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.
It is gift-giving season and we want to share a useful gift that is easy to construct with scrap wood.
We have mentioned using a tamper in several other blog posts. It is a very useful tool to ensure good seed-to-soil contact when working with small seeds like spinach, lettuce, carrots, and collards. The weight of the tamper is all that is needed to compress the soil slightly.
I was first introduced to this tool by Jim Hall, a Cherokee County Master Gardener. He guaranteed a higher germination rate of small seeds by just using the tamper!
Building Instructions
The tamper is easy to construct and makes a great gift for a gardening friend or for yourself! You will need a 2X4 wood piece, a 1X2 (or 2X2) wood piece, and a wood screw.
Step One: Measure and cut 1 foot off of a 2X4. This will be the base.
Step Two: Measure and cut 4 feet off of a 1X2 (or a 2X2). This is the handle.
Step Three: Choose a wood screw that is at least three inches long so it will go through the 2X4 piece and into your 1X2.
Step Four: Drill a pilot hole in the middle of the 2X4.
And into the end of the 1X2.
Step Five: Using your wood screw attach the pieces:
Your final product:
The tamper can be creatively painted or left bare. Using the tool is easy. Place small seeds on top of garden soil. Sprinkle about 1/4th inch of soil on top of the seeds. Gently tamp the soil with tool. The weight of the tamper is enough pressure to ensure seed-to-soil contact. No need to press down.
December 5th is World Soil Day, a fitting end to 2015’s International Year of Soil.
The 68th UN General Assembly declared 2015 the International Year of Soils and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations implemented the program, within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership and in collaboration with Governments and the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
The goal of the project was to increase awareness and understanding of the importance of soil for food security and essential ecosystem functions. Your local UGA Cooperative Extension office probably offered a class on soil health or composting during the year. There were several offered in the metro Atlanta, Georgia area.
Healthy Soil Resources
Want to challenge yourself on soil trivia? Take the soil quiz from the International Year of Soils website. Want more information on composting and healthy soil? See UGA’s Composing and Mulching publication or visit Food Well Alliance’s healthy soil resources.
Finally, Gregor Skoberne created this YouTube video on worms making compost. This video will make you really appreciate the process of making compost and healthy soil.
On this day we gardeners are thankful. We are thankful for rain and for soil that is rich with earthworms. We are thankful for watching the honey bees and butterflies that visit our gardens. They lower our blood pressure and pollinate our crops.
We are thankful that we live in an area that allows us to grow food almost all year long. We are thankful for the first red, juicy tomato in the summer and we are thankful for that first hard frost so we can put our summer garden to rest. We are thankful for those first pea seedlings that push through the soil in the springtime.
We are thankful for other gardeners.
Wishing you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving dinner is about much more than the turkey – it is also about the pie! In time for Thanksgiving baking we are fortunate to have Lauren Bolden of Woodstock, Georgia’s Pie Bar share a family sweet potato pie recipe with us.
The Pie Bar is a cute shop in downtown Woodstock that sells wonderful pies. It has been open just since September but it is already an asset to the Woodstock community.
Lauren has perfected her pie crust!
Lauren grew up making pies using frozen pie dough. A few years ago she decided to learn how to make homemade crust and after much experimentation she has it perfected!
She and her husband, Cody, began selling pies at area Farmers Markets. There they built a client base and met many of the local farmers. They took a big leap in starting their own pie shop earlier this year. Insisting on using local ingredients when they are available, Lauren enjoys building relationships with farmers. Peaches, pecans, apples and blueberries are all locally grown.
Lauren and Cody Bolden
Like all good recipes, the quality of the finished dish depends on your ingredients. For good sweet potato pies you MUST start with quality, cured sweet potatoes. Like the ones you have grown!
