A Fond FarewellProject Grow is saying good bye to our Garden Activities and Education Coordinator (GAEC), Sheri Repucci after nearly four years. Sheri has made many contributions. As the staff person responsible for the Discovery Gardens at the Leslie Science Center and County Farm Park, Sheri was part of the team that worked with the Washtenaw County Parks to develop the site at County Farm. She also anchored efforts to keep up the Leslie Center gardens and was integral in developing the GAEC position at Project Grow. Now the position involves event planning and volunteer coordination, a development most appreciated by everyone at Project Grow!

We will miss her laughter, her perspective on issues, her hard work, and her willingness to always lend a hand.

All of us at Project Grow wish Sheri the very best in her next “season” of life and career.

2009 Plant SalesProject Grow will hold its spring Plant Sales on two weekends, May 8–10 and May 16. The May 8–10 sale will be part of the Matthaei Botanical Garden’s spring plant sale, open on May 8 to MBGNA members, and to all on May 9 and 10. The May 16 sale will be held in our old spot in front of People’s Food Co-op. This year’s sales will again offer oodles of heirloom varieties of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and potatoes that Grow volunteers raised last year in the Heirloom Garden. We will have over 50 varieties of fabulous heirlooms to suit every taste.

All this year’s seedlings will be raised to strict organic specifications, thanks to our partnership with Matthaei Botanical Gardens. These include many favorites, tried and true, and some unique varieties only available through Project Grow.

Tomato Tasting Winners1. Pirksteine Orange2. Aunt Rubie’s Green3. Gold Medal4. Isis Candy5. Jaunne flame6. Cosmonaut Volkov7. Hillbilly8. PineappleOthers to keep in mind: Brown Cherry, Peacevine Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Speckled Roman, Amish Paste

Come meet Grow gardeners, learn about local heirloom projects, and indulge your curiosity, gardening acumen, and desire for great flavors across the tomato and pepper spectrum. Support diversity in southeastern Michigan gardens and your organic gardening community!

Basil seedlings at six weeks

Tomato seedlings at two weeks

2 The Project Grow Community Gardener Spring 2009

www.projectgrowgardens.orgRecently on the Project Grow Blog: Starting a garden can feel like a daunting task - how to organize it, how to build it, what to grow, and how much work it might be - that even the thought of all those great vegetables can pale in comparison.

To help alleviate some of that concern, we’ve put together a list of helpful tools and resources that will get you through the process and on the way to fresh vegetables and herbs for your summer table. Start with this nice little article from Regional Gardening News about planning a kitchen garden. The piece helps define kitchen gardens, and offers good tips to organize your thoughts about the garden in preparation for the upcoming season. Give some serious thought to lasagne gardening (http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm). Lasagne gardening uses layers of organic materials that let you take advantage of the soil structure already in your yard. It’s

also an excellent way to build raised beds without having to do lots of digging. It is ideal to install your lasagne garden in the fall so the materials break down over the course of the winter; however, you can plant seedlings directly if you decide to go for it now. Make a list of things you like to eat - tomatoes, greens, radishes, beets, sweet peppers, hot peppers, basil, cilantro, potatoes, sweet corn, popcorn, peas, beans - and see what is feasible to grow in your space. You can use some handy electronic garden mapping tools (http://a2projectgrow.blogspot.com/2009/03/electronic-garden-planning-tools.html) to see how the garden might shape up and be organized, or you could also consider

succession planting. This allows you to put something else in the space recently vacated by the radishes you just pulled, washed, and ate for lunch. Or the peas that died back once the weather got too warm. Remember the garden can (and probably should) contain some flowers. Flowers, like cosmos and zinnias, make not only terrific bouquets all summer long, but also attract pollinators and house predators that will help control unwanted critters. And flowers like violas (a.k.a. Johnny-Jump-Ups), nasturtiums, and calendula are edible, too. Toss them in with your assort-ment of homegrown lettuces and arugula, and you’ve got one of the prettiest dishes going. Companion planting can be part of your kitchen garden, too. Many flowers and herbs can repel bad guys. Marigolds help repel unwanted visitors by their strong smell, as do onions and garlic. A great book to help you start thinking about this concept is Great Garden Companions by Sally Jean Cunningham. Perhaps the most important thing to remember as you begin thinking about your garden is to enjoy it. Grow things you like to eat in a space you feel is manageable. Then, at the end of the season, you can join the legions of garden-ers plotting ever larger and larger spaces with a greater variety of plants for the next season! You’ll love it.

Rethinking WeedsAdapted (lightly) from Botanica’s Organic Gardening, Laurel Glen Publishing, 2002.

Weeds have long been viewed with disdain. If we don’t control them, they will control us. But weeds are in fact symptoms, not causes of disturbance.

A more useful definition is that weeds are plants for which we have not yet found a use. Some may be highly aggressive, but others simply fill niches we have created. Despite this definition, many common field weeds do have known uses.

For many gardeners, weeds are the bane of their lives. This is a shame because weeds are so useful at repairing the damage we do with our gardening. They sustain countless insects, providing free fresh food for those in the know, attracting bees and butterflies, and providing free mulch.

If you walk into an undamaