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June 2019
Established in 1980
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In this issue you will find:
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Desert Willow |
- Message from the President
- Upcoming Events
- Seminars
- Nominating Committee
- Member Tours & Events
- Feature Articles
- "In Your Plot"
- 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
- Copperview Elementary School
- Calendar of Volunteer Opportunities
- Committee Updates
- Membership
- Fall Plant Sale
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MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
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My "Start of the Summer Season" message starts with congratulations to George Stone and the Alan J. Ogden Community Gardener's successful sale of 2,000 Texas Sweet onions earlier this month realizing a net profit of $1,396.10. Particular thanks are due to Lorna and Fred Mitchell who cared for the onions starting in November 2018 running through their harvesting on May 8, 2019.
Beginning this past March, I initiated a new format for the Board of Director meetings. The meetings continue to be held the second Tuesday of the month, starting in September running through May. The meetings will continue to be held at the Green Valley Friends in Deed, starting at 1PM and concluding at 2:45PM. The change in format is that all Club members are invited to an Open Forum with the Board starting at 1PM with up to an hour being allocated for discussion, clarification and input regard member interests. In the event an hour is not needed, the Board of Directors meeting will be called to order and is restricted to Board members. The Open Forum will not be used for any matters that need Board approval such as finances, elections and committee/project coordinator positions. The purpose of the Open Forum is to give club members an opportunity to regularly meet and talk with the Board as a whole.
I urge all Club members to communicate with Board members, including myself, about your interests, concerns and expectations for the upcoming Summer months. One consideration is a series of small attendance (10- 15 members) "master classes" on focused gardening and landscape topics (e.g., fruit tree selection, care and issues; vegetable gardening in high heat months, monsoon season gardening). The classes would be held at sites illustrating the topical considerations, not in an auditorium. Your suggestions and topic recommendation will be appreciated. Board member contact information can found on the Club web site. Thank you for your continued involvement.
A reminder:
I want to remind the membership that we are beginning the process of electing three members to the Board of Directors. I hope to see a ballot in October that contains the names of members who
aspire to serve on the Board. Members can nominate other members and/or self-nominate. All Board of Diretor nominations should be directed to the Nominating Committee by contacting either Bill Carley [custombill@att.net] or
Dave Crumley [crumley99@msn.com
)
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Bill Berdine, President
Green Valley Gardeners
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SEMINARS
by Bill Carley
NOMINATING COMMITTEE
"There are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened."
Mary Kay Ash
The Nominating Committee is looking for members interested in serving on the Green Valley Gardeners Board of Directors.
As a board member, you will have an opportunity to establish and administer club policies. You will also have input into the establishment of new 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 have questions about serving as a board member contact Bill or Dave at the email or phone numbers listed below.
If you would be willing to serve or would like to nominate a member, please contact Bill Carley at
custom.bill@att.net 920-344-6563 or Dave Crumley at crumley99@msn.com 520 404 8773
MEMBER TOURS AND EVENTS
by Marita Ramsey
Be on the lookout for separate eblasts providing details for each of these seminars and member activities. And visit
our
website for a complete calendar of events
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"IN YOUR PLOT"
by Lorna Mitchell
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June means bright sun and soaring temperatures; undoubtedly the most challenging month for the gardener and our plants! Harvests depend on water and rain will be in short supply this month. Do a manual run on every clock on your irrigation system every time you are at the garden to ensure adequate delivery. Keep standard irrigation parts in your locker to make repairs easier. Watch for irrigation problems in other plots and help solve their issues, too. Just one or two days without water can have negative effects.
HARVESTING:
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. Check out the cookbook, Plot to Plate, for delicious recipes that feature onions.
GARLIC should be out and dried thoroughly. It can be cleaned and covered by distilled vinegar and stored in the refrigerator (DO NOT cover with oil - this can lead to botulism!). Chopped and frozen it keeps well but left in our dry air garlic will shrivel 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 notch of the leaves; this will channel the plant's energy into fruit production.
Hornworms, the nemesis of tomatoes, will probably arrive this month. Handpick but also apply BT every few days once they appear, because we never find them all.
SUMMER SQUASH fruit grows quickly once it is 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 lower 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/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 only when the leaves are dry because damage to leaves can occur if they are wet.
IRISH 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.
