What gardeners do in winter: reflecting on what you grew, ordering seeds, planning for next year

Typically in winter gardeners reflect on what they grew the previous season...what worked, what didn't? Of course in a community garden, some variables are beyond one's control like the size and location of a garden plot and sometimes the soil conditions are less than desirable. The soil at the BC Garden is now very nutrient dense and as composting continues, will only become more fertile.  

Gardeners ask questions like: Which varieties produced well and under what conditions? Were the types of staking and plant supports adequate for the plants I grew?  How well did I keep on growing successional plants like radishes, lettuce and herbs all season long? Did I grow food crops I really like eating or was I introduced to new vegetables that I now like to eat?  Did I utilize the space I had to the utmost, or did I choose to grow too many plants for my space or too great a variety of plants for my space? Did I adequately thin plants like beets, carrots and radishes so each one had enough room to grow? How can I make better use of my limited size garden plot? Maybe I want to extend the growing season by planting early veggies like peas and onions and late crops like kale and collards?  Carrots and spinach were more challenging to grow than I had imagined, why might that be?  Maybe I could team up with a garden friend to grow tall, bushy plants like pole beans and tomatoes in one plot and root crops that have shorter growth like carrots and onions in the other...

I suggest keeping a notebook to record what you grew, what worked and what you'd like to do differently.
Here are my top three suggestions to help plan for next year:

1) Order as many garden catalogs as you can stand and fantasize about the veggies and flowers you’d like to fill your plot with. Winter is when gardeners reflect on what they planted the previous season and plan for making a better garden or focused type of garden the next year.  You can learn much by reading seed catalogs including that there are hundreds of varieties of seed for one type of vegetable that do well in different kinds of climates, under a range of conditions.  One seed catalog might sell dozens of those varieties.  Some varieties of beans need to grow over 80 days  before harvesting, while others require around 60. If you have time for the bean that takes longer to mature, fine, if not, go for the quick producer.  The broccoli variety that several of you planted (from transplant) from Silver Heights Farm was Piracicaba Broccoli, a variety that is heat tolerant, needs less space of 1 square foot (as compared with 1.5 square feet for most varieties) and produces lots of side shoots that stay sweet.  Cecile's broccoli flowered in early December and those blossoms were as sweet as can be.  

Below is a long list of seed houses, which offer online catalogs and hard copies of their catalog upon request.  Browsing with a mouse is nothing in comparison to thumbing through colorful pages of produce, so definitely order the paper version.

Johnny’s Seeds

Lee Valley Tools

Cooks Garden

Fedco

Landreth Seed Company

High Mowing Seeds

Seeds of Change

Burpee’s

Hudson Valley Seed Library

Pinetree Garden Seeds

Seed Savers Exchange

Renee's Garden

Gardener's Supply Company

Sampling of free seed catalogs

2) There’s some free/low cost gardening workshops to take this winter at the BBG, including these:

Letting nature do the work with Permaculture-- Free

Street Tree Care-- Free

Houseplants 101

Edibles on the Edge

Cool spring Greens

http://www.bbg.org/learn/classes/

3) Snuggle up with a gardening book.  Here are a few of my favorites:

My Garden Book  -----Jamaica Kincaid

This Organic Life -----Joan Dye Gussow

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle  ------Barbara Kingsolver

Then there’s plenty of books on urban farming.  Many gardeners this year asked me about container gardening, practical for gardening in the tiniest of spaces where you can grow carrots, herbs, onions, garlic, lettuce and cherry tomatoes as well as flowers and ornamental plants:

Farm City  ----Novella Carpenter

Urban Farming: Sustainable living in…  ---- Thomas Fox

Bountiful Container   ----- McGee and Stuckey

***Whether you have or haven't take a wild food foraging tour with "Wildman" Steve Brill, I recommend downloading his app on edible wild plants.

Vitex, Chasteberry tree

Late afternoon fall photos, late blooming flowers

Jerusalem Artichokes

Mums

More Mums

Sunset

Okra seedpods

Yucca

Acceptable Materials for our Compost Bins

What can I compost here?

