Looking a Bit Bleak Right Now

It's kinda brown and forlorn. But that's why this is the BEFORE picture. Within six weeks, it is going to be BEAUTIFUL SPRING AGAIN.

Excited to spend some of it together in the garden!

If you are ready to get started NOW

Don't forget that KDL has a *free* seed library. You don't even need to be a library cardholder. Their seeds are non-hybrid and non-Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), plus they have heirloom varieties. Head to your local library and check some out!

SEED LIBRARY

Garden Club 2015

Gardening is ON for summer 2015!!

We will be moving the garden back behind our building so expect a couple of days of bonding over (*backbreaking*) work. It's good for the soul though and those summer vegetables make it all worthwhile.

Once we get a list of those interested, we will schedule a meeting or two to plan work days, and let Byron teach us all of his Soil Secrets for the Uninformed.

Keep smiling! Summer is coming!!

If You Fear Vampires

Or just otherwise like garlic, apparently this is a great time to plant it!

http://www.booksforbetterliving.com/5-ways-to-prepare-vegetable-garden-for-fall-and-winter/

Fall is the best time for garlic planting because it allows the crop to vernalize, resulting in larger yields (vernalization is a term used to describe a period of exposure to cold temperatures. For garlic, it encourages bulbing the following spring).Plant an individual garlic clove 3 inches deep and space them 6 to 8 inches apart. Add a few inches of mulch to the bed (straw and/or compost) and wait! Each clove will develop into a full head of garlic by next summer.

Planting Rye for Winter

Noe was in my office last week, telling me that I should plant Rye in my garden over the winter to replace some of the nutrients in the soil.

"WHA??" I was thinking.

Lo and behold, the science behind the statement. The winter crop is a nice blanket for your garden (otherwise called a "cover crop"). Doesn't that sound sciency and everything?? Other option = Oats.

I leave today slightly less ignorant than I entered it. I should go home during lunch now.

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/soil-health-cover-cold

http://home.howstuffworks.com/preparing-a-vegetable-garden-for-winter.htm

Pictures from a rainy day

How To Use Coffee Grounds in Your Garden

Perhaps you've seen the sign at Starbucks that they have coffee grounds for your garden? Maybe you even started saving your own, just knowing they'd be good for your plants. Now it's August and you have grounds, but no idea what to do with them!

You're in luck! I'm right there with you and today I found some useful tips on an Organic Gardening site. Here's to brewing success in all our plots!

Fall Vegetables

What to do after we harvest all of something? Replant!

Here is a handy calendar that shows a number of things that can be planted/harvested through the fall ...

Vinegar Vs. Weeds

This may be helpful for our paths -- or at home.

Homemade Weed Killer 
1 gallon of white vinegar, 1/2 cup salt, Liquid dish soap (any brand), Empty spray bottle. Put salt in the empty spray bottle and fill it the rest of the way up with white vinegar. Add a squirt of liquid dish soap. This solution works best if you use it on a hot day. Spray it on the weeds in the morning, and as it heats up it will do its work.

Vegetable MD Online!!

Not that any of us need this resource, of course, but this is really a nice reference to keep bookmarked:

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/cropindex.htm