What's growin' on this Spring with the Gardens Project!

The Gardens Project is feeling the spring fever, and we want to tell you all about it! 

Students from the Ukiah Junior Academy volunteering at the Vinewood Park Community Garden in March

We are digging into our 9th year of community garden work with fresh new ideas on the horizon as well as old events coming back to life... all to grow food and community in our beautiful Northern California land!

Wanna learn about all we're doing and get involved? Here's a look at what's growin' on, click on the links to dig deeper into each topic.

New Garden Projects in Mendocino and Lake Counties

We are working with communities from Leggett to Lucerne this year to help build new garden projects for different communities, agencies, and apartments. The first few groups we'll be working with this year include:

• Arbor Youth Resource Center of Redwood Community Services in Ukiah - New Garden
• Community Transition Program Garden at Observatory Park in Ukiah - New Garden Fence, additional raised beds 
• FLOW Community Garden in Lucerne - New Garden Fence
• North Shore Senior Apartments of RCHDC in Lucerne- 3 new 4x20ft
  Raised Beds and Irrigation!
• Village Circle Community Garden in Ukiah (new in 2014) - Large Hoop-house for season extension.

North Shore in Lucerne will have new raised beds for easier gardening!

 More about projects in Leggett, Boonville, and Hopland coming soon!

Garden Leadership Training in Ukiah

Garden Leaders from the Arbor, Jack Simpson & Village Circle

Community Garden Managers from 7 gardens in Ukiah are in the middle of a 4 week training to become effective leaders for their gardens- with lessons on community building, communication, event planning and more!
Participating are leaders from the Arbor Youth Resource Center, Vinewood Park, Village Circle, State St, Washington Ave, Thunderbird and Jack Simpson Gardens.

The Gardeners' Gathering

A NEW EVENT FOR THE GP- the Gardeners Gathering will bring together community and home gardeners from Lake and Mendocino Counties together to learn and share gardening skills, with a special presentation on the Drought and how it impacts our gardens, mini-workshops, free seeds, plant starts, resources and more!

FREE and ALL are welcome to attend, click here for more details.

Supporters of the Gardens Project 

Fetzer Vineyards has partnered with the GP to donate 5% of their Community Wine Sale proceeds to community garden development! Community Wine Sales are held at Fetzer in Hopland every other month during the year. We are grateful for this new partnership that will provide funding for garden projects throughout the year! 
The next Community Wine Sale starts now! Place your orders by Friday, April 10th to pick up your wine at Fetzer on Saturday, April 18th. Click here for ordering information.

SAUCY restaurant in Ukiah will be hosting a Dine-Out day for the Gardens Project on Tuesday, April 21st. Come to Saucy all day for a meal and we'll be donated a portion of the proceeds from the day! Don't forget that it will be Earth Day WEEK- so there will be local farm fresh specials on the menu!




Want to make a donation to the Gardens Project?
You can donate online at anytime, just click here!

We also sell our Gardens Project T-shirts for a $20 donation (for pick up in Ukiah). Contact GP Coordinator, Stephanie, at 462-1958 or slogsdon@ncoinc.org to get one!

The Homegrown Garden Tour- coming back to life!

Genaro in the Cleveland Lane Garden showing off his Nopales in 2012!

Have you been to the Homegrown Garden Tour in Ukiah? It's been a few years since the GP has hosted the tour for the community to visit the gardens, but this year it's coming back this August! Keep a check on our events page for tour information.

Gardens Project VIDEOS

Did you know that the GP had a video intern last summer? Kenny Logsdon, Anthropology student at Appalachian State University, spent last summer interviewing our community gardeners and documenting workshops.

Take a look at this video about our drip irrigation workshop last summer- and then get inspired to set yours up to for water conservation!

Thank you for your continued support of community and school gardens in Mendocino and Lake Counties!

The Merit and Joy of Preschool Gardening

In November of 2009, I fell into coordinating a preschool garden when the then coordinator had to step back for reasons of familial health. Almost a year and a half later, I am a convert, a true and firm believer, in the merit, value, and worth of gardening in preschools. Not to mention a recipient of the joy of it.

When I begin working at the preschool garden, I hadn’t spent a ton of time with preschool age kids, or done a ton of gardening, or a ton of coordinating of school or community gardens. I would scramble to come up with activities to do with the kids; something engaging for little ones but also productive for our garden. We started peas, transplanted all sorts of greens, weeded, sowed radish seeds, harvested tomatoes and brought them to the cook.

As I’ve become more comfortable with the little ones, though, and with the rhythms and realities of gardening, the nature of our preschool gardening has changed. We play more now. We dance and sing and use our imagination and laugh a whole lot. And what used to be our work – planting, weeding, harvesting – continues but has grown increasingly playful. The whole thing – the playing, the working, the eating – has become one thing – exploring.

Encouraging exploration and creating a safe, joyful, and engaging space for it to happen, is what preschool gardening is all about. And what gardening at any age should really be about. Exploring this magical world we live in, in all it colors and contradictions and deliciousness and smells and interconnectedness, and exploring our own relationship to that world.

These pictures are from a day when we played a game where the leader would put on this green vest and use the magical deer horn to find different colors in the garden (purple, orange, red, blue, white…) and the rest of us followed with our garden spinoculars made out of painted toilet paper tubes on a piece of yarn around our necks and looked at the things the leader found, or anything that caught our fancy.

I’ve watched as kids get soooo excited about broccoli and spinach, and care for a plant as it grows from a seed to a radish they can eat, and learn to treat other creatures gently. And I’ve seen as their parents learn, too. As one mother repeats over and over in delighted astonishment that she didn’t know that, when I tell her about how fruit comes from flowers. Or as the parents learn what a pea looks like growing, or that broccoli doesn’t have to look like the big compact head you buy at the grocery store, that you can eat leggy florets, too, and that their kids love to do so.

And I’ve heard as the parents tell me how their kids ask for more vegetables at home now, and how they try and plant seeds in the dirt on the side of the road.

Getting kids when they are this young, at the very beginning of their institutionalization, and impressing upon all of their senses the magic of this world, is a good time to start. It’s better than first grade. It’s better than sixth grade. It’s better than ninth grade. The earlier these kids can experience the flavors, the colors, the smells, the textures that really are life, the more they will be receptive to those experiences later on in life and want them. And if we can get their families involved at that young age, too, and make eating well something that doesn’t seem impossible but seems delightfully familiar, then we are golden.

Preschool gardens forever!

Garden Tips of the Month June/July

What to do in Your Garden This Month
by Suzanne Millard, Mendocino County Master Gardener

It has been quite an interesting month for weather. Rain has continued to fall through the month and cooler temperatures than the seasonal norms have prevailed. While we have seen the effects of El Nino since the beginning of the year, some weather bloggers now say it is over. Looks like we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, we are still pulling up those weeds in the garden to keep the pests at bay.

What to plant?

For June and July you can directly sow beans, beets, chard, corn, turnips and kale. You can also start heat tolerant lettuce, chard, leeks and at the end of the month, brassicas for planting. Plants ready for transplant are lettuce and chard.

Flowers and herbs appropriate for June and July direct sowing are Lobella, Alyssum, Limonium, Zinnias, Amaranth, Petunias, Marigolds, Cosmos, Tithonias, Ageratum, Strawflowers, Calliopsis, Cleome, Celosia, Sanvitalia, Morning Glory, Nasturtiums, Dahlia, Heliotrope, Gomphrena, Geraniums, Sunflowers, Impatiens, Nicotiana, Thunbergia. Basil and heat tolerant flowers are ready at this time for outdoor transplanting.

For more Gardener's Tips, please click Greater Hopland Planting Guide (Peter Huff and Kate Frey's Monthly Planting Calendar for Inland Mendocino, also found at the "How to - Grow Food" page on The Garden's Project Website).

