Helpful Hints 2 from Al Kirchhoff

20 January 2008

Helpful Hints

Welcome to a new gardening year. The “off season” seems to have gone by quickly. Hope you each had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Now we start off fresh and rested into a new gardening season.

It is always good to start with a quick review of the previous season. What did you learn during your previous year’s experience? Did you learn the importance of timing in soil preparation, fertilizing, planting, spacing and harvesting? I’m sure you now realize more than before that gardening is more than putting seeds and plants in the soil.

In the previous Helpful Hints we gave you some planting considerations, i.e. planting timing and sequence, variety selection, crop cultural considerations. Some crops recommended for small gardens are beets, broccoli, bush squash, cabbage, carrots, eggplant, green beans, onions, peppers, radishes, tomatoes, spinach and lettuce. Crops such as cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins, potatoes and corn require large areas to produce meaningful harvest and while they certainly can be planted they are not recommended for small plots. Today we will add a couple more considerations.

Now think about what you can do with the space you have to maximize your harvest without crowding your plants. One such thing is choose plants and varieties that are heavy producers for the space they require, have plant form, shape, that minimizes the area required. What about cool season vs. warm season crops? Can you gain space by mixing these? Have you ever heard of pole vs. bush, determinant vs. indeterminate, vining vs. bush? First I was referring to beans,second tomatoes, and finally squash types.

Careful advanced planning will help maximize the production in our 60 sq. ft. plots. It is good to start with a scaled drawing of the plot and lay out the row plan, then label in the crop for each row. Let me give you a for instance. Suppose I want my garden row spacing to be 30”, recommended for most crops, and to run the shorter distance, 72”. This will give me only three 6’ rows or 18 ft of row length. But by adding rows to give just 15” spacing and alternating warm and cool season crops I can have seven rows for a total of 42’ row length. The cool season crop will be harvested and gone before the warm season crop requires the space. ‘That’s just one way to “gain space”. Some crops can be planted closer than 15” for instance onions, just stop by the garden and see what the Wallace’s have done with theirs. Personally I have gone to sowing my carrots and radishes or sometimes planting two rows just 8” apart. Sometimes I will plant full rows of beets or carrots where I plan on putting tomatoes and when it is time for the tomatoes to go in I just sacrifice the short row distance necessary to put the tomato plant in the ground and let the remaining cool season crop grow along with the tomato. There are other options for you to discover and try, One consideration doing these techniques is the water and fertility demand will go up.

Finally, seeds can be expensive, especially if you use only a small portion of several different packets. You may want to cooperate with your garden neighbors and share your remaining seeds or you buy one crop and he or she buys a different crop. The packets typically tell how much row length it will plant.

We certainly have the fixin’s for a great year in the Old Town Community Garden. I can hardly wait for you to get the seeds and plants in the ground. If you have any questions refer to the website http://www.aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ or feel free to call me and I will get you and answer.

Your fellow gardener, Al

Helpful Hints from Al Kirchhoff

Welcome gardeners,

You all worked hard this past season growing a productive garden while overcoming several tough obstacles --- Soil conditions, drainage problems and lots of rain to name a few. With the new
raised beds and planting soil in place, compost "working" in the bins and soon to be, if not yet completed, aisles refreshed with wood chips, you should all be excited about the next growing season.

A sample of our "ready to plant" soil mix was sent to the Texas A&M soil labs to be analyzed. We have the result and recommendations back. Not surprising it is devoid of nitrogen and needs some phosphorus but less than a pound of each for the size plots we have. The soil also tested a pH of 7.2 which is slightly alkaline, desired is 6.5. The soil delivered to us is largely sand and not as much fertile top soil we had expected. That being the case we will be adding organic matter and fertilizer according to the soil test results/ recommendations. Don't worry, Gary and Al will be available to interpret the test results and answer any questions. There are a number of simple ways to amend and rapidly improve the soil. You will have a very good growing soil and with the help of Mother Nature a very productive garden.

For now here are several things you can look at and think about for next year’s garden.

HELPFUL HINTS:

Now is the time to gather ideas for the garden next year.

• planting space allotment per crop
• direction of rows, i.e. N and S or E and W
• interplanting of crops, planting early maturing crops between rows of longer maturing crops
• sequence of planting for dates of planting different crops

Seed selections

• gather seed catalogs from suppliers such as Burpee, Gurney, Park. Just Google "vegetable garden seed catalogs" or the "' company name' seed catalog" to order.
  - Use the catalogs to help plan what you want to plant and chose varieties
• Don't rush the planting season. Remember the average date of last freeze in our area is March 18, we are in growth zone 8.
• Garlic is one of the few crops you can plant now, in fact, garlic needs 30 days of 32-50˚ temps to induce bulbing so winter or early spring planting is desired. Most other crops, however, are adversely affected if not killed by too early planting.

