READYING GARDEN BEDS 
​OCTOBER  
Hello Everyone, 
Thought that it might be good to make some suggestions that will help you to have a very successful garden this coming season. Good gardening practices in the beginning of your gardening season will help to insure your success.
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* Cleanup vegetation in your bed and properly dispose of it.
* Loosen the existing soil and add more compost if the level is below the top edge of the bed.
* Fertilize a full-size bed with a 4 pound bag of organic fertilize,r and work it into the soil 3 to 5 inches.
* When you plant seeds or transplants, add additional fertilizer to the row or area to be planted, and lightly work it in to the soil.
* Once seeds have been planted, fertilize with fish emulsion; once transplants have been planted, fertilize with fish emulsion.
* Avoid planting too many seeds in your rows, especially the small seed. Once seeds have sprouted, thin where the young plants are too close together.  The   sooner that is done the better the remaining plants will grow. When harvesting, harvest entire plants so that remaining plants will have more room to grow.
* Apply fish emulsion, on a regular basis, throughout the growing season especially plants that you eat the entire plant.  Plants that you eat the fruit from, do not use as much fish emulsion.
  * During hot weather, mulch between the plants in order to reduce soil temps and to reduce watering needs.  When the weather turns cool, remove the mulch   so that the sun can warm the soil.
 
I hope that these garden notes will help you to have a successful gardening season. If you have any questions, please contact me. 
Tom Deverin

​PLANTING SEED
Once again, first apply fertilizer and work it into the area you will be planting.
 
When planting seed, most folks plant way too many. It is difficult to get the right spacing especially with small seed like kale or lettuce.  So here is a way for you to practice putting down the right amount of seed.  Take a piece of computer paper and fold in half lengthwise. Put a small amount of seed between your thumb and index finger.  Drop seed onto the paper as if your are planting them in your garden. This will show you how many seeds that you are putting down and you can make the appropriate change in your technique.  A little practice really helps.  Bigger seed, that you can see, like spinach or beets, should be planted about one inch apart.  Once seed is up and growing, thin the plants out to the spacing that you want.  You can do this by using a scissors, a chopstick, or your fingers. Apply some fish emulsion solution on the young starts.
 
Tom Deverin

TRANSPLANTING, PLANTING SEED   
​NOVEMBER THANKSGIVING 
Happy Thanksgiving, 
The transplants will be ready to replant on Saturday. I will be there, in the morning with some seed that could also be planted at the same time. There will be an ongoing supply of transplants.  Please, be considerate and leave some for others since lots of folks are wanting some of these transplants.
 
TRANSPLANTING
It is best to first apply a bagged organic fertilizer and work it into the soil where you will be planting.
 
When lifting transplants, push your hands or a tool into the soil and under the plants and lift. You are trying to retain as many roots as is possible. When planting, it is important to have the roots going straight down when you replant.  If roots are j rooted, meaning the roots are put in the soil in the shape of a j, this will stunt the plants because the ends of the roots are pointing up instead of down.  Plant transplants about a hand width apart, one plant per hole. The intent is that once plants grow, instead of harvesting leaves, you harvest the entire plant.  This will give adjacent plants more room to grow to maturity.  Once you have some space in the row, replant using transplants or seed.  This technique will greatly increase the output of you garden. It also helps to shade the transplants for the first week after being planted so that they can get established before being in the strong Florida sun full time. Palmetto fronds work well or whatever else that you might have that will provide some shade from the afternoon sun. Applying a fish emulsion solution would benefit your transplanted starts.
 

COLD WEATHER GARDEN BED CARE   
 DECEMBER 
We are expecting our first cold front this week. Generally, the wind will blow from Third Street towards Second Street.  With the Garden being the only open area on that city block, the wind is funneled through the Garden. T hose cold, low humidity, strong winds will desiccate the young plants, especially the larger leafed ones.  The wind can beat the plants up and lay the plants over.  A good watering, prior to any cold front, would be beneficial to the plants especially if there is little or no rain.
 
So what do you do? The beds closest to Second Street have less of a problem because the wind is slowed down by the other beds, to the north, so you may not have to do anything.  The beds to the North are more exposed and folks might consider putting up some type of windbreak.  Palm fronds, clam bags or burlap sacks, cardboard and a few sticks, about anything will work, be creative with what you got. You can also just let nature take its course and that works too.
​​ DECEMBER    
 The weather forecast is pretty cold on Saturday night, a low of 34 and a low of 31 on Sunday night.  For the folks with mature gardens, you might consider harvesting what is ready.  You can also cover your bed, especially if you have younger plants.  Put some sticks, stuck in the dirt, throughout your bed to support a sheet or blanket, up off your plants, in order to protect your garden.  Then secure the covering so that the wind won't blow it off. You can also do nothing and hope that we make it through unfrozen.  Some plants are hardier and will make it o k unless there is a hard freeze, which in not foretasted to occur. 

SUMMER GARDEN BED CARE 
​ APRIL / MAY  
Hey Everyone, 
Some gardeners may be leaving for the summer, others may decide to not garden during the summer months and some folks will have very productive gardens during that time. So here are some options that gardeners might consider. Remember that you are responsible for the maintaining your bed and the area around it throughout the entire year so please make arrangements to do so. 

Gardeners can let other gardeners use their bed to grow what they want or to harvest what has already been planted follow by a cover crop or mulch. 
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Gardeners can let folks that are not presently garden to use their beds if they fill out and sign the liability disclaimer. 
Gardeners can mulch their beds so that their bed won't turn into a weedy mess during the summer months.
 
Gardeners can put a nitrogen fixing cover crop on the bed which when cut down becomes a mulch
 
Gardeners are responsible for the area around your beds, so prior to leaving please weed the area around your bed and add more mulch to help keep down weeds.
 
The BEST PRACTICE is that at some point you leave or the person tending your bed  put a COVER CROP on your bed to keep down weeds and improve soil fertility. If you keep harvesting from your bed but do not replace organic matter into your bed, fertility will go down. Good gardening is all about the soil and improving it. Funds, from the Community Garden, were used to purchase seed for two cover crops.
 
The first is an heirloom cow pea from the early 1800"s which is a legume meaning that it puts nitrogen back into the soil. The pea is edible and the plant is drought tolerant, needs little or no care and will grow 6 feet tall if supported and will grow in shade quite well.
 
The second cover crop is called sun hemp, which is legal to grow. It also is a legume and will grow to be 6 feet tall in about 60 days. It would be ideal to use as a living, nitrogen fixing, shade provider. If planted on the south or west side our your bed or throughout your bed it will provide your garden with shade from the harsh summer sun which will greatly help with summer time gardens. It should be planted NOW and as of Sunday both cow pea seed and sun hemp seed will be in the communal seed container.
 
So as a cover crop you would plant both peas and hemp so that they grow together. Plant sun hemp rows about 1 1/2 to 2 feet apart and once up about 6 inches, or so, plant a row or two of cow peas in between the rows of sun hemp and the peas will grow up onto the sun hemp . This combination will provide lots of nitrogen and lots of biomass. Once peas are harvested or not harvested, all of the vegetation would be cut down and placed on top of the soil in your grow bed to act as a mulch. If a couple of buckets of compost were spread on top of that, it would all start to break down sooner thus providing the organic matter that your garden needs. If you plan on gardening through the summer months, NOW is the time to plant sun hemp to provide shade to your plants so that they won"t burn up due to the harsh summer sun.
 
If you have questions about any of the above send me an email or call me at 540-392-5969. I would be happy to be of help to you on this topic or any other gardening question or idea that you may have. 
Tom Deverin