Becky Griffin helps school and community gardeners succeed! This includes organizing school garden teacher training with county agents, assisting schools with STE(A)M goals, and creating resources on starting and sustaining successful gardens.
Becky is a Georgia Certified Beekeeper and works with community and school gardeners to increase beneficial insect habitat. She is the coordinator of the Great Georgia Pollinator Census, happening this year on August 19th and 20th, 2022. She is also part of UGA's Native Plants and Beneficial Insect Working Group.
After visiting community gardens across the state, and nation, and meeting many wonderful gardeners I am always struck by how many people garden as part of a tradition. Many community gardeners grew up with a garden and no longer have access to a growing area at home. Or, they may have spent summers with relatives who gardened. I have heard many stories of grandparents’ gardens including tales of long harvest days followed by a hot afternoon of canning! I have listened as gardeners compare the garden harvests of their youth – huge tomatoes, prize winning watermelons and unbelievable corn yields – the gardeners equivalent of who caught the biggest fish.
For those of us who enjoy our gardening heritage the Smithsonian has put together a wonderful exhibit on the history of America’s gardens. If you can’t make it to Washington, you can view part of the exhibit on-line. Since the weather is forecast to be rainy and cold this weekend, I recommend spending some time strolling through some old gardens.
“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens…they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.”
While at a conference in Traverse City, Michigan, I had the opportunity to meet with some community gardeners from the Traverse City Community Garden. Gary Harper gave me a tour of this organic garden of 150 members.
The first thing I noticed is the lack of disease in the garden. It is early October and it has been unseasonably warm in Michigan. They still had tomatoes and peppers growing and the tomato leaves were spot free.
Gardeners here start their gardens in May and are usually finished by mid-October. They expect a first frost by early October. Their cool-season vegetables were beautiful. I saw knee-high kale so large that it was hard for me to recognize it and there were parsnips that were spectacular.
Parsnip leaves
The gardeners at Traverse City Community Garden do have some of the same concerns that we do in Georgia. Oftentimes, their members lose interest by the end of the season. They are required to give 12 hours per growing season to the upkeep of the common garden and the garden board has a difficult time enforcing that rule. They also have deer! A nine foot electric fence does not always dissuade them. Their #1 pest problem is stink bugs. These bugs are so bad on squash in Northern Michigan, that the gardeners are not allowed to grow squash in their plots.
An electric fence attempts to keep deer away
It was great to see how others interpret a community garden and I am thankful for the time with these new gardening friends.
The weather is perfect to be out in the garden and there are chores to be done! UGA’s Vegetable Garden Calendar give us a to-do list:
Choose the mild weather during this period to plant or transplant the following: beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, collards, lettuce, mustard, onions, radishes, spinach and turnips. Plant your second planting of fall crops such as collards, turnips, cabbage, mustard and kale.
Lettuce seedlings at the Trustees Garden in Savannah
Refurbish mulch to control weeds, and start adding leaves and other materials for the compost pile. Store your manure under cover to prevent leaching of nutrients.
Water deeply and thoroughly to prevent drought stress. Pay special attention to new transplants.
Harvest mature green peppers and tomatoes before frost gets them — it may not come until November, but be ready.
Already this year extreme weather has been a crucial part of agriculture in our state. One tool Georgia farmers have for dealing with weather is Pam Knox. Pam is an agricultural climatologist who works on getting important weather and climate information to growers. She writes regular short informational pieces that would be of interest to anyone interested in weather and agriculture. CASE:Climate and Agriculture in the Southeast is available to everyone. An example:
Southeast quarterly climate impacts and outlook report now available
Sep 25, 2017 | Written by Pam Knox
The Southeast Regional Climate Center has released their latest 3-month seasonal climate summary and outlook for June through August 2017. It includes a look back at the major impacts of this summer’s weather and a look ahead to fall in just two pages. You can read it at https://www.drought.gov/drought/documents/quarterly-climate-impacts-and-outlook-southeast-region-september-2017.
Another one from Dr. Knox:
Interactive drought risk map for the US
Sep 26, 2017 | Written by Pam Knox
The American Geosciences Institute has an interesting map of drought risk available at https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/maps/drought-atlas. It shows a variety of parameters which are related to drought, including rainfall, stream flow and the Drought Monitor map. It also allows you to compare current droughts to previous ones. Check it out!
Remember, information about weather specific to your area is available at georgiaweather.net . This information is collected by weather stations across the state. As an old Irish blessing says, “May the sun shine warm upon your face; may the rain fall soft upon your fields!”
Keeping notes about your garden is worth your time and effort. Knowing when pests or diseases have traditionally first appeared in your garden can help you plan your integrated pest management program. Learning what diseases seem to occur with frequency in your area can help you choose resistant varieties or assist you in your crop rotation plan. This time of year it is important to record which vegetable varieties worked well for you this summer and which ones are not worth planting again.
