This summer, our attention turned to youth programming for nine weeks of summer camp and youth worker programs. Our young gardeners and farm apprentices learned about growing food and fiber, ate LOTS of fresh produce grown at Alemany Farm, made new friends, spent a lot of time outside, and learned with their peers in person after months of online schooling.
Now that fall is here, we are looking forward to resuming our regular programming and support for our community gardens. This edition of The ComPost will help you get the most from your end of summer harvest without having to share it with garden pests.
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Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Safer for People and the Planet.
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Gophers don't have Netflix so they have plenty of time to tunnel through your garden. They also have impeccable taste - pulling the best plants down into their tunnels right before your eyes.
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Aphids, another common garden pest, not only love our brassicas, they also produce a honeydew that attracts ants and can cause sooty mold fungus.
On the flip side, gopher tunnels aerate our soil and aphid honeydew can attract beneficial insects to your garden. So, when do you take action?
Integrated Pest Management programs help gardeners view pest problems as disruptions to a garden's ecosystem rather than attacks against your plants. Follow these seven steps to determine when you need to intervene:
1.Redefine your idea of a pest - One man's weed is another man's flower. Think of your lawn as a meadow where plantain is a welcome diversification in your yard's ecosystem.
2.Design your garden with pest prevention in mind - Gopher wire installed on the exterior of your raised plots along with landscape fabric lining the inside is an effective way to keep gophers out.
3.Set your threshold for pests and their damage and monitor regularly - A few aphids can be knocked off with a stream of water while hundreds may require a bigger intervention.
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4.Experiment with trap crops - These crops are sacrificial varieties added to your garden to attract pests away from the main crops you are growing. Nettles and nasturtiums are trap crops for aphids and also attract beneficial insects to your garden. See more trap crop ideas here.
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5.Choose mechanical or physical means of eliminating pests over chemical ones - If rats are taking your lemons, wrap the trunk of the tree in tanglefoot, sticky tape or a band of aluminum to prevent them from climbing up. See more here.
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6.Biologic controls - Make use of natural enemies to reduce the damage caused by pest species. Convergent lady beetle adults and their larvae, as well as Syrphid fly larvae, Lacewing larvae and adult Soldier beetles, all enjoy eating aphids but sometimes eat whiteflies and other soft-bodied insects. You can encourage these natural enemies by avoiding pesticides that kill them, choosing plants that provide them pollen, nectar, and shelter; and keeping ants out of pest-infested plants. While lady beetles can be purchased at hardware stores for release in your garden, they tend to disperse within a day or two. See more here on how to help them work to improve your chances of keeping them around.
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7.Chemical controls - These are the last options in an effective IPM program and are only used when monitoring indicates they are needed. Treatments are made with the goal of only removing the target organism and they are applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, beneficial and nontarget organisms, and the environment. Please ask us before applying any chemical controls or baits in a community garden - we may be able to send out the Rec and Park IPM team to help with more environmentally friendly options.
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Poisoning rodents may also kill migratory birds.
Fall is migration season for many birds that stop in San Francisco on their way to southern wintering grounds. Some stay for months here, where they hunt gophers, rats and mice. Chemical pesticides and rodenticides can sicken these birds when they eat poisoned prey.
The Community Gardens Program frequently partners with the Rec and Park IPM team to identify, manage and prevent pests that are causing problems in our gardens. From night trapping to rat contraceptives, we are having greater success in reducing vertebrate pest damage without negatively impacting other wildlife, like raptors.
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Did you know?
In October 1996, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors mandated all City departments that perform or obtain pest management services to adopt IPM policies. San Francisco’s IPM plan focuses on all aspects of pest plant and animal management, while promoting non-chemical control strategies and the elimination of all but exempted pesticides. Each year, all exempted pesticides are reviewed by an independent toxicologist and only the least toxic products are allowed to be used. Since its inception, Rec and Park's IPM team has reduced the use of pesticides in our parks by 97%!
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For more information about IPM in your home garden:
Pest Identification
Biologic Controls
IPM for San Francisco home gardeners
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Pierce, Pam. Golden Gate Gardening, The Complete Guide to Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area and Coastal California. (2002, Sasquatch Books, Seattle) Ch 9.
Avoid products and methods that aren't proven
Quarantined plant inspections
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If you are trying to bring a plant into San Francisco from another area of the country or state, we can help you navigate the quarantine and inspection process. While it might seem that pests introduced to an urban environment would have little impact on California's agricultural economy, they can travel out of the immediate area quickly. Contact us at communitygardens@sfgov.org before you purchase or move plant material from out of the area.
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Garden Spotlight: Minnie and Lovie Ward to receive make-over
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The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department extends our warmest thanks to the Minnie and Lovie Ward Community Recreation Council for their efforts to rebuild the community garden at the recreation center. Garden members have faced many challenges but we are ready to begin a new chapter. The Recreation Council has obtained funding from the Community Challenge Grant Program to rebuild the garden! Construction is expected to start this fall which will bring the garden up to the operational standards we have within all of our gardens, including:
- High quality gathering spaces
- Communal native plant, herb garden and orchard spaces
- Increased number of garden plots
- Installation of infrastructure that will make it easier for volunteer gardeners to maintain the site.
