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August 2017
Established in 1980
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In this issue you will find:
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The Queen of the Night, donated by former club member Billee Hoornbeek, bloomed early last month in Desert Meadows Park.
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- Message from the President
- Upcoming Events
- Member Tours & Events
- Seminars
- Feature Articles
- "In Your Plot"
- Make a Donation to GVG via AmazonSmile
- Project Updates
- Arid Garden
- Allen J. Ogden Community Garden
- Desert Meadows Park
- GVG Gardens at Historic Canoa Ranch
- Committee Updates
- Member Photos
Would you like to submit an article or a photo for the August newsletter? If so, please submit it to [email protected] by August 29.
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MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
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SARE members board the bus after touring Desert Meadows Park
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On Tuesday, July 25, the Club hosted 55 members of the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) tour of Southwest Arizona at our Desert Meadows Park. The tour was sponsored by the University of Arizona Community Extension program, led by Rick Gibson, a long-term supporter of our Club's efforts to educate and promote sustainable gardening in the Sonoran region. The SARE members ranged from Guam, Hawaii, Montana and throughout the Western USA, and as nearby as Marana. The group toured the Desert Meadows Park facility and were provided with information regarding how the park provided instruction and guidance regarding sustainable irrigation, organic fertilization and integrated pest management by Club members Elisa Dearing, Doug Lesotto and Chuck Parsons. This was another example of public recognition of the Club's community education and volunteer efforts.
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- Seminars will resume Thursday, September 14. Watch for upcoming email blast announcements.
Member Activities
- Member Activities will resume in September/October. Stay tuned for upcoming email blast announcements.
Visit our
website for a complete calendar of events
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| Green fruit beetles may swarm sweet, ripe fruit this time of year. |
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"In Your Plot"
by Lorna Mitchell
August is a chance for the gardener to start afresh. There is plenty of warmth and humidity to sprout seeds quickly, and the growing young seedlings will mature in the cooler temperatures of fall. The rains are spotty, so keep irrigation working by checking tubing for weak spots or loose connections that can blow out and timers that need new batteries and appropriate settings.
SEEDS to plant in the ground: Think - will this frost sensitive plant make me a harvest before it freezes? Our first frost usually comes in November, but it's hard to predict when. Try green beans, squash, corn, cucumbers. Mid-August is good planting time for most vegies except seeds for tomato, peppers, eggplant or other slow-developing, heat-loving plants. Think also - will this cool season plant get a good start in this heat and live through the fall (and winter) to produce the harvest I want? Try beets, carrots, kohlrabi, Swiss chard, radishes, leaf lettuce, turnips, rutabaga, parsnips, short day onion seeds and collards. Sow seeds every two to three weeks for successive harvests.
Start seeds for winter plants in pots at home: Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts (the Brassicas). Keep them moist and in the full sun, which means lots of attention. These plants should go in the garden the end of September or beginning of October at the age of 6-8 weeks.
TOMATOES: Recent soaring temperatures have slowed tomato production, but new fruit should come on soon. Continue vigilance for tomato hornworms and spray with BT to control. Be sure the sprayer has never had weed killer or pre-emergent solutions in it. For indeterminate tomatoes, prune out spurs that originate at the leaf nodes to prevent gangly vegetative growth and channel energy into fruit. Determinate tomato varieties should put on another crop soon. If they are not flowering and setting fruit, cut back about one third of the overall size. Keep ground clear under plants to prevent disease spread and mold. Transplants of early tomatoes can yield results if put in very soon.
Green fruit beetles, which are native to the Southwest, will swarm sweet, ripe fruit to suck its juice. They are very poor fliers and bump into things continually. They are considered harmless and no chemical control is recommended, if they are a particular nuisance try mechanical control.
SQUASH: Watch for the stem borer - pulling out the caterpillar at a very early stage may save the plant. Better yet, remove the old meandering plant and start seeds for a new crop - it will produce before you know it.
High humidity and moist soils encourage growth of fungi and pests. In places of dense and neglected overgrowth (such as in a bean patch or sprawling tomatoes) it is possible to get pathogenic fungi such as powdery mildew or rust. Open up these areas to allow circulation of air and light to prevent damage. Pill bugs and/or sow bugs thrive under decaying leaf matter on moist soil and emerge to eat your germinating seedlings, even if they are yards away. Don't believe they only eat dead leaves; they should be your first suspect when expected seedlings don't appear. Keep the ground clear of debris, including weeds, for a healthy garden.
Those are my plot thoughts for now, Happy Gardening!
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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/.
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Multiple red Trichocereus flowers reach out for attention. |
Arid Garden
by Mary Kidnocker
On Friday, July 21, after a week of rains, nearly every plant in the garden had flowers... from mammillarias and trichocereus cacti to each salvia bush, verbena, aromatic kidneywood tree, ruellias, gaillardias, birds-of-paradise, fairy dusters, vitex, little-leaf cordias, and the unique 'Dead Finish' acacia tree... such a show for the deserving volunteers!
Before the rains arrived, several Friday mornings were spent with every volunteer wielding a garden hose. Our little garden and its plant collections were being kept alive. Besides our regular day, Jackie Jensen, Linda Gregory, and Ilse Gudehus came by and watered any wilting plants begging for a drink.
The month also brought visits from one small but hungry bunny and deer friends, who on each stopover left evidence (not just hoof prints) of their being in the garden.