Bolden Family Sweet Potato Pie
Makes two pies
– 2 All Butter Pie Crusts (par-baked)
– 3 medium sweet potatoes (roasted in oven)
– 1 can evaporated milk (5oz can)
– 1 cup granulated sugar
– 2 large eggs
– 8 tbs melted butter
– 1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
– 1 tsp cinnamon
– 1 tsp vanilla
Wash and prick (with a fork) sweet potatoes. Roast potatoes at 400F for 1 hour, or until soft. Cool potatoes, remove skin. Pulse sweet potatoes in blender or food processor until smooth/pureed.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 F.
Place pie shell on baking sheet and fill with parchment paper. Add uncooked beans or pie weights to shells and bake for approximately 7-10 minutes. Remove parchment paper filled with beans/weights; cool shells slightly. You do not want to cook the shells completely. If shell begins to puff up, use a fork to prick slightly.
Combine pureed sweet potatoes, sugar, melted butter, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla. Once combined, add evaporated milk and eggs. Whisk until smooth.
Fill par-baked pie shell with sweet potato filling and return to oven for 35-40 minutes; rotating 180 degrees halfway through. Use a toothpick to check the center of the pie; it should come out clean. Use the back of a teaspoon to lift the edge of the pie shell to check to see if your crust is complete.
Cool pie on the counter for up to 2 hours. Keep pie refrigerated up to 4 days.
We like to top our sweet potato pie with our homemade cinnamon whipped cream. That recipe is below:
Whip heavy whipping cream in stand mixer (or hand mixer) until you notice a slight trail. Add cinnamon, then confectioners sugar one TBS at a time as you continue to mix. Mix until whipped and stands on its own. Store in the refrigerator.
A Sweet Potato Tradition
Recently Grade 6 students of the Waldorf School of Atlanta harvested 960 pounds of sweet potatoes with the help of the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s Fred Conrad. This has become a grand tradition for the school; it is the 5th year of the harvest.
The video of the harvest shows the importance of having young people involved in growing food. As you watch, look at the facial expressions of the students. Thank you Lindsey Lingenfelter for sharing the video. Nine hundred and sixty pounds of sweet potatoes will make alot of pie!
Recently I was privileged to visit the Due West Elementary School Garden in Cobb County, Georgia. The garden program is coordinated by Ms. Rita Fullick, a UGA Extension Cobb Master Gardener. She has been working with the program for four years and her enthusiasm is evident.
Due West Elementary School currently has 640 students. The school garden is spread out around the property. There is a sensory garden for the k-1st graders, a garden devoted to the importance of water, a pollinator garden, a wildlife habitat garden, and vegetable garden plots.
The Math Garden
The math garden is unusual. The beds were created in geometric shapes and professional grade rulers line the beds. Metric and English measurements are both included.
In the Math Garden the learning can be endless. Using a scale to measure soil weight or children’s weight. How much we can carry?
How far apart do we plant? How Deep … both in metric and standard measurements. How high is it growing? How many flowers or vegetables are planted?
Sound like math to you? Counting the number of weeds pulled and the number of rolly pollys collected is understanding the relationship between numbers and quantities. This connects counting to real life.
Did I mention that as the children are working and learning in the garden they are playing in dirt?
There is also an outdoor auditorium. The entire school property is a wonderful space for outdoor learning. The date I visited the students were getting ready for a soil experiment.
Community Support
Ms. Rita Fullick, A Cobb County Master Gardener loves her work in the Due West Garden
The principal, Ms. Peggy Fleming, feels that every student should garden. Ms. Jan Divelbliss, the school science specialist, is also on board with the school garden. The school support is the biggest part of the school garden’s success. Parent involvement is also crucial. Ms. Fullick has a group of involved parents she calls Garden Angels. In addition to assisting during the school year, Garden Angel families volunteer to help keep the gardens in order during the summer months when school is out.
Ms. Fullick gave two pieces of advice she says could help any school garden. First, engage community partners. Don’t be afraid to ask local businesses to be a part of the garden. Visit the businesses in person and don’t be shy about asking for donations. Also, find local experts to provide programs for the students. A representative from the local water department helped the students in developing a rain barrel system.
Secondly, provide signage for the teachers. Some teachers are intimidated with the garden subjects and teaching outdoors. Having signage to guide them encourages more teachers to actually use the garden.
