"The Good, the Bad, and the Bugly" - Troubleshooting Pests and Disease in the Garden

Having trouble in your garden this year? 

Are your leaves yellowing, speckled, riddled with holes?
                                                              Are your stems withering and rotting to the ground?
                      Do you see egg clusters on the underside of your kale or squash greens?
                                           Are your tomatoes here today and gone tomorrow?
Are you noticing a powdery substance on the leaves of your plants?
                     
                            Are there... Enough! Enough, we get it! 

There are a lot of issues we often face as organic gardeners.

But never fear! You are not alone!  

Join us this Thursday, July 14th from 6:30-8:00 pm for a Garden Problem Solving Workshop 

with the brilliant and beloved Stephanie Solomon! 

We will be addressing many common garden troubles such as problematic insects, wind, water, and soil-bourne diseases, and mineral and nutrient deficiencies.

Come with a list of some difficulties you have been experiencing this gardening season, and we will help to troubleshoot the cause and hopefully lead you toward a solution. 

Organic Gardeners Unite!  

Images thanks to: 

http://fortcollinsnursery.com/fcn-blog/the-best-gardeners-kill-the-most-plants/ and http://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/view-shape/39589

Gardening For Health and Wellness

Gardening For Health and Wellness

We all love fresh produce from the garden, but did you know that gardening also produces a whole host of health benefits for our minds and bodies.  These benefits can ultimately reduce the cost of our health care!

Gardening can improve your mental and physical health!

* In studies, gardening is shown to significantly help to reduce stress, depression, physical pain, and improve sleep. Simply viewing plant-life reduces peoples stress and boosts recovery times from illness. But working to grow plants, and getting to touch, smell, taste and feel them on a weekly basis creates a raft of positive effects in our brains and bodies.

* Even just touching soil can boost our health! The microbes present in healthy soil are the same microbes that our bodies need to function completely. In today’s world, many of us don’t get enough exposure to these little helpers on a regular basis. But when we garden, we encounter them. Studies demonstrate how this probiotic effect can increase our mood through serotonin creation, and has been likened to a natural anti-depressant!

* Growing food is empowering.  Gardening requires care, attention and responsibility. Gardening stimulates creativity and brings a sense of accomplishment.
* Gardening is a superstar strategy to manage weight, providing both exercise and healthy produce! Getting enough fresh produce and exercise is also important to prevent cancer and heart disease, and decreases risk for many other chronic diseases.

* Gardening is a great mild exercise that can help increase joint flexibility, fine motor skills, and even burns calories. Gardening movements can also build strength and endurance, to aid physical rehabilitation, and helps to stave off osteoporosis.

And the benefits last…many of these studies show that these effects tend to last, even months after the last gardening activity was done!

Community Gardening has even more benefits!

Community gardening provides a great opportunity for social connection, which is a key factor in our happiness and health: Our social connectedness actually influences our blood pressure, immune responses, our stress levels and our rates of chronic illness.  Community gardeners are also more likely to eat more vegetables even than home gardeners. Most of all, community gardening is FUN…Come garden with the Hub!

We are looking to host a Gardening For Therapy Club.  If you are interested in participating, please contact Kendra 

Garlic in the Garden!

Homegrown garlic can be as beneficial for your garden as it is for your cooking. With antibiotic properties for both humans and your garden, it’s no wonder that the low-maintenance plant is often found in urban gardens.

Three ways garlic can benefit your garden:

Pest Control with Companion Planting: 

Plant garlic around pest attracting plants and trees to help keep a variety of insect and animal pests at bay for the entire growing season. Follow usual garlic growing steps and harvest when the time comes

Soil Detox: 

Plant garlic in a bed that previously had disease-carrying plants, such as tomatoes. The antimicrobial and antifungal properties of the garlic will “clean” the soil by killing off a variety of pathogens.

Garlic “tea” as a low-cost, low-toxicity insecticide: 

• Chop an entire head of garlic, add it to 4 cups of boiling water, and allow the contents to steep for 24 hours. Strain the boiled contents into a spray bottle.  
• Test the “tea” on a small portion of the plant – if everything looks ok the next day, spray away! Make sure to cover neighboring plants so that pests do not simply move. The best time to spray is during the cool portion of the day. The spray will only last a few days. 
• Caution: while the spray kills pests, it also kills the beneficial insects.

How to grow your own garlic:

1. In the mid-fall, plant garlic bulbs in fertile, weed-free soil. The bed should be in full sun, or as close to full sun as possible.
2. Each clove (one section of the entire bulb) should be planted root side down, 6-8 inches from all other cloves, and 2 inches down.  *Note: larger cloves typically mean larger yield 
3. Once spring returns, make sure the plants receive about one inch of water per week. Halt self-watering once the visible leaves begin to yellow.
4. By mid-June, you will notice that your plants have long, flowery tops that curl and straighten into long, spikey accents. These accents, or garlic scapes, should be cut to increase growth.  *Note: use the tasty scapes as additives to pesto, dips, soups, and other sauces
5. Fertilize your garlic every two weeks beginning in March; try compost tea and worm castings!
6. Bulbs are ready to harvest when the leaves turn yellow-brown in June or July. Dig (do not pull!) each bulb out of the bed. Move the bulb out of the sun ASAP.
7. To cure and preserve garlic, tie or braid the leaves of 6-10 plants together. Hang the bundles in a shady, dry, and possibly drafty area for about 4-6 weeks.
8. Once curing is complete, cut off stalks about 1-2 inches above the bulb and store the garlic in brown paper or mesh bags.

For a garlic planting demo, join us this week in the Food Pantry from 12:30-4:00pm!

Resources

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/garlic-growing-guide

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/growing-garlic-460709

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/natural-ways-use-garlic-mix-keep-bugs-out-garden-90597.html

http://themicrogardener.com/amazing-uses-for-garlic-in-your-home-garden/