•       All raw fruit and vegetable scraps, including hard pits from avocados
•      Coffee grinds with filters
•            Tea bags, tags are ok (please cut open fancy tea bags made of plastic mesh)
•            Egg shells
•            House plant trimmings (no diseases)
•            Soiled paper towels (no oils)
•           Weeds without seed heads

What can’t I compost here?

•    Meat, chicken, fish scraps
•       Spoiled dairy products,
•    Grains, bread
•       Leftover prepared food with oily residue
•    Mango and peach pits (they take years to break down)
•    Treated wood
•    Charcoal ashes
•   Weeds gone to seed

5 steps for adding waste to bin:

1)  Make sure your scraps are chopped into 1-2 inch pieces.  This ensures that material will break down quickly.  You don't have to be so careful chopping up soft scraps like melon rinds, apple skins and banana peels, but please be meticulous when chopping tough woody scraps like broccoli stems, carrot tops, cabbage trimmings and brussel sprout stalks.  Woody material will take much longer if not chopped up.  

2)  Add your kitchen scraps to the bin labeled, “Active Pile, add material.”

3)  Evenly spread food waste over top of pile, no mounding please!

4)  Spread an even layer of brown material over food waste, so none is exposed (this attracts flies).  We have assorted browns like leaves, wood shavings and ripped cardboard.  All are fine to use.

5)  Moisten material. Either with the hose or by filling a bucket/red watering can with water, wet down material.

Viola!! You are finished.


Freezing food waste:
Some people who can't drop off their food waste as frequently prefer to freeze it instead of storing in the refrigerator.  This frees up refrigerator space and prevents any smells from invading your kitchen!  If you choose to freeze, please chop up material before storing it in your freezer. You may notice that when you add these frozen pieces to the active bin, they spread easily across the top of the pile, like ice cubes. If you store your food waste in yogurt containers, it may become a frozen blob, difficult to spread atop the pile.  Please make sure you chop it up somehow before adding,  for example:  smashing between 2 rocks.  You could also unmold the waste, tuck it into a warm spot in the pile, do something else and return in a few minutes. This will partially melt the blob, making it easier to break up.  The reason we don't want to add a blob of food waste is if we should do that, it won't be mixed evenly with browns and may become anaerobic, starting to smell and potentially attract rodents.

•       The other piles with labels, “Closed, Do Not Add,” are in the process of decomposing and no fresh material should be added.  It’s takes about three months for a full batch to mature into stable compost.  
•      When adding water, you may want to fill up the red watering can or a bucket with water instead of unwinding the hose as you'll have to wind it back up. 
•      You may add weeds to the bin, only if they have NOT gone to seed yet.  Please cut them up into 2-inch lengths with scissors or pruning shears. 
•      If you have a lot of food waste, you may wonder, how much should I add for 1 layer?

---A grocery size bag of food waste is what householders typically add, but commercial/restaurant kitchens have more waste to handle.  For larger quantities, add 1/2 of a 5-gallon bucket for 1 layer, and then add browns. Use an empty bucket in the garden to measure.  Basically, the food material should be a 1 inch thick even layer.

If you're contributing waste to our bins or those at another drop off-site, you know the value of composting.  We currently receive food waste from several sources including our gardeners, the campus cafeteria, a nutrition science class, and occasionally from produce markets.  Once in a while manure comes our way from Kensington Stables.  

Compost is beneficial on so many levels! It reduces the overall amount of garbage sent to landfills.  Methane gas is created in landfills when food waste mixes with other trash.  Adding compost to our plots and perennial beds improves soil texture and increases organic matter and nutrients needed for growing robust plants.  Thanks for doing your part, we LOVE you!

Composting: Next step... Multi Unit Wooden Bins

Thanks to all gardeners who have consistently brought food waste to our bins, to those of you who have picked up food residuals from the campus cafeteria, to Erika and her students who bring scraps from class and to Ernest who consistently picks up materials from a local produce market and stables.  We now have a finished batch waiting to be stored and three more batches cooking away. Roughly, we compost 185 lbs. of food waste per week!

My hopes are increase our waste contributor base to include 100% of our gardeners and many more students.  In terms of bin structure, we continue to use simple plastic fencing secured with posts, certainly adaptable to our space right now but difficult to turn and not attractive either.

Last Month, I attended a compost bin build workshop at the Red Shed Community Garden in Williamsburg.  The NYC Compost Project in Brooklyn (based at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden) led the event bringing all wood, hardware cloth and required tools.  A large group of us organized by Alison Filosa of Red Shed helped drill, screw, saw and hammer it all together.  It’s a simple construction really of four walls attached to a frame to make three compartments for layering and adding waste.  This is the sort of system we’d like at BC Garden; pretty, clean cedar wood, perhaps set on paving stones.  We may build a four-bin structure to accommodate what we currently process.  We may set this structure  either between the two Hawthorne trees or perpendicular to them.  Good thing is it can be moved when empty.

Now the money part…how to finance this project?  It will cost roughly $750., For the wood and related  supplies.  We originally placed this project post on IOBY (In Our Backyards) in spring but put off advertising because we couldn’t move ahead with any building projects due to the college delay on their construction plans.  Since the Softball field is underway, we can move along with this. 

Please support this project, which we’d like to start at the beginning of December.  Donate as little as you can/as much as you want to make these bins a reality!  When our project is fully funded, IOBY will reimburse us for materials purchased.  click here to find our project and donate!

Please see the IOBY donating page for more info. on how your contribution is processed and how we receive your money.

Share our project with friends and family through email, Facebook, Twitter.  If you have any questions about how to share with friends, please contact me.  Let them know that we are already successfully composting and are ready to beautify our operation and increase participation.

Bins at Red Shed Community Garden

A new batch of compost sifted last week!

Rosita with a compost sifter made last month

In the BC Health Clinic with Launa Smith
weighing finished compost for storage

Thank You!!

Directions, Useful info. When visiting BC Garden

Our Location:

We are located on the western side of the Brooklyn College Campus at Ave. H and Campus Road, just off Ocean Avenue.  If coming by subway, take the Q to Ave. H and walk six blocks east to the college entrance, this takes about 7 minutes.  Please don't take the #2 train, it's so out of the way!!

There is a security booth just outside the garden. If you have a BC student, faculty or staff ID, please show the security guard your valid ID to gain entrance. If you live in the neighborhood or from the city at large, please arrange with me prior to your visit and I will add you to the list of active gardeners maintained by campus security. When you come, show your driver's license to the guard, she/he will check your name on the list.

If you have any problems finding the garden or getting in, just call my cell :) Victoria

Preparing for garden work:

For all new volunteers and gardeners, here’s some suggestions on what to bring when coming for a workday:

• Water: there’s a water fountain in the WEB building, make sure you fill up before entering the garden, you will get thirsty. There’s also soda, water and snack vending machines on the first and second floor of that building.
• Snacks: if you plan to stay for more than a couple of hours, please bring something to re-fuel
• A hat:  even when it’s cool, you may want a hat to keep sun off your face
• Garden gloves: we have an assortment that are shared and get washed when needed.  If you feel averse to using gloves that have cradled others’ hands, please bring your own.
• Sturdy shoes: we have mulched paths, metal tools and dirt surfaces so please wear comfortable shoes and socks that you don't mind getting dirty and will protect your toes, should a tool land on them.  No flip flops please!
• Rain-jacket or slicker:  We work when it's overcast and drizzly but not when it's raining hard. Please bring a rain-jacket if rain is forecasted.
• Camera: there are so many cool insects and plants... you are certain to see something unique and may want to capture!
• Sun-block:  on sunny days, it gets very hot. You can easily develop a burn within an hour.
• Be aware that there are mosquitos in the morning and evening, and we do have both OFF brand-bug repellant containing Deet, and a natural alternative.

