Winter Bed Prep

The following tips have been provided by the MCOE Youth Garden. The MCOE Youth Garden is currently winterizing their garden sites and would like to share some insights with you:

Chris Nelson writes:

1.Compost dead plants to create a good soil conditioner. Hot, active piles of compost kill weed seeds and diseased pathogens. Make sure you throw questionable plants into the trash or put on the burn pile.

2. To prevent rodents from nesting in the soil, wait until the ground is frozen before adding a 6 inch layer of winter mulch.

3. Protect the tender bark of young trees from growing critters by wrapping stems or trucks with wire or commercial tree guards.


Miguel Pereida writes:
1. First, clear out the bleached stems and foliage of annual plants. The cool weather is a good time to make a cold frame to protect winter starts.

2. Man, if it snowed in Ukiah it sure would make a great mulch. Snow covers and isolates the soil like a mulch!

3. Protect your rose trees from the winter! Make sure to stake and wrap burlap around the rose stems. Also add a 6" layer of mulch. This will help protect them from the cold.



Jose Nunez writes:
1. Now is the time for bare root season. It's time to plant new trees. Make sure you pick a spot with good soil that has lots of worms and microbes. It is very important to put in new mulch when prepping the area. Old leaves work really well and break down easily.

2. Pruning time! You should cut off dry stems off of trees that are dry. You should also cut out any dead or dying plants. Put them in the compost and have them serve you in their next life as a soil builder.

3. STOP FERTILIZING YOUR ROSES! Fall brings on the dormant season for roses. Make sure your last rose feeding is 2 months before the first frost.

Daniel Alvarez writes:

1. Cut back dry stems of perennials to soil level after the first frost to neaten the garden and remove pest eggs and disease spores that may linger. Leave stems with attractive seed heads for winter sowing.

2. Compost dead plant debris to create an organic soil conditioner. Hot, active piles of compost kills weed seeds, inactive piles do not.

3. Cut off diseased foliage from evergreen plants, shrubs, and discard it in the trash. Rake up and discard the old disease bearing mulch, too.

Gardener of the Month - Genaro Vega!

Congratulations to our first Gardener of the Month: Genaro Vega! At The Gardens Project, we know Genaro as The Chili Man, for his knowledge and cultivation of different varieties of chili peppers. Genaro is also the volunteer coordinator at the largest and oldest community garden in Ukiah – the Cleveland Lane Community Garden. To witness the tremendous work Genaro dedicates to this garden and to hear him speak of his respect for chili peppers is truly inspirational. The Gardens Project interviewed Genaro one afternoon and, unsurprisingly, he offered some valuable insight into the world of Ukiah community gardens. To watch the interview, click here.

Do you know someone who should be our next Gardener of the Month? Nominate them! Contact us and tell us why you think they deserve be highlighted.

To see pictures of the Cleveland Lane Community Garden, click here. To see Cleveland Ln. in person, visit it! It’s located behind the Grace Hudson Museum. Here is a map.

Solar Living Institute offers class at Talmage

The Solar Living Institute has partnered with the Gardens Project and is offering an Earth Oven class at the Talmage Garden. An earth oven is a wood fired oven made out of a cob like mixture that you can make tasty breads, great pizzas, slow cook some stew, or make some roast! The workshop will cover: basic oven functions and designs; available materials; proven construction methods; and resources for students to build an oven of their own! The best part of the workshop is that you get to actually take part in making the oven at the Talmage garden. Anyone interested in the Earth Oven should go to the Solar Living Institutes website to register.

But, before you can build an Earth Oven, you need to build a foundation for one- and the MCOE youth garden students sure did build! With the gracious help from John Richards construction, a local Rammed Earth Builder, the youth were able to mix earth and cement and helped compress it into a foundation. It was a dusty process, but they did a great job! A huge thanks to John and his son, Caleb, for all their help and consultation in building our rammed earth foundation.

