Garden Project Done

Job well done! After several weeks working with volunteers on this organic garden project, last October 10, 2011, the project came to an end and with it, the growing season.

Our winter rye seeds were emerging from our garden bringing the nutrients to the soil,  needed for the next season.

 Garden Highlights

GRATITUDE. 
One afternoon after harvesting in the garden, Chelsea a garden friend of 7 years old, surprised me with a succulent salad that she made. In the midst of our overwhelming tasks of moving out, that salad for supper was a nice gift. My husband added some garlic. Gracias, Chelsea!

CREATIVITY.
The following pictures of the sweet pepper harvested shows the stage of different ways can be used: Stuffed Hot Pepper (Rocoto Relleno), a traditional dish from Arequipa, Peru. I added some spicy cayenne to get the taste. 

Stuffed Hot Pepper ( Rocoto Relleno)

SAVING. LOOKING AHEAD.

Children and adults are encouraged to save seeds. After picking the dried flowers, we collected all the good seeds then saved them in our "bank seeds" for the next growing season.
Another great saving was our budget at home, almost 80% of our meals came from our own garden. My husband and I belong to the nearby Canillas Community Garden in Lebanon, NH.

Special thanks to our VT Master Gardener State Coordinator, Nancy Hulett and Trish Kargman, Support Member, Tina Barney, Master Gardener for all the help that I received during this time.


I am currently in Peru spending some weeks there, looking for people who might be interested to learn how to garden organic and healthy vegetables. 


Coralia Picardo
Garden Project Leader

Rain Garden - The Final Look

This is the way that you can see the rain garden from a nearby distance. It is located beside the Mascoma river bank in Lebanon, NH... In a cloudy day with a clear chance of rain, that mean that the project of this landscaped basing will hold water for the native plants planted in the site. 

This garden is a garden  project of the University of Vermont Extension Master Gardener Program.

View of one of the corners

Sign placed in the rain garden with general specifications. Come and visit it before the snow comes!

It is Fall and Frost is Coming

a wonderful fall season view of Mascoma Lake in Enfield NH - October 2011

It is sad to know that gardening in New England is almost over. But there are things that gardeners can do at this point: planting the fall crop like garlic and tulips.

In our project we were protecting and saving our plants and fruits from the cold days, in some cases using special cloths and harvesting green tomatoes. I know that there are excellent recipes. Dianne Langley, one of the LUMC members will share with us one of her favorites.

the last harvesting, lots of green tomatoes.

Al Langley's Grammy Green Tomato Relish 

8 qt. ground green tomatoes,     1 c. salt, 1 medium cabbage, 

6 green peppers,     5 red peppers

6 onions,      3 qt white or cider vinegar 

8 c. sugar    2 tbsp celery seed

2 tbsp mustard seed       1 tbsp whole cloves

Mix green tomatoes with salt; let drain in cheesecloth overnight. Grind cabbage, pepper and onions. mix in large kettle and then add vinegar and sugar. Tie spices in small bag and  put in with the mixture. Cook until well cooked. Seal in hot jars. 

Enjoy! 

Comment: I got the entire book of recipes from lovely Dianne Langley as a gift, she wrote nicely her personal comments in most of the recipes, and of course she shared with me the jar of Green Tomato Relish! - THANK YOU!!!

The cook book from Dianne Langley, now belongs to me! - I love her notes.

The dedication inside the book: 

"To dear Laly, The green tomato recipe is in the book. I love to cook and I love cook books. This is one I was on the 'cookbook' committee. I have made many notes and may you enjoy many of them. // You have been such a joy, I love your bright eyes and big smile. I will miss you. Thank you for all the 'extra' things you've done. Next year I hope to have a small garden and when I plant it I will think of you and YES I will talk to my plants (-: 

(...) Thank you again for all the talks, laughs and sharing with me. God be with  you, we love you." - Dianne and Al Langley

I am so touched!!!

Dianne Langley and I, behind us her husband Al. 

THURSDAY OCTOBER 6
In the afternoon, covered with warm clothing, we picked all that was left, the last harvesting. Now the garden was put in rest until the next season, although we planted green manure, which began to grow to enhance the soil. 

Pastor Jill and Isaiah helping out in the garden.

Weeding, harvesting and foot traffic in most home gardens tends to destroy soil structure. Planting cover crops is an easy way to revitalize the soil and help soil to produce a better plant growth.

Once the garden was cleaned up, we sowed rye winter seeds.

Rye Winter seeds. Good to plant between August and October. 

It can grow at low pH and at cool temperatures

Cover crops help to retain the soil, lessen erosion, and decrease the impact of precipitation on the garden by slowing the runoff of water. They also reduce mineral leaching and compaction, and suppress perennial and winter annual weed growth. The top growth adds organic matter when later it is tilled into the garden soil. The cover crop's root system also provides organic matter and opens passageways that help improve air and water movement in the soil.

Harvesting, Sharing, Saving

The ravages of the devastating hurricane have left its marks on many farms, houses, roads in the states of VT and NH. It breaks my heart to know that many crops have been lost! I know how much effort is involved in maintaining planting. Now, it's the time to work hand to hand as a real community to alleviate some of the emotional loss and expenses.

Sunflowers (sowed by seeds) from the church garden in their different stages.

In our garden we continue with the harvest, checking for dead branches, pests, turning our compost bin, collecting seeds for the next time, 

Pastor Jill (left) and Ruthie Bedor (right) helping in the garden.

It is time to start cleaning the tools, marking the current crops to prepare for the rotation for the next time; thus, we will eliminate pests that want to stay on the site.

Over Harvesting Tomatoes, Arugula?
Here some ideas of what to do with them...

ANCHOVY-ARUGULA SPAGHETTI

My husband cooked this for dinner 

Ingredients

1 bunch of chopped arugula

1 cup of chopped tomatoes (pick your favorite one - I chose sungold)

1 teaspoon or more of crushed red pepper flakes

4 large slivered garlic cloves

1 pound spaghetti

1 anchovy can with some of its oil

Salt, black pepper, olive oil

How to Prepare Pasta

Sauté garlic and tomatoes with anchovies in a pan with olive oil. Wait until the garlic gets soft and the anchovies break up. 

Cook the spaghetti al dente. Reserve a little of the cooking liquid. 

Add to it the pasta and arugula with some of the cooking water to make a sauce. 

Add salt and pepper, pepper flakes to taste.

Toast with your favorite wine!

The Passing of Irene, the Hurricane

Today the sky looked so blue with flowing clouds giving a peaceful moment after the storm. Very impressive! -- Our thoughts are with the people of Vermont and New Hampshire in the wake of Hurricane Irene, many towns suffered severe flooding. 

Current view of the garden after the storm. Picture taken on 8/29

After experiencing the uninvited raiders at the garden, like those horn worms who  champ the tomatoes from our garden are keeping us busy trying to find out a solution.

I thought twice before cutting off our huge green tomatoes, I think I need time to evaluate the damage. Later on Saturday I decided to harvest some veggies. 

A garden friend: a lady bug.

Like a miracle, there is no damage in this garden project after the storm. None! That pleased me so much! All that has left after this natural disaster is some bent pepper plants, the problem was fixable. 

Pepper plant, the only damage. It looks a little bent.

On Saturday, August 27, 2011, we harvested most of the ripe vegetables, before "Irene" pass trough .

 

Then the harvesting was shared with friends of the church. 

The compost bin was checked. The temperature was ideal around 120º F.  To provide the right aeration, the pile was turned adding some straw to keep the moisture. We added some coffee ground, we know that worms love this!

Our compost bin

During the work party on Monday 8/29, little Chelsea shared with me a salad self-made from the harvest of the garden! It is so impressive to see when children are involved on organic gardening activities.

Veggie salad made by Chelsea Robinson with organic vegetables from the garden.

 Here I am with Isaiah and Chelsea showing off the harvest, and a kitty, their pet is posing with us.

