happy hour tonight & garden news

[Golden Community Garden]

A bit of garden news for you all:

Thursday Happy Hour - Come on by tonight from 6 pm. Bring some food or drink to share. Learn about canning from tonight's host, Rachel Vermeal.

 

Race Day (The bike race.)

- No parking on the garden drive from 6 am to 4 pm on race day, Sunday August 28th.

- Help Needed - Please respond to the below if you can help.

From: Julie Brooks

Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 9:10 AM

I am sending this out because I am not too proud to beg for help. After having some of my parking volunteers poached by other committees, I find myself in need of 12 to 17 parking lot attendants for our credentialed and shuttle lots.  The shifts are from 6 to 11 a.m. on Sunday.  I need one in at about 5 a.m. and have one that may go until noon. If you want to volunteer, or will be here anyway and have friends or relatives that would like to assist, PLEASE send me an email.  Almost all of the locations have direct viewing of the race as it comes through.  And it comes with a free shirt with our tour logo! Thank you in advance.  Please feel free to include the T-shirt size needed if you can provide help. Julie Julie BrooksProject CoordinatorCity of Golden911 10th St.Golden, CO 80401(303) 384-801...@cityofgolden.net

 Squash Those Bugs - We have squash bugs everywhere. Use the techniques below, or pull your infested plants and put in your home trash. Please don't compost unless you're 1000% sure there are no bugs or eggs on them.

 

Take Home A Pumpkin - Have one of the pumpkins from the front of the garden.

 

Let Others Harvest - If you can't harvest, let us know so that it can go to the foodbank. This will allow the veggies to benefit hungry people, instead of hungry bugs. And if you put a stake in your plot, write that and your plot number on the whiteboard. (Someone else did this, and its a great idea.)

 

Bag Of Corn - The food bank people think the corn in the burlap bag by the donation box isn't fit for the hungry, but a couple of us tried it and it's good! So, take home a few ears and enjoy. (It grills up nicely.)

 

Happy Thursday!!

 

Physical Removal of squash bugs

• Remove or knock off and kill nymphs and adults by dropping them into a pail of soapy water. This is particularly effective if only a few plants are affected. This can be challenging because squash bugs hide under leaves and move quickly when disturbed.
• Crush eggs that are attached to the undersides and stems of leaves.
• Trap squash bugs by laying out boards or pieces of newspaper. Squash bugs will congregate under the boards at night, and then can be collected and destroyed in the morning.
• Remove plant debris around your garden during the growing season to reduce the potential harborages where squash bugs may hide. Clean up cucurbits and other plant matter around the garden in the fall to reduce the number of overwintering sites

Use ONLY organic certified pesticide. Many would rather not use any pesticide. But if you're thinking organic pesticide, here are some points about the strongest one. Safer's Bug Patrol  (soap and pyrethrin) -  is the most likely treatment to be effective at this point in the infestation - according to them.  The soap supposedly makes it effective against adults.  Registered for certified organic.  The caveat - pyrethrins are stronger chemicals with some toxicity and they should be applied per instructions not exceeding the instructed rate.  Any edibles with application at this time need to be thoroughly washed with soap and water prior to eating - wash your squash. You probably won't find any other pyrethrin formulations locally, but if you do they need to be evaluated for other additives which may not be considered organic.  Also if they don't contain insecticidal soap they will not work against adults.