Our very first TUESDAY TALK!

About a dozen folks showed up last night for a tour of two of our gardens with Mike Carr--gardening extraordinaire! We followed Mike through the rows as he exaplined what was happening in the gardens and answered our questions about everything from planting to harvesting to pests.

So... here's what we learned:

Keeping Foods: Beats can be harvested and stored in a cool dry place to last over the colder months for local easting out-of-season! Onions need to be hung to dry or laid-out in a sunny, dry spot for a few days.

Replanting: Certain crops such as carrots, spinach, radish, lettuce, peas, bok choy, kohlrabi, kale should be planted throughout the summer as they are quick growers. Ideally, every two weeks you should be doing some planting in your garden throughout the summer. Whenever you notice that seeds are not taking (after a few days) you should plant more seeds. If there are spaces, fill 'em up! We still have a few days to do some replanting and ended the evening last night with some spinach planting.

Harvesting: Onions should be harvested once the greens turn yellow and start to wither. Potatoes can begin to be harvested once the blossoms are finished--your first potatoes will be small and thin-skinned. Continue harvesting as the summer goes on and into the fall.

Corn Pollination: Corn should be grown in large blocks for pollination purposes. Pollination occurs via wind thus it is important to clump large amounts of corn together.

Pests: Potato beetles. They lay small orange eggs in the leaves of the potatoes and need to be squashed when found. Take a look through your potatoes and get rid of them as soon as possible. The cucumber beetle has yellow and black sripes and can be delt with by covering your plants with a plaster cover. The cucumber loves the heat anyway and will not be bothered by that pesky insect!

Late-Season-Planting: Broccoli, cauliflower and kale can all be planted later in the summer

Seed Saving: Peppers & tomatoes are easy seed savers. Try smearing tomato pulp onto a paper towel and leaving it to dry for really quick seed saving.

Pruning: Tomatoes need to be pruned for "suckers" (tiny buds that form in the "arm pits" of your tomato plant). This way the plant won't get out of control (like ours have!)

Check out the Gardens!

Here are two of our gardens plotted out: