June 2018
Established in 1980 
In this issue you will find:
Blooms first, then leaves will develop on this Kidneywood tree   at The Arid Garden.
  • Message from the President
  • Upcoming Events
    • Member Tours & Events
    • Seminars
  • Feature Articles
    • "In Your Plot"
    • Wanted - Board of Directors Candidates
    • Make a Donation to GVG via AmazonSmile
  • Project Updates
    • Allen J. Ogden Community Garden
    • Arid Garden
    • Desert Meadows Park
    • GVG Gardens at Historic Canoa Ranch
  • Committee Updates
    • Membership
Would you like to submit an article or a photo for the March newsletter? Please submit it to [email protected] by June 28.
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
After an especially successful 2017/18 season, I am asking the board to initiate a review of all of the club's print and electronic information pamphlets, documents and web site resources. I am interested in coming up with a "refreshed" set of print and electronic material to a more contemporary, user-friendly format. A number of members have indicated an interest in this endeavor; in fact, this initiative came from members of long standing voicing an interest in this as a being long overdue. This is not a "rebranding" of the club but a "refreshing" of our print and electronic communications. I am inviting any club member with an interest in public relations or print media formatting/design to contact me. The work will begin in June with an expectation of having a complete set of recommendations for the board to consider at its September meeting.

I hope to hear from you in the near future. Enjoy the summer, hydrate, be well - and pray for an ample monsoon season for the Green Valley area!
UPCOMING EVENTS
Seminars

Seminars will resume in September
Member Tours & Events

Member activities will resume in September/October

 

Visit our website for a complete calendar of events
FEATURE ARTICLES
It's particularly important that plants receive adequate water this time of year. Be sure to frequently check your irrigation system.
"In Your Plot"   by Lorna Mitchell

Soaring temperatures and burning sun are the norm for June; probably the most challenging month of the year for gardeners!

Water is the key to gardening harvests - and harvest is what it's all about! Run every clock on your irrigation system every time you are in your plot to ensure adequate delivery. Keep standard parts in your locker to repair leaks or blown tubing on the spot. Keep an eye open for irrigation problems in the other plots and help solve their issues, too. Just one or two days without water can have negative effects.

ONIONS should be harvested and stored in a cool dry location. Allow air to freely circulate around each bulb; screened shelves in the garage can hold them for a couple months. Use the bulbs that started to bolt first. These short-day onions will not store long (unless you chop and freeze them), but they are juicy and sweet.

GARLIC should be out and dried thoroughly. It can be cleaned and covered by vinegar and stored in the refrigerator (DO NOT cover with oil - this can lead to botulism!). Chopped and frozen it keeps well, but our dry air shrivels garlic quickly.

TOMATOES will be coming on in abundance (hopefully) but the stresses of dry heat may cause splitting and/or "blossom end rot". This is not a disease but a condition characterized by a dark shriveled patch at the blossom end of the fruit. The best prevention is consistent watering and shading of the fruit, either by leaves of the plant or what you provide. Continue to pinch out the suckers that form at the base of the leaves to channel the plant's energy into fruit production.

Hornworms, the nemesis of tomatoes, will probably arrive this month. Handpick but also apply periodic applications of Bt because we never find them all.

SUMMER SQUASH fruit grows quickly once it's pollinated. Male and female flowers form on each plant and pollen must be transferred for the fruit to mature. Usually when the flowers first appear they are all males so don't be discouraged if fruit doesn't set right away, female flowers will follow. They are open early in the morning and insects are needed to transfer pollen, or you can do it yourself to ensure squash production.

Watch for eggs of the squash vine borer; they are laid 2-3 at a time on the outside of the stem. These are the size of a pin head and can be easily smeared off. Signs that they have hatched into a caterpillar are yellow or tan "saw dust" piles at the base of the long hollow stems. You might be able to pull out the caterpillar with tweezers, or remove the leaf stalk, if not treated it could kill the whole plant.

EGGPLANT need to be picked before the shine begins to dull on the skin. If left on the plant too long the seeds inside will harden and the flesh will get rubbery.

GREEN BEANS: Use two hands to pick the beans, hold the plant end with one hand and pluck off the bean with the other hand to avoid pulling out the whole plant. Harvest when the leaves are dry, damage to leaves can occur if they are wet.

POTATOES: When the tops die back it's time for new potatoes to be dug; more water won't keep them green, they can't take the heat.