What to look out for…

This is prime tomato growing season. For best results here are some tips to maximize your tomato crop:

• Amend soil with good fresh compost. Too much nitrogen will create lots of green growth. Calcium is important for tomatoes so any fertilizers should be calcium rich.
• Support your indeterminate tomato plants. These are not the bush varieties but the tall tomato plants. With many of these plants, regular tomato cages just won’t hold the weight or the size of these plants. Heavy duty home built cages can be built, but be sure use supporting materials that allow you to easily get to the fruit. Cages should be 6’ to 7’ high to accommodate a healthy tomato plant.
• Water consistently to prevent blossom end rot. Water deeply twice a week at the beginning of the season and then reduce water as fruit ripens.
• Be on the lookout for wilting on your tomato plants. Verticillium Wilt (Verticillium IPM Pest Note) and Fusarium Wilt (Fusarium IPM Pest Note) are two plant diseases that can impact your tomato plants.

Towards the end of July, you’ll want to start planning your cool season garden. Now is the time to lay out your garden plan on paper and choose what plants you’ll want to have through the fall.

Just a friendly reminder that there is a tremendous body of knowledge about gardening in California, provided by University of California Cooperative Extension. This site, geared toward the home gardener can be found at http://cagardenweb.ucdavis.edu/.

What to do in Your Garden this month

Gardens around Mendocino County are abuzz with Spring! As things warm up, it's time to plan and plant your garden. Don't let things you want and need to get in the ground now slip by! Timing does matter (things will still work if you don't time them great. They just won't work as well).

Below are things to do in your garden during the next month. They come from the 'Planting Chart for Mendocino County' in Mendocino County's Local Food Guide, and Peter Huff and Kate Frey's Monthly Planting Calendar for Inland Mendocino, which you can download here at the 'How To - Grow Food' page on The Gardens Project website. It is more straightforward there than us retyping it all below.

HERE ARE THIS MONTH'S GARDEN TIPS AND TASKS:

During February, these are plants you can sow directly outdoors: spinach, radishes, carrots, turnips, beets, peas, asian greens, cilantro, and garlic. In early March, you can plant all those as well as lettuce, broccoli, fennel, potatoes, scallions, amaranth, dill, and parsley.

During Feburary, these are fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers that are good to start from seed indoors: artichokes, cabbage and collards, celery, eggplant, onions, lettuce, brassicas, kale, chard, peas, leeks, Asian greens, fennel, dandelion, shallots, raddichio, mache, hollyhocks, scabiosa, calendula, gaillardia, centaurea, helenium, viola, yarrow, rudbeckia, columbine, agastaches, and lavender.

During March, you can start indoors from seed: artichokes, onions, lettuce, brassicas, chard, kale, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, melons, zucchini, basil, summer squash, and pumpkins.

Flowers and herbs you want to start from seed indoors in March are: Lobella, Alyssum, Limonium, Zinnias, Amaranth, Petunias, Marigolds, Cosmos, Tithonias, Ageratum, Strawflowers, Calliopsis, Cleome, Celosia, Sanvitalia, Morning Glory, Nasturtiums, Dahlia, Heliotrope, Gomphrena, Geraniums, Sunflowers, Impatiens, Nicotiana, Thunbergia

During February, you can transplant the following outdoors: asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, cane berries, grapes, fruit trees

During March, you can transplant: artichokes, kale, brussel sprouts, lettuce, leeks, onions, brassicas, peas, Asian greens, and parsely.

Some garden maintenance tasks you will want to take on in February include: plant bare root fruit trees, plant asparagus, plant new strawberries, add compost to existing strawberries, repair tools, mulch bare soil w/straw or chips, compost and mulch asparagus beds, prune deciduous trees and apply compost, cane berries and grapes, check irrigation systems and repair, etc.

In March, you will want to: repair tools, mulch bare soil w/straw or chips, check irrigation systems and repair, etc

See you out in the garden! Yeehaw!

