Hello Gardeners!
Hug a Tree
Many of you have heard this phrase which if taken literally means to embrace a tree. Though that act will probably make you feel good, what will definitely do the tree good is water.
This is the second year in a row our area has experienced a drought. You can obviously see the effects in the browning of your grass or the drooping leaves on your flowers and vegetables. What you may not see is how it affects your trees.
Yes, they may have deep roots, but most of their water intake is from the just below the surface roots. Right now the Twin Cities is about 10” below the average amount rainfall. The ground is bone dry 6-8+ inches.
What to do
Water.
There are many ways to water trees, some better than others. You can stand with a hose at the base of a tree and sprinkle for 5-10 minutes while you catch up on your emails on your phone. This may make you feel good—“I’ve helped my thirsty tree!” you think with a smug grin. But your tree will not be impressed.
How to Water a Tree
Put the hose under the drip line of your tree. This is the area right below the outermost branches. Turn on the hose to a small trickle. Set the kitchen timer for 60 minutes. Slow and long is better than fast and short. When the timer goes off, move the hose a quarter of the way around the tree and repeat three more times. If your tree is small, less than 10 feet tall, probably 30 minutes watering at each quarter would suffice.
The most vulnerable trees are conifers, oaks and birches, but any tree in your yard that you want to grow well needs water now. Continue this once a week (unless there is significant rain) until the ground freezes. Trees going into winter stressed are more prone to disease, insects and cold damage.
Do a proper watering and you can brag “I’m helping my tree survive!”
And your tree will agree. J
Pam
Saving Seeds
If you picked up a packet of seeds for the Grow-a-Row project, some of your bean or pea pods may be close to harvesting. Please wait until the pods are brown and dry before picking as the seeds need to stay on the vines until they are dry to be viable.
Even if you didn’t pick up a packet of pea or bean seeds specifically for the Grow-a-Row project, you can still save seeds for yourself or the Seed Library. In fact, the Seed Library needs lots and lots of seeds this fall in order to stock the drawers for next season.
Other Events and Information
Seeds Talk – How to do the Winter Sowing Method
This seed talk is about how to start seeds in the winter in containers you put outdoors for an easy way to start seedlings of native plants. This will be an in-person meeting.
Held at the White Bear Lake library, Tuesday November 15th, 6:30-7:30 pm
Farm at the Arb
https://arb.umn.edu/content/sustainable-horticulture-training-program
This program provides hands-on technical training in local food production for sale and community health. It is offered in collaboration with the University of Minnesota Department of Horticultural Science and Extension. Trainees receive a combination of classroom, lab and field experience at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and partnering farm sites. This includes a 14-week paid work experience in vegetable production at the Arboretum and local farms.
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Webinar Series: Nurturing City Soils for Healthy Organic Vegetables Join eOrganic in Fall 2022 for an urban agriculture webinar series: Nurturing City Soils for Healthy Organic Vegetables! Urban farming can bring lots of benefits, but soils in cities can be degraded and, in some cases, contaminated. This can make vegetable crops more susceptible to pests and put farmers and consumers at risk. During this webinar series, participants will learn how to determine if their soils are contaminated and what they can do to minimize risks while producing healthy and nutritious organic vegetable crops. They will also learn how to restore degraded soils in cities and quantify whether their efforts are paying off. All webinars are free, take place at 11AM Pacific, 12 Mountain, 1 Central, 2 Eastern Time, and advance registration is required. Please register for as many of these free webinars as you like at the links below! October 19, 2022: Testing Soils for
Heavy Metals and Developing Effective Remediation Strategies. October 26, 2022: Exploring Behaviors
and Interventions to Reduce Soil Contaminant Exposure Among Community
Gardeners and Farmers. November 2: Design And Management
Strategies for Regenerating Healthy Soils Through Urban Agriculture. November 9: Combining Soil Amendments and
Varietal Development to Prevent Pathogens and Heavy Metal Uptake. November 16: Understanding Laboratory Soil
Health Tests: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going? |
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