May 2020
Established in 1980
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In this issue you will find:
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Night-blooming cereus |
- Message from the President
- Upcoming Events
- Seminars
- Member Tours & Events
- Spring Celebration/Garden Tour
- Work Calendar
- 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
- Elementary Schools
- 40th Anniversary Project
- Committee Updates
- Member Photos
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MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
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I thought March was an interesting month. What about April? The coronavirus is still with us and looks like will continue a while longer. Most of us have started wearing masks on a regular basis and we are still staying home mostly. We had our first "official" email board meeting. Yes, it was a learning experience but we managed it. I experienced two zoom meetings. Surprisingly easy to use.
Mary Kidnocker's husband, Dwight Kidnocker, passed away earlier this month. Dwight was a long- time club member and volunteered for years at the Arid Garden as well as helping out with other projects. If you would like to make a memorial donation, Mary asks that you donate to the Arid Garden. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mary during this difficult time.
I had the pleasure of walking with two of my girl friends on the Anza Trail this morning. It was so beautiful. Desert Meadows Park was showing off its night blooming cereus cacti. Most everyone was wearing masks and social distancing. I had on my special mask that I made out of a Green Valley Gardener tote bag. I know Mark Thompson will want one of these masks. I have made probably a hundred masks and this one is my favorite.
We have received several donations from people who have been enjoying our Desert Meadows Park.
Along with the donations we have had some really good comments and thank you's for what our club does to keep the garden looking beautiful.
You may donate to the club by going to our website
www.greenvalleygardeners.com. We have been working on an easier method of donating on our website. This should be available at the time you read this newsletter. You may view an example of the page at the bottom of my article.
I had one email from a lady saying that she observed several people having a picnic in the park today. They had brought their own chairs and tables. She showed them the sign that said to not bring your own chairs. Unfortunately, they were very rude to her and told her "
We disagree with the distancing orders." At the end of the email she said she still wanted to let us know how much she enjoys the park. There will always be people who think they are excluded from the rules and not care about protecting themselves and others. One person can infect 10 others then those 10 others can each infect 10 others. Before long all of Green Valley could be infected. It is my hope that all of our members abide by the rules in place and understand that it wasn't easy to make the decision to remove all the chairs and tables and post signs throughout the park. The board felt it was the responsible thing to do and to abide by the governor's orders. Hopefully, one day we can go back to the freedom that we all were used to before this virus invaded our country.
Don't forget to go online and order your onions. Still great onions just a different method of buying.
They are grown at Ogden Garden.
Now that we have more time on our hands it might be good time to look at the clothing with our emblem on it. Just go to our website and follow the directions.
Email to: pats@greenvalleygardeners.com
Patricia Simpson, President
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METHODS FOR MAKING A MONETARY DONATION TO THE CLUB
Square offers a direct link to make a credit card donation to the garden club. Simply click here ~ you will be asked for an amount, your contact information and credit card information.
Donations made to this link go toward operating expenses. If you want your donation to go to a specific project or in honor of an individual please send an email to Diane Carley with your instructions.
Remember that you can also make donations via credit card by going to the club store and scroll to the donation item of your choice.
You also can mail in a donation to:
Green Valley Gardeners
PO Box 86
Green Valley, AZ 85622-0086
Link for square donation:
Link for club store:
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Seminars are cancelled until fall.
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MEMBER ACTIVITIES
by Marita Ramsay
Member activities are cancelled.
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SPRING CELEBRATION/GARDEN TOUR
We want to thank all of the members of the Green Valley Gardeners and Green Valley community members who generously donated the cost of their tickets to the Green Valley Gardeners. We are so disappointed that the tour had to be cancelled but we hope to have a wonderful garden tour next year. Thank you for your continued support. Stay well.
Cynthia Surprise and Stacie Meyer
Spring Garden Tour Co-Chairs
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"IN YOUR PLOT"
By Lorna Mitchell
Social distancing does not apply to plants; for which I am very happy! We may have to keep our distance from gardeners but not from our garden.
Mornings are still cool and pleasant but we have to rise earlier to see it. We visit our plots according to the angle of the sun, but our plants get no reprieve from the increasing intensity and temperatures of our infamous sun. Don't try to provide shade for vegetable plants; they adapt and it is the sun that fuels the harvest. Adjust watering schedules to keep plant roots moist all the time as they need more water in the heat ahead.
Harvesting is the crown jewel of gardening. We are very fortunate here to be able to harvest something almost every week. Bulb onions will be harvested this month and they need to be kept well-watered as they grow in girth. Onions are supposed to have a biennial life cycle - vegetative growth in the first year and then produce seeds the second year. Our climate confuses them and many want to send up flower stalks now; cut off the stalk as soon as it begins to form.
Onions can be harvested and eaten at any time throughout their growth but when the green tops fold over on their own it is a signal that they are done growing. Cut back on water and let them dry in place for a week or ten days before digging them out of the ground, this helps "cure" them. Onions have a strong root system so they must be dug out and not pulled. Sweet onions generally will not store for more than a few months so summer is the time for enjoying their abundance! Check your Garden Club Cookbook for tips.
