Urban Gardening – Page 11 – Center for Urban Agriculture

How much soil do you need to refill your raised beds?-A Guest Post by Steve Pettis

March 30, 2016 by Becky Griffin

This week we are excited to have Steve Pettis, UGA Extension Agent for Rockdale County, join us for a math lesson on raised bed gardening! Steve writes….

If you have have raised beds eventually you will need to add more soil. Over time soil compacts, organic matter dissipates, and soil erodes. So, what was once a box full of soil can end up half empty.

Bagged soil is sold by the square foot. How do you determine how many square feet of soil you need to refill the beds?

I would suggest using the formula for determining volume of a rectangular prism –

vol. of rectangular prism = a b c or length x width x height

Multiply the width, height and length in inches. Divide that by 12 inches to get cubic feet. Bags of soil will say how many cubic feet of soil are in the bag. Divide the number of cubic feet in a bag into the cubic feet of your space and you have the number of bags needed.

Thanks, Steve! Happy Gardening!

Horticultural Therapy Week in Georgia

March 23, 2016 by Becky Griffin

In honor of National Horticultural Therapy Week (March 20th – 26th) we have asked Katrina Fairchild, a registered horticultural therapist (HTR), to share some thoughts on these types of gardens. Katrina writes:

Thinking back on my time of working with and developing a program for teenage at-risk students, I present you with a series questions to ask yourself when deciding to undertake this significant project of offering and developing horticultural therapy (or therapeutic horticulture).

What’s the primary purpose of offering the program and the garden?

Is it for profit? Social or emotional therapy? Educational opportunity, be it vocational or academic? Purposeful in terms of feeding local families in need, or teaching certain socioeconomic groups to eat healthier to keep certain diseases at bay? Simply aesthetic? This key question begins to address the size of the garden, its proximity (location), the people it serves, its longevity, community resources to assist you, and the big question of “how much will it cost?”

Do I have the time to dedicate to planning and running a whole year of gardening?

Who will help me keep the garden going when I have a class to teach? What happens in the summer? Will I need to do one-on-one supervising in the garden or as a group?

What’s involved in programming a school garden?

It’s not just planting veggies, herbs and flowers as the seasons arrive; it’s pre-planning what to buy, how much space to dedicate, the material used, finding available resources, the return on what goes in the ground (is there continuity, for example, like seed-saving that turns into yet another session/project), planting for the holidays, student’s birthdays, special causes, and educational opportunities, just to name a few.

Am I making it fun, interesting, stimulating?

It’s very important to make the whole or a part of the garden personal and relevant. It should reflect the kids’ personalities, age, character, and life. To avoid mental or physical disengagement, you may need to plan a special “personal” square plot versus group gardening. One student I had was only intrigued by goth, so we stuck with black pansies and tulips. Play their music (not yours) while gardening. Make it relevant now: for example, select seeds that germinate quickly, and bring in samples they can eat now. Make it tangible: buy seedlings instead of seeds.

What timing and program constraints must I consider to satisfy the kids with VAK learning modalities?

An hour’s worth of outdoor gardening may end up being three different projects to capture and hold the interest of those who are visual, auditory and/or kinesthetic. More programming means less time in the garden.

How can I make this less work for me?

Get them involved from the beginning! From concept to crop, it’s their place. Get them involved in the planning stages of cost, design, layout, building, selecting favorite or new plants, colors, garden art, and what to do with excess crop. Assign or let them pick jobs or lead roles. Ownership is key.

How can I get the parents and community involved (and funding coming)?

The program is only as good as its longevity and engagement. Post photos of the garden and gardeners on social media. Send press releases. Maintain an ongoing photo album of the garden and its gardeners that is readily viewed in the classroom as well as online.

Am I making all this too complicated and burdensome?

It can be…unless you keep it simple. Sometimes we get too excited and over-inspired by what can be. Remind yourself to stop and re-analyze often: most things can be simplified. This is true from the types of material used to build the garden to the selection of herbs and vegetable.

Katrina Fairchild, is a registered horticultural therapist (HTR), certified landscaped designer (APLD), GA Certified Plant Professional (GCPP), and avid gardener and nature lover. She can be reached at (678)314-9082 or via her website www.theflowerfly.com.

Thanks, Katrina, for the great information. For more information about National Horticultural Therapy Week visit American Horticultural Therapy Association.

Happy Gardening!

