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If you'd like to be part of our Community Garden, please email: leah@thereycenter.org
For the 2023 Season, we are working on cre
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​We have plenty of project that range from skilled and heavy, to light and pleasant even!
Watch our Sustainable Gardening Sessions with Kelly Cannon

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May 2022-Starting Up!
9/13/21 Calendula!
8/30/21 Garden Habitats
8/16/21 Cutting Flowers & Extending Bloom Time
7/19/21 Tomatoes!
7/12/21 Pollinator Garden
6/28/21 Cutting Back Basil
June 2021: Natural Pest Control
May 2021 Kelly Cannon: Making the Most of Transplanting Basil
Micro Greens-Fresh All Year Long!
Indoor Seedlings aka Microgreens
Kelly Cannon
October 2020

Supplies:
  • Seeds:  Some suggestions: basil, cilantro, dill, lettuce, sunflower seeds, peas for “pea shoots”, arugula, bok choy, tatsoi, mustard greens, kale, cabbage… so many options
  • Soil: mineral rich soil, ideally aged compost.  Coat of Maine Lobster compost would be excellent here. 
  • Container: this can be anything that has drain holes in it, from an actual seedling pot to a berry box or plastic clamshell container.  You can also upcycle paper coffee cups, or plastic food containers, just be sure to poke some holes in the bottom for drainage.
  • Tray: something to put under your seedings to catch and excess water that drains through.  No need to go out and buy anything fancy, a plate, old baking sheet, lid to a plastic container-- flipped upside down so the edges stick up, pie pan that doesn’t get used enough…
  • Watering can: something little and with a small pour spout like this.  (I have one like this, that was my grandma’s that I have had for over 15 years,)

Directions:
  • Choose the seeds you want to plant.
  • Select containers you want to use
  • Fill containers with soil
  • If the soil is dry, water well and let drain before planting seeds (otherwise they may get flushed out with the first watering.)
  • Plant seeds.  Remember to only bury the seeds 3 times as deep as the widest 
  • part of the seed.  Tiny seeds like lettuce, or most other greens basically get sprinkled on top of the soil with a thin layer of soil on top. 
    • Pro tip: The top part of most adult fingertips are about 1 inch.  Show this to kids and if they are planting seeds, make sure they don’t make a hole deeper than the top part of their finger (which is usually closer to ½ inch).
  • Water, even if you did before planting, give a little more water to be sure the top layer is damp.
  • Place the seed container in a sunny window.  Ideally, at least 5 hours direct light, or as bright as you have.  It is ok if these get a little “leggy”
  • Studies show that plants that are spoken to and exposed to music grow better so… don’t be shy and talk to your little plant and play it some music!
  • After about a week to 10 days, check and see if there is any thinning or transplanting needed.
  • Once there are two sets of “true leaves” (these will look different from the “cotyledon” leaves-- the “seed leaves”-- the first leaves to appear, you can start harvesting.
  • Enjoy and keep experimenting with different seeds!

Fall Garlic Planting

Garlic Planting Checklist
By Kelly Cannon

The most ideal time to plant garlic is as soon as there are enough leaves fallen from the trees to demand a rake.  It is better to plant it sooner than later in the fall, once the leaves start to drop.
Planting garlic is one of the easiest things to plant; you put it in the ground and it does it’s garlic thing until it is ready to harvest in summer.  If it is well  weeded before planting and well mulched with leaves, it will stay weed free until harvest and is probably the most low effort garden food-crop there is.