Children are definitely welcome, but you’re responsible for keeping an eye on them!

A Sampling of Wildlife in our Garden

I've been meaning to upload some pictures of the insects and other wildlife that make our garden their home.  So far, since April, I've personally either seen or seen the work of the following:
Leaf cutter bees, bumble bees, praying mantids, many dragonflies, earthworms, Butterflies: Black swallowtail, yellow Swallowtail,  Small cabbage white butterfly,  luna moth caterpillar (Chad found it on tree # 7), cricket and even a snake (Mike noticed it last week!).
I'm trying to identify the snake, I don't think it's a garter snake, It may be a Northern Black Racer but the white markings behind the head are throwing me off.  I'm going to ask around.
In the meantime, enjoy these and do comment with any info you have.

cricket

Luna moth caterpillar found on tree # 7

baby mantid, a few weeks later we saw several
others that had grown and changed to green

Baby snake

Tips for fall planting, Pruning Tomatoes and Cucumbers to promote Aeration

Lots of you have been asking, “What vegetables can I grow for fall?”

In general, greens and some roots crops like beets and turnips can be grown in fall.  I found some good information to help determine which plants will produce in our climate by the time the first frost date arrives.  According to Victory seeds, the first frost date for NYC is October 27.  Several factors affect this date pushing it either forward or back. For us, we are nearly surrounded by concrete and brick buildings making a heat island effect which may push the frost date back into early November. Also, many fall crops do fine under a light frost such as beets, cauliflower and lettuce.  Some survive a heavy frost,. like broccoli, kale and collards.  It's important that these plants are established and big enough when the cold comes, but they can definitely withstand a frosty night. For harvesting after a frost, I have to read up more on that!

Victory Seeds’ frost date selector
http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/ny.html

USDA hardiness zones for NY state
http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/weather/zones.html

Johnny’s seeds has several interactive excel docs where you type in your first frost date and the type of crop you want to grow and it automatically computes when you need to plant, either by transplant (TP) or by direct seed (DS).  This is enormously helpful, because when planting for fall, several factors affect the last planting date.  It can get a little complicated, these factors are: days to maturity; days to germination; days to transplanting (if you plant directly from seed, this is zero), short day factor and days before the first frost.  Once you add all these days up, you get a total, then you count backwards by this total from the first frost date.

For example, according to the book: The New Seed Starter’s Handbook by Nancy Bubel, if you wanted to plant beets, you would have to plant them no later than August 14, 2011, giving a few days later, due to the heat island effect. 

I added 55 (days to maturity) + 5 (days to germination) +14 (short day factor) + 0 (days before the first frost) = 74

Then count back 74 days from Oct 27, and you get: August 14

Johnny’s makes it easy and does all that work for you.

I sent this post as an email, and attached to it the Johnny’s spreadsheet of when to plant based on the first frost date for NYC, Oct 27.  If you want to plant broccoli, do so ASAP!

Johnnny's Seeds Growing guides, Interactive Tools,
fall planting Calculator
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-InteractiveTools.aspx

Based on that spreadsheet, below is a list of what you can grow from transplants or from seeds:

• Transplant:  broccoli, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, collards (leaves will be small to medium size), chicory, radicchio, kale

• Seeds:  carrots (they will be small), Asian greens, Kohlrabi, lettuces, radishes (both round and daikon), spinach, swisschard, turnips, beets

We have seeds for some of these crops in the garden seedbox. The ones we don’t have are: Kohlrabi, daikon radishes, swisschard, and turnips. I suggest you purchase them if you like them!
For mail ordering seeds, I usually pick Johnny's selected seeds or the Cook's garden. 
stores in NYC that sell a selection of seeds include Whole Foods,  City Hydroponic which sells Burpee brand and Red, Rose and Lavender in Williamsburg sells Hart brand seeds (non GMO) which are grown in Connecticut, similar to our climate in NYC.  They sell a bigger selection than City Hydroponic.  Many Asian markets sell seeds for radishes and greens too.