Spring Greens for your Georgia Garden

March 2, 2016 by Becky Griffin

Spring greens are fun to grow in the cool weeks before the heat of summer begins. We have picked three favorites for you to try in your Georgia garden. You will be glad you did:

Arugula

Arugula is a fast-growing green (about 40-45 days) that comes from the Mediterranean. It has a wonderful, peppery taste that works well in sandwiches as well as salads. It is even popular as a pizza topping.

Drunken Woman

Drunken Woman is a great addition to any garden. These bright green leaves have red, ruffled tips. This lettuce is a loose-leaf type that resists bolting (about 55 days). That makes it a great choice for Georgia. It has a sweet taste and remains crisp and flavorful even when stored in the refrigerator for several days.

Salad Bowl

Salad bowl (about 40 days) is a standard when it comes to spring lettuce. The bright green leaves are ruffled and are a nice addition to any salad. When fully mature it makes a loose head but can be harvested as leaf lettuce.

When planting greens in the spring choose loose-leaf varieties instead of head producing ones; you will have more success. You can simply cut off leaves to add to your salads instead of waiting for heads to form. The leaves don’t have to be fully mature to harvest. If we have a short spring and hit those warm summer weeks early, you will be able to enjoy some wonderful salads before the greens bolt. Homegrown greens have much more taste than anything you can purchase at the grocery store.

These seeds can be purchased at some seed racks at hardware and big box stores. They are easily ordered through seed catalogs. You can direct seed them or start them indoors. Sometimes they can be found as plants in specialty plant nurseries. For detailed instructions on planting these seeds see Lettuce is Luscious in a Georgia Community Garden, a past blog post. As always, your local UGA Cooperative Extension Agent is a great resource.

Happy Gardening!

Blueberry Chill Hours. What are they?

February 24, 2016 by Becky Griffin

Blueberries are a perennial shrub that is relatively easy to grow. Rabbiteye types are popular statewide and their fruit is delicious! You may have read in agricultural science articles about “chill hours.” What are they? Why do they matter? To answer those questions we are going to turn to science so, please pardon the charts!

According to UGA scientists Gerard Krewer and D. Scott NeSmith (Blueberry Cultivars of Georgia) blueberries require a certain number of chill hours each winter to produce the optimum fruit harvest. Chill hours are the number of hours of winter temperatures 45 degrees F and below. If blueberry plants do not receive the adequate amount of chilling, bloom and leaf development can be late and erratic. This can result in a lackluster harvest. To sum it up – blueberries have to have some cold winter weather.

Rabbiteye Cultivar	Chilling Requirement
Premier	550 hours
Climax	400 to 450 hours
Brightwell	350 to 400 hours
TifBlue	600 to 700 hours
Powderblue	550 to 650 hours
Vernon	500 to 550 hours

How do we know how many chill hours we have had in our area? The weather stations of georgiaweather.net have chilling hours calculators. As of February 22nd:

Weather Station	Number of Chill Hours between Oct 1, 2015 and February 22, 2016
Blue Ridge	1357
Atlanta	941
Cordelle	661
Valdosta	369

So what does this all mean? As noncommercial blueberry growers, it can give us some scientific information about our blueberry harvest and it gives us some insight into plant biology. It also gives us another reason to watch the weather forecast and welcome cold winter weather.

If you don’t grow blueberries yet, give it a try! See Home Garden Blueberries for more information. Also contact your local UGA Extension office. Many of them have plant sales this time of year and blueberries are often for sale.

Happy Gardening!

A Valentine’s Day Tribute to Vegetables by Georgia Gardeners

February 10, 2016 by Becky Griffin

As community and school gardeners we love our vegetables and in honor of St. Valentine we asked several lifelong gardeners to tell us about their favorite. The interesting part is how they all waxed poetically about their love for growing food.

Fred Conrad, the Community Gardener Coordinator for the Atlanta Community Food Bank, is well known throughout metro Atlanta for his love of community gardens. You can often see him riding through the Atlanta streets on a tractor!

Fred loves growing tomatoes. He says, “I like the on-going interaction of training them during the season as they grow and how great your hands smell when you handle the foliage. I also like that there is some finesse in growing them, that you can use little tricks here and there to improve your plant health and your harvest.” Doesn’t that make you want to get started on your own tomato planting??

Kyla Van Deusen, a Program Manager for the Captain Planet Foundation, spends her days passionately working in school gardens. She loves connecting children with their food! When asked about her favorite vegetable she told us about a special variety of crowder peas. She says that they “pop up in my garden now 3 years running without re-sowing, and I let them take over a couple of beds where they produce massive amounts of beans that I harvest as they dry and store for winter soups. They are a truly effortless crop.”