If you select hardneck garlic, you will also have the benefit of garlic scapes. These are important to cut off to be sure your garlic developes to its full potential.  The scapes are the flower shoot of the garlic.  While this is pretty and you can get little, itty-bitty garlic “seeds”, which, technically, you can plant but they can take up to 3 yrs of repeated planting, harvest, re-pant, to develop into full size garlic. If you harvest the scapes when they are curved and the flower head is still small, you have a tasty and nutritious scape to use, just like you use garlic, though it is milder, a month or two before your garlic is ready!  (Garlic scape pesto is a spring-time favorite and incredible immune booster as the season changes)

Supplies: 
  • Fresh, firm garlic bulbs, ideally purchased from a local farmer or a known seed garlic supplier.
  • Raked leaves (weed free as much as possible)
  • Something to indicate your planting area (ex: twine, stakes, rocks…)

Prep:
  • Separate the garlic bulbs into individual cloves (leaving the skin on!) a day or 2 ahead of planting.
  • Select a weed free garden bed with plenty of space away from other plants that can hold the garlic until harvesting in the early summer
  • Holes or trench to plant the garlic
DYI Elderberry Syrup
DIY Elderberry Syrup
By Kelly Cannon
Recipe adapted from 
https://wellnessmama.com/1888/elderberry-syrup/


Supplies:
  • Large pot
  • Measuring cups, liquid and dry
  • Narrow mouth funnel
  • Growler or other jar (glass, unless not possible)
  • Strainer
  • Wood chopstick and pencil
  • label

Ingredients:
  • ¾ cup dried, organic elderberries
  • 1 cup Honey, the more local the better
  • 3 cloves, whole
  • ½ cinnamon stick
  • 1 TBSP grated ginger
  • 3 ½ cups water
    • Bonus: Brandy

Directions:
  • Place water, elderberries, cloves, cinnamon and ginger in a large pot and bring to a boil.
  • Reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half .  (Use the chopstick to measure water depth and mark with a pencil to help to determine when it’s reduced by ½) 
  • When liquid is reduced by half, strain out berries and spices.
  • Return liquid to the pot and add honey once the liquid is cool enough to handle and warm enough to dissolve the honey.  (better to err on the side of too cool, so the beneficial constituents of the honey aren’t lost by overheating,  You can always warm it back up a bit if necessary)
  • Funnel into a dark colored storage jar.
  • Label the product, including date it was made and when to use it up by (generally last 6 months in the fridge)
  • Store in the fridge and use it lots and lots
Dose: 1-3 TBS, daily, as needed for illness or, preferably, at first signs that illness is approaching.

Bonus:  Elderberry Cordial
 Put the strained elderberries and spices into a jar that is big enough that the elderberry etc fills ½- ⅔ of a jar with a tight fitting lid.
Fill the jar the rest of the way brandy.
Label the jar and allow it to macerate for 1-2 months, shaking regularly.
After the time is up, strain out berries and herbs and measure the liquid.
Add ½ as much honey as there is liquid.  (ex: For 2 cups liquid, add 1 cup honey).  Shake well to mix.
Enjoy in special cordial glasses for a fantastic winter warmer all season long.
Getting Ahead of Closing Up the Garden
Steps to make fall clean up and garden closing easy and smooth
By Kelly Cannon

As the season wanes, and the weather is decidedly lovely, it is a great time to get ahead of chores that will start to pile up if we wait, while enjoying these blissful, late-summer days. Below is a checklist of things to start doing now and until the snow flies.

  • Organize and inventory tools
  • Clean and oil tools
  • Collect and store or dispose of garden pots
  • Start pruning woody plants (see next week’s gardener’s corner for more info)
  • Review garden notes and start recording what worked and what to do differently next year.
  • If you are going to establish any new beds, start thinking about or get going on sheet mulching.
  • Cut back dead and dying plant material*
    • *This is a little nuanced.  Plants that  support pollinators are suggested to be left standing so there is overwintering habitat for them.  Some examples are: perennial flowers like coneflower, bee balm and  milkweed, herbs like dill and other “umbel” shaped flower heads like Queen Anne’s Lace.
Planting, Planning and Transplanting Your Fall Garden
Planting, Planning and Transplanting Your Fall Garden
Supplies:
  • Perennials (annuals, too, if you would like!)
  • Bulbs
  • Water
  • Soil amendments
  • Shovel
  • Trowel
  • Notebook and pen