Pruning Tomatoes and Cukes

I also found some helpful advice for pruning tomato and cucumber plants.  Something I didn’t know was that it’s important to keep air circulating through tomato and cucumber plants in order to prevent late blight from establishing.  It’s recommended to prune back any leaves near the bottom of plants that are yellow or wilted. On indeterminate tomatoes (heirlooms), it’s important to prune suckers or side shoots so the plant doesn’t get too heavy and so you concentrate the plant’s energy into fewer fruits. 

Cornell Audio on pruning cucumber and tomato plants from
http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/newstopics.php?tid=46

videos on pruning tomatoes and cukes
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-video.aspx

 

I hope that's helpful, let me know if you have any questions.
If you'd like xeroxes on starting from seed from The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch   or  The New Seed Starter’s Handbook by Nancy Bubel  let me know!


 

Planting for the fall and Basil likes to be picked!

Now is the time to plant Kale, beets, arugula and a late planting of summer squash. 

By the end of august will be time to plant fall peas, swisschard, kohlrabi, radishes, fall lettuce, spinach, asian greens (Chinese cabbage, bok choi, choy sum, pak choi, mizuna, mustard greens, tatsoi) turnips too. 

Plant transplants of broccoli, collard greens, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower.

Pick your basil!  Every time you pick, you encourage the side shoots to grow and prevent the plant from blooming and going to seed. 

According to Homegrown Harvest by Rita Pelczar, “….the more often you harvest, the busier your and more productive your plants will become.  Pinching top and side stems will encourage the development of more stems and leaves. Frequent harvest also help delay flowering and prolong leaf production.  Herbs such as basil, marjoram and oregano can be cut back by two thirds when the plant reaches 12-18 inches tall” (149). 

If you are planning to purchase transplants, I suggest getting them from the farmers market.  I buy all my plants from the farmers market and I know that most gardeners who did so, have bountiful good tasting veggies. One vendor I really love (so does Joe Sotomayor) is Trina of Silver Heights farm.

She sells at Union Square on Wednesday/Saturday and for fall she’ll have transplants of: 

Peas, Asian greens, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce http://www.silverheightsfarm.com/index.php

There are two extra plots

Are you interested planting in these two plots?  

The two requirements to plant the plots are to pay for the cost of purchased soil ($21./per plot) and to plant low growing plants or flowers.

you could plant: lettuce, spinach, beets, kale, asian greens, etc.

How would you like to share the space, say so in the comments. I recommend getting started asap, as summer is half over!

Directions for Sheet Mulching/ Lasagna Gardening

This is for members who have started or will start their plots: 

Sheet Mulching/ Lasagna Gardening

May 17, 2011

Resources:

BBG Brooklyn Compost Project’s Lasagna Mulching Workshop; April 2, 2011

Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture

          There’s many ways to layer materials in a sheet mulched bed (lasagna bed).  It’s basically alternating layers of browns (high carbon) with greens (high nitrogen).  Sheet mulching is similar to composting, but requires a higher percentage of carbon rich materials than in bin composting in order to slow down decomposition.  Sheet mulching has several advantages to traditional growing in tilled soil with added compost. First it’s a space saving method of composting, great for community gardens which have limited space for a composting area.  Old mulched beds can be moved around if needed.  Second, all the nutrients released during decomposition stay where they are, available to growing plants, whereas in bin composting, nutrients tend to leach out the bottom of the pile.  Fewer weeds germinate in piles built carefully and beds maintain moisture for growing plants, again if built well at the start.  Ideally, build your pile in the fall so there’s time for material to break down.  Make sure you have enough materials before starting and that any large pieces of material, such as food waste are chopped up. 

