and then insert one of the yellow double headed connectors from the shed. If you need to remove a large section, or removing any section shortens the tape such that it is not watering the end of the garden, then you will need to roll out a new piece of drip tape.

The repair connectors (shown right) consist of a main tube (yellow) and compression clamps (clear). To use them, you screw back the clear clamps and expose the yellow tube, which is then pushed all the way in to the tape as far as you can get it. There is a ridge on the yellow tube and you need to push the tape over that by about 1cm until it will go no further, and then screw the clear clamp down tight. If you do not push the tape all the way on to the tube it will blow off when the watering system comes on again. If you are not confident about doing this, just send an email to the pscg-l list and someone will come out and help when they have chance. If the leak is so bad that water is shooting everywhere, turn off that line at the blue and yellow tap.

Spot Watering:
Everyone loves to spot water and we have a basic spot watering system in place right now to help when you are getting those seeds, seedlings, and transplants started.

Long term we would like to have a dedicated line for the spot watering, but that will require an extra cash injection for the equipment. So, about half way down the mainline we have installed a tap, and a Y-splitter (shown right). One hose points to the North of the garden, and one to the South, and it would be best if gardeners did not pull these hoses to hard until the tap is clamped down in some way otherwise you might look around to see mainline following you.

To use the hoses for spot watering, go to the timer, press the manual button, and then press the + button to increase the amount of time you want the hose turned on (default is 10 minutes). It will go up to 240 minutes, but please keep the manual time down to about 15-20 minute intervals because the drip system is also running at that time and it is wasteful to set it for a very long time and then let it keep running after you have done. If you want to cancel the manual watering simply turn the dial to off and then back to auto, but if you choose a short manual time, such as 20 minutes, you can let it run out on its own.

Some Photos from June 1st, 2010

2010-06-02T11:07:00.004-04:00

A few photos have been uploaded to the Picasa gallery. Links and a slideshow are in the right hand column.

Pewabic Street Community Garden

Garlic, Shallots and Bulbs

Purslane: So easy, it grows like a weed!

Long-Standing Traditions: Sharon's Tomatoes

Sweet Melodies and Vegetables: Houghton Elementary School 4th Graders Visit the Garden

Boot Camp for Seedlings

How to Make Your Own Garden Trellis

Stop paying for so many city garbage bags!

Got AeroGarden?

Asparagus: Spears of Love

Urban Root Cellar

DIY PVC Hoop Bed Cover

DIY PVC Hoop Bed Cover

Gardening Zone, Frost Dates and a Calendar

Houghton Elementary 5th Graders Gobble Harvest Lunch

MTU Class Visits the Garden

What Does the "Community" in Community Garden Mean?

Building a Soup

Houghton Elementary 4th Graders Visit

Suggested Reading: Organic Gardening Magazine 2010 (Oct/Nov)

Audio Interview

Collecting Seeds

Planting Fall Crops

All About Garlic

Flexing Our Muscles

Farm Tours - Little Blue Jewels - The Gierke Blueberry Farm

Sustainable Keweenaw Resource Center

Farm Tours - Hughes Farm

Radish Leaf Soup - The First Harvest

In Full Swing

Evolving Hillside Perennial Bed Project

List of Companion Plants

Renee's Six Do's and One Don't for a Good Garden

We're UP!

School Event on TV6

4th Graders Plant & Grow at Houghton Community Garden

Love at first Drip!

Repairing Drip Tapes and Spot Watering

Some Photos from June 1st, 2010