harvest time!
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Izetta Chambers
Aug 25, 2011, 1:48:44 PM8/25/11
to Dillingham Gardening Club
Hello Dillingham Gardeners:
I hope you all had excellent summers, and were able to do a little bit
of gardening with the few days of sunshine we had. My high tunnel in
Naknek had a white fly infestation, and I am still struggling with
some pretty poor soil (ok, it's really sand) over there. However, our
communal gardening at Liboffville has been doing well, and I think
that the families involved should have enough potatoes for the 4-5
households that participated this year.
The Senior Center Community Garden did better than last year. There
is quite a bit of stuff over there ready for harvesting. The lettuce
is quite lovely, and the outer leaves can be picked without harming
the ability to make more. The kale is also ready to be picked. If
you haven't tried kale before, it is great in stir fries or steamed
up. It has a mild flavor and is very nutritious. My parents gave me
about 15 pounds from their garden and I chopped it roughly and
blanched it for a minute or so in boiling water and then bagged it up
for the freezer. It will be good this winter in soups and stews.
If any of you are interested, the Bristol Bay Campus will again be
hosting the Southwest Alaska Gardening Symposium, in collaboration
with BBNA's TANF program. If you are interested in that, I would
suggest contacting the Bristol Bay Campus for more details.
If anybody would like to get together and put in some time at the Sr.
Center Community Garden before freeze-up, I would be willing to do
some harvest and post-harvest work over there. The cabbages will
probably need another several weeks to really be ready to harvest, but
I am worried about them freezing. We had our first frost yesterday
morning.
A couple of tasks that I would like to do before the ground freezes is
to incorporate some lime, roto-till it in, and also incorporate some
finished or partly-finished compost into the soil. The soil over
there is quite compacted and needs a little bit of organic matter. It
could also probably use some fertilizer, but the compost should add
some life to the soil in time for next planting season. Also, I would
like to try to gather up all of the chickweed, and find a safe place
to burn it. It will only make more seeds it we put it in a compost.
It looks like the black plastic worked pretty well to keep the weeds
at bay where it was placed on the rows. It might be a good idea to do
that with all of the rows next year to keep the chickweed from
completely taking over again.
I am curious to hear about other people's gardening stories from this
summer.
-Izetta
I hope you all had excellent summers, and were able to do a little bit
of gardening with the few days of sunshine we had. My high tunnel in
Naknek had a white fly infestation, and I am still struggling with
some pretty poor soil (ok, it's really sand) over there. However, our
communal gardening at Liboffville has been doing well, and I think
that the families involved should have enough potatoes for the 4-5
households that participated this year.
The Senior Center Community Garden did better than last year. There
is quite a bit of stuff over there ready for harvesting. The lettuce
is quite lovely, and the outer leaves can be picked without harming
the ability to make more. The kale is also ready to be picked. If
you haven't tried kale before, it is great in stir fries or steamed
up. It has a mild flavor and is very nutritious. My parents gave me
about 15 pounds from their garden and I chopped it roughly and
blanched it for a minute or so in boiling water and then bagged it up
for the freezer. It will be good this winter in soups and stews.
If any of you are interested, the Bristol Bay Campus will again be
hosting the Southwest Alaska Gardening Symposium, in collaboration
with BBNA's TANF program. If you are interested in that, I would
suggest contacting the Bristol Bay Campus for more details.
If anybody would like to get together and put in some time at the Sr.
Center Community Garden before freeze-up, I would be willing to do
some harvest and post-harvest work over there. The cabbages will
probably need another several weeks to really be ready to harvest, but
I am worried about them freezing. We had our first frost yesterday
morning.
A couple of tasks that I would like to do before the ground freezes is
to incorporate some lime, roto-till it in, and also incorporate some
finished or partly-finished compost into the soil. The soil over
there is quite compacted and needs a little bit of organic matter. It
could also probably use some fertilizer, but the compost should add
some life to the soil in time for next planting season. Also, I would
like to try to gather up all of the chickweed, and find a safe place
to burn it. It will only make more seeds it we put it in a compost.
It looks like the black plastic worked pretty well to keep the weeds
at bay where it was placed on the rows. It might be a good idea to do
that with all of the rows next year to keep the chickweed from
completely taking over again.
I am curious to hear about other people's gardening stories from this
summer.
-Izetta
jody seitz
Aug 25, 2011, 2:00:47 PM8/25/11
to dillinghamg...@googlegroups.com
Hi Izzetta - I also enjoyed gardening this summer. I slapped a few large timbers together (lierally - they are propped up against each other) then put in arches using rebar and plastic tubing that you can get from either bigfoot or L&M. then put plastic over it. the plastic really enhanced the whole thing because even though it was just over the top and allowed air to go through, the plants thrived. It increased the heat and decreased the rain's impact.....I had to watch my strawberries - turns out the birds just love them!!...But my broccoli has finally taken off and the lettuce and celery are doing well. the carrots got a lot better once they were thinned.......Kale and chard have both been slow....could be I need to start this whole mess a lot earlier!
I'm planning to dump most of the worms and the compost once again at the end of summer (soon)...
Anyone wanting worms for their worm bins? I have plenty.
Also - the flowers I've grown have been fun - Peonies did well out of the direct rain and drip, fuchias loved being beneath the eves, as did the petunias, and alyssum and begonias. geraniums liked the east side of the house, out of most of the wind, and next tot eh siding where it's warm. Foxgloves haven't sent up the flower stock yet.
Bachelors buttons, nemesia, snapdragons, and cosmos grew well this summer -- the cosmos are really turning out to be late bloomers. lots of greenery, still hoping to see blossoms on the cosmos.
Jody
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