Ingredients: you can use an assortment of materials, but this is what we have at the garden presently (while supplies last):

Fresh manure

Cardboard

Food scraps

Coffee grinds

Leaves

Wood shavings/leaf mix: sticks need to be removed before using

stump grinds— from tree stumps and soil

Chunky compost

Vermicompost

Florist waste-chopped

Straw

Plant tone organic fertilizer

Fish emulsion

Directions:

1.     Water the area well one day before starting, no need if it's been raining

2.     Next day, slash down any weeds/ grass. No need to pull them out.

3.     Add soil amendments (optional)

4.     Make openings into the ground with a digging fork.

5.     Add high nitrogen materials like horse manure or food scraps

6.     lay cardboard, overlapping by 6”, (to prevent weeds from finding a way through) wet completely

7.     Add kitchen scraps, water

8.     Add stump grindings in the ratio of 1 part manure to 4 parts stump grinds, water

9.     Add unfinished compost, then add the following ingredients in roughly this order to total about 20” high.

10.  a light sprinkling of Plant-tone organic fertilizer

11.  leaves

12.  food waste

13.  straw

14.  leaves/wood shavings

15.  vermicompost

16.  Plant-Tone organic fertilizer

17.  compost and soil mix

18.  straw

 ***Water in between each layer***

Tips:

o       Before starting, keep ingredients dry

o       Water in between each layer; material should be the consistency of a wrung-out sponge

o       Don’t walk on the bed, this will compact layers. We want to keep them fluffy.

o      Use a rake to evenly spread material,  its OK for it to be a little chunky for trapping air.  You may need to use a digging fork to keep the corners sharp, and the bed level so you don’t lose planting space.

o       If using raw manure, should build 16 inches above that layer

o       For plant starts (transplants), punch out a hole that’s three times the size of your seedling; add some soil, seedling, a little more soil and tamp into place.

o       For starting seeds, make 3” deep trenches.  Fill with soil/ compost and plant seeds

Native Plant workshop at the BBG

I attended a fantastic workshop at the BBG organized by Greenbridge last Thursday.  The room was packed with gardeners and proponents of native plants, some with differing expectations for the 2 hour long workshop.  One group of homeowners wanted to know how to substitute their non-native, "alien" species with native alternatives, while others were intrigued to know of the latest in plant research at GNPC.  The presenter was Heather Liljengran who spoke on her work at the Greenbelt Native Plant Center.  She brought a wide range of books on native plants, and overall expressed her excitement at this time in our history when so much research on native plants is being conducted and there is finally a sizable constituency that cares about replanting our small and large landscapes with plants native to the NYC/Metropolitan region.

I will leave a set of handouts/ booklets from the workshop for our budding library of hard-copy materials in Dean Hainline's office. If you'd like to see them, shoot me an email and I can have them left for you in the front office.


Here's others links and resources about native plants and upcoming tours:

Greenbelt Native Plant Center
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_about/parks_divisions/gnpc/index.html

NYC Wildflower week:
http://nycwildflowerweek.org/ataglance.htm

Op-Ed NY Times piece:
"Mother Nature's Melting Pot"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/opinion/03Raffles.html?scp=1&sq=native%20plants&st=cse

Flatbush Gardener
http://flatbushgardener.blogspot.com/p/native-plants.html


Books:
Weeds of the Northeast
Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast
Bringing Nature Home


BBG Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants
and Great Natives for Tough Places
http://www.bbg.org/gardening/handbook/native_alternatives/

Streetscaping project is Moving Along

Things are moving along nicely with our Streetscaping project.  Pablo has measured all the tree pits, has adopted tree #7, (that’s the tree on campus Road, right where East 21^st street begins) a European Hornbean that he has lovingly named, “Musical Intelligence.”  Awwhhh little tree…

Chad has photographed each tree---Full length and bed views.

I had some specific questions regarding paving stone removal, and weather this was considered excavation/ did we need to hire an arborist? Yesterday, I got that straightened out when I called the Brooklyn Forestry division of the Parks Dept.  It turns out that we can complete a simple Tree Work permit and do not have to hire an arborist to remove the stones. It is not considered excavation.  

We do not need an architect to install tree guards, architecture drawing are only needed if tree is to be in front of a new building, or if you are designing unique tree guards rather than styles supplied from the city.  Also received information that each Borough president’s office has a budget for funding “tree Guards” and we may qualify. 