Talmage Harvest Party

Last Thursday the Talmage State Pre-School had a harvest party for the parents and the pre-school kids. The kids dug out sunflowers, harvested cherry tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and loads of tomatillos. Over all we gave away to parents a five gallon bucket of tomatillos and baby tomatoes, about 4 pounds of cucumbers, and some summer squash. Along with the parents help we were able to build a great looking compost pile, weeded, and planted a new bed with beet seeds. The Talmage state pre-school staff also made a delicious meal for the parents and kids of veggies from the garden. What a great day! Feel free to stop by any of our other harvest parties. September 23rd at 5:30pm at the Grace Lutheran garden, September 24th at 4:00pm at the Jack Simpson Garden, September 26th at 12:00pm at the Cleveland Lane garden, and September 27th at 3:00 pm.

Peas and Carrots,

Abundance

This month the kids at Fort Bragg Head Start have eaten green beans, carrots, peas, radishes, and chives from the garden. The children helped wash and cut the green beans before Cindy the cook steamed them and served them for lunch.






We are also harvesting food for the Head Start families and volunteers at the weekly workday.












The classes have been coming to the garden with their tiny work gloves on, ready to explore. This week they planted peas, watered the garden and harvested radishes and carrots that they brought in to wash, cut and sample.

The garden is producing lots of organic food, dirty hands and happy faces!

United Way Day of Caring

Yesterday was the 19th annual United Way Day of Caring event, and with lots of help from some caring local volunteers we made things happen! With the help from employees from Fetzer Winery, and the Ukiah Valley Medical Center we were able to put in a wheel-chair accessible path at the Jack Simpson apartments. We were lucky enough to have 20 individuals help us accomplish making the path, and they were great!! The group was able to move a large pile of gravel from the parking lot into the garden, rake it out, and use the vibe plate to mush it all together. We were able to make a path around all the beds in under four hours!



The Plowshares Garden also had some great volunteers helping to pull out some tough bermuda grass and build the foundation of a potting shed adjacent to the garden, where vegetables will be washed, plants potted, and memories made. John Cunnan, a rockstar craftsman who has ventured into building with sustainably harvested Doug Fir trees that reduce fire hazard, led the team digging trenches, mixing cement, and carefully placing cinder blocks, all the meanwhile keeping the elegant structure to be in mind.

To see more pictures from the day, click here!!!

Thank you again to all the volunteers who came out yesterday, and for all the organizations for giving them the day off!!

Peas and Carrots-

The Gardens Project

Fresh AmeriCorps VISTAs!

Just off the vine, three AmeriCorps VISTAs have arrived at the Gardens Project! They are bright-eyed and bushy tailed and love cherry tomatoes. We present to you, beloved fans of the Gardens Project, Cassie, Lucy, and Kelly:

Cassie is our resident Southerner, from Sherman, Texas.. She recently graduated from Eckard College in St. Petersburg, Fl with a degree in Environmental Studies. Cassie is working with the gardens project, and also with Food For All Mendocino where she will be doing food stamp outreach. She is loving Ukiah, and is excited to be here for the next year. Cassie loves to garden, hike, and knit (she might even make you something if you ask nicely). And if you ever want to butter Cassie up, just bring her a nice cool iced tea...

Kelly is orginally from the South Bay Area, but has spent the last five years living in foggy Monterey and going to CSU Monterey Bay. She is excited to be working with the community, getting to know Ukiah, and helping to facilitate new opportunities for people to get fresh produce! She loves being outside, cooking, growing basil, and playing with her puppy dog, Max.

Lucy is also from the Bay Area. She spent her college years studying economics in seasonal Maine, and after a few long winters had a bad itch to get back to the West Coast, the scratching of which plopped her down in Ukiah with the Gardens Project. While not gardening, Lucy likes to ride bicycles, have adventures, dance, read, dehydrate pears, and try her durndest to cultivate goodness.

We will be working our zucchinis off this year to help make the community gardens in Ukiah, and the local food economy, stronger and more sustainable. Currently, we are whipping up some winter vegetable education and sowing the seeds of greater community involvement. We have all kinds of plans and ideas for the next twelve months, and would love to hear from you and work with you! We look forward to seeing you out there. Long live the gardens!


Lucy