We thank Ms. Fullick for the tour and for the words of wisdom. Due West Elementary is fortunate to have her and we wish them a wonderful school year!
The old ways are not always the best ways. Recently a relative of B. B. Higgins of Griffin, Georgia found a bulletin written by Mr. Higgins who was a botanist at the Georgia Experiment Station. The following was written in January of 1935:
Soil For the Pepper Seedbed
Where clean woods soil is available it is advisable to use new soil for the pepper seedbed each year. When it is not available, the old soil may be used several years provided it is sterilized each year before the seed is planted.
If high pressure steam is available, it is the cheapest and most effective means of doing this. An inverted pan of sheet iron may be made to fit inside the bed walls and attached to the boiler by means of rubber hose. The seam should be run in at 80 to 100 pounds pressure for about an hour, or until a potato placed 12 inches below the surface is thoroughly cooked. The pan may then be moved to another section until the entire bed is sterilized.
The soil may be partially sterilized quite satisfactorily with formaldehyde solution (known commercially as “Formalin”). One gallon of commercial formalin is sufficient for 100 square feet of soil.
First spade up and pulverize the soil. Add 1 gallon of formalin to 99 gallons of water and apply evenly over the soil with a sprinkling can, at least 1/2 gallon per square foot. The soil should then be covered with tarpaulins or other heavy cloth. Two or three layers of old sacks is quite satisfactory. This cover should remain in place 2 to 3 days. It should then be removed to allow the fumes to escape.
As soon as the soil is dry enough it should be spaded over and aired out thoroughly. The seed should not be planted until at least 2 weeks after treatment.
The formalin treatment will not kill all nematodes. If the root-knot nematode is present the soil should be steam sterilized, or the bed over to a new location.
None of us in 2015 would consider using formalin in our garden and steam treatment has long been replaced by the use of heavy black plastic to heat our soils – much safer to apply than steam. Still, doesn’t this make for a minute or two of interesting reading? Remember, this method was promoted in the 1930s.
Reviewing this bulletin emphasizes how important it is to rely on current research-based information. In this age of “the university of Google” and Wikipedia, it is extremely easy to get information that isn’t research-based, is out of date, or is just wrong. With today’s wonderful publishing tools anyone can make an official looking publication. The lesson – know your sources. Looking for information put out from major universities and sources you can trust. Don’t entrust the health of your garden to incorrect information!
How much do you know about food safety in the garden? In the heat of the summer do you immediately store your harvested produce in iced coolers? Do you know the safe practices for using manure or compost in your garden? How about sanitizing the containers you use to transport your produce?
No gardener ever wants someone to become sick from the food they have grown. Whether growing food for your family, a food pantry or a farmers market you need to take time to learn some basic food safety.
Fresh produce ready for delivery to a food pantry.
On-Line Food Safety Course
UGA Extension Food Specialist Dr. Judy Harrison has adapted one of her trainings to become a free on-line self-study course. Enhancing the Safety of Locally Grown Produce is training for small and very small farms but the information is applicable to community and school gardens. Included in the course are printable fact sheets and even a safe practices check sheet. Topics covered include land and water use; worker hygiene; sanitation of equipment; and safe storage and transport.
The course takes about two hours or so to complete. At the end of the course you can take a short survey and print a certificate of completion. THIS IS NOT A CERTIFICATION COURSE, however, it is good training that follows the USDA’s Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) principles and gets you started with basics of food safety. If you have any questions contact Dr. Harrison at judyh@uga.edu.
You local UGA Cooperative Extension office may also by offering food safety courses. I encourage you to invest the time in learning food safety practices and
It is sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) harvest time in Georgia. At this point your potatoes should have been growing for 90-120 days and you will want to harvest them just before frost.
School gardeners sometimes use sweet potatoes as a way to keep their gardens productive, and relatively carefree, during the summer. Harvest is a fun way to get students involved.
Community gardens sometimes have a plot just for community potatoes. Maybe it is time for a harvest party!
Northern Georgia has already experienced a light frost (October 19th) so set aside some time to get this chore completed. Once temperatures get cold your potatoes may start to rot in the ground.
On harvest day your soil should be dry. It is difficult to harvest underground crops in the mud!
Find the primary stem of your plant. The crop may be formed up to 18 inches from that stem so use that as a guide. Garden forks work well if your soil is loose enough. Be careful; the potatoes can bruise very easily.
Storing Your Sweet Potatoes
After harvest, cure the unwashed potatoes by letting them air dry in a shady location at a warm temperature for several days. Next, carefully store them in a cool, dark area for several months. Do not store them in the refrigerator.
Some gardeners report success by wrapping each potato in newspaper and storing them in plastic bins. Others store their harvest in plastic bins of clean sand. Many community gardeners don’t have a large storage area and they use their attic or garage for storage. Which ever method you choose, protect your potatoes from rodents.
You can enjoy sweet potatoes in many forms – baked, mashed, and in muffins. Most Southerners have delicious memories of sweet potato pie!
Using pesticides can be intimidating. When using pesticides all gardeners want to get it right. We want to eliminate the pest with little consequence to our plants, our health or the environment.
UGA Extension partnered with Extension services from Alabama, North Carolina and Mississippi to create some helpful rules for pesticide applications.
Dr. Ellen Bauske, part of the development team, says “Gardeners need simple, straight-forward guidance on pesticide use.”
Follow the Golden Rules
Put the right plant in the right place. Healthy, stress-free plants suffer less from pests.
Identify the plant first. Be aware of its normal, healthy appearance.
Identify the pest second. Not all suspicious characters cause problems.
Ask yourself, “Do I really need a pesticide?” This could save time, money and the environment.
Read and abide by the pesticide label. THE LABEL IS THE LAW.
Avoid having leftover chemicals. When choosing chemical controls, buy and mix only what you need.
More is not better. Use the lowest labeled concentration rate that will get the job done.
Protect beneficial creatures. Spot treat the pest and avoid broadcast applications of pesticides.
Buy separate sprayers. Don’t mix herbicides with insecticides and fungicides.
Follow the label instructions for disposal. Do not put unused pesticides in household garbage containers.
If you have any questions about identifying a pest or determining what pesticide to use don’t hesitate to contact your local UGA Extension agent. He/she is trained to help you.
October is National Pizza Month and gardeners can celebrate using pizza herbs from the garden. October is the time to harvest those delicious herbs before first frost. If you haven’t added herbs to your community or school garden, you should. They are easy to grow and wonderful to use.
Basil is a favorite pizza herb and is easily grown in your community or school garden.
Growing Pizza Herbs
The pizza herbs oregano and basil can be easily grown in-ground, in raised beds, and in containers. These need at least six hours of sun a day and well drained soil. The plants are easy to find at local nurseries or big box stores, usually available all summer long. You can also start pizza herbs from seeds early in the spring.
The pizza herb oregano can be grown in containers.
Herbs are most flavorful just before the plant blooms. As you see flowers develop, pinch them off. Throughout the summer it is very satisfying to harvest these fresh pizza herbs for homemade pizza night. They are delicious as a pizza topping or in homemade pizza sauce. Adding them to commercial jarred sauce adds a taste of freshness.
Harvesting and Preserving Pizza Herbs
Know that basil is especially susceptible to frost. You need to harvest all of your basil before the first frost. If you are growing in containers you can avoid those first frosts by bringing the containers indoors at night.
Herbs are best harvested in the morning hours, rinsed clean, and air dried. The pizza herbs are very easy to dry. Cut the stems as close to the soil as possible. Tie the stems together and hang the bunch upside down in a warm, dry, well ventilated area.
Tie herb stems together to hang in a warm, dry well-ventilated space.
Once the leaves are dry you can crunch them between your fingers and store them in jars. Discard the stems. This is an easy way to enjoy homemade pizza all winter long. There are other ways to preserve the leaves. See Herbs in Southern Gardens for more information.
