Upcoming dates in the garden:
Fall Plot Checks
October 15- Baker Beach and South Baker Beach gardens
October 16- Ft. Scott, Portola, West Washington, MacArthur, and Lendrum Court gardens
I'll be looking for vegetables that are flowering/seeding or overgrown and/or excessive weeds or weeds making seeds. If your garden needs a clean up or re-fresh, you have two weekends between now and the plot checks to pay it a visit. And there is even a garden resource day before plot checks!
October Garden Resource Day at the
Ft. Scott Community Garden
Saturday October 13, 10am-1pm
We will have compost in buckets you can borrow and a few seedlings to give away. There is also a pile of mulch if you want to spread woodchips around your garden plot.
The pumpkins are still ripening, so we'll plan to have the Fall Pizza Potluck and Pumpkin Party in November. Stay tuned for an Eventbrite RSVP.
Places to learn more:
October
2018 Urban Gardening Calendar Update at Garden for the Environment
Garden for the Environment will offer the following workshops in
October 2018. All will be at Garden for the Environment, San Francisco’s
teaching garden, at 7th Avenue and Lawton Street (1590 7th Avenue).
Founded in 1990, our garden offers dynamic workshops on most Saturdays that
teach Bay Area residents how to grow climate-appropriate gardens and food, make
compost, and conserve water.
UPCOMING VOLUNTEER DAYS, WORKSHOPS, AND EVENTS
Regular Educational Volunteer Hours
When:
Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10am to 3pm
Where:
Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave. at Lawton St., San Francisco
Cost:
Free
Join
us in the garden on Wednesdays and Saturdays to help with garden maintenance
tasks for the day. You’ll work alongside staff and regular volunteers on a
range of activities like composting, planting vegetables, pruning, starting
seeds, and weeding. The best way to learn is by doing, and we promise you’ll
learn a lot working in the garden with us. No registration needed -- you can
come and go at any time, and volunteering at GFE will always be free. Bring
lunch and picnic with us at noon!
Urban
Composting
When:
Saturday, October 6th, 2018, 10am to 12pm
Where:
Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave. at Lawton St., San Francisco
Cost:
Free! Sponsored by the Department of the Environment
Learn
how to make your very own compost! The backbone of every healthy garden,
compost improves all soil types and can be a difference between success and
failure with many plants. In this class, we will teach you how to make compost
in your backyard, and introduce you to our worms that make their own special fertilizer.
Come learn what you can do to improve your garden and prevent organic waste
from ending up in the landfill.
The
Edible Garden in October
When:
Saturday, October 13th, 2018, 10am to 12pm
Where:
Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave. at Lawton St., San Francisco
Cost:
$25
Learn
to take full advantage of the unique gardening climate in San Francisco, where
you can grow your own fruits and vegetables year-round. This workshop will
focus on preparing your garden for the rainy season, harvesting the offerings
of your summer garden, as well as a seeing what’s growing at GFE in September.
Bring questions and we'll do our best to answer them so you can reap a
bountiful harvest!
The intern corner:
This week, in the garden,
our greenhouse seedlings became invested with aphids, so Jean and I ended up
having to give most of our plants a bath to remove them. In addition to our
plants in the greenhouse, I’ve recently been encountering a lot of plants established
in the gardens being infested as well.
Aphids are small, teardrop-shaped,
sucking insects that are most commonly grey or light green and are frequently
found on the undersides of leaves. Aphids insert their piercing mouthparts to
feed on plant sap. This may eventually cause the plant leaves to wilt and turn
yellow. Once they have fed on the plant sap, they excrete a sugary liquid
called “honeydew”. Ants love honeydew, so if you spot a plant invested with
aphids you’ll probably begin to witness an increase in the presence of ants.
The problem with ants is that they protect aphids from their natural predators.
Ants and aphids form a mutualistic relationship where the ants literally start
to farm the aphid for their honeydew. A fungus called sooty mold can grow on
honeydew deposits that accumulate on leaves, turning them black. Aphid numbers
can build until conditions are so crowded, or the plant is so stressed, that
winged forms are produced. These winged forms fly off in search of new hosts
and the process is repeated.
Early
detection is essential when trying to control aphids in your garden plots. When
you’re watering, take a few minutes to check your plants, especially the
undersides of the leaves. If you happen to have an infestation on your plants
there are a couple of steps you can take to help remediate the problem. You can
remove the leaves that have a heavy infestation, wash the aphids off with a
very strong spray from a garden hose, or use a soap spray that’s approved for
use in organic gardens. Remember, aphids tend to attack young or weak plants so
maintaining good gardening practices such as watering and fertilizing will help
protect your plants, or, if infested, will help to reduce stress by these
insects.
-Emily Lovell
Community Garden Intern
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| grey aphids on kale |
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| black aphids on fava bean |