Pablo is going to contact Marty Markowitz’s office about that, Chad is working on completing the Tree work Permit; I’m filling out a compost requisition form in order to pick up compost and mulch from the DOS- Wasteless.

Soon, we will start caring for the tree pits.  We will remove paving stones with Dean Hainline’s many hammers and chisels, carefully.  We will add coarse compost or wood chips to the areas where the stones used to be.  Did you know it’s recommended NOT to backfill with soil?  I didn’t.  Tree roots need loose soil full of oxygen and good drainage.  Adding soil right away can reduce oxygen level in soil.  It’s recommended to wait 1 year to add soil, instead adding coarse compost or wood chips for now.

http://forestry.about.com/od/treeandforestcare/a/yard_tree_roots.htm

Compost and mulch will be added to the rest of tree beds, and then planted.  We are gathering resources for free plants and seeds, ones that have shallow root systems.  Pablo and Chad have ideas about doing different planting themes for the tree beds. 

There are many of you who expressed interest in the Streetscaping project.  We would love to hear your ideas.  Just think, if we can get this short stretch of Campus Road trees rejuvenated, we can move onto another stretch or teach/ inspire other groups with what we’ve learned.

I also went to this fantastic “Community Greening” workshop tonight, through the BBG’s Greenbridge program.  It was very well done, there are so many ideas/ projects/ people around Brooklyn, creating gardens and street projects who want to hook up and share ideas!

Just found these two sites:

On tree identification, TreeKIt

http://treekit.org/

Street gardening

http://www.streetgardening.org/

Can anyone pickup a rain barrel for our garden this Saturday?

Greenthumb Events and Workshops--Learn and receive Free supplies

It looks as though Greenthumb just revamped their website today!  It's fresh and easier to navigate than before.  At our garden meeting last Wednesday night, there many knowledgeable attendees who shared all kinds of resources for our garden to apply for funding and receive free supplies.  Shaquana shared about all the free materials available from Greenthumb.  The way it works is that garden members who attend workshops become eligible for free supplies.   Some are disbursed at the workshop and larger stuff is delivered at a later date.  I had heard of them before and had briefly looked at their website, until now.  I will try to go to as many workshops as I can.  I'm sure many of you are seriously interested if not already have plans to go. if you are going, let us know in the comments!

Here's the program guide for this Spring:  http://www.greenthumbnyc.org/pdf/2011SpringProgramGuide.pdf

Lasagna Mulching/Sheet Mulch Project Group

Description:

No-till gardening method of layering brown and green materials in order to increase organic matter in soil.  A sectioned area is layered with alternating brown materials (newspaper, cardboard, straw, leaves), green materials (kitchen scraps, grass clippings, and sometimes manure), finished compost and sometimes mineral amendments.   The pile is watered in layers as you go.   Beds built in spring are finished with a thin layer of garden soil to which new plants are added.  The benefits are that the need for watering is decreased as mulch retains moisture to roots and fewer weeds germinate.

Volunteers built two lasagna beds last November.  They look good, still a little high, but can be planted.  We can start building new beds as soon as we gather up all kinds of green matter, that’s why we have the compost collection action group.  We need all manner of green materials:  food scraps, coffee grinds and florist cuttings to make the beds.  Lasagna beds require a lot of saved up green and brown materials to build.  Because we are building these in spring, they won’t have much time to break down, so we will build lower beds,     ~1foot high, add some garden soil and plant directly into them. 

Optionally, gardeners may cover their bed with black plastic for six weeks to cook ingredients if they want to hasten decomposition, then add garden soil and plant into.  Lasagna beds can be made with fewer materials then ideally recommended.  The soil has been tested, is free of lead and has decent tilth, so some gardeners may want to plant directly into soil, and dispense with the lasagna mulching.