It is also very interesting to look over several years of your garden’s weather data. Simply recording the first frost dates, temperature highs and lows, and rain amounts can be of use. This year I would add a note of which plants survived Irma. Those would definitely be worth replanting!
There are several ways to record this data easily. First, there are journals designed specifically for gardeners.
Several of them have prompts to inspire you and some of them are have beautiful artwork. You might be more willing to fill these out if you left them in your garden shed or in your tool box. Storing your journal in a waterproof ziplock baggie can help keep the pages clean.
If the idea of all that writing sounds like too much trouble, using a standard wall calendar might be for you. Just getting in the habitat of writing a word or two each time you work in the garden will still be useful. Hang it in the shed or on your mudroom wall. You can even use an on-line photo printing service to create a calendar with photos from your garden! This time of year these services usually have wonderful sales.
For those of you who would rather use your computer, there are several free online garden record keepers that are useful. Some of them even have garden plan templates. Use a search engine like google to find one that fits your needs.
Whatever you record this fall will be of interest this coming spring, I promise!
We usually think of cover crops as tools that farmers use to build soil between seasons of cash crops. According to Using Cover Crops in the Home Garden using cover crops can be beneficial to any gardener. These plants can build the soil, control soil erosion, and limit the spread of certain diseases and insects.
Cover Crop Benefits
For community gardeners, whether you grow in raised bed plots or in the ground, there are substantial benefits here. First, many community gardeners decide not to plant cool-season vegetables. Their plots become a mess of warm-season crop debris, which can harbor insect pests disease. Or, the plots are left bare almost guaranteeing that weedy plants will take over. Using cover crops during the cool-season months solves those issues.
Cowpeas and millet are used as warm-season cover crops.
Cover crops can add a nice look to a community garden plot. Many of these plants also attract pollinators and other beneficial insects.
Cover crops can provide a cheap source of nutrition for your garden plants. After maturity the crops are mowed down (use a weed whacker if you garden in a raised bed), left to dry out and are turned into the soil. They decompose in the soil increasing the organic matter. Much less expensive than purchasing bags of organic matter!
Cover crops at UGA’s Ugarden
Incorporating Cover Crops in Your Garden
So now that you are sold on the benefits of using cover crops during the cool-season, what do you plant? A combination of a cereal grain and a legume is a good choice. An example is wheat, oat, or rye with clover or winter peas. The cereal grain grows quickly while the slower germinating legume takes hold.
Finding small amounts of seeds for a garden plot may be a challenge. Check local feed and seed stores that may sell cover crops by the scoop. Check your seed catalogs. You may want to go in with others in your community garden for seed purchases.
Carrots have a reputation of being hard to grow in the clay soils of North Georgia. But, with a little knowledge and a few tricks you can have success with carrots. Since they are a cool-season crop now is the time to plant.
Since the interesting part of carrots grow underground you need to start with well drained, loose soil.
This is key. No rocks or sticks. You want that carrot to have no resistance as it grows. If you are growing in raised beds you are probably ahead of the game here. Carrots like a soil pH of 5.5 – 6.5.
Carrot seeds are very small and can be a challenge to work with.
Carrot seeds are very tiny. Once you have your soil rock-free, smooth it out for planting. There are two schools of thought in how to plant carrot seeds. One way is to plant in traditional rows. Another thought is if you have a defined area, like in a community garden raised bed plot, to broadcast the seeds. Either way just lay the seeds on the soil bed and then sprinkle about 1/4 inch of soil on top. Consider mixing in a few radish seeds at planting. They come up quickly and can help mark your rows, if you are a row planter. And, they will help prevent the soil from crusting.
To ensure good seed-to-soil contact with such small seeds it is a good idea to lightly tamp the soil down. A tamper is useful here to put just enough pressure for that contact without compacting the soil. Water in. Be patient as carrots take several weeks to germinate.
This homemade tamper is just a 12 inch 2 X 4 attached to a waist high 1 X 1. The weight of the tamper is enough to ensure good seed to soil contact. Just lightly tamp the ground; no need to push down.
Mulch is important here. The temperatures are still warm and you want to try and keep the soil moisture even.
Once the carrots come up thinning is essential.
If the carrots become too crowded underground, they can become stunted. Thinning is a pain, especially if you broadcast planted. But, don’t skip this step. Instead of pulling up the thinnings, just use a snipper to cut the seedlings off at the root. This will minimize disturbance of the remaining plants. The goal is about 2 inches between carrots.
These carrots ended up a bit close to each other.
Pay attention to the days until harvest number on the seed packets. As the soil cools the carrots actually get sweeter. Some gardeners leave the carrots in the ground over the winter with good results. When harvesting be very gentle so you don’t damage your crop.
When choosing a cultivar remember that all carrots don’t have to be orange. Chantenay Red Core has a reddish color while Purple Haze is obviously purple. Danvers 126, Scarlet Nantes, and Nantes are all recommended orange cultivars. Look for them at feed and seed stores, old hardware stores, and even big box retailers. If you want to try something new there are several seed
Even in Skagway Alaska, people like to grow food in community gardens. This plot had a mix of carrots, lettuce, and violets.
companies like Burpee and Johnny’s Selected Seeds that have interesting choices in their catalogs. If you have any questions about growing carrots contact your local UGA Extension Agent. He/She will have great advice.