In that new space dig in compost and granulated fertilizer then plant seeds of beans, melons, radishes, okra, cucumbers, black eyed peas, and all kinds of squash. Plants of peppers, sweet potatoes and eggplants can also go in.
Garlic can be used now but for storage it needs to dry out completely so leave it in till the tops die down. (Garlic won't be planted again until October.)
Tomato plants are in almost every plot and if they are indeterminate (continuing to grow and producing fruit all season) they will need sturdy support and it needs to be in place before the plant grows large. It needs to be strong enough to bear the weight of the plant and hold firm in the ground so wind doesn't twist it. I suggest pruning or snipping out excess "suckers" at the leaf axials (all season long) which helps channel energy into producing fruit.
Pests we need to watch for are the white fly, tomato hornworm and squash borer. All of these have a larval stage so we can use BT to control them. BT stands for Bacillus Thuringiensis, a natural organic bacterium which is selectively toxic to many caterpillars. It is sprayed on in water solution and there is no residue. It is exempt from tolerance requirements so it may be applied up to the day of harvest. I have found it to be very helpful in controlling caterpillar pests. Repeated applications may be necessary to control new populations.
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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Through Amazon Smile, the GVG has earned $97.12 this year. Thank you all for the support!
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Allen J. Ogden Community Garden
b
y Erin Walker
Hello Friends,
I hope this finds you all well. I am happy to be able to announce we are going to be moving forward with the annual onions sale this May! This is fantastic news for so many reasons, the least of which is the opportunity to purchase some of the biggest, sweetest, and juiciest Texas Sweet onions around, and organically grown. This year however out of necessity for safety, things are going to be a little different. Purchasing is now available. So you may now place your order and continue through May 27th on the Green Valley Gardeners web site (www.greenvalleygardeners.com) and pick-up will begin on May 26th at Desert Meadows Park from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the days of the 26th, 27th, and 28th at the moment. The way this will work is you will come to Desert Meadows Park with the name of the person who placed the order in your car windshield, and a volunteer will come with your order and place it in your backseat or your trunk. This limits person to person contact as best as possible. This year we are also asking that a minimum of a 5 pound order be placed but at $2 a pound (roughly one onion), this is a great deal. Ask your neighbors if they are interested in trying these out.
Once you have your onions, there are a few things to remember to keep them fresh and lasting. First is that these particular onions do not do well outside of refrigeration. On the counter they will last a few days at most, but will last for months in the fridge while retaining their juiciness and sweet flavor. They can be frozen for future use but only after they've been diced. I thank George Stone for passing on this wisdom. Following are a few recipes I found that reminded me of some dishes my grandmother made for me growing up in Texas. I am looking forward to trying them myself.
On that note, if there is anyone who is available to volunteer for pick-up days, please let me know via email at
erinwalker822@gmail.com
. Thank you all and happy gardening!
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Arid Garden
by Mary Kidnocker
Installation of the new updated irrigation system has moved along smoothly, thanks to Bill Carley and his crew. With coming triple-digit temperatures, these gentlemen will now take a break, resuming the balance of the job in autumn. Friday volunteers have helped by refreshing the new construction areas, so the garden is again pretty as ever. Thanks to all.
With the many colorful Trichocereus Cactus in bloom, there have been many active cameras in the garden recently. Visitors have been very cooperative by staying on the walks and keeping prescribed distances from one another. Adjacent neighbors have told us how impressed they are with the respect visitors show to this little garden and to one another!
I would personally like to express my appreciation to all of you who have shown your caring support through what has been a very difficult time. Your kindness will never be forgotten. Dwight was very proud of the garden and being able to share its upkeep with such special people.
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Desert Meadows Park
by Chuck Parsons
The park proved to be a great relief to a lot of people this past month as we all contend with the grim news of the coronavirus each day and with restrictions to our normal day-to-day life. The garden club allowed visitors to walk in the park. Many folks took advantage of this privilege and also used the park for access to the Anza Trail ~ walking it north from the park and then along the Santa Cruz River. We definitely witnessed many more folks on that segment of the trail in April. Our dogs simply didn't grasp the concept of 'stay at home' ~ they fully intended to get their normal daily walk in the park and many of the regulars did.
Wildflowers and cacti were showing their spring bloom this past month. Many photographers spent hours with their cameras in the park. It was a great activity to allow them to be outside and well removed from other folks.
For the first time we placed padlocks on the gates to the community garden. This allowed the plot holders the opportunity to work in their garden plots without unintended interaction with park visitors.
As a park visitor you probably know La Huerta has become one of the worst roads in town. I am happy to report it is scheduled for repaving. Signs are posted that cars will not be allowed to park on the street beginning April 27th to allow for road work. Hopefully next month I will have a photo of the new road in Sand'n'Seeds!
