Strawberries

-Allstar and Honeoye are some of the largest varieties
-They can be planted as soon as the soil is workable, but not if the soil is wet. I'll have to wait till later in the week.
-When first flowers appear, pick them off as it promotes long runners, and a large crop, the next season
-Should not be planted where peppers or tomatoes have been planted
-Most widely grown fruit in home gardens
-Strawberries have tons of pests and diseases

I may not plant strawberries, even though they are delicious and seem sort of resistant. I may wait a year to see how this crop goes and rearrange my plants to see if I can get better results, if need be.



"Growing Strawberries - Strawberries and More - University of Illinois Extension." University of Illinois Extension-Urban Programs Resource Network - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. University of Illinois. Web. 03 May 2011. .

Compost Fair

I drove down the street behind cooperative extension and saw a huge mass of people walking down the street, and I thought to myself, "Are all of these people going to the compost fair?" While most of them were only walking down the road to follow the rubber ducks they had set free further upstream, a few of them stuck around.
There were a good 100 people there while I was there. Some were petting a huge rabbit, others were listening to the strange folk music being played across the parking lot. I quickly got the sense that this event was not only geared toward compost but children as well. There were games a plenty and a small petting zoo complete with ducks, chicks, and rabbits.
I began to walk around to the booths and found that a lot of things they had to offer were things I had already learned from the lecture, a couple weeks ago. The largest tent was being run by the people who gave the lecture. I found this was to be less of learning experience in the sense of compost and more of a learning about my community through this common thing.
When I was driving there I had assumed 30 or 40 people would be there but came to find that even with people coming and going, there were about 100 people there constantly. This gave me the opportunity to realize how much work our community is doing/ wants to do to contribute to helping to save our environment. I had always known that we were, "That Hippie Town", but this gave me a physical representation of what a bunch of hippies really want to get done. It gave me a sense of uplifting to see that some many people realized that even doing just a little can add to the cause so much.
So while I answered their four question quiz on compost building without a hitch, I learned that the compost has grown into something much larger than me in my backyard but has taken our whole community by storm.

Spacing and Planning

Tomatoes: Tomatoes need approximately 2 feet in between each plant. This is for staked tomato plants which is the way I think I am going to grow my tomatoes. Tomatoes like warmer temperatures, so I will plant them on the sunny half of the garden.

Zucchini: One healthy plant about two feet apart. Zucchini like moderate temperatures, so for spacing purposes they will go on the shady half.

Cucumber: One plant every 12 inches. Cucumbers like to be warm and will be on the sunny half.

Peppers: One plant 18 to 24 inches apart. Peppers will not fruit if it is too hot, so I will plant the on the shady half.

Spinach: Spinach plants can be within a couple inches of each other. It also makes harvesting easier when they are closer.

Lettuce: Seedlings can be planted about 4 inches apart.

After looking at these spacing needs I think I am going to plant my seeds long ways, rather than the original idea of planting them perpendicular to the fence. I will post a picture of my new plan soon. I am going to plant the spinach and lettuce at the very end, perpendicular to the rest of the garden. The fence makes a corner and more shade at the end. Spinach and Lettuce like cooler temperatures and will do better mostly out of the sun.

"Tomato - Vegetable Directory - Watch Your Garden Grow - University of Illinois Extension." University of Illinois Extension-Urban Programs Resource Network - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. University of Illinois. Web. 29 Apr. 2011. .
All of the info is from this University of Illinois Vegetable Dictionary, but i have here only the tomatoes cited.

Researching some local food

These are a variety of things that I thought I should check out. They all have to do with local food, which is something I thought would be interesting to look into.

regionalaccess.net

eatingithaca.com

Lex Chutintaranond

Bandwagon

Xeo (Say-Oh) GO HERE!

Baking: From My Home to Yours

Layout for Garden

Here is the layout I have designed for my garden. I have found in my research that strawberries are helpful to some of the plants so I am going to add those in to the garden. I was happy to find that as strawberries are one of my favorites.


Riotte, Louise. Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening. Charlotte, VT: Garden Way Pub., 1981. Print.

Zucchini

-largest variety of shapes and sizes in the cucumber family, of which zucchini is a member
-generally eaten when at an immature state
-night temps of at least 59
-wait till soil is warm
-individual planting containers (egg carton cells) will help reduce shock of temperature fluctuation when planted
-well worked soil with good drainage
-evenly moist, make sure they always have water
-squash bugs, squash borers, and cucumber beetles
-good choice for organic gardener
-maintain general health and cleanliness of garden to avoid disease

Little, Brenda. The Encyclopedia of Vegetable Gardening. Sandy, UT: Silverleaf, 2006. Print.