Directions
  • Start by looking over your garden and seeing if there are empty spaces or areas that you would like to liven up.
  • Once the spot is picked, work to loosen the soil. You want the hole to plant the perennial to be at least twice as deep and three times as wide.
  • Back fill the hole with compost, mix in a handful of fertilizer, or, if the soil is already high quality, back fill until the soil level from the perennial can sit level with the ground soil.
  • Tuck in and pack soil semi-firmly, aiming to eliminate  any large air holes but to not compact the soil.
  • Water well and look for any sinkholes that may have developed,  Back fill that with compost or garden soil. 
  • Bulbs: Dig a trench or several small holes to be sure the soil isn’t too compacted.
  • Plant bulbs 2-3 times as deep as the bulb: if it is 1” tall, plant it 2-3” deep.
  • Pat soil down on top of planted bulbs and water well to be sure they won’t wash out in a heavy rain.
  • Keep an eye on these new plantings throughout the fall.
  • Write down what you planted, when you planted and where!  Nothing as frustrating as accidentally digging up a perennial or a clump of bulbs in the spring because you forgot that they are there.
Late Season Succession Planting
Late Season Succession Planting

When we plant herbs, like cilantro and dill, early in the growing season, they will have gone to seed by the time the tomatoes and cucumbers start rolling in. That is why it is great to consider succession planting, aka, planting one crop right after another to have continuous harvest.
Cilantro is my favorite crop to utilize in succession planting, followed by dill but I can usually get enough dill out of one late season planting to meet my cucumber pairing needs.  Johnny’s Seeds, ever helpful with their lists and charts, has this great list of corps to plant for succession and at what recommended intervals (even if it doesn’t include herbs)
Succession planting checklist:
  • Seeds to plant
  • Notebook to record planting time
  • Watering can or other source of water
  • Calendar to set reminders of when to replant (I suggest 2-3 weeks for cilantro, 3-4 weeks for dill)
  • Plant label to stick in the ground if you use them
Goldenrod
                                                                                 Goldenrod Oxymel
​Supplies and ingredients:
Clean jar with a tight fitting lid
Raw apple cider vinegar (the kind that says “with mother”)
Raw honey, the more local the better
A branch or 2 of Goldenrod, and species of the genus Solidago Tape or some kind of label and marker
Directions:
Fill the jar about 1⁄4 way with fresh goldenrod leaves and flowers.
Add in the amount of honey you want then the amount of vinegar. The “traditional” ratio is 1 part honey to 1 part vinegar. This is too sweet for me so I do 3 parts vinegar to 1 part honey.
Close securely with the lid and shake, shake, shake until all the honey is mixed in.
Label the jar with your ingredients and the date.
Store in an out of the way place for about 2 weeks and taste. I have found that 2 weeks is good for me. Longer than that it gets pretty potently bitter, not necessarily bad, just very strong in the bitter department.
Strain out the plant parts and compost them.
Enjoy the oxymel mixed with soda water or straight for all kinds of health benefits. 
August 10th-Picking Greens for an Extended Harvest
How to pick your hardy greens for continual harvest, even though some frost and snow!

  • No bad leaves!  Go through your greens making sure that any leaves with bad spots or that don’t look fresh are removed from the garden.
  • Harvest from the bottom up-- pick the lowest, outermost leaves and work your way into the middle.
    • If the outer leaves are not desirable and you want greens to take home, simply remove and compost the leaves you don’t want and pick the next layer up.
  • It is best to harvest with the “push down, pull up” method with your hands, instead of cutting the leaves.
  • If you have leftover stems on your plant, go through and clean them up.  Your plant will be much healthier and will produce longer, even though frost!
  • Healthy plants = healthy garden!

