Fall Fair Catagories

Fall Fair Catagories list is now archived. Just drop as an email here at the blog if you need to see it. Best, Jen

Now Saturdays at the Garden

ATTENTION GARDENERS AND LITTLE DIGGERS:

We gather in the DIGS garden on SATURDAYS now. Starting September, through to the late spring.
Saturdays at 10 am we talk and plan, then do stuff around the garden.
Coffee and baked goods seem to appear as if by magic.
It's so fun!

All are welcome!!



Post Fall-Fair Thankyou!:

Thanks to the fantastic musicans who played square dances for us on Sept. 15th at the lighthouse BARN DANCE! Yee haw! You guys are so good!! :>)




Best, Jen

Aug 12th, What's Up?

Dear Garden Lovers,

What's up on August 12th?


(to enlarge slidshow, click on photos and choose FULLSCREEN)

Today the Little Diggers toured around digging up things to eat.
Blueberries, Leeks, Zucchini,Swiss Chard, and some few first Tomatoes (very soon to be ripe enough) all good to eat now.

Garlic for DIGS members is in social shed in drying trays.
Take 3-5 heads of garlic each member.

New DIGS members also get to have garlic!
Fight vampires, make pesto! Join our community garden!! :>)
($10 per year or $15 whole family.)

Also: Tremendously inspiring Ted Talk on the Incredible Edible township gardening project. Check it out.

Also; Garlic Rust news from today's meeting:
Experts answer our questions:

- yes you can replant seeding garlic that has had rust. The spores are on the foliage but not on the bulbs.
- yes, rotate garlic beds (3 yr.) as usual.
- rust is caused by wind-bourne spores plus damp weather. It only overwinters if black spores are dropped onto soil.
- experts suggest that you plant widely spaced for better wind-drying in beds.
- rust affects all onion family members; basically stunts growth.
- when rust gets to the black spore stage foliage must be buried or burnt.

More on Garlic Rust (called Leek Rust in Europe).

Diluted Bleach for Secateur Sterilization at DIGS:

- there's now a glass jar of diluted 10:1 water/bleach solution in the social shed on fertilizer shelf upper left. It's for secateur dipping.
- It's suggested that we dip secateurs BEFORE we use them (in case last user forgot) and then AFTER cutting infected plants.
Plant infections we have currently: Septoria Leaf Spot on tomatoes; see pictures and more here. Garlic Rust on foliage of alliums.

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What to plant now?
West Coast Seeds Newsletter says: mid August seeds to plant:

Plant spinach now for fall and spring harvest.

See all winter vegetables for overwintering.

maintenance at the community garden ..

hello, all .. i've been going to the garden on tuesday and thursday mornings to harvest salad bags with kathleen's help .. there are lots of other tasks that need to be done in that i have been methodically attending to on saturday mornings .. from time to time, two hands just aren't enough .. it would be great to have some assistance from any interested gardeners, or non gardeners .. there's lots we can do ..

i'll be down at the community garden on saturday morning about 9 a.m. .. the priority will be working with the tomatoes ..

thank you ..
jane

Incredible Edibles revisited

Dear Food Lovers,

Remember we posted on this blog about a town in England that grew free food for everyone?

Here's a great new video by one of the main gardeners on Ted Talks: youtube version of video.




Yes, it can be done and it can be wonderful!!!

Giving!!! Yay!

Best, Jen

What's happening? Aug 5th

Dear Gardeners,



(click on above to enlarge to see fullscreen slideshow).

Notes - From the gardener's meeting today on Sunday Aug. 5th.

Septoria Leaf Spot confirmed from last week's query.

It is caused by humidity around tomato leaves. To stop spread of infection to healthy tomato plants from fruiting bodies/spores, clip off any discoloured leaves, and be sure to throw them into the blackberries to avoid spreading this bacteria. Septoria can be harboured in wooden stakes and nearby weeds.

Jim suggests: To avoid tomato diseases, NEVER water tomato leaves or foliage; Instead, always water low to the soil, soaking the root only on tomatoes. Keep leaves dry. Mornings are best for watering.

As tomatoes are subject to various blights and viruses, keep plants well spaced with lots of air movement between plants.

Septoria Leaf Spot can spread throuh splashing when watering or from infected tools (secateurs used to trim tomatoes.)

So Jim brought bleach to clean cutting tools. Feel free to use.

When removing Septoria affected foliage:
Dip cutting tools in 10% bleach solution before and after use.
Be aware of sterilizing tools that come from the tool collection at DIGS.
We may have to make a practice of dipping cutters and other tools before and after use.
Bleach solution for dipping tools will be marked in tightly closed container in the (wooden) social shed.

Photos - Septoria Leaf Spot confirmed
Our DIGS leaf is (below) on right with standard Septoria Leaf Spot photo on left:



Magnifying glass should show "fruiting bodies" inside black spots (like extruded wormy things coming out of the leaves. eeek!)
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More news:

The raspberries were damaged by nightly raids by raccoons with baby raccoons in tow.
To avoid raccoons, netting may have to be clipped all the way to the bottom next year.

Leeks can be harvested for the next two weeks; they are very good; delicious! Onions and garlic drying in greenhouse for gardeners to take.

Jim says: Feel free to tidy plantings and falling fronds into pathways, as lawn mower folk may accidentally break some eccentrically leaning plant fronds.

Today we transplanted kale seedlings into pots.

Also, brussel sprouts with club root were removed, limed heavily, and replanted with smaller brussel sprout transplants.

Keep eye out for more club root among Brassicas (Cabbage, Brussel, Broccoli etc.) and remove affected plants, and fling them into blackberries (don't put in compost bins.)

Question: Should we wait a year before planting more garlic?We have rust which makes storage of garlic problematic.
Rust may disappear next year, or may come back. It's due to weather, not infection.
Does anyone want us to not use Safer's anti-rust spray? (Fungacide). It's possible we could just use it once.

(Note: Garlic is 1/3rd of the price to grow then to buy in the store: $200 of seed garlic grows $500-$600 of purchased garlic).

UPDATE ON GARLIC RUST:
One of our very helpful DIGS members writes:

Hi
Yesterday I phoned 2 organic garlic farmers from the area/ They were very patient in answering my question about garlic rust. One farmer has been growing garlic for over 15 years, the other for about 7 years. As I cannot attend the Sunday meeting I am sending you the info they gave me. Maybe this could be mentioned.

1. both go with a strict three year rotation
2. use a good organic mulch to cut down on the possibility of rust infection.
3. both have replanted cloves from rust infected plants without having the rust return the following year. They feel the cloves do not carry the rust.
4. both are "almost sure" (the 15 year garlic farmer is 98% sure) that rust is not carried in the soil.
5. both feel the rust is the result of the cool, wet June conditions rather than infection from cloves or soil.

I have posted questions on the above to the COABC, Certified Organic Agriculture B.C., website and will keep you posted of any good answers.

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Lots to see at DIGS! Trundle on down the road....