Upon project completion, we will hold workdays so that volunteers can assist with readying the garden for re-opening. Look for those dates in future editions of The ComPost or watch for our event and workshop flyers. Those interested in gardening at the new and improved Minnie and Lovie Ward Community Garden can add their names to the waitlist here.
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Garden Spotlight: Francisco Park to include a new community garden
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The Maria Manetti Shrem Community Garden is under construction at the new Francisco Park with an expected opening this winter.
Francisco Park is in Supervisorial District 2 and overlooks the northern shores of San Francisco. The North East quadrant of the city, which includes Francisco Park, has few community gardens, despite the high population density of the area. Turning a long shuttered reservoir into a park with a community garden and native plants will create a habitat for birds, bees and butterflies, helping the urban environment.
The community garden will provide approximately 30 garden plots as well as some communal planting areas and gathering spaces. Due to the anticipated high volume of plot requests and our intention of providing equitable access, the initial plot assignments at this garden will be done by lottery. There is still time to add your name to the lottery waitlist. The list will close the second week of October and we hope to announce plot assignments shortly thereafter.
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Alemany Farm is restarting in-person workshops. Schedules will be posted soon. Check for updates at Alemany Farm Workshops
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Garden for the Environment (GFE) is once again offering in person workshops with topics that include urban composting, growing your own food, beginning beekeeping, and wreathmaking. For more information, visit Garden for the Environment Workshops
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The Community Gardens program offers workshops in our community gardens for small groups. If garden members have a specific interest in learning something new or improving their skills in a particular area, let us know. We can create something just for you! If interested, email us at communitygardens@sfgov.org.
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Support Alemany Farm and pick up some new plants for your garden!
The Friends of Alemany Farm will be holding a donation based plant sale:
- Saturday, October 23 - 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- 700 Alemany Boulevard
All proceeds support Alemany Farm's efforts in growing food for San Francisco residents experiencing food insecurity.
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Garden Resource Days are back!!
Saturday November 6, 9 a.m. to noon, at Alemany Farm - 700 Alemany Boulevard.
Stop by to say hello and pick up compost, mulch, and seeds for your winter garden. Learn how to winterize your garden tools.
Bring your own buckets and please wear a mask.
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Gardening Tips from your
UCCE San Francisco Master Gardeners
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Black Fig Fly (BFF) or Silba adipata has been discovered in Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. Commercial fig production, residential fig production, and wild fig (common in riparian areas) are all at risk from this pest. Be on the lookout for fruit drop and/or small sting or emergence holes in the fruit. Read more.
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In the Garden: October - December
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October
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Plant bulbs now for spring blooms. For this year's dahlias, let the plant wither naturally with no more watering. Keep them in the ground until December when the heads turn brown.
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Fall is a great time to plant natives. Visit sfplantfinder.org to find suggestions for your neighborhood.
- Plant garlic and shallots now for a summer harvest.
- Prepare planting beds for winter. Clear out weeds and rocks. Add soil amendments and/or plant winter cover crops to replace nitrogen in the soil.
- Add fallen leaves and plant debris to your compost pile.
November
- There's still time for fall planting of shrubs, trees, and perennials before the winter rains arrive. Winter rains will help the new plantings establish good root systems.
- Cool-season vegetable seedlings can be planted such as cabbage, kale, chard, and spinach. Also, carrots may be direct seeded now. The sun is now lower in the sky so plant growth will slow significantly. Early planting is best.
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Your deciduous fruit trees should be finished fruiting now and it is time to prune them for size reduction. Need pruning help? Ask us for a workshop to train your fellow gardeners by emailing communitygardens@sfgov.org.
- If you are putting away your garden tools for the winter, first give them a good cleaning. Rub with alcohol after each use to prevent the spread of disease. Prevent rust with a light coating of lubricant grease. For more tool care help, come to one of our Garden Resource Days on Saturdays October 2 and November 6. Bring your tools so that we can help you sharpen, clean and disinfect them.
- Control slugs and snails with an organic, pet/animal and food-safe slug bait.
December
- Take advantage of any rain we get this month. December is still a great time to plant perennials, shrubs and trees to get roots established which will promote lush spring growth.
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You CAN plant vegetables in winter! See the UCCE Master Gardeners Year-round Vegetable Planting Schedules for San Mateo and San Francisco Counties for what can be grown now in your area. Please note that growth will be a lot slower in the winter.
- Clean up the garden. Remove excessive leaf litter and any remaining fallen fruit or fully spent summer annuals to avoid over-wintering diseases.
- Direct sow wildflower seeds for spring color.
- Lop the stems of your dahlias to about six inches above the base stem, leaving at least three nods, so water will not drain down to the tubers and rot them. In January, dig out the tuber carefully and keep them in a cool dry place for next year’s planting. You may divide the root tubers for more plants next year.
- Start planning your spring garden now!
See the UCCE San Mateo/San Francisco Master Gardeners' entire year of monthly garden tasks. And, subscribe to their newsletter to receive research based garden information in your mailbox every month!
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