August 8th-Late Season Tomato Care
Late season tomato care

  • Check for ripe fruit and any possible problems
    • Harvest tomatoes a day or two away from completely ripe as they will continue to ripen on the counter. (Never put tomatoes in the refrigerator!  It  will dampen their flavor and degrade their texture.)
  • Signs of tomato hornworms: 
    • defoliated stems
    •  large chew marks on fruit
      • Pick off and destroy them, feed them to chickens, raise them in caterpillar homes and see the actually lovely moth they turn into)
  • Signs of diseases or viruses: NO BAD LEAVES!
    • Suddenly wilted top parts of plant
      • Remove infected leaves and destroy-- do not compost.
    • Leaf curl
    • Yellowing or splotchy leaves
  • “Top” tomatoes by early august to encourage fruit to ripen
    • Look for the last set of fruit that has started  to  set and snip off the top of the plant  a  branch  or two above.   If doing this later in the growing season/ frost approaching within a few weeks… snip above the last, green, full sized fruit.
    • Full sized, green fruit can be brought inside and placed in a paper bag to encourage countertop ripening.  This is a good trick if a surprise frost comes along.
August 1st-Reclaiming your Garden
Reclaiming your garden
July 27 2020
~By Kelly Cannon

It happens to all of us.  You go out of town for a week, work gets crazy,  it’s wicked hot and you spend all your free time cooling off… whatever the reason, NOW is the time to reclaim your garden to bring in that harvest over the next couple months. 
  • Step 1: Assess what is salvageable
    • Are there crops that are still going that just need some clearing?
    • Is there a part of the garden that you like the best, or that is most visible when you walk by?
    • Considering fall crops?

  • Step 2: Pick a place to start and go for it!
    • It doesn’t really matter where you start, as long as you get started
      • Things to consider:
Time and energy level:  It is better to start small so you don’t burn out.  You can  always  keep going if you finish  the first task.
Aesthetics: is there a place that is more visible that would motivate you to keep going once it is completed.
Fall and future intentions: if  you want to plant fall veggies, flowers, bulbs…. Think about access and go with what is easiest.
  • Step 3: Step back and look at what you accomplished.
    • Take before and after pictures
    • Give yourself a pat on the back for making a difference.
  • Step 4: Keep going!
Pests!
No Bad Leaves!
Now that your garden is up and running, it is time to manage the pests and diseases to protect your garden now, and into the future.
Early and frequent leaf checking, and removing pests and damaged leaves, will help to keep your garden healthy, now as well as limit and possibly eliminate future pest and disease problems.
Supplies: 
  • Snippers/scissors: to cut off leaves that are too big to pinch off.
  • Rubbing alcohol and old cloth: to clean off snippers between plants to prevent spreading disease.
  • Trash bag: Trash all bad leaves-- do NOT compost them.  Many plant disease problems are soil born and will live in the compost pile and re-infect your garden when you use the compost. 
  • Small container of soapy water to drop insects, like squash bugs into, if you don’t want to squish them. (leave this, with a lid on, in the hot sun and the insects will die.
  • Gardening gloves: this will help boost confidence to squish and pick off all the grossness.
  • Duct tape to remove sticky pest eggs, like squash bugs.
  • Notebook/record keeping book:  as always, record when things happen in your garden, and here, it would be noting what plants had the bad leaves and pests.  It is also helpful to note things like: June was a severe drought month and early July brought some heavy rains.  (This situation caused stress to the plants and made them more susceptible to pests and disease!) This kind of note will allow you to be able to look back at when you first noticed pests and diseases, and you can get a jump on them the next year.
Tulsi: Holy Basil
Tulsi aka Holy Basil
Ocimum sanctum syn. O. tenuiflorum
Tulsi has its origins in lowland regions of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, southern China, Thailand, and Malaysia and has been used for thousands of years.
In Western herbalism Tulsi is known to be an adaptogen, carminative, and antispasmodic  working to relieve the body of toxins related to stressors as well as helping to relax the body.
Ways to use tulsi:
  • Infused in olive oil to use culinarily or in preparation of herbal products such as salves and lotions (herb, fresh or dried, and oil of choice)
  • Infused in alcohol to use in tincture form or for as an infused alcohol drink (herb and alcohol of choice)
  • Tea: sun tea, hot  tea, iced tea
  • Infused in vinegar to use culinarily or as an alcohol tincture alternative (herb and vinegar of choice)
  • Fresh eating: use just like any other basil
  • Dried and used in satchels for an uplifting, aromatherapy experience
CAUTIONS/ Contraindications:
  • can accelerate the passing of medication through the body so please check with your physician or clinical herbalist if you take any pharmaceuticals.
  •  can act as a blood thinner
  •  can lower blood sugar
  • can bring on menses and should not be consumed by pregnant women or women trying to get pregnant.
Tomatoes!
Tomatoes!
Tomato growing: NO BAD LEAVES!  I  didn’t harp on this enough in the video.  Tomatoes are prone to a host of  viruses and diseases and the best way to eliminate the threat is to remove any leaf that doesn't look green and lush. If the leaves are smaller,  you can pinch them off and if they are bigger, use snippers but PLEASE remember to wipe the snippers off with rubbing alcohol between plants to reduce the potential of spreading disease. 
#2 Mulch is your friend!  If you only mulch one thing in your garden, have it be your tomatoes.  The more you can keep the roots cool and moist and the plant surroundings free of weeds, the better your tomato production will be now, and into the future.