Basic Materials needed:

•      Food scraps
•          Florist cuttings
•          Leaves
•          Straw
•          Newspaper (non-color)
•          Cardboard
•          Finished compost (we have vermicompost)
•          Bonemeal and peat moss (optional)

We will supply the leaves, straw and cardboard.  Please bring newspaper and food scraps on lasagna mulching days.  As soon as we amass a good amount of green materials, we can start mulching.  I will make my first pick-up of Starbucks coffee grinds this Sat, March 26, and member, Ernest Skinner is working on getting green cuttings from Shannon’s Nursery. Campus cafeteria pickups continue on Mondays and Wednesdays.

 Tasks:

• Contact Vegetable markets on Flatbush Avenue and coordinate having them save scraps for us.  We have garbage bags and acceptable materials list
• Pick-up coffee grinds from Starbucks.  They store spend grinds in coffee bean bulk bags called bullets.
• Take a turn at picking up from the Campus Cafeteria. I’ve already notified the chef that new people will start picking up.

Let me know if you can take on any of these and we can speak in more detail.

Communications Project Group

Hi, I just set up this blog today and will be linking all posts to Facebook.  We will need someone to ensure all events and activities are posted and a student who would like to found a student club for the garden
.

Any student gardeners now and in the future would greatly benefit from some indoor space where they could gather in summer for an air-conditioning respite and in winter for planning.  Being that the  WEB building is right next to the garden, why not get some space there?  members could keep gardening books and resources there, small tools, except for the big tools :) It would also be the perfect space to recruit volunteers for all kinds of projects, maybe there's some other clubs hanging around on any given day that have an hour to give, or grandparents who want to sign up for a plot. 

This past week, I got to speaking with a club member in that WEB corridor who said that some of the rooms there are vacant, belonging to inactive clubs.

He recommended speaking to Students Government, 3rd floor SUBO bldg. and get a list of active/inactive clubs on campus. 

 Hind Kasem, UG student and member of the health Awareness Club is starting to look into this.  Does anyone want to join her?    

What are your thoughts?

Laying out the Plots Project Group

Soon it will be time to set about making plots from our nearly 4,000 square feet space.  We need a few people to set about delineating where to set the plots, as well as measuring and staking them.  After that we will be organizing them by lottery.

Building Storage Project Group

We would like a hand built shed.

There's all kind of plans out there, here's two links which Gardeners in NYC use:

Instructables

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-Shed/#step1

Greenthumb, NYC Parks and Rec.  Go to tutorials section for a Pdf on structures

http://www.greenthumbnyc.org/resources.html

Composting Project Group

Compost Collection:

We have started composting food scraps from Metropolitan Food services based in the campus cafeteria.  We are layering raw vegetable and fruit peelings with leaves in holding bins in preparation for building lasagna beds.  We will be able to start new lasagna beds with this partially decomposed matter which is degrading slowly.

There seems to be lots of potential to increase the food residuals we are composting.  Not only do we need them for building lasagna beds for this season but we also need them for future lasagna mulching and a three bin composting setup.

We have informal offers to either start/extend green materials pickup with:

•      Metropolitan Food Services has said they have coffee grinds if we want.
•            Previous gardeners have stated they wish to bring compost from their homes
•            The owner at the new House Pizza on Ave H has expressed interest in saving scraps for us
•            Shannon’s Nursery on Ft. Hamilton Parkway has agreed to save all green cuttings for us (the amount varies) with a days notice.
•            Starbucks on  Hillel Place has several small bags daily and is willing to have us pick it up
•            I’m sure we could get the markets on Flatbush Avenue to save scraps for us; a relationship just needs to be set up.

Here’s what we need:

•          People! Who can pick up food residuals nearby drop-off at the garden, make calls to establishments to schedule pickup, inspect waste and commit  to a pickup schedule
•          Basic training (10 min) for inspecting green waste for contamination and for adding to holding bins

Material List:

•       You may need a car if your picking up from Starbucks. 
•       garbage bags, canvas bags if you are schlepping to garden
•             Garden fork and rake for adding materials to holding bin- We now have these in our storage closet!
•       Water material if you are adding it to the holding bin