PLANTING:
Sow seeds of melon, winter squash (hard-skinned), okra, black-eyed peas, amaranth, green beans, yard-long beans and cucumbers. These all like the heat, just keep soil moist with a couple of short watering's 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, Lorna Mitchell
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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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Allen J. Ogden Community Garden
b
y George Stone
With planting of crops, the onion sale and George Jr. and the everyday events at the garden we were quite busy in May. George Jr. went to several events which we now believe was a little too much for him. He went into his hide box and never came out for almost a week. He is ok but we will schedule public appearances with him farther apart.
Hotot rabbits are due to arrive May 29 from North Phoenix. The kids are excited.
May 8: We harvested the 2,000 onions and sold them at Desert Meadows Park over a 3-day period. We sold all but about 200 onions. Some interesting facts about the saleW
- $2,078.80 income
- $682.70 expenses
- 1,038 lbs. of onions sold
- 285 transactions
- $7.29 each purchase
- 3.64 lbs. per transaction
- 103 total man hours
May 21: The adventures of George Jr. continues as we took George to Copper View where he made his rounds among 90 2
& 4 grade students. George was very active that day and led Mrs. Strayer around the courtyard for a solid 30 minutes.
May 23. Kathy and I were invited to Mrs. Strayers class where we were presented a copy of ----The Adventures of George Jr. The book was authored by Mrs. Strayer and her 22 students.
The students, using their imagination, created adventurous stories about George Jr. The book was published by Studentreasures and purchased by 17 of the 22 students. In addition to my copy, Virginia Danui and her Grandson, Linus, also received a copy.
During the month of May volunteers built an outdoor Dutch oven/Wok cook island in the Hummingbird section of the garden. A big thank you goes out to Glen Spellman and David Snider who live near the Ogden garden. We have 3 Dutch ovens which have been donated by club members Nancy Anacker, Hal Tokuyama and George & Kathy Stone. We could use 3 more, so if you have one tucked away in the garage, we would be interested in adding it to the collection.
Mr. Rand Mayfield, a Sahuarita resident and retired culinary art teacher has agreed to hold a cooking class for 12 where he will teach the art of Thailand cooking. His class will be held sometime in late August or early September. One week after Mr. Mayfield class I will hold a basic class on Dutch oven 101-cooking. Also, this fall Kathy Stone will hold an evening class on potted plants. She will also use the cook Island for her demonstration so this little Island will be getting lots of use.
June will be the start of a long hot period so a reminder to do your gardening early. Kathy and I will NOT be traveling abroad BUT we will be taking a long, hot, dry, boring, tiresome, scenic drive through the exciting states of Oklahoma and Kansas on the way to Misery ---errr-Missouri. Can't be gone long for I still have those Chemo treatments to look forward to. See ya in a garden.
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Arid Garden
by Mary Kidnocker
New club member Barry Gillaspie has joined our Friday morning volunteers. He is a (rare) Tucson native so will be a valued reference to the garden's many desert plants. Welcome Barry.
Our Trichocereus cactus collection for the past month has been exhibiting the greatest number of bright flowers in memory... with 40 to 100 blooms at one time, throughout the garden, day after day... such a show! Check out the attached photos.
Bill Carley and friends have been busy with reconstruction of the wooden door into our storage/work area. As many of you have discovered, wood material does not last long in the desert environment, and this old weathered door has experienced lots of opening & closing. In other words, it was time. Thanks to Bill, Jim, Craig, and James for helping keep the garden's equipment "in working order."
Footnote:
You must be a gardener if the trunk of your car contains clumps of potting soil and a few dried leaves!
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Desert Meadows Park
by Chuck Parsons
What a fabulous May! Nights have remained cool; day temperatures are tolerable, and we even recorded precipitation ~ so untypical Sonoran May weather. The plants in the park have certainly enjoyed the reprieve and the garden plots have thrived. Elissa Dearing and the community garden volunteers have donated 340 pounds to the food bank this month ~ in May 2018 the donation was 160 pounds. Visitor use of the park is above average for May as well.
On the negative side, the wind has been persistent this month. Sometimes quite strong. Several trees in the park suffered wind damage. We totally lost a relatively new mesquite. Some large trichocereus, heavy with flower buds, even toppled.
We have four settee swings at the park. All have been donated over time. Park visitors have also been donating cushions ~ all have been showing excessive wear due to use and weather. We invested in new, more durable and weather resistant cushions this month. Adding comfort and a splash of color for our park visitors.
