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.
This is a great opportunity for your gardeners to reflect on the role of pollinators and their role in your food production.
If you are getting flowers from your cucumbers or squash plants but no fruit – you NEED pollinators. Even plants like tomatoes and beans that are self-pollinating can benefit from pollinators.
If the homeowners around your garden use pesticides, your garden can suffer. If your garden is part of a park do you know the pesticide program of the grounds maintenance crew?
This pollinator week I challenge you to plan something for the pollinators. Need ideas?
Educate property owners around your garden about pesticides
If you planted your garlic in the fall it is probably about harvest time for you. Here are 5 easy steps for a successful harvest:
Carefully dig out the garlic bulbs!
Step #1 Harvest at the right time. Look for the garlic tops to start turning yellow. When they start to fall over it is time to harvest. Don’t wait until the tops are totally dry.
Step #2 Discontinue watering a week or so before harvesting to give the garlic bulbs a chance to dry out.
Step #3 Don’t pull the bulbs out by the tops (leaves) but gently dig them out using a garden fork. Be very careful not to puncture the bulbs.
After the garlic has dried cut off the roots and leaves.
Step #4 Brush off the soil and let them air dry in a shady, dry spot for a couple of
weeks. Many gardeners use the leaves to hang the garlic up to dry. Stay away from humidity. Hard to do in a Georgia summer, I know.
Step #5 Once the bulbs are dry remove the leaves and trim off any roots. Brush off any dirt, keeping the wrappers in tact.
Bonus Step Start planning those delicious garlic dinner dishes!
For more information on growing, harvesting, and storing garlic see UGA’s Garlic Production for the Gardener. Your UGA Extension agent also has answers to all of your vegetable gardening questions.
The first thing you notice when you enter the gate of the Reconnecting Our Roots garden is the peace. Even though it is just a street or two off the Marietta Square, it is quiet. There are raised beds for vegetables, an outdoor classroom, a sensory garden, and plenty of tables for seating. For a brief video walking tour of the garden visit Reconnecting Our Roots Garden Tour.
The goal of this garden is unique. The garden was made to offer a space for youth and families under court supervision. Moms have an opportunity to visit with children who are no longer in their custody. As Cobb County Extension Master Gardener Coordinator Renae Lemon says, “it is a happy place where Moms and children can connect with dignity.” Probation officers can meet with the youth under their supervision here as well.
Benefits of the Reconnecting Our Roots Garden
The vegetable garden part of this space is equally important. Community members and program participants can learn how to grow good, nutritious food. UGA Master Gardeners will lead the way in education here. Also, the outdoor classroom can be used for cooking demonstrations and nutrition classes. Food harvested here will go to the families that use the garden as well as other families in need.
Renae Lemon and Debbie Ponder are champions for this garden.
Debbie Ponder of Reconnecting Families has put a lot of work into getting this garden started with the supportive Cobb County community. The property is on two city parcels owned by Zion Baptist Church and the church is partnering with Reconnecting Families and Cobb County Extension. With the full support of Cobb County Juvenile Court Judge Juanita Stedman, the garden has attracted many supporters. The Rotary Club of Marietta, Food Well Alliance, Cobb County Impact, the Cobb EMC Foundation, BB&T, WellCare and Leadership Cobb have invested in this garden and are committed to seeing it succeed. This garden will change families!
Soil test showed the pH was a bit high so sulfur will be added to the soil before the blueberries go in.
Cobb Extension Agent Neil Tarver says of the garden, “Some obvious benefits gained from Reconnecting Our Roots Community Garden is using gardening to serve the clients of Reconnecting Families and supplying them with wholesome locally grown food. But by developing two previously barren lots they’re helping to beautify and stabilize an underdeveloped part of Marietta as well.”
Over the summer the gardeners will add blueberries and also an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant walkway with ADA compliant garden beds. On Saturday, June 20th the garden will host a pollinator event. Interested people can come and bring a pollinator plant which will be planted in the garden. For more information about this event or the garden contact Renae Lemon at Renae.Lemon@cobbcounty.org. This garden is off to a huge start!
The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils. With this initiative the UN hopes to raise appreciation of the importance of soil for human life, educate the public about the role soil plays in food security, and promote investment in sustainable soil management activities. Basically, the UN wants to raise awareness about the importance of soil.