Betty Janacek is the Director of Capacity Building in the Friends of the Park programs for Park Pride Atlanta. Betty spends her days connecting people with parks. This often involves helping them build community with food gardens. Betty loves growing English peas. She says “they are easy to grow, are one of the first veggies to ripen, their vines and flowers are pretty and you don’t even have to cook them- you can just pick & eat.”

This Valentine’s Day we hope you spend some time preparing some delicious Georgia grown food and dream of the garden with your special someone.

Happy Gardening!

February Chores for Your Georgia Garden

February 3, 2016February 3, 2016 by Becky Griffin

As we all wait patiently, or impatiently, for Spring there are things we can do this month to be ready. This chore list was taken from UGA vegetable specialist Bob Westerfield’s Vegetable Garden Calendar.

Indoor Chores

This is the time to start your seedlings indoors. Peppers and eggplants take about eight weeks to grow from seed to transplant size. Tomatoes will take about six weeks. For detailed information about indoor seed starting visit our January 2015 post on seed starting by Amy Whitney.

Check in with your local UGA Extension office to see what type of classes are being offered near you. Agents plan their trainings on what you want to learn! There is also an upcoming events page on our website.

Outdoor Chores

Now is the time to repair any raised bed materials and think about adding compost. If you haven’t done a soil test in the past three years get that done now.

Make early plantings of your choice from the following: carrots, collards, lettuce, mustard, English peas, Irish potatoes, radishes, spinach and turnips.

Use “starter” fertilizer solution around transplanted crops such as cabbage.

Replenish mulch on strawberries.

These chores will keep us busy until the temperatures warm up!

Happy Gardening!

Three Tools that Will Improve Your Indoor Seed Starting

January 27, 2016 by Becky Griffin

Starting your garden seeds indoors is simply FUN. It means Spring is almost here. And, it is almost magical to see those green seedling emerge from the soil. Planting many seeds requires organization and we have three tools you need for seed starting 2016.

Three tools you can use:

Tool #1 Bleach

Your seedling trays and pots need to be sterilized. You do not want to start the season with trays contaminated with fungal spores. Simply mix 1 part bleach to 9 parts water soak your pots for a minimum of ten minutes. Rinse well and you are ready!

Tool #2 Masking Tape

When planting many trays of seeds it is easy to forget what seeds went in which tray. If you label on the clear tray tops you may accidentally remove the top and replace it differently – labeling is lost.

A great way to label your plants is to use masking tape on the seed tray side. Using a sharpie marker write your plant names and dates. The masking tape stays secure on the tray and the sharpie marker shouldn’t fade. When the seedlings are ready to transplant the tape is easy to remove. It can’t get much simpler.

Three Tools that Will Improve Your Indoor Seed Starting — Labeling your seeds is very important. Masking tapes and sharpies make this job easy.

Tool #3 Plastic Tweezers

Handling small seeds is tricky. Using your fingers to pick one seed from a group is a challenge. Plastic tweezers are very handy for moving those seeds. They aren’t as dangerous as the very pointy metal ones and can be used by students. They are easily purchased through a educational science website.

If you need more information on indoor seed starting see Starting Plants from Seeds for the Home Gardener or contact your UGA Extension agent. He/she has loads of experience and may be having a seed starting class.

Happy Gardening!

Pollinator Protection Plan for Georgia

January 20, 2016 by Becky Griffin

Because of real concerns about our pollinator population the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asked each state to develop a customized pollinator protection plan with recommendations on improving pollinator health. This is not a regulatory document but just guidelines to help our pollinators.

Georgia’s plan is finished! Protecting Georgia’s Pollinators (PGP) was developed as a joint effort between UGA’s Department of Entomology and the Georgia Department of Agriculture. The author committee is made up of Jennifer Berry, Kris Braman, Keith Delaplane, Mike Evans, Philip Roberts, and Alton Sparks. Those of you who are beekeepers may recognize several of these names as people heavily involved in pollinator research.

The draft of the plan was sent to over 35 groups across the state for their input – Georgia Beekeepers Association, Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, the Peach Commission, the Blueberry Commission to name a few. The result is a plan that has a role for all of Georgia’s citizens.

As community and school gardeners we have a vested interest in pollinator health. More pollinators means more food from our gardens. Not to mention the beauty of enjoying the insects at work.

Guidelines from the pollinator plan that we can garden by include:

If possible leave areas of your property permanently undisturbed for soil-nesting bees. Sun-drenched patches of bare soil, roadsides, ditch banks, and woodland edges are prime bee habitats.

