Hello Everyone,
With the weather heating up it is exciting to see lots of amazing things coming out of the garden plots.
Having said that, there are an increasing number of people experiencing problems with cucumber beetles and with white mildew. Below are some helpful tips for handling each challenge.
Cucumber beetles are small, striped beetles that attack the leaves and stems of cucumber and zucchini plants. The bugs themselves may be difficult to spot, but their effects are not - as a large healthy cucumber plant will turn yellow and shrivel up quite quickly. Quickly remove the infected parts of the plant and throw them out DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE COMPOST. Then spray or sprinkle the remainder of the plant with a mixture of vanilla and water. The smell acts as a repellant to the beetles and helps to protect the healthy part of the plant.
White Mildew resembles a thin, white powdery substance and sits on the leaves and stems of many different plants - giving them the appearance of being dusty. It occurs when there is excessive moisture and the plants do not have adequate opportunity to dry out. Right now it is affecting many zucchini, squash, and pumpkin plants in the garden. To combat this mould, mix baking soda into some water, along with some safe dish soap for stickiness - then spritz the mixture onto both the tops and bottoms of the affected plants. Continue to do this each day or as often as possible until the mildew dries up and your plants return to normal.
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Send your pictures, stories, tips, questions and feedback to:
pickeringgarden@live.com
Pickering, Ontario
Welcome
Valley Plentiful Community Garden in Pickering is a collection of all kinds of different people working hard to cooperate with the earth.
We are passionate about growing life in our gardens, connections in our community, and a food system that is environmentally and socially sustainable.
To learn more about the importance of of food security and environmental sustainability, check the Green Gardens article at the bottom of the page.
We are passionate about growing life in our gardens, connections in our community, and a food system that is environmentally and socially sustainable.
To learn more about the importance of of food security and environmental sustainability, check the Green Gardens article at the bottom of the page.
Carolyn Kasperski, Community Garden Coordinator:
valleyplentiful@gmail.com
pickeringgarden@live.com
Post Archive
Tip of the Week
Frost has set in, and the growing season is over for 2009. Make sure your bed is put to sleep for the winter by removing all dead plant material. To make your plot even better for next year try adding a layer of compost or straw. More tips to come in the Spring.
Community Garden Angels - 2010
The following gardeners have generously offered to be Garden Angels for the 2010 growing season. Contact Carolyn Kasperski about how to get involved.
Treasurer - Linda Butt #9
Membership Secretary - Joan Halket #23
Events (Spring, Summer, Fall) - Norma VanderVeer #13, VACANT
Publicity - Monica Dennis #29
Blog Maintenance - Chris Fortin #36
Compost - Carolyn Kasperski #17, VACANT
Food Bank - Tim Weber #55, Rebecca Fortin #36
Seeds for the Garden - Carolyn Kasperski #17, Monica Dennis #29
Water Barrels (Phase 1) - Tom Crowder #15, Mike Samarelli #43
Water Barrels (Phase 2) - VACANT
Phase 1 - Common Garden Plots
Strawberry Patch - Melanie Fowler-Dore #21
Rubarb Patch - Don Burnet #16
Asparagus - VACANT
Herb Bed - VACANT
Wild Edible Bed - Mike Samarelli #43
Phase 2 - Common Garden Plots
Herb Bed - VACANT
Asparagus - Tim Weber #55
Green Gardens
Community gardens are places where collections of local individuals work together with the earth. The community shares a space of land - either divided into individual plots or arranged as one large garden - where they plant gardens that can include flowers, vegetables and fruit.
We are living in a time of growing environmental crisis. The way things work in the world has taxed the earth to the point where it is getting harder for it to recover. Many animal species have gone extinct as a result, and the world climate has experienced a subtle but documentable rise in temperatures. We need new and better ways of doing things.
One function of society that has become damaging to the environment is the food system. Many foods are mass-produced thousands of miles away from the people who eat it. As a result, billions of cubic tons of damaging chemicals are expended just to ship food all over the place. The result is well-traveled food, that needs extra chemical preservatives to make it last while it spends weeks or even months in transit.
Moreover, Canadian communities have come to rely heavily on food produced in distant regions or even countries. Food is not as easily accessible or healthy as it should be for people in a particular area.
Community gardens seek to become a part of the solution to these problems. They reduce stress on the environment by providing access to food that is grown down the street, which doesn't need to pump so much gas into the air to travel to your table. The food is also free of preservatives and chemicals and is much healthier (and tastes better too). This is a way of getting food that is more sustainable for the environment.
Community gardens also help regions not to rely so heavily on imported foods. Food is more accessible to the people who live in an area. This concept is called Food Security, and is more environmentally and socially sustainable.
When the community gets together to tackle issues like these by growing their food in a community garden, great things happen. People who might not ordinarily get to know each other get a chance to become friends and partners - they get a chance to build their community. They also get to enjoy the benefits and stress-relief of being active outdoors. There is good reason why community gardens are becoming more common.
We are living in a time of growing environmental crisis. The way things work in the world has taxed the earth to the point where it is getting harder for it to recover. Many animal species have gone extinct as a result, and the world climate has experienced a subtle but documentable rise in temperatures. We need new and better ways of doing things.
One function of society that has become damaging to the environment is the food system. Many foods are mass-produced thousands of miles away from the people who eat it. As a result, billions of cubic tons of damaging chemicals are expended just to ship food all over the place. The result is well-traveled food, that needs extra chemical preservatives to make it last while it spends weeks or even months in transit.
Moreover, Canadian communities have come to rely heavily on food produced in distant regions or even countries. Food is not as easily accessible or healthy as it should be for people in a particular area.
Community gardens seek to become a part of the solution to these problems. They reduce stress on the environment by providing access to food that is grown down the street, which doesn't need to pump so much gas into the air to travel to your table. The food is also free of preservatives and chemicals and is much healthier (and tastes better too). This is a way of getting food that is more sustainable for the environment.
Community gardens also help regions not to rely so heavily on imported foods. Food is more accessible to the people who live in an area. This concept is called Food Security, and is more environmentally and socially sustainable.
When the community gets together to tackle issues like these by growing their food in a community garden, great things happen. People who might not ordinarily get to know each other get a chance to become friends and partners - they get a chance to build their community. They also get to enjoy the benefits and stress-relief of being active outdoors. There is good reason why community gardens are becoming more common.