Mulch options: I like *newspaper as a weed barrier then topping that with salt marsh hay, leaf mould, seed-free grass clippings, or whatever you have available (like hay, that I used, that  is no longer suitable for the animals, but watch out for the seeds!)
*if you don’t get newspapers, ask your local coffee shop to keep any leftover papers for you, along with spent coffee grounds,  as  those are a great nitrogen source for your garden.
**I strongly discourage the use of plastic as mulch if at all possible to avoid.  Rarely is it good for more than one season and it is a LOT of plastic to be added to landfills when there are perfectly suitable, decompostible alternatives. 
#3 Prune and train your tomatoes!  You can get a fine crop of tomatoes by letting them grow in  a wild tangle of vine but you will get an earlier and often better harvest with some care up front.
-Pinch out the suckers!
-Train up a pole or try out the Florida Weave.  This doesn’t always work out the way I hope so using  something like the reusable tomato clips is helpful, but even better is cutting up old clothes to use as ties, which is less likely to dig into the vines, causing wounds, and a great way to upcycle old clothes.
Determinate vs  indeterminate Tomatoes
Have you seen this on tomato labels?
Determinate varieties of tomatoes are bred to grow to a certain height, stop, and start producing fruit.  These are great for containers and small spaces.  Another benefit is often finding fruit that ripens all at once, which is great if you want to make sauce.
The downside is usually a smaller harvest and these plants are usually hybrids so saving seeds will not yield the same plant the following year.
Indeterminate varieties are ones that just keep growing. Some growers like to “top” their indeterminate vines so they stop growing up and focus more on fruit production.  Suckering will also help tame the green growth and encourage fruit production.
The benefit of indeterminate tomato varieties are: wider selection of fruit types, more to harvest, and are often suitable for seed saving, and there is a long stretch of fruit that keeps coming.
The challenge is training, pruning and keeping up with harvest of what can turn into an unwieldy, wild situation.
Soil Cultivation a.k.a Weeding
Red Clover
​Red Clover solar infusion tea:
Glass jar with lid
Fresh or dried red clover blossoms to fill 1/2 the jar
Water to top off the jar

Fill your jar 1/2 full with red clover blossoms, fill the rest of the way with water, room temperature or cold), place the lid and set in a sunny place for 12-24 hours.
Strain (or not) the flowers, and enjoy this nutritious and restorative tea.

Red Clover infused oil
Jar with tight fitting lid
Dried or wilted for at least 24 hours red clover blossoms
Oil of your choice-- they all have benefits!
Chopstick
small plate
tape or other label
sharpie or other non-fading writing implement

Directions:
-Fill jar 1/4-1/2 full with dried blossoms or 1/2 full with fresher blossoms.
-Pour in oil almost to the top, use chopstick to eliminate as many air bubbles as possible, then carefully fill oil all the way to the top.  Slowly place lid, pusing down to further remove any possible air.  
-Once lid is secure, turn jar upside down and look for rising air bubbles and add more oil as necessary.
-LABEL THE JAR!  Date, ingredients, and any other noteworthy information like where the plant was collected, type of oil, time of day, phase of the moon, or other celestial events, if you want.  It is also helpful to label when the infusion will be ready.  For this type of infusion, 30-45 days is great.  The warmer the weather, the quicker it will infuse.
-Place on a plate in a sunny location*.  There will be some syphoning of oil, this is normal and in order to protect the surface of where the jar is placed, it is helpful to place it on a small plate to collect any oil that seeps out.
-After 30-45 days, strain the blossoms and use the oils as massage oil or anyway you would normally use the type of oil you made the infusion with.
-DO NOT OPEN THE JAR until it is time to strain.**

