What a difference a few weeks make! Gardeners are busy harvesting peas, lettuce, beans, kale, summer squash, zucchini, as well as a few coveted cherry tomatoes. We are so proud of what you've collectively grown!
Volunteer Opportunities
If any gardeners are looking to fulfill their 6 hour volunteer commitment, here are several ways to help. Please don't forget to log in volunteer hours in the garden shed (clipboard on counter).
Join us in the garden from 9 to 11 a.m. on Friday, July 12, to finalize the children's play area adjacent to the sunflower house, and plant the final stretch of sunflower seeds behind the Fairy Garden. Tasks involved: shoveling and raking wood chips, planting seeds.
Volunteer Chris Cameron is overseeing the Giving Garden located behind the high tunnel. Produce grown is donated to the Franklin Community Center's food pantry. Please let me know if you would like to help weed or harvest in the Giving Garden.
For those of you who missed the last bulletin, I'm re-posting information on plant diseases that gardeners have been spotting.
Please read the following information on how we can collectively prevent and address the spread of disease.
Important News on Tomato Blight, Septoria Leaf Spot, and more!
Please visit the garden shed for specific information on how to identify and and treat infected plants. You'll find a bottle of a baking soda mixture that helps
with fungal diseases. Please make sure to read full instructions on bottle and apply once a week for 3 weeks. Additional tips:
Avoid overhead watering! It does not provide the deep watering needed, and wet foliage invites the spread of fungal diseases.
The importance of mulching cannot be overstated. It helps retain soil moisture, prevents weed growth and soil compaction, and prohibits water from splashing on leaves. There is organic straw available in the garden shed (now free). . . please use.
If you decide to use abark mulch, please purchase a natural product that has not been colored or dyed.
Tending to your garden. Please read.
All gardeners are required to keep their plot "free of weeds, pests and diseases, and harvest produce as it becomes ripe." Please let me know if something is preventing you from tending to your garden and you need help.
A reminder that blue stakes in a plot are in place when a family is on vacation and needs help watering. If you are the vacationer, please let me know if you also want your ripe veggies to be harvested while you are away.
Water hoses and wands - help! Please remember to turn the water spigot into the off position when you are done watering. Then squeeze wand control to open position to drain water from wand. Pressure from water building up is causing the wands to fail.
You'll notice the children's greenhouse (behind the butterfly garden) and public restrooms (across the driveway) are under construction. Please be careful of construction vehicles and park near the high tunnel (except those using the designated handicap parking area).
Best, Joyce
Community Gardens Director
We welcomed a multitude of community members this past weekend as part of the Soroptimist Garden tour and Caffe Lena's Farm to Folk music concert. New visitors were grateful to find this "gem" in Saratoga Spring and enthralled by the gift of the Fairy Garden (thank you Jess).