In anticipation of October’s Farm to School month Georgia Organics has launched the Make Room for Legumes campaign. Schools can register and receive free seeds as well as resources for the classroom including lesson plans. This is a fantastic program for all schools.
If you are excited to make room for legumes, it is not too late to grow beans this season in your school or community garden. If you are planting in August, choose bush bean varieties. These will mature in 50-60 days. Consider Bronco, Roma, Blue Lake which are all harvested and used fresh.
A bean crop in the UGArden in Athens
Dried beans are also a possibility although they require a longer maturity time. Dragon Tongue and Tiger Eyes are used fresh or dried. The pretty black and white Calypso beans or the historic red Hidatsa beans are traditionally dried. Consider planting several varieties.
One concern planting this late are Mexican bean beetles. Keep a look out for these pests, checking regularly for eggs. Removing the eggs is the best way to handle these pests in a small garden. Scout regularly!
Although we are in the middle of a hot summer it is time to think about your fall garden. We have put together a list of “tried and true” cultivars of cool-season vegetables. These recommendations come from UGA’s Vegetable Planting Chart. The transplants or seeds should be easy to find at your local feed-and-seed store or easy to order from seed catalogs.
Oftentimes community gardens are located on county Parks and Recreation land or in the middle of land maintained by people other than the community gardeners. School gardens have maintenance crews that maintain the land near the school garden. How this surrounding land is managed can have an affect on your garden. Sadly, herbicide damage to community garden plants when the garden itself does not allow herbicides is common. The article below by UGA’s Donn Cooper explains:
Broad-leaf herbicides
Herbicides applied to lawns and hay fields contain compounds that selectively affect broad-leafed weeds, such as dandelion and thistle, but do not kill the grass. Tomatoes, grapes, peppers and other broad-leafed plants are damaged when the herbicides move from the lawns and fields into the vegetable garden.
These herbicides — 2,4-D and pyridine compounds — cause the most striking damage on sensitive plants by short-circuiting the plants’ hormonal system and ability to regulate growth, said Elizabeth Little, a University of Georgia Plant Pathologist.
Parallel veins and cupping are some of the symptoms in the new growth of plants affected by these herbicides.
Because Georgians love tomatoes — and hate weeds, this is an issue that Extension personnel at the UGA see again and again.
“People often do not understand how the herbicide was able to move into their gardens and will swear up and down that no herbicides were used, but the symptoms are distinctive,” said Little. “Unwanted herbicide can come from different sources.”
Tomato herbicide damage. Photo by Elizabeth Little
Means of exposure
Some of those sources are obvious. For example, herbicide sprays to the lawn can become airborne and harm plants within close proximity. Even with barely a breeze, compounds applied as sprays can drift quite far from the site of application.
But there are more subtle avenues for accidental damage. In hot weather herbicide compounds on lawns can volatize, or become a gas, and eventually affect vegetables around the home.
Gardeners using grass clippings as mulch should be mindful that the clippings could have been treated with herbicide.
Herbicide in manure
While most lawn herbicides will break down within a few months, some of these herbicides, especially those applied to hay fields, will persist in the environment for several years.
Pyridine compounds — such as picloram, clopyralid and aminopyralid — appear to be causing the most damage in home gardens. These herbicides can reach gardens through composted manure from animals fed with treated hay, said Little.
“Horse manure is a very common source of unwanted herbicide because the hay that horses eat is very often sprayed with these persistent herbicides,” said Little, who is an Extension specialist in integrated disease management with the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Growers need to be mindful about the origins of their compost and mulch. Organic farmers can even lose their certification by accidentally introducing contaminated compost from off-farm sources.
“Many gardeners have stopped using horse manure, which is a shame,” said Little.
She points out that horse manure is often easy to obtain and has a balanced nutrient composition. Although likely free of 2,4-D and related herbicides, poultry manure can create problems with nitrogen and phosphorous if used in excess.
Another view of tomato herbicide damage by Elizabeth Little.
Ask about pasture treatments
Little suggests that gardeners who buy manure should ask what herbicides were applied to the pasture and to the hay that the animals consume. Anyone who grows hay should be able to provide a list of his or her herbicide treatments.
Hay field herbicides are used so commonly because the farmers can have persistent problems with tough perennial weeds such as thistles and dock.
“With more and more people wanting to grow their own food, I think it is something that we all need to be aware of,” said Little.
Glyphosate has different symptoms
Glyphosate, another herbicide often used around the home, causes different damage on tomatoes. It affects the whole plant, not just new growth, and can be identified in bleached, yellow leaves.
If you have any questions about whether herbicide damage has affected your community or school garden, contact your local UGA Extension agent. He/she has experience with this.