We can still do some planting; sow seeds of melon, winter squash, okra, black-eyed peas, amaranth, green beans, and yard-long beans. These all like the heat, just keep soil moist with a couple of short waterings during the day while they are young. It's also time to put in those sweet potato plants for fall harvest, give them lots of room or plan on cutting back the vines. Remember to replenish the soil with organic matter and nutrients before planting a new crop.

Those are my plot thoughts for now - happy gardening!
Wanted - Board of Directors Candidates

The Nominating Committee is looking for members interested in serving on the Green Valley Gardeners Board of Directors.

Board members have the very important responsibility of establishing and administering club policies and giving direction to the president. The board also provides input as to the programs and projects the club undertakes.

The term of office for board members is three years. Board members are elected in October and take office in November.

If you would be willing to serve or would like to nominate a member, please contact Bill Carley at [email protected] or 920-344-6563.
Shop AmazonSmile and Benefit the Garden Club  

Green Valley Gardeners is now listed on AmazonSmile. When you shop Amazon, log into AmazonSmile, use your existing personal account login information, select Green Valley Gardeners as your non-profit of choice. The club will receive a small donation for each qualifying purchase you make. Thank you!

To shop AmazonSmile go to http://smile.amazon.com/.
PROJECT UPDATES
Allen J. Ogden Community Garden  b y George Stone  

Harvesting Texas Sweet onions.
Obviously our onions are becoming a big hit in he Green Valley/Sahuarita area, and our fourth annual sale solidified its place in Southern Pima county. Grown here in the valley, the Texas Sweet 10-15Y is everything it's advertised to be - super sweet regardless of how prepared. We harvested about 2,000 onions and sold out in two days and two hours. Boy, was that a surprise! Desert Meadows once again was an ideal venue for us, and with the help of all the volunteers, we came away with a profitable event. Next year we'll be offering garlic along with those fabulous onions - and maybe even a few more surprises. (We grew two types of garlic this year and found both to be do well in our soil and environment. The California White and the Italian Early produced bulbs that measured at least two inches).
Here are some stats on the sale:
  • Sale lasted a total of 14 hours
  • Average sale was 2.8 lbs
  • 316 transactions were made
  • Profit of $1395.72
  • 27 volunteers from day of planting to the last day of the sale
Thanks to all volunteers who helped with the planting, harvesting and sale of our onions, and to those members who purchased onions. We appreciate your support!

Margie Tollefson and Sharon Dewees, our first customers.
Jay Arend and Barley, our last customer.

















Our kitchen/cannery is nearing completion . There are so many people to thank for their help and contributions; however, I'll wait until it's "open for business" before I start the list of contributors. Once completed, the multi-purpose kitchen/cannery will no doubt serve as an important part of the Ogden Community Garden as we'll have the capabilities to cook, smoke, grill, bake and serve - plus canning. And this facility will be available to all Green Valley Gardeners - not just Ogden gardeners!

As of now we plan to have the following equipment available within our 14' long x 7' wide outdoor kitchen.
  • A 4-top burner propane/oven
  • A 22" propane griddle
  • An electric smoker
  • Two 1-burner propane cook plates
  • A propane pizza oven
  • Two pressure canners
If you have canning equipment at home that has not been used for years, consider donations to the cannery.

The Ogden Garden outdoor kitchen/cannery is nearing completion.

So go ahead and buy that bushel of peaches from Apple Annie's - they go on sale Saturday, July 21. Then bring your quart jars to the Ogden and can those peaches just like you used to do years ago. We have qualified members to help you through the process in case you've forgotten.

Members wanting to use the kitchen/cannery should contact George Stone at [email protected] or 520-343-9690 for reservations.
"Ladies Farewell Lunch" for volunteer Jo Ann Wilson,  (on right in blue) who is moving to Oklahoma.

Arid Garden  by Mary Kidnocker 

This week the garden misses a long-time, valuable volunteer. Jo Ann Wilson and husband John have moved to Moore, Oklahoma, to be closer to their daughter and her family. A "Ladies' Lunch" was held for Jo Ann, to let her know how much we will all miss our quiet, hardworking friend. We wish a safe and happy future to Jo Ann and John in their new adventure!
 
With the departure of winter volunteers, the garden work force has been reduced by over one-half. If any of you would like to spend a few early morning hours with us, come by any Friday morning, no obligation.
 