Now on to August!
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Vivid yellow flowers make this small acacia tree look like anything except a 'Dead Finish'.
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| Royal purple Moss Verbena could not wait for rain to burst into color. |
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Allen J. Ogen Community Garden
b
y George Stone
George is currently on vacation. Check back next month for more tales from the Ogden Garden.
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Desert Meadows Park
by Chuck Parsons
Finally, some rain! After four months of scant precipitation, we accumulated about 4.5 inches of rain at the park in July. Rain is the magic elixir for plants - they turn vivid green, sprout new shoots, burst in bloom - it makes quite a show for the park visitors. Our water bill exceeded $500 for June - yikes! - we expect to see a significant drop when the July bill arrives.
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The Sonoran Desert turns green!
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The Trichocereus near the Barrio Garden burst out in bloom as a welcome to the monsoon rains!
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Several of our regular Wednesday morning volunteers were out of town during the month, yet we still logged over 300 hours of volunteer time. Rain not only benefits the plants we cherish, but does a nice job on those we don't too. Volunteers were busy weeding and mowing the past month. This is a good time to acknowledge the volunteers! Over 2500 hours have been logged this year. We are now 3 ½ years into this project. Several volunteers have 'adopted' an area of the park for their contribution. There are areas of the park that have not yet been adopted. We welcome more volunteers if you'd like to contribute to this project. Drop by on Wednesday morning and we can discuss your interests - I'm sure we can find a task that would benefit from your contribution.
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Boots on the Ground - volunteers harvest veggies for the food bank.
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Elissa Dearing and the volunteers that have worked with her in the community garden have donated over 1500 pounds of produce to our local food banks. A very nice accomplishment considering that there are fewer beds dedicated to the food bank this summer than last, and that the plants really struggled during the dry/hot spell prior to our monsoon rain.
As mentioned in Bill Berdine's comments, we were honored to be included in the SARE
(Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) tour of Southwest Arizona. The tour included BKW Farms in Marana, an organic farm growing White Sonora Wheat and Khorasan Wheat. They also visited FICO pecan orchards, a produce distribution facility in Rio Rico, the border wall/crossing at Nogales and then ended the day with a dinner at the Bell Cattle Ranch off Ruby Road. Each year the Western region meets in a different state for their conference. This year it was Arizona obviously, next year it will be Washington, and in 2019 it will be Guam. We considered it an honor to be included on the tour.
What is sustainable agriculture?
Every day, farmers and ranchers around the world develop new, innovative strategies to produce and distribute food, fuel and fiber sustainably. While these strategies vary greatly they all embrace three broad goals, or what SARE calls the 3 Pillars of Sustainability:
- Profit over the long term
- Stewardship of our nation's land, air and water
- Quality of life for farmers, ranchers and their communities
There are almost as many ways to reach these goals as there are farms and ranches in America.
To learn more, check out the award-winning
What is Sustainable Agriculture?
.
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Cactus respond to the monsoon rains.
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GVG Gardens at Historic Canoa Ranch (HCR)
by Jack Davis and Raydine Taber
Monsoon: Mother Nature's "Miracle Grow".. With our active monsoon, all the plants are thriving. It's very exciting to see all the lush growth and an abundance of flowers. Rain brings the ranch alive with color. Not to mention a lot of sightings of birds, lizards and other wildlife.
Hopefully, our pack rat issues will begin to decline. NRPR acquired two feral cats and they were release about a week ago. On site personal say they haven't seen the cats but they have seen signs that they are still around the ranch.
Several months ago, we added a hummingbird feeder at the Sr. House Herb Garden. We are beginning to see more hummingbirds around the house. Many of the new plants, in the Jr. House courtyard are their favorites. The courtyard is a must see. With a lot of the flowers blooming, it is a cool, peaceful, aromatic place to rest.
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The Jr. House Courtyard garden provides a tranquil place to unwind.
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SAVE THE DATE: The fifth annual Anza Day, at Historic Canoa Ranch, will be Saturday, October 14th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Food carts, vendors, informational booths and the excellent re-enactment of Anza's arrival at Hacienda de la Canoa. Enjoy roaming the ranch at your leisure. Stay tuned for future email blast announcements regarding this event.
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Membership - New Members
by Mark Thompson
This hot weather slows down a lot of things, and it sure has slowed down new member recruitment. We've had no new members join us this month. Hopefully next month brings cooler weather and more new members.
Thanks for your support!
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Club member Judy Christensen sent us this photo of her perennial garden. She says the flowers are mainly
day lillies, Shasta and Gloriosa daisies, and all are in full bloom now. Judy's garden is located in Torch Lake, the northwest corner of lower Michigan at the 45th Parallel.
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When one of the big storms snapped off the tall sunflowers in the Desert Meadows Park garden, Elissa Dearing and other volunteers managed to salvage them.
They took some of the flowers home to enjoy, and donated the
rest to the food bank along with the produce for that day.
I bet food bank customers enjoyed having these beauties brighten their homes!
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Nancy Lucas took this photo of Ilse Gudehus's raised bed in the Desert Meadows Park garden. Ilse tied some bamboo stakes along the top of her hoops to elevate the butternut squash. She has radishes and lettuce planted below. Elissa Dearing said she refers to Ilse's approach as "high-rise squash". What a creative use of space!
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