Dedicate pollinator habitat spaces in your garden. UGA’s Pollinator Spaces Project has many resources to help with this. Bees need a season-long unbroken succession of bloom. Many plant species bloom in the spring. Remember to plant plants to bloom in mid- to late-summer including Vitex, sages, and sunflowers. Your local UGA Extension office will have information on what pollinator plants grow well in your area.

Know the beekeepers in your area. If your garden has a bee hive you want to be very careful about pesticide application and you will want to review in detail the section on pesticide users in the plan.

Consider increasing bee nesting sites by providing bee homes. These consist of solid wood pre-drilled with 1/4 to 1/2 inch holes that are at least 3-inches deep. It is important that the tunnels terminate in dead-ends. These are easy to create and a nice addition to any garden.

Educate your gardeners about insect behavior. For example, the flight and nesting behavior of certain solitary bees happens in bursts of extreme activity. In the spring or summer you may see a large number of bees flying out of tunnels in the grass over your garden all at once. These are solitary bees and they are gentle, and their sting risk is extremely low! Enjoy watching them!

If you think insects are a problem in your garden take steps to correctly identify the insects and determine, with the help of your UGA Cooperative Extension Agent, if remedial action is necessary.

If your garden is located in a park or other public space that is maintained by local landscape crews, make sure that if they need to apply insecticide for turf pests that they mow the grass immediately before applying the pesticide. The mowing will get rid of weed flowers that may attract bees.

White Clover — Clover, a bee favorite, is often found in lawns.

Follow all pesticide label directions and precautionary statements. THIS IS THE LAW. EPA is now requiring a “Protection of Pollinators” advisory box on certain pesticides labels. Look for the bee hazard icon and instructions for protecting bees and other pollinators.

Take some time to look at Protecting Georgia’s Pollinators and you will see we all have a role to play. If you need any information about the plan or protecting pollinators contact your local UGA Cooperative Extension Agent.

Happy Gardening!

Rodents and Your Community or School Garden

December 16, 2015December 15, 2015 by Becky Griffin

One of the beautiful things about all types of gardens is the opportunity to see wildlife – birds, butterflies, bats, beetles, lizards – all types of wildlife. A garden is truly an outdoor classroom. Many school and community gardeners work towards having their gardens become certified wildlife habitats.

Sadly, sometimes school or community vegetable gardens get blamed for harboring undesirable wildlife, like rodents. This can be a real problem for the gardeners.

Is the vegetable garden really the problem?

Wildlife need food, water, and shelter. Those things can be found in a garden, near a dumpster, or in buildings. A large population of rodents need a large amount of food and a few seeds from end-of-the-season garden sunflowers will simply not sustain a large population of rodents.

If your garden is being blamed for a rodent problem, determine where the rodents coming from and what is attracting them. Could it be leftover food from a playground or picnic area? Are dumpsters being improperly used? Has something recently changed, like nearby land being cleared that would displace wildlife and send them into your area? Are bird feeders spilling an excessive amount of feed? Chances are, a vegetable garden may not be the problem at all.

Setting out traps may help you all get a handle on the problem. You should be able to see just how many, and what type, of rodents you are dealing with. For example, voles eat the roots of any type of plants not just the roots of vegetables. If it is just a few rodents you can just trap and relocate them.

Educate community leaders about your garden

If a community leader or school official is concerned about your garden and rodents there are several steps you can take:

First, demonstrate that you are using proper sanitation in your garden. You are not leaving weed piles and overgrown plots for mice to hide in. You are harvesting the vegetables just as they become ripe and not letting overripe vegetable stay in the garden.
If you have a compost pile show that you are not adding things that attract rodents like whole eggs, meats, or dairy products. You are actively maintaining the compost bins/piles.
Educate the people around you that the soil and watering issues are no different in a vegetable garden than what is found around the traditional landscape plants located elsewhere on the property.
Maintain good relationships with your community leaders or school administrators. When they see what a positive impact your garden is having eliminating it would be unthinkable.

As a bonus, to assist with a property-wide rodent problem consider adding owl nesting boxes to attract these rodent predators. This would also add another wildlife dimension to your property!

An overall rodent problem is not a reason to eliminate a well maintained school or community garden. For more information see the UGA publication Resolving Human-Nuisance Wildlife Conflicts. Or, contact your local UGA Extension agent. Thanks to the many UGA Extension agents who assisted in this blog post!

Happy Gardening!

The Tamper – A Great Gift for the Georgia Gardener

December 9, 2015 by Becky Griffin

The Garden Tamper

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.

Happy Gardening!

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