Compost Lecture 3/28

Adam Michaelides
Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardener

multiple types of composting styles (stealth composting, worm bins, traditional)

Why?
Keep food out of the land fill
land space is being wasted
leachate from landfills can cause water problems
save money (fewer trash tags), money for city
gardening (full of nutrients, water retention)

How? WATER, OXYGEN, NITROGEN, CARBON
Lasagna Layering
-avoid compaction
-keep "greens" towards middle
-not too wet, avoid mushy

stirring compost can resolve anerobic decay

Peppers

tasteful garden: epsom salts help enrich soil with magnesium which helps peppers thrive. mulching is very helpful due to shallow roots. about 2 feet diameter around each plant.

Brenda Little:
-named by Columbus while he was in search of black pepper.
-same family as tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and tobacco
-prefer soil temp above 64 degrees, daytime temp around 77
-do best in soil with high organic matter content!
-evenly moist soil but not wet
-shallow rooted plant, so weed carefully
-aphids, cut worms, and borers
-pinch out aphid infested foliage

Little, Brenda. The Encyclopedia of Vegetable Gardening. Sandy, UT: Silverleaf, 2006. Print.

Ada Shimar. "Growing Sweet and Hot Peppers." Tasteful Garden - Tomato Plants, Herb Plants, Pepper Plants and Vegetable Plants for Organic Gardening - The Tasteful Garden. Web. 04 Apr. 2011. http://www.tastefulgarden.com/.

Composting Presentation

The Green Team has been hosting some presentation on being a teenager and energy and environmentally conscious. Today the presentation was on composting and I was excited to see what they had to offer.
The presentation was interesting and they did a demonstration on lasagna layering compost (the process of alternating dry, brown matter and "green" nitrogen rich material like food scraps) and why compost is important for us to do.
Although it was interesting it was quite basic and I knew a lot of the stuff from AP Environmental Science and from already having a compost. However, they described some methods of composting that I had never heard of, such as stealth composting.
I took notes of which I am going to try and upload a scan. If that can't be done I'll type up the important parts.
Overall I think what this presentation did was kind of plant the seed of what this project will lead me too. I have recently got extremely excited about composting. Because of the nature of this project it has led me to spending a lot of time working with compost and the science of it. I think I will become a "hard-core" composter because of this whole experience.

Tomatoes

-Tomatoes grow in a very large manner and will sprawl if they are not contained.
-Tomatoes have a very weak stem and must be supported by a stake or cage in order to let them grow effectively and keep the tomatoes clean.
-Determinate and Indeterminate varieties. Indeterminate will grow indefinitely until frost causes them to die. Determinate will stop after first fruit and generally don't need staking.
-Staked tomatoes take less maintenence and have fewer losses due to rot and temperature fluxuations.
-Must be planted when night temperature won't fall below 54 degrees.
-They need a lot of sun but do not like to be too hot.
-Plants need a lot of room to grow, they like their space.
-They need lots of water but not so much that there is remaining water.
-Many pests. Aphids, Tomato Caterpillars, cutworms, fruit fly, flea beetle, colorado potato beetle and white flies are the largest threat.

Little, Brenda. The Encyclopedia of Vegetable Gardening. Sandy, UT: Silverleaf, 2006. Print.

Dilmun Hill Organic Student Garden

"Projects." CUAES. Cornell University, 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. http://www.cuaes.cornell.edu/cals/cuaes/ag-operations/dilmun-hill/projects.cfm.

I was driving around today and noticed for the first time the Dilmun Hill Student Farm. So I did some research.

I found out that it is a student run farm that gives an opportunity to students, staff, and community members to work with an organic farm and learn many new sustainable agricultural practices. They have yearly events which everyone is allowed to participate in. Their largest project has been their Market Garden which has been the primary focus of the group since it was started in 1996. The market garden is approximately 1.5 acres in size. The garden is run under sustainable practices and uses cornell compost. All of the food produced goes to various selling venues but some is given to food banks as well as compensation for volunteer workers.

A nice thing about this site is the provide garden reports which include their pest control, soil reports, irrigation tactics and lots of information that could be very useful to me while i work through my garden.
I was really excited to find this great place. It is still pretty early and it didn't look too active when I pulled over for a second but hopefully I can go back in a week or two and talk to the people there. They seemed very welcoming of visitors so I can't wait to see what they have available.