A very good source of information is the web site of Texas A&M. The sequence I suggest is www.aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu then click in sequence in succeeding windows "gardening", "home gardening", "tx extension vegetable publications", "vegetable resources", "vegetable crop guides". Select the vegetable of choice and educate yourself about the plant.

That should keep you occupied for a month or two. There is a multitude of resources available to help you plan your garden. Have fun. After all that is what this is all about. FUN!

We'll give you a new list of HELPFUL HINTS in January. For the immediate future have a Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year!

Al

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

An update from the "All Gardener" meeting held Tuesday, September 18:

For the 2008 Garden Season, we will have raised beds and improved soil and drainage. To do that, we are ending the 2007 inaugural season at the end of September.

If you wish to maintain your garden through October, you will be responsible for spreading organic material and preparing your plot. When the frames are built, the frame will be placed around the existing garden, regardless of it being in use or empty. The frame should not interfere with the existing garden if there is one.

Saturday, October 6 at 8:00am
Garden Workday & End-of-Season Garden Party
Join us for a pot-luck continental breakfast, fellowship, and a little bit of work! Please bring something to share with the gardeners. Remember that there is no electricity at the garden, please keep that in mind!

If you do not plan to have a Fall garden, all summer garden materials should be removed by Friday, October 5 if you want help spreading the soil compost. On Oct 6, we'll be spreading and tilling organic matter into each plot. Bring a wheel barrow if you have one. Any plot that has not been cleared will not have organic material added to it or be tilled.

Tuesday, October 16 at 6:30 p.m.
All Gardeners Meeting – CCA, Board Room

Saturday, October 20 at 8:00am
Garden Workday: Frame Building--WE NEED YOUR HELP! Both Gary & Al will be out of town, so we need all hands on deck to help! The frames for the plots will be built for all the plots hopefully. (If an additional workday is needed, it will be Saturday, October 27 at a time to be determined.) If you have one, we'll need a powerless screwdriver/drill with 1/4inch drill bit.

All plots need to be emptied by Wednesday, October 31 so that when the soil is delivered it can be distributed amongst the plots.

November
Soil
Friday, November 2, the soil will be delivered

Saturday, November 3, soil will be distributed by volunteers, hopefully!

If the weather doesn’t cooperate with our timeline, the dates will be pushed back by a week. An email will be sent out if that happens!

It’s been a wonderful first season! Let’s get the garden ready so that next season will be even better!

Can’t wait to see everyone at the garden!

Amanda Jekel
OTCG Garden Coordinator
www.oldtowncommunitygarden.blogspot.com

Nelda's Rain Report: Wednesday (Happy 4th of July!)

Wednesday - 7/4/07: A short walk to the garden this morning showed that we received 1.2 inches of rain yesterday afternoon and it looks like we are going to get more today. Hopefully everyone will be able to get to their garden sometime soon because many people have some produce that needs picking.

Short disclaimer for those who ask: The rainfall that I report is from 7:00 am to 7:00 am; so it may not match with the official DFW rainfall which goes from Midnight to 11:59 pm. -- I'm too lazy to go to the garden every night at midnight to check the rain gauge.

JULY TOTAL: 2.2 inches

Nelda's Rain Report: Tuesday

Tuesday - 7/3/07: A light rain fell around 8:00 pm last night but only brought a trace of rain to the garden. This morning's walk to the garden was quick because the mesquitoes have returned. Garden A/1 has a nice crop of tomatoes on the vines. Hopefully we can get some sunshine soon so they can ripen.
JULY TOTAL: 1 inches

Nelda's Rain Report: Saturday

Saturday - 6/30/07 - We didn't get much of a drying out, but the sun did shine for a little while on Friday; however by 6:30 p.m. Friday night the rains were back with us. We had a hard rain during the night and when I checked the rain gauge this morning, we had gotten 1 inch of rain.
TOTAL 5.3 inches since 6/25/07

Friday - 6/29/07 - Only at trace of rain fell between Thursday and Friday morning.
TOTAL 4.3 inches since 6/25/07

Nelda's Rain Report

Thur - 6/28/07 (7:00am) - We finally got a little break in the rain. Yesterday's 24 hour total was only .5 inch. Carlene's sunflower is really amazing. It is the size of a dinner plate. I think it is the only thing in the garden that loves all this rain.