*Some herbalists choose to have their oil infusions steep in dark and cool places for longer times.  The method above is what I was taught and what I practice.  I encourage you to do your own research and use whatever method suits you and your lifestyle.
** Some herbalists say to open the jar and top off oil that has syphoned off.  This is more work and, in my mind, leads to possibilities of contamination.  Again, do what suits you the best.  There are no wrong answers in these folk traditions.
Tools and Tips
Over the years, I have developed an affinity for a handful of tools that make gardening life easier.  Here is a list of my top 10 tools for gardening.
  • Two in one cultivator  This is my #1 hand tool.  If I could only use one hand tool for the rest of my gardening days, this would be it.  It can work as a trowel and a rake.  It is great for chopping  up  and getting  under thick  weeds, especially grass clumps  that you don't want  in the garden.
  • Sloggers Sun hat   I have had my Sloggers hat for over 10 years.  It is faded and floppy and still working wonderfully!
  • Sun protective shirt.  There are so many varieties of these kinds of shirts and the best advice is to find  one that fits well and is comfortable.  It might seem silly to  garden  in long sleeves but  it actually keeps me cooler.   Ask  me how….
  • Carhartt  pants.  Do you know there are women specific carhartt pants? I can not say enough good things about these pants; durability, comfort, breathability….
  • This garden cart Forget the wheelbarrow, get this garden cart!  It is so easy to steer and  the  thick wheels roll right  over  everything.  I  absolutely love the  dumping action as well as how heavy I can  load  this and not suffer trying to  haul compost,  or  whatever, across the garden.
  • Shovel with fiberglass handle  If you already have a nice shovel with a wood handle, please don’t go out and buy  a new one but if you are in the market…  a fiberglass handle shovel will last much longer and you won’t  ever have to  worry about splinters from the wood!
  • Collapsible rake  I LOVE this rake!   My neighbor had one that  I coveted for  years until I stumbled upon one in  my local hardware store for under $30.
  •  Colorful duct tape  I put this on the  handles of all of my tools.  It  is so  easy to misplace a  tool in the garden or to get tools mixed up when working in a community garden setting.  A brightly colored indicator that will stay on my tools has proved to be in the top 10.
  • Garden Trug like these, or a couple buckets are such useful tools to have in the garden.  I like to have a trug to haul stuff and a good sturdy bucket for all kinds  of things, especially to flip upside down and sit on when I have a long session  of harvesting something low down like bush beans or calendula flowers for example.
  • Scuffle hoe!  This is such a helpful tool to  stay upright and get all the weeding done.  Best used when the weeds are just emerging and the hoe is just scuffled over the weeds and scuffles them off below the soil surface.  For raised  beds, a hand held weeding tool is awesome. 
**** and, as always, don’t  forget your gardening notebook to record as much as you possibly can think to put in it; planting dates, germination dates, flowering times, the weather, the insects, rain amounts…. Your allergies if you get them…. 
Happy Gardening! ~Kelly
June 8th: Basil
June 1st: Hugelkultur
May 25th: Planting your Seedlings
May 18th: Potato Towers
Have you considered growing potatoes but the thought of digging them out in the fall sounds like a literal pain in the back?  Or maybe you don’t have the space for feet and feet of potatoes.  Well, I present to you a solution: Potato Towers!
There are lots and lots of videos and tutorials out there of how to build and layer these.  The method I share is one that I have been personally successful with.
Check list:
  • Sturdy wire fencing: welded wire, chicken wire… whatever is easy and inexpensive to come by.
  • Compost for filling the cages
  • Straw (or hay-- whatever you have.  I have even seed them lined with newspaper)
  • Seed potatoes sliced (and cured for 12-24 hours) with a minimum of 2 eyes per slice and not more than 5.
  • Water
  • Notebook so you can record the variety(s) and planting date and any notes you want to add to remember what you did
  • Water!  Potatoes like lots of water to develop a good yield.  I always aim to plant a day or 2 before a big rain.
May 11th: Pruning and Dividing
May 4th: Planning your Garden
Garden planning checklist
  • Notebook and pencil
  • List of veggies, herbs, and flowers you want to plant
  • Ruler or tape measure 
  • Soil fluffing tools
  • Compass
  • Companion planting list**
  • Square foot gardening chart
  • Crop rotation plan-- there are layers of depth one can go into here… I like to keep a simple, mnemonic tool to help me remember: Roots, shoots, fruits, legumes!  (roots refers to all things that you eat the root of, shoots refers to things that you eat the leaves of, fruit is all fruiting things like tomatoes, peppers, squash… and legumes is peas and beans.​
**Companion planting: there is all kinds of info out there about companion planting and I use it as a simple tool to help me decide what to put where.  My good friend,  former boss and organic-gardener-supreme has total disdain for this concept, citing that there are no scientific studies to prove any of it-- it is all folklore.  I, personally, am a big fan of folklore and think “it can’t hurt” to follow some of the companion planting suggestions.
I also think that plants are kind of like people, we all have people that bring out the best in us and some that challenge us so why not strive to be with those that support us and bring out our best?
Building soil links:
soil basics from Earth EAsy
More in depth article from Permaculture Apprentice
April 27: Unseasonable Weather? 
Garden planning prep for next week
As things in the garden start popping up, blooming, and leafing out, and temperatures warm up enough for most people to want to get in the garden, having a plan will save lots of unnecessary work and frustration.
I am going to focus on vegetable gardening and touch a bit on perennial maintenance.  To prepare for this, now is the time to do a garden inventory of projects and measure your veggie garden space as I will be focusing on square foot gardening, for the home gardener.  (If anyone reading this, or seeing the videos, has questions about larger scale, organic production, please email me at mountainnature@gmail.com)
Tour you garden and record:
  • How are things looking?  Did you get frost or snow that was tough on the garden?
  • Perennials you have and the state they are in
    • Do they need dividing?
    • Do they need fertilizer
    • Do they need weeding?
  • Measure your vegetable garden space
    • Create a list of the vegetables, herbs and flowers you wish to grow.
    • Research local farms, nurseries to purchase your seedlings.***
  • Woody shrubs: (anything from thyme plants to rhododendrons) that need pruning?
    • Do they have flower buds?  If yes, wait until post-blooming to prune.