Lettuce

-Romans used lettuce as a sedative
-sow early in spring, lettuce is hardy and frost resistant
-well worked soil with good drainage and water retention
-thinning is important because crowding will cause the plant to bolt
-evenly moist but not soggy
-cut worms, slugs, and snails

Hopefuls and New design

I found these flowers spread across the entire yard of one of my friends house and I fell in love with the way they look. I don't know what they are yet and neither does my mom but I am going to do some research and ask some of my gardening resources to see if any of them know what they are. They look like bulb flowers so I may have to plant them this year but I won't get to see them till next year.

Here they are:


I also added a new cover to my seedling pan. The plastic will act as a green house and will help to keep more moisture in as well as intensify the sunlight to help the plants grow! It looks kind of makeshift, but hey, that's exactly what it is!

Cucumbers

Cucumbers are believed to have originated in Asia. They have very large leaves and either grow along the ground or can be trained to grow up a fence or trellis. Cucumbers are warm weather plants and prefer to be planted in mid spring long after the threat of frost has disappeared. This fact might mean that I may have to grow the plants inside for a while until the soil has a chance to warm up and ensure that the plants survive. It has a very short growing season and prefers to be in constant sunlight. Night temperatures around 60 are ideal for the survival of the plants. Cucumbers have both male and female flowers on the same vine, however, only the female flower will grow a fruit. They can have a very high yield if they have sufficient sunlight.
When being planted cucumbers like warm soil that is well drained. They also thrive with a lot of dead organic matter. This will be helpful to me as spinach thrives in compost as well. They also grow well next to beans which I plan to plant. The seedlings are very delicate and require that they be planted in inverted hills, like a downward cone, to avoid the roots being exposed if a heavy rain occurs. Multiple seeds should be planted in each hill in order to ensure that a few hearty seedlings start. Once there are a few seedlings they can be spread out in order to let each plant grow independently.
The cucumber is 95% water and therefore needs sufficient amounts of water to stay healthy. Large amounts of water can increase the impacts of soil compaction, so many people recommend mulching in order to ward off this problem.
Weeding is necessary in order to make sure that the cucumber plants are not out-competed. And when the cucumber is fully grown it is imperative that they be harvested because the plant does not begin growing new fruits if there is still a mature fruit attached to the plant.
Aphids and cucumber beetles present the largest pest problems. Aphids can be picked off where they have begun feeding. Cucumber beetles do not present a problem in feeding but they often carry a disease that causes the leaves of the plant to wilt and eventually the whole plant to die. Pesticides are often the most effective remedy. Luckily, due to there fast growing nature, it is okay lose a few of the cucumbers in order to remain organic.
Harvesting occurs about 2 and a half months after planting. Most of the fruit should be harvested in order to ensure the continued production of the whole plant.

Spinach

I decided I would do some research on each of my plants that I am going to plant in my garden.
It was first cultivated by Persians and brought over to Europe around 1100 A.D. It became very popular in many monastery garden all across Europe. Although spinach was popularized in America, due to it's use by Popeye, it has been found that spinach has far less, although still a large amount, of iron than was originally calculated.
Spinach is a plant that grows close to the ground in a tight rosette of dark green leaves. It comes in two varieties, however, New Zealand spinach is less well known, compared to its more commonly used counterpart which originated in Asia. Spinach is a relative of beets and swiss chard.
Ideally, spinach is planted in colder weather so it will be a good plant to begin early in the season. If it is two hot spinach tends to go to seed or begin to bolt. Good spinach weather is early in the spring or autumn and around 50-59 degrees. Many people will germinate their seeds in a wet paper towel placed in the refrigerator due to the fact that spinach, being a cold season plant, will not germinate above 86 degrees F. Spinach grows in seed clusters which means that I will have to split them once they sprout in order to make sure that they don't compete for nutrients. Uniformly watered plants are the best for spinach as well as well draining soil.
Aphids and Leafminers are the most common pests for spinach and require removal of eggs and aphids that already exist in order to ensure that hatches of aphids are kept under control. Many of the diseases that affect spinach are caused by aphids so controlling and reducing the aphid population will ensure healthy growth. Slugs are also a problem, especially for seedlings.
Harvesting of spinach can usually occur within 2-2 1/2 months after the time of planting if conditions are ideal.
Spinach has a very high Iron content and is therefore very helpful for those ailing of anemia, heart, and kidney problems. it is also very high in beta carotene and folic acid. As well as, rich in vitamins A and C.