Oh, Nooo!! What Are They?

Gardening should have always a permanent surveillance. If gardeners don’t monitor the garden constantly. After I checked the place, the soil looked good, weeds almost gone, no signs of early blight in tomatoes, nor the mildew powder in zucchinis. Life in the garden looked almost perfect -- until I noticed that some of the tomato leaves were suddenly blighted. This was an alert!  

 We found seven awful tomato hornworms...picking them off was an uncomfortable experience.

We were delighted with the previous rain. As usual, we stopped and checked the chopped tomato leaves, suddenly I touched something that looked as a pickled cucumber with a thicker bumpy skin growing as if this were part of the tomato plant! Imagine a texture like that on a tomato. Absolute nonsense!  It was a hornworm. Its size was about 3 1/2 to 4 inches (7-10cm) – I had never seen one since I started to grow vegetables and flowers in this country back in 2007.

Knowing About the Tomato Hormworm Tomato Hornworms are the larva of a huge moth called five-spotted hawkmoth. Approximate size of the moth is around the size of a hummingbird. It is gray-brown with yellow spots on the sides of their body.

Hornworm Lifecycle
The five-spotted hawkmoths lay their eggs as soon as they mate after hatching. They appear in late June to August. Full grown larva (3-4 weeks feeding) wander around the garden digging themselves in where they form a pupa (brown and about 3cm long) that overwinters and hatches in the spring.


How To Control Tomato Hornworms

1. Use a liquid Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) does not harm animals, people or the environment. It paralyzes the horn worms and they die from starvation. Spray the top and bottom of the tomato plant leaves. 
2. Spraying the undersides of the leaves with an insecticidal soap mixture kills the eggs at the first sign of seeing the moths. 
3. Parasitc Wasps (Braconid and Trichogramma) lay their eggs on the larva. If you see little white things on the worm don’t kill the worm, place it in a jar with a fresh leaf and keep feeding it until the wasps do their job. These are the cocoons of the wasp and their larva feed inside the host and will kill it. 
4. Hand Pick. Tomato Hornworms are so big you cannot miss these guys.
5. Companion Planting. Plant marigolds as a deterrent around or between your tomatoes. Marigolds stink to a lot of different bugs and they avoid them.

Source: http://organicgardensite.com/bugs-harmful/tomato-horn-worms/

Hand picking and Bt spray have been applied to the garden!

What Are Those Cracked Tomatoes?

Cracked Fourth of July Tomatoes 

If you recently have seen your tomatoes split or cracked in this way, you might wondering if they are lacking of food, or maybe some pest has attacked your crop. The truth is that this is quite common by fluctuations in watering . Due to heavy watering after a long period of no water. 


When it begins to ripen during a spell without water, the outer skin will thicken and toughen up. A sudden influx of water will cause the tomato to swell or continue growing on the inside. This swelling will then cause the skin to rupture resulting in a split or crack . Exposing the flesh can invite disease. 

Chart information taken from the "Vegetable Gardener's Bible" by Ed Smith

That is why, in our recent garden meeting we talked about the importance of watering, considering that humans need 75% of water in our bodies, and:

• Corn       70% of water
• Potato    80% of water
• Tomato  90% of water

Keeping the right amount of watering in our crops, it will prevent stress and malfunctions in our vegetables.

 

Recycling Plastic Plant Pot Containers

On Saturday was the day to check our garden storage and clear out all our collection of plastic plant pots to be recycled. 

Thank you to the Sustainable Hanover Recycling of NH who is working with Longacres Nursery  for caring the environment in this way.

Property of Longacres Nursery helping to keep out of the trash/landfill  all the plastic plant containers. They will be recycled in to new pots. 

I spoke with Susan Edwards member of the sub-committee of HGC and Sustainable Hanover Recycling-NH, about this brilliant idea. As you may see the pictures all the containers are ready to mail out to somewhere in Connecticut. 

Our project Beyond Veggies and Flowers of LUMC, wanted to be part of the recycling plan.