Their website states “Soil is where food begins! It is estimated that 95% of our food is directly and indirectly produced on our soils. Therefore, food availability relies on soils. Healthy and good quality food can only be produced if our soils are healthy. A healthy living soil is a crucial ally to food security and nutrition.” As food growers we already know how important our soil is to the overall health of our plants. Their website lists the following reasons that soil is important:
Soils are the basis for the production of food, fibers, fuel and medicinal products.
Soils absorb, store, alter, purify and release water, both for plant growth and water supply.
Soils interact with the atmosphere through absorption and emission of gases (e.g. carbon dioxide, methane, water vapour) and dust;
Soils make up the greatest pool of terrestrial organic carbon (over double the organic carbon stored in vegetation).
Soils regulate carbon, oxygen and plant nutrient cycles (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, etc.)
Soil is the habitat of several animals and organisms such as bacteria and fungi and thus sustain biological activity, diversity and productivity.
Soil is the habitat for seed dispersion and dissemination of the gene pool.
Soils buffer, filter and moderate the hydrological cycle.
Soils are the platform for urban settlement and are used as materials for construction.
International Year of Soils: Free Workshops
In conjunction with the International Year of Soils there are events all over the world scheduled to
Healthy soil means more nutrition for the plants, less incidence of disease, and less water input needed.
Strawberries can be a welcome addition to the Georgia community or school garden. And, spring is the time to plant!
Traditionally in north Georgia strawberries are grown in a matted row system where initial plants are set two feet apart at spring planting. That summer the runners are allowed to fill in the rest of the bed. This set up is perfect for raised beds or bed plots.
Treat your strawberry bed as a perennial bed. You will need an area that is in full sun and contains well drained soil. Avoid planting where you have been growing peppers, tomatoes, or potatoes. These plants are susceptible to verticillium wilt and so are strawberries. The UGA publication Home Garden Strawberries is a great resource.
Varieties of Strawberries
Varieties recommended for early fruiting for north and middle Georgia are Earliglow, Sweet Charlie, and Delmarva. For south Georgia look for Chandler, Camarosa, and Sweet Charlie. Early season varieties are best for school gardens as you should get fruit before school lets out for the summer.
For mid-season fruiting look for Allstar. Purchase plants that appear to be disease-free from a reputable supplier. This can be a local store or a mail order supplier. You will probably have more varieties to choose from if you use a mail order supplier.
The placement of the plant crown is very important. Picture from Home Grown Strawberries by UGA.
Care of Strawberries
The most important part of planting strawberries is the placement of the crown. The top of the crown needs to be above the soil line. Otherwise, you will probably have rot. Set the plants two feet from the bed edge and from each other. Remember, runners will fill in. Remove flowers the first year to encourage more blossoms, and fruit, next year.
Weeds are the number one problem with strawberry plants. Mulch between plants and use hand pulling or hoeing to remove stubborn weeds. Strawberries need 1 to 1 1/2 inches of water a week.
Birds and rodents love strawberries as much as we do. Raised beds deter rodents. Some gardeners use netting. A problem with netting is birds and small animals getting caught in the net. Some gardeners report success with loosely hanging aluminum pie pans around the beds to deter birds. The best practice is to pick the fruit as soon as it is ripe, before other hungry eaters find it.
During the second spring, after you have picked all of your berries, get ready for next year. By this point runners have filled in and if you don’t thin the bed you will have too many plants for that area. You need to get rid of about two-thirds of the plants in order to have healthy plants for next year. Pot up the extras and have a fund raising plant sale!
As always your local UGA Extension agent is a great resource for you.
By being part of a Georgia community garden you are already doing quite a bit. Community gardens help the environment in several ways.
Pollinator Conservation
As a vegetable gardener you know how important those pollinators are to your food production. You may have a special pollinator garden area and you are very careful about the use of pesticides. This example teaches new gardeners and garden visitors to also protect pollinators. The result is not only a healthy pollinator population in your garden, but in the surrounding community as well.
Bee on Zinnia – a great pollinator plant!
Locally Grown Food
Growing food locally in your garden means that a bit less food is shipped across country saving gas, limiting air pollution, and lowering refrigeration energy.
NF Annex CG Composting System
Soil Health
Hopefully you have had a soil test. You know what nutrients to add to your soil so that you are not over-fertilizing. Overuse of fertilizers is a big pollution concern. Unused fertilizer can end up in streams and rivers. By meeting just your soil needs you are cutting down on pollution. Maybe you all have a compost system where you change garden waste into soil compost. Talk about recycling!
