July 2009

A final check-in on a few plants that have been through quite a bit lately. Here (below) is how 11 of our squash plants responded to minor surgery.

 These four plants at the Florence Crittendon Home are doing well over a week after surgery. They had a number of good sized fuits and flowers.

 At Sayre School, three plants are recovering well. We harvested two pounds of Patty Pan squash on Wednesday morning.

At the London Ferrell Community Garden two plants died following surgery. They looked like they were doing well early on, but died at the 10 day mark. One plant survived and is producing. (Photo not available–too sad.)

So we’re 8-2 for squash. That is much better than last year (0-10!) Do stay tuned as we continue to learn how to grow food in our setting.

  We concluded our time at Southern Middle School this past Thursday morning with the young people at Real Camp, a program of Parks and Recreation. We finished by painting the raised bed, harvesting a bit more kale (and two carrots), and sowing more seeds for our fall gardens. Ms. Toya, the camp director, was always happy to take whatever greens we harvested in this bed, and cooked them for the campers on occasion. We are hoping that we’ll be able to maintain this garden into the fall.

Whenever we are introduced as garden experts, we do our best to disavow folks of that notion. We are similarly not experts in community gardening. With each endeavor Seedleaf has undertaken, we try not to have expectations at the onset, but hope to continually learn from our projects and the people they involve. The new locks on the gate at the London Ferrell Community Garden are part of our learning curve.

When it became clear recently that many of our plot holders were not seeing the fruit of their labor, and that they were discouraged from learning the craft of gardening, we were disturbed. Seedleaf exists to nourish communities, and an important part of our mission is to grow gardeners. For this reason, it is concerning when a number of gardeners whom we have pledged to help are beginning to conclude that growing food is a losing proposition. In the interest of honoring the efforts of this community of gardeners, and allowing them to share their harvest at their discretion, we have locked the gates.

We will continue to harvest and share the produce of the three community plots with anyone who will join us Thursday mornings between 8 and 10am, and Saturday mornings between 10 and 1pm. We appreciate your patience with us as we do our best to discern an equitable solution to all the stakeholders in this effort.

Here is an update on how these squash plants are doing following some exploratory surgery.

 Here is a photo taken two days after a vine borer was removed. The plant looks healthy and was productive.

 This plant, recovering at the London Ferrell, had the added benefit of compost. This is day four of its recovery.

 These two plants had the surgery four days ago, and were hilled up with compost. I suspect that the plant on the left still has a borer.

Hopefully this intervention will allow us to finish the season and share more of these Patty Pan squash. Do feel free to visit our gardens (Sayre, Florence Crittendon, London Ferrell) and check up on these brave plants.

We are having trouble with a vine borer at a few of our gardens. The following picures are me trying a new intervention (as recommended to me by Chris Porter). Stay tuned for results of this effort.

 The squash vine borer leaves a sawdust-like substance around the entry point. This plant still had fruit on it.

 I begin an incision above the entry points as the borer seems to move up the plant.

 After cutting more than I want to, I find the borer. Neither of us is happy to see the other. I also cut down the vine, towards the ground, looking for other borers.

 When I am pretty sure I have the whole family out, I tape the stem where I have cut. I am using this painter’s tape because I’ll be able to see it and remove it when the plant dies, and because it is what I had on hand.

 I bury the wound with soil and/or compost and water the plant.

I have not tried this before, but I am hopeful that this can keep the plant going so that we can harvest more squash. I plan to keep you posted on how our squash plants do following this minor surgery.