TOTAL Rainfall: 4.3 inches since Monday 6/25/07

Rainfall in the Garden

Nelda and Gary Wallace have a rain gauge in their garden and are reporting the amount of rain we're receiving.

Since 7:00am Monday, June 25, we've had a TOTAL 3.8 inches of rain.

We received 3.4 inches of that total between 7:00am Tuesday, June 26 and 7:00am Wednesday, June 27.

MEET YOUR NEIGHBOR: Eileen Graziano

My name is Eileen Graziano, and I have lived in Lewisville for 22 1/2 years. I used to garden when I lived in Connecticut, where the soil is beautiful, but was frustrated trying to get anything to grow in Texas clay.

I first heard about the garden through an insert in our water bill a few months ago, and decided if someone else was going to do all the major tilling, I would like to grow something other than houseplants again.

I guess I would consider myself an average gardener. I love working in the dirt, and it is fun getting to know the others in the garden.

I have planted in my garden, at the present time: cantalopes, cucumbers, pole beans, grape, cherry and slicing tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, red and green bell peppers, yellow and red onions, yellow straight neck squash, marigolds, nasturtiums, cilantro, parsley, basil and rosemary.

I'm just hoping I can beat the summer heat on my plants, and for a harvest big enough to share with the pantry.

Stop by and get to know Eileen!

OTCG: In the News

The Dallas Morning News included a story on the Garden in the Sunday, April 15 edition.
CLICK HERE TO READ ONLINE.

Also, we made the cover of the DMN Southern Denton County Neighbors, Saturday, April 14. Photos and story appear on pages 20 and 21.

The Dallas Morning News included a story on the Garden in the Sunday, April 15 edition.
CLICK HERE TO FIND PICK-UP LOCATIONS.

Happenstance

Sometimes fun occurs when you least expect it!

Today...several gardeners' paths crossed as we showed up to tend our plots. First to arrive, Nelda and Gary Wallace two of the newest gardeners were busy at work planting their garden. Followed by Alva and Dave Cranford. Followed by Jeff Jekel, and his daughter Amanda. Followed by Eileen. Then, the unexpected.

Dru, who lives nearby and on her way home from buying groceries, stopped off to offer flowers she'd found discarded. With the ground outside the garden perimeter impossibly hardened soil, the group assembled a temporary Garden Entrance planting using bricks and top soil.


Dru prepares the entrance planter.


Eileen and Dru at work on Planter 1...


Nelda and Gary at work on Planter 2...


L to R: Nelda, Dru, Gary, Dave, Amanda, Jeff, and Nelda (with Alva behind the lens).


Discarded flowers given a 2nd chance at providing seasonal beauty.

It was one of those random afternoons of fun, laughter, and teamwork that happens just by chance. And one of the many reasons the Garden has fast become a passion of many people who not long ago were strangers to one another.

According to the Master Plan

Young and "not as young," Longhorns and Aggies, experienced and inexperienced, volunteers came alongside one another making new friendships, having fun, and bringing the Community Garden to life according to the Master Plan. What a beautiful morning to spend a few hours outdoors with excited anticipation of our new Garden!

Volunteers prepare the Garden walkways.

Shannon's son, Ty, proves no job is too small, nor any volunteer too small to make a big contribution!


Shannon spreads the walkway mulch.


Carlene creates another needed pathway!

Treasurer's Report

The OTCG has 33 6x10 (60 square feet) individual garden plots. The annual fee for each plot is $10. If a gardener decides to "adopt" more than one plot, the annual fee drops to $5 for each additional plot. If all plots are adopted, we hope to net approximately $300 annually.

No firm decisions have been made on how the money will be used. The money may be used to purchase supplies (e.g. seeds, plants, hoes, rakes, shears, etc.) that could be shared amongst the gardeners. Some of the money may be used to purchase educational supplies to aid gardeners in learning more about gardening. Another option is to use some of this money to cover the fees for those individuals who are less fortunate. As soon as a decision is made, we'll post an update on the Blog.

We hope the garden will provide a positive environment for experienced and inexperienced gardeners to work together, build community spirit, and provide fresh produce for those who are less fortunate. Since this is the Old Town community Garden's first year, we are still trying to determine what is needed and the direction we want to take the garden. We welcome all those who wish to participate in gardening or help the garden "grow." If you would like to join in the fun, contact the CCA or any of the Old Town Community Garden Executive Committee members for an application.

~Jeff Jekel
Treasurer, Old Town Community Garden

A Warm Thought on a Cool Day