Environmental Awareness
Just by having a garden in your community you have raised environmental awareness. No doubt you have had people stopping by as you all are working to ask questions about the garden. And no doubt you told those people, with pride, about your sustainable growing practices. You probably gave them a tour telling them about the food crops you are growing. Those people may not become gardeners but they are now more aware of where food comes from and what it takes to grow it!
However you decide to celebrate Earth Day today take a moment and reflect on what you are already doing for our earth on a daily basis.
When using potted plants in your Georgia community vegetable garden, start with healthy ones. Visit quality nurseries or plant stores and choose plants free from diseases and insects. You don’t want to bring home any problems. Check where the stem meets the soil for soft spots. Don’t choose plants that look wilted but have obviously been watered. That could be a sign of a soil borne disease.
Before planting your new vegetable plants, check the roots. Sometimes the plants can be root-bound or pot-bound. The plant was outgrowing the current container and the roots had no where to go in the pot but around the perimeter of the soil.
The roots of this plant need to be disturbed so they will easily grow in the new soil.
Before going into the ground these roots need to be broken apart so that they will venture out into the new soil. Otherwise, they may keep growing around the soil ball and the plants won’t thrive. Even after weeks of being in the ground, the plant will easily pull out of the planting hole. This is an unhealthy plant!
You can break apart roots with your hands or use scissors or a sharp knife (carefully!) to cut an incision into the root ball. You will need to go about 1 inch deep and about 3/4ths the way up on the root ball. After cutting gently pull the roots apart.
Cut about a 1 inch slit into opposite sides of the root ball.
Gently separate the roots using your hands.
Put the plant in the ground spreading the roots into the soil as much as possible. This may seem like tough love for an already developed root system but, your plants will be healthier and more productive in the long run. Remember, your local extension agent has all sorts of information on the correct way to plant just about anything!
As we think about purchasing plants for our Georgia community gardens, especially tomatoes, there are choices to be made. Is a hybrid the best choice? What exactly is a hybrid? What about heirlooms?
Today we are going to think back to our high school genetics class and discuss a bit about plant breeding. Pollen is located on the anther part of the stamen (male part). It is transferred by insect, wind, human hands, or other means to the stigma part of the flower (female part). This is pollination. There the pollen grows down the style to the ovary. That is fertilization. Any of that sound familiar?
A hybrid vegetable is created when a plant breeder deliberately controls pollination by cross-pollinating two different varieties of a plant. The parent plants are chosen for characteristics like fruit size, plant vigor, or disease resistance. The hope is that the resulting offspring will have the positive characteristics.
Millionaire Eggplant Hybrid
The parent designated as the female has the pollen-bearing anthers removed from the flowers. Pollen from a carefully chosen partner is moved to the female plant’s stigma by human hands. The chosen pollen is the only pollen that female receives. This is all very time consuming and carefully monitored. Scientifically it looks like this:
Parent 1 (P1) + Parent 2 (P2) —-> Hybrid (F1)
The resulting hybrid (hopefully) has wonderful characteristics like disease resistance, early maturing fruit, larger fruit, or whatever the plant breeder was trying to achieve. Before a hybrid is available to the consumer, it has gone through many field tests and trials. All this is why hybrids are more expensive plants.
One negative to hybrids is that you can’t save the seed. Seeds grown from hybrid plants do not provide plant types true-to-type. You need to purchase new hybrids year after year. Big Boy and Early Girl are examples of hybrid tomatoes. Millionaire and Early Midnight are popular hybrid eggplants.
Arkansas Traveler tomatoes ready to go in the ground.
Open pollinated vegetables are pollinated in the field by wind or natural pollinators to self or cross-pollinate. Plants that cross-pollinate need to be isolated from other varieties to produce seed that is true-to-type. Crops like tomatoes and beans tend to self-pollinate so saving useful seed is not difficult. Arkansas Traveler, Abraham Lincoln, and Cherokee Purple are popular open pollinated tomato varieties. Black Beauty is a popular open pollinated eggplant variety.
Heirlooms are generally open pollinated plant varieties that are over 50 years old. Traditionally the seed has been carefully saved and handed down from gardener to gardener. These are the plants most treasured.
So whether you choose hybrids, open pollinated plants, heirlooms, or a combination of these…
Crop rotation is a huge part of integrated pest management (IPM) in Georgia vegetable production. It is an inexpensive tool in disease and nematode management. Correctly using crop rotation can cut down on pesticide use and result in healthier plants. Growing Vegetables Organically has some great information on this type of IPM.