James Tyrer has contributed many hours propagating plants in the park nursery. He uses cuttings from both donations and park plants. We have generated enough funds from the sale of these plants to build nursery benches. Volunteers will be building 3 benches so that James can store trays of potted plants above the ground. Recently we have been using club folding tables to keep the most susceptible plants off the ground and out of reach from critters. The benches will be designed with welded wire top surfaces so water and debris can fall through.
Every day the park presents visitors with a splash of color or an amazing bloom. Here are two examples from this month:
Cactus Vine
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GVG Gardens at Historic Canoa Ranch (HCR)
by Raydine Taber, Bill Carley, and Jack Davis (emeritus)
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The big question throughout May was "What is that flower?" If we have answered that question once, we have answered it many times. There are five pomegranate bushes that have been on the ranch as long as anyone can remember. In 2011 or 2012 approximately another 20 were added in front and around the Junior House front lawn. Last fall, we added another six to the orchard. The very old ones have not produced any fruit since we have been at the ranch. The ones in front of Junior House produce the sweetest pomegranates we have ever tasted. Over the winter, we did some severe pruning on all the pomegranates to allow light to get into the plants' centers trying to improve the plant's photosynthesis process. All pomegranates have received water and a couple of doses of fertilizer. We are seeing the beginnings of fruit forming. However, this has happened in the past and then the fruit fell off the tree before maturity. According to Glenn Wright, a few of the reasons for not producing fruit could be that the older pomegranates may have outlived their ability to produce fruit or maybe there were not enough bees to pollenate them. We have seen bees this year so we are keeping our fingers crossed that maybe we will get fruit on the older pomegranates. If not, they still make a spectacular splash of color during the spring blossoming at the ranch.
To date, most of our plants look healthy. We did have an occasion to find White Flies, Cactus Bugs and Snout Nosed Weevils. A couple of treatments using "soapy water" and they appear to be gone. We're out there every week with the magnifying glass looking for creepy, crawly critters.
This year's herbs are being harvested and dried for future use. Besides drying them, some are also being used to propagate additional plants to be planted in the orchard as companion plants.
The next Tour of The Gardens of Canoa will be Wednesday, June 19th, at 8;30 a.m. Also check the events calendar on the HCR website for additional events. Here are the titles of several classes being offered at Historic Canoa Ranch. Desert night Shift, Art as a Way of Knowing the Sonoran Desert and Art & Science: Ways of Knowing the Sonoran Desert.
For more information and/or registration for events at Canoa Ranch access the following website:
http://webcms.pima.gov/cms/One.aspx?pageId=1507
Want to be a part of our garden restoration,
join us, on Tuesday's, for our gardening adventures, at "the ranch"? We meet at 7 a.m., at the Sr. House Herb Garden. You are welcome, at any time, to join us.
Co-managers: Raydine Taber, Bill Carley and Jack Davis (Emeritus)
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COPPERVIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
by Steve Curtis
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CALENDAR OF VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
by Christa Ryan
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Membership
by Mark Thompson
I think that there are three reasons why people join a garden club: they have a green thumb and want to use it; they don't have a green thumb, but want to develop it; or, they lost their green thumb and want to find it.
What group do you belong to? Regardless of which one, the only way you are going to nurture your interest in to get involved. There is no better way to network with fellow gardeners than to get your hands dirty.
We picked up four new gardeners this last month:
Bill Vooheers
Linda Trauth
Mary Martin
Michael Day
Please welcome them to our group and don't forget to get you fresh herbs at DMP and to let me know if there is any change in your contact information.
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Fall Plant Sale
by Christa Ryan
PLAN AHEAD FOR OUR 2019 FALL PLANT SALE
The fall Plant Sale dates have been set for October 24, 25 and 26, with set up on Wednesday, October 23. Please check your calendars to make time to help us again. Sign-up sheets will be available at the September seminar as well as the 2 seminars scheduled for early October. You can also email me, Christa Ryan, at
chrstrn4@cox.net
if you want to sign up early.
Wednesday afternoon will be for Members Only Shopping.
Please contact Christa Ryan or Kathy Stone if you would like to be on the planning committee for the sale. We are looking forward to another outstanding sale!
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If you have some favorite photos you've taken at one of the club's projects, please submit them prior to the 28th of the month to be included in the newsletter for all to enjoy.
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| Flowering Bishop's Hat Cactus |
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