The Arid Garden 's Texas Olive tree now loaded with bright, white  flowers.
Volunteers recently have been removing drying flowers from the many Parryii penstemon, desert marigolds, and chocolate flowers. Collected seed is either immediately scattered or cleaned and stored for later planting.
Still no rainfall since mid-February, so it has become necessary to hand water much of the garden each week... keeping volunteers and garden hose
busy.
The Vitex puts on a spectacular show!
Desert Meadows Park  by Chuck Parsons

Fabulous May! Mornings have been cool and evenings after sunset have been pleasant. The park continues to attract a lot of visitors during these hours. Those that have visited have enjoyed an abundance of blooming plants this year, especially the cactus. Not sure why, but perhaps the nice rain we had in February was enough to trigger the show. We finished February with nearly five inches recorded. We've not had any measurable rain since.
 
A particular favorite at the park the past week or so is the Vitex which is in full bloom (Vitex angus-castus). Also known as the chaste tree, chasteberry, lilac chaste tree, and other common names. It was so popular last year, that we added a second tree at the ramada. It's looking pretty good already and should be spectacular once it gets fully established.  

Also a hit among visitors are the sunflowers scattered within the community garden and just outside the fence along the Anza Trail. Most of these are volunteers from previous years' plants. They will provide our bird visitors with seed in the near future.

Sunflowers add color to the community garden.

Signs provide information about plant varieties and properties.
On your next visit to the park, be sure to wander through the community garden. The volunteers in that area have received the seed packets from Native Seeds/Search. These seeds are being planted in garden plots committed to food bank donation this summer. Signs have been prepared for each plot to inform visitors of the variety and properties of that variety. The garden club/DMPark was awarded a NS/S seed grant for monsoon gardens this year. As a grant recipient, we are to provide public information/education, monitor and report results, and collect seeds to share if possible. The signs are our attempt at informing and educating the public about the varieties. Information and photos are being collected to include in a final report on the project to NS/S. The garden is small, thus cross-pollination is hard to prevent, which casts doubt on our ability to collect seeds that are variety pure. Elissa Dearing did attend a NS/S class on how to collect seed. She has hopes that collection will be possible on some of the varieties.

A report was delivered to the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation this past month on the status/progress of the 2017 grant awarded to the park for enhancements. This report included a line-item accounting with variance accountability. We have done very well at fulfilling our commitments both in park enhancements and in financial performance. We had anticipated being completed by April. The lack of rain delayed some of the work, but we reported over 90% complete with sufficient funds to complete our committed enhancements.
The landscaping is being planted at the newly-established lake. Birders are reporting that it's quite a draw for many species of birds!
GVG Gardens at Historic Canoa Ranch (HCR)  by Bill Carley, Raydine Taber, and Jack Davis (emeritus)

Now that the Green Valley temperatures are quickly increasing, we will begin our Tuesday workday at 7:00 a.m.
 
In the orchard, we're seeing the formation of plums, apples, peaches and quinces on the HCR trees. Since the orchard is a new endeavor, we are keeping a very close eye on all the trees.  
 
Our herbs are producing and each week we can harvest several of them.
 
This year, and new to "the ranch", were cactus bugs (chelinidea vittiger) . Linda Gricius had the honor of finding and eradicating them. All the plants in the east cactus garden get closely examined each week for any hardy ones that may have remained. Along with the cactus bugs, we had a lot of Whiteflies in several of the gardens (also known as Aleyrodidae) especially thick in the Junior House Courtyard. Several weeks of spraying finally took care of that swarm. Ask Jeannie Greven how many there were. I was too busy sneezing and swatting them away.
 
We continue to monitor the Butterfly Garden and it is responding with healthy plants and a lot of color.


Several years ago, we grew a heritage chiltepen pepper. It was one of the featured plants in the Senior House Herb Garden. Thanks to Jessie Byrd, we now have six growing in the orchard area.
 
As many of you know, we have two hanging baskets in the herb garden. The NRPR Director indicated he wanted flowers there. Earlier this year, we had petunias and verbenas. Tomorrow we will be changing to red and white geraniums and the other basket will contain fuchsia plants. Can't wait to see how that will brighten up the herb garden!
   
Come join us on our Tuesday adventures on "the ranch".
COMMITTEE UPDATE S
Membership
 by Mark Thompson

It has been a good year for membership as we now stand at 423 members. New member activity typically drops off during the summer months, picking back up in September.

  A new member's perk is coming soon. It has to do with food (and it is not the cookbook). Stay tuned.
Editor: Linda Gricius | Green Valley Gardeners | [email protected]  | www.greenvalleygardeners.com
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