      ***I strongly encourage people to support local farms and nurseries for layers upon layers of benefits:  you are supporting a “neighbor”, you can ask about seed sourcing, soil used and if any chemicals have been treated, and local farms and nurseries will also grow varieties that are suited to your specific climate, and it fosters a sense of community.

      Avoid buying seedlings at big box stores.  These are often treated with a host of chemicals that harm bees and other pollinators as well as leaching into the soil.  These plants may be grown across the country and not specifically suited to the climate that you live in, therefore will be less successful. 
Garden planning resources to consider looking into:
Square foot gardening
Companion planning (for a starts-- more info to come on this!
April 20th: Weeds 
What better time than the week of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day to talk about using some of the things called “weeds” that the earth provides for us?
Here are a couple fantastic things to do with your “weeds”.
Herbal-weeds tonic 
Ingredients and supplies: 
Jar with tight fitting lid (any size you want, you will fill according to size of the jar)
Roots of any combination of: dandelion, dock (yellow or curly), burdock, nettleLeaves of any combination: nettle, dandelion, mint…. Whatever you have in your garden
Apple cider vinegar
White vinegar
Directions:
Scrub roots to remove dirt  and rinse with white vinegar, then chop into pieces no bigger than ½ inch.
Fill jar ½ full, loosely, with roots
Rinse leaves to remove any dirt and shake and pat or spin, to be more-or-less dry and chop into bite sized pieces.
Loosely top off the jar with the leaves.
Fill the jar with apple cider vinegar and secure lid.
Give the jar a few shakes to make sure the vinegar gets all the way through and top off if needed.
Label the jar with ingredients and the date.
Set an alarm on your calendar for about a month later, and set the jar in a cool place to macerate.  Shake it up whenever you think about it.
After about a month, strain out the plant materials.  You can add them to soup stock or compost them.
The infused vinegar is now ready for your use!  
I like to add a splash, daily, to a glass of fizzy water. It is also a great addition to salad dressings.  Some people take it as a nutritious sip from a shot glass. You could even try adding it to a tonic style cocktail!
Dandelion Muffins
Adapted from How it all Vegan by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
½ cup sweetener
2 eggs
¼ cup oil
¾ cup butter milk
1 ½ cup chopped apples
1 TBS  fresh, grated ginger or 1 tsp dried.
1 cup fresh dandelion flowers
Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350
In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking powder.  Add the sweetener, eggs and buttermilk ginger and apples. Stir until “just mixed”.  Add in the dandelion flowers and stir to coat the flowers. Scoop into lightly oiled, or lined muffin tins.  Bake for 35-40 minutes. Test doneness with a toothpick.
April 15th: Starting and Transplanting
Direct Seeding and Transplanting( #1) Check list 

  • Seeds: use this seed starting calculator to know when to plant what.  BE SURE to put in YOUR last “spring frost-free date” in the window for the date.  You can find that date here.
  • Seedlings
  • Seed tape (DIY tutorial-- nice to do this ahead of time, at home and “glue” makes is lots easier)
  • Garden space, cleared of weeds
  • Watering can
  • Notebook and pencil
  • Labels and sharpies
**REMINDERS***
  • Be sure to water your soil before planting (or plant right after a rain) so you don’t flush away your seeds.
  • Record what, when and where you planted.  The more details the better: weather details such as:  post or pre-rain, wind, snow, overcast, sunny…the more details the better.  Some people really like gardening by the moon for planning and record keeping.
  • Label your plantings.  Popsicle sticks and a sharpie are great for annual crops.  Long lasting labels** are fantasitic for perennials. 
**Check out all things Gardener’s Supply!  They are an employee owned business, in Vermont, with top of the line supplies for your home and garden.
April 8th: Week 2 Seed Starting
  • Seeds
    • Check the dates and use this link for seed viabiilty and proper storage tips
  • Soil 
    • I always recommend Coast of Maine products and there are several other brands and DIY mixes you can make.  Just make sure there is some good compost, and plenty of materials to provide good drainage
  • Containers
    • Great DIY newspaper seed-pot tutorial video here
    • Have some kind of tray to set seed containers in to catch the excess water
  • Record  keeping device
    • Journal or notebook to record when and what you seeded
    • Popsicle sticks or something to label the individual pots
  • Watering can
    • Or whatever you can easily pour water out of 
April 1st: Week 1 Inventory
Pre-season garden supplies checklist


  • Take a walkabout
    • Note hardscaping and any repairs that are needed
    • Look for what is “springing” out of the ground
    • Note projects that didn’t get finished last summer (pruning, cleanup, mulching…)
  • Start a garden journal
    • Record what was seen on the walkabout
    • Plan this years garden
  • Tools: find, organize, sharpen and clean
    • Shovels
    • Rakes
    • Trowels
    • Forks
    • Pruners, Clippers, garden scissors
    • Gloves
    • Hoses and watering cans
  • Seeds (this is the one to be ready for with next week’s video!) 


For next week: If you click on the link and scroll down, there is a spot that says “buy locally” where you put in your zip code and find retailers near you.
  • Sunny window or grow lights.  Ideally your seedlings will have a minimum of 6 hours direct sunlight, 8-12 is better.
CONTACT US:     The Rey Cultural Center     13 Noon Peak Road     PO Box 286     Waterville Valley, NH 03215     603-236-3308