Sunday, May 28, 2017

2017 RWCEG Spring Season Summary

A lot has happened at RWCEG this Spring Season. Below are highlights with pictures. Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge.

The Great Potato Harvest

In mid-February, my family planted six varieties of potatoes from tuber seeds (All-blues, Red LaSoda, Yukon Gold, Desiree, Kennebec, and La Ratte). On May 21, we had many people experience a wonderful harvest that felt a bit like an underground Easter egg hunt since many of the potatoes are a bit egg shaped and came in many colors due to their specific variety.

Newest Garden Member and recent high school graduate, Cydnie, holds up a hand full of recently harvested All-Blue Potatoes. (Once washed, these potatoes are a deep purple in color, inside and out!)


Cydnie helping grade school children that wandered over from a birthday party at RW Park harvest potatoes. Their parents were very impressed when they saw what their kids were doing. RWCEG can add an extra spark to any party!


Evan & Gina harvesting from the other side:

Pictures of some of the potatoes harvested. Note the interior of the sliced All-blue.

 




 The Great Pumpkin?

In March, we transplanted a pumpkin sprout that arose from a Jack-o-lantern last halloween. As shown below, it became a huge vine. The main vine did have a pumpkin growing on it, but unfortunately, a "forest friend" (probably a rodent) decided it wanted a piece of the action, and ate part of the pumpkin. We ended up harvesting it Memorial Day weekend.

Evan and Gina standing next to the Great Pumpkin Vine. Note the large fan shaped leaves and yellow flowers that bud into the pumpkin squash.


Evan holding up the prematurely harvested pumpkin. Note the chunk eaten out of it. We had planned to cover it up to protect it but we obviously did not do this soon enough.

The Indian Garden

   In mid spring the Gullapalli family became RWCEG members and planted a crop of Okra, Beans, Spinach, and Cucumbers. The seeds planted originated from India! They initially filled up Garden Bed 3, but recently transplanted some the plants to the remains of Bed 2 to prevent overcrowding. Although they had a late start with planting, the plants appear to be doing well as of Memorial Day weekend. It is wonderful to have something growing in all three beds again (although Bed 2 needs to be rebuilt soon).

A proud Kiran Kumar Gullapalli inspects his thriving crop of okra and spinach.

Fabulous Fennel

  On Memorial Day weekend, Evan harvested fennel. The stem and bulb of this plant strangely tastes like licorice!



Educating the Educators

  The RW Garden is a Community Education garden. So Becky and I were pleased to discuss the origins and purposes of RWCEG with Graduate Student, Aaron Niznik. Aaron studies Environmental, Political, and Economic Sociology at Brown University. His research interests are centered on identifying how grassroots environmental movements such as community gardening are developed. His dissertation work compares the socio-political structure of the urban gardening movements in Boston, Massachusetts and Austin, Texas. Special thanks to Becky who is not only the Garden Treasurer, but our Historian as well. She brought an iPad full of pictures and the "RWCEG Book of History" to supplement the discussion. We wish Aaron well with his research efforts and look forward to reading his findings.

Aaron and Glenn discussing the history and purposes of RWCEG with help from Becky!


Blog posted by Glenn Starnes, RWCEG Caretaker.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Vernal Equinox 2017 at RWCEG


Happy Vernal Equinox RWCEG! I hope all have been enjoying the recent Spring weather. The recent crops planted in Bed 1 are presently thriving. If you haven't been to the Garden for a while, I hope you stop by in the near future to check things out. Below are a couple of pictures I took this week.
As usual, I will be at the garden at our current Community Time: Sundays 4-5pm. I hope you can join me so you can learn more details about what is growing. My kids and I will likely be planting tomatoes, peppers, and fennel this weekend.

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)
What's growing: varieties of lettuce, spinach, chard, onions, snap dragons, violas, and a large patch of potatoes (All-Blues, Red Lasoda, Yukon Gold, Desiree, Kennebec, and La Ratte)

In the back of the garden bed, peas are growing up the trellis. A couple of pumpkin sprouts have also materialized.

Growing Potatoes and More from MorningChores

I recently received an email from a representative of MorningChores.com. She came across our Community website and wanted to share information about growing potatoes from a morningchores.com blog entry. I read the article and found it very interesting. It covers potato varieties, growing tips, harvesting tips, pest mitigation tips, and finally a lot of potato based recipes. Refer to the link below for the article. Morning Chores also covers many other DIY and "self-sufficient living" topics.

The potato article:
 https://morningchores.com/growing-potatoes/

Morning Chores home page:
  https://morningchores.com/

How to Grow Potatoes for Beginners

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Keyhole Garden Designs


I recently had an interesting discussion with Mary M. about the rebuild effort for Bed 2 at RWCEG. During our discussion, she told me about an innovative garden design known as a "keyhole garden". In short, a keyhole garden in a raised garden bed with a circular shape. In the center of the garden bed is mesh tube or basket in which compostable matter is periodically dumped. There is usually a notch in the bed shape to allow easier access to the compost basket. The idea is that as the compostable materials decompose, rich nutrients will leak out of the compost basket and spread throughout the garden bed for the plants. Below are simple diagrams and links to videos and articles for such designs. I am not sure yet whether this is a good design idea for RWCEG Bed 2, but I think it is a clever idea that many can make use of in their backyards; especially if you are good about composting!

Image result for keyhole garden design
http://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/gardens/garden-styles-and-types/keyhole-gardening-tips

A good place to see Keyhole gardens is on UTUBE…just UTUBE it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNT9-6RggNE    Texas Country Reporter   Utube



http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3726/