Applications are available for the 2011 growing season at the Perkins Community Garden on the northeast side of Grand Rapids.
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Looking for help working with appt complex in Wyoming/Kentwood
Garden advocate looking for help working with an apartment complex in the Wyoming/Kentwood area. Need expertise to advocate for establishing a garden at an area apartment complex. Contact ggrfsc@gmail.com if you would like to help with this.
Perkins Almost Full
The Perkins Garden is almost full for 2010! We have three marginal plots left. Call (616) 734-9443 if you would like more information, or go to www.foodshed.net/perkins.
Perkins is Getting Ready
With the help of a dozen or so gardeners, the Perkins Community Garden at 1625 Perkins NE is on its way to getting ready for the 2010 growing season. On Tuesday night, gardeners cleaned out the main garden bed and collected trash from around the site for removal by the parks department.
Spring at Perkins - Photo taken by Abigail Violet Nietling Haan (age 6).
In the coming weeks, the garden plots will be tilled twice by tractor and discs. Perkins is expecting to assign garden plots the evening of May 14, weather permitting, so that gardening can begin on May 15. As of this writing, seven plots remain, although only four are of high quality. Perkins organizers expect that all garden plots will be rented up by May 14, if not before.
Click here for more about the Perkins Community Garden and to find an application.
Late Blight Widespread
Wondering what happened to your tomatoes in late August’s rainy, cool weather this year? Check out this NY Times article.
MSU Crop Advisory Team Alerts
Michigan State University’s Integrated Pest Management program puts outs out a great set of newsletters for gardeners and farmers alike, looking at the current pest and environmental issues impacting gardeners. For more information or to subscribe to email alerts, check out the MSU CAT Alert newsletters page.
Perkins Report
Herbs (front to back) parsley, basil, dill and cilantro
2009 is turning out to be a good year for Perkins. We have all of our plots filled, and only one new gardener totally flunked out this year. There should be a waiting list for next year.
One notable difference this year is the number of gardeners who are tending two or more plots. Perkins is seeming to attract those who like a lot of room to grow!
Pest pressure has be low from rodents, but bugs are typical. Small spring rabbits were once a problem, but are now too big to squeeze into the garden, and a woodchuck that once found his way into the garden seems to be gone now. For the second year in a row, the 9′ fence seems to be keeping the deer out.
Tomatoes trellised the "Florida weave" way.
Insect pests consist of flea beetles (heavy as usual), cucumber beetles (first flight was heavy, but subsequent flighs have been light), squash bugs, squash vine borers (heavy this year), and Japanese beetles (light). I found my first tomato horn worm in Perkins this year. Cabbage loppers are light.
We’ve been picking lettuce and other greens for quite some time now. Strawberries are gone, and people are picking beans, peas, cucumber, zucchini, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, summer squash, beets, and early tomatoes. Corn, carrots, and onions are on deck.
The garden looks good right now, and probably will for another two weeks until the early plants start dying off and things start to take on the yellow hues of August.
Shallots, onions and cucmbers
Squash, pickles, corn and more.