DO IT YOURSELF (together) GARDEN WORKSHOP SERIES! ** We want yo' knowledge!

What do worm composting, tackling Bermuda grass, growing chili peppers, and canning tomatoes have in common? They are all part of The Gardens Project’s inaugural “Do It Yourself (together) Garden Workshop Series”! This life affirming series will kick off in late March and run through September, taking place at the Ukiah Farmers’ Market and community gardens around town.

The idea of this workshop series is for Mendocino folk to teach each other the things we need to make our community healthier, livelier, and more self-reliant. There is an abundance of knowledgeable people in this county, and the Do It Yourself (together) Garden Workshop Series is a collaborative forum through which people can share their knowledge with the rest of the community.

Below is a list of workshop topics that we plan to offer. We are still looking for people to teach some of them. If you know much about one of these subjects, or you know someone that does, please consider sharing your knowledge with your community. It will be fun! It will be life-affirming! You don’t need to know everything about a subject, just more than your average Jill Gardener. And we can work with you to lead the class.

Some of the classes:

- Starting your own vegetables from seed

- Transplanting

- Worm composting/Vermiculture

- Composting

- Seed Saving

- Tackling Bermuda Grass

- Spring Vegetable Garden

- Double-digging

- (Sub)Urban Chicken Coops

- Pollinators

- Gardening in Small Spaces/Container Gardening

- How to Start a Community Garden

- How to Change a Flat Bike Tire

- How to Grow Chili Peppers

- Solar Cooking

- Preserving the Harvest (Canning, Pickling, Dehydrating, etc.)

- Planning your Fall/Winter Garden

- Cover Cropping

- Rain-Water Harvesting in Barrels

If you are interested in leading one of these classes, have a tip for someone we should ask to lead a class, or have another skill you would like to share, please contact The Gardens Project by emailing lneely@ncoinc.org or calling (707) 462-2596 x186.

And check out next month’s Real DirtE-Newsletter to see the full schedule of events, including the community all-stars that will be leading classes! (subscribe on the left hand side of our homepage)

Gardening and Climate Change

As the United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place in Copenhagen, The Gardens Project would like to take a moment to contemplate the interaction between climate change and gardening: how the simple and beautiful act of gardening helps combat the behemoth that is climate change and how, unmitigated, the behemoth will affect gardening for all of us in the future.

Climate change can seem like a daunting problem, one so big that we don’t know where to begin to address it. Here’s our big idea: the garden.

Our modern food system is one of the greatest contributors to climate change because it relies on fossil fuels and chemicals to grow, process, distribute, and dispose of food. Agriculture is responsible for 25% of CO2 emissions and 65% of methane emissions. By growing food for you and yours, you can change all this. Here are a few steps you can take, in the garden, on the long walk back towards a balanced and harmonious world:

- Grow your own food – then it won’t have to be trucked or flown in thousands of miles. Alternatively, frequent the farmers market.

- Grow organically – synthetic fertilizers require loads of fossil fuels to be created. You can get the same results with compost and mulch. You’ll feel better, and so will your grandkids.

- Compost – divert yard and food waste, like leaves and apple cores, from trucks that head to the landfill or the incinerator. Keep it local. Turn it into compost instead.

- Install a garden ornament – the clothes line! They’re beautiful, they’re quaint, they dry your clothes real good without using electricity.

- Eat less meat, more veggies – according to the UN, the production of meat leads to vast deforestation, huge energy inefficiencies compared to the production of grains, and loads of greenhouse gas emissions. Save the planet. Go veg.

If we don’t take steps like these now, climate change may drastically affect our gardening by changing weather patterns – making our specific knowledge of local horticulture less and less relevant, increasing droughts and deluges, pests and weeds, and the chances that our plants will die and we can’t do anything about it. The prospects are frightening. Don’t let it happen! Take the leap and grow a garden! If you already have one, do all those things you’ve always been meaning to. It’s good for the soil, it’s good for the soul!