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GVG Gardens at Historic Canoa Ranch (HCR)
by Raydine Taber
On March 31, we were informed that the ranch would be closed to the public and crew, staff and volunteers were being furloughed. Arrangements were made for the Site Stewards to take on watering those plants not on irrigation. A couple of days later, the ranch manager indicated that the project lead, volunteer would be allowed access to the Canoa Gardens. Once a week, we would be allowed to enter and check all the gardens and indoor plants. Not the ideal, weekly work day, but better than nothing.
The Site Stewards have been doing an outstanding job of not only watering our non-irrigated plants, but as being our eyes on the gardens. We receive frequent texts concerning something they have observed with the plants. We can respond with what needs to be done to correct whatever they found. One of the Site Stewards, Karen, has been sending pictures of all the blooming plants and any issue she sees.
Echinocereus Bonkerae (Bonker Hedgehog)
On one of the Tuesday visits, it was found that the
Rosa Banksiae Luttea (Lady Banks Rose - Yellow) located in the Junior House Courtyard and in full bloom, had blown over pulling the trellis out of the ground. It fell on top of a Balahinia Lunarioides (Anacaho / Chihuahua Orchid Tree). This was reported to the ranch manager and the rose and trellis were up righted. The trellis has been damaged but should get us through the season. We see some serious pruning in this monster's near future. See before and after photos.
Several months back, we had to remove all the plants from the Grijalva butterfly garden so stucco work could be done on the walls. Those plants were moved to the orchard and were being hand watered. On the first visit after the close, we found that irrigation had been added to each potted plant. Thank you to the ranch manager and crew. That individual irrigation has made a world of difference in the plant's recovery.
Prior to the closing, we had firmed up the plans for tree selection and location in the Tradesman's house courtyard. Those plans were approved. But who knows, due to the Coronavirus, what or when this will materialize. Construction of the building continues. The present stage is totally new, outside stucco.
Once we get through this pandemic and the ranch is open to the volunteers, please consider joining our project. Historic Canoa Ranch offers an enormous assortment of gardening venues. If you are interested in, want to learn about or are an expert with vegetables, ornamental plants, indoor plants, herbs, cacti, native plants, succulents, plants for the pollinators and/or fruit trees, then, for you, Historic Canoa Ranch is the right venue. We have a variety of plants and gardens to meet everyone's preference. You can choose to work on all the gardens or just the one you prefer.
HCR Project Manager: Raydine Taber
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ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
by Steve Curtis
Schools are closed so nothing happening here.
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40th ANNIVERSARY PROJECTS
MEDIAN GREEN PROJECT
Good News! NE 16, NE17, NE25 and NE26 have been completed. The following individuals have volunteered to water the medians for 2 years at which time all plants should be sufficiently established:
NE16 - Russell & Cheri Smith
NE17 - John Divjack
NE25 - Linda Papworth
NE26 - Richard & Kay Farland
Thank you all for volunteering, your community and Green Valley Gardeners appreciate your dedication.
A big thank you to Joe & Cheryl Wolowsky for taking on Median NW17 on La Canada. The median looks great!
We will be starting the process of getting the permits from Pima County on the 7 remaining medians on Abrego. Hopefully the social distancing will be over by the time we get the permits and we can start physically working on the medians.
I will keep the current volunteers informed as we go through the process. If you would like to join us and volunteer to work on the medians, you can email:
THE WHITE ELEPHANT PARADE PROJECT
Our entry will consist of a pickup truck decorated to represent the club as a whole and four golf carts decorated to represent Ogden Garden, Arid Garden, Desert Meadows Park and the gardens at Historic Canoa Ranch. Walkers will carry signs to let people know about all of the club's projects.
If you are interested in joining the Parade Committee, please contact the co-chairs: Cynthia Surprise (cjsurprise@verizon.net) or Marita Ramsay (maritasandpoint@yahoo.com). Please let us know which project you would like to work on.
To comply with social distancing, we are not having meetings, but please send us your ideas.
Currently, the White Elephant is closed and we do not know when they will announce the theme for the parade.
by Cynthia Surprise and Marita Ramsay
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Membership
by Mark Thompson
Despite the heat and everyday frustrations we find ourselves in these days, the Green Valley Gardeners continue to grow. In the last month, we have welcomed 14 new gardeners and now stand at 552 members.
Eddiejean Kriedeman
Linda Taylor
Michael Bishop
Jerry Fair
Jim Lehmann
Deb Nealy
Fran King
Roxan Stone
Alicemarie and Michael Roper
Beverly Owen
Don Julien
Julie Jacques
Joni Thayer
The two primary reasons folks continue to join us are to learn about the new gardening environment here and to enjoy the fellowship of gardeners. We all like to get our hands dirty. Let's make them feel welcomed. Don't forget to go to the website and order some GVG branded clothing. Our supplier in Tucson has some wonderful items for this hot weather.
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Nominations
by Bill Carley
"As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands - one for helping yourself, the other for helping others." - Audrey Hepburn
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
custom.bill@att.net
920-344-6563.
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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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Anyone know who this corona gardener is?
Send me an email with your guess: info@greenvalleygardeners.com |
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