As we are all planning our warm-season gardens crop rotation is something to consider. However, it is a whole lot easier to rotate crops around a 3 acre farm than it is to move them around a 32 square foot garden plot. How do we practice crop rotation in the community garden? It is even necessary?
Crop rotation has been around for centuries. Simply it is changing what is planted in a particular area each year. Planting the same crop year after year in the same location causes disease pathogens to build up and become a real problem. Rotating crops helps break this disease cycle. Also, since different crops use varying amounts of plant nutrients, crop rotation is a wise use of the nutrition in your soil.
Plants can be divided into families. Learn those plant groupings because many pathogens infect crops in the same families. The basic rule of crop rotation is:
Don’t plant crops from the same plant family in the same place every year.
Crop families:
Onion family (Alliaceae): chives, onions, garlic
Cole family (Brassicaceae): lettuce, collards, cabbage, broccoli, spinach
Squash family (Cucurbitaceae): pumpkins, watermelon, squash, cantaloupe
Bean family (Fabaceae): beans, peas
Tomato family (Solanaceae): tomatoes, peppers, eggplant
Since tomatoes and peppers are in the same family (Solanaceae), don’t plant tomatoes where you have been growing peppers. And, don’t follow squash with pumpkins (same Cucurbitaceae family). Many farmers follow a four year or even longer rotation plan. Their lettuce won’t see the same piece of soil for several years. This helps lower disease pressure and cuts down on fungicide use. Many Master Gardeners usually try for a three year rotation for a large garden area.
We know that crop rotation works to help create healthier plants but how does that translate in a Georgia community garden plot?
The best way is for the community gardener to choose plants from different families each year. This isn’t always practical. A gardener wants to grow what his/her family likes to eat. That may mean beans every year. The #1 vegetable grown in community gardens is tomatoes – year after year!
So, maybe you work with your fellow community gardeners and rotate who grows tomatoes and you all agree to share the tomato harvest. This may not always work, either. Some gardeners want lots of tomatoes every year.
Move your pole beans to the other side of the plot this year. Buy your tomatoes from the farmers market this year and try growing squash. Better yet, try growing and eating something entirely new.
An old fashioned mattock may be your only tool for some modified rotation in your community garden plots.
At the very least Bob Westerfield, UGA vegetable specialist, recommends turning your soil over. Dig deeply bringing up soil that hasn’t been exposed to the sun. Go as deep as you are able. In a small way you are not rotating your plants but rotating your soil. Your UGA Extension agent can help you come up with a plan for crop rotation that will work for your situation.
The air temperatures may be warm but the soil temperatures are still cool.
Georgia’s recent warm daytime temperatures have home gardeners itching to dig in the soil and plant summer crops. But University of Georgia experts warn gardeners not to be tempted. Soil temperatures are still far too low for seeds to germinate and transplants to survive.
“In Georgia, we may have a warm front come in one day and a cold front a few days later,” said Bob Westerfield, a consumer horticulturist with UGA Cooperative Extension. “It may hit 75 degrees outside, but the air temperature isn’t important when it comes to gardening – the soil temperature is.”
“That soil’s not ready for tomatoes. Summer crops need from 60 to 65 degrees.” he said.
Green beans can handle temperatures of about 55 degrees, but it is still not quite warm enough for them. If gardeners ignore his advice and seed their gardens, he says the seeds won’t germinate.
Gardeners who cannot resist the temptation can still plant cold season crops like asparagus, beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, collards, kale, lettuce, mustard, onions, peas, potatoes, radish, spinach and turnips.
To track the soil temperatures in your area of the state, Westerfield recommends two different strategies. Buy a soil thermometer or use a meat thermometer to test the soil in your garden plot or rely on UGA’s Georgia Automated Environmental Monitoring Network at www.georgiaweather.net.
Soil temperatures “creep up slowly” and Georgia soils should be ready to sow in seed by early-to-mid
Use www.georgiaweather.net to check soil temperatures in your area. The current soil temperatures in Griffin are in the 40s.
April, Westerfield said.
“And don’t be swayed by the vegetable transplants lining the garden center shelves,” he said. “Just because plants are in the stores doesn’t mean it’s time to plant them.” Contact your local UGA Extension Agent for more information.
For more information on vegetable gardening in Georgia, see the UGA Extension publication, “Vegetable Gardening in Georgia”.
Sharon Dowdy is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Growing her own tomatoes has been beneficial for Sharon’s heart. She met her beau five years ago while buying tomato stakes at Home Depot.
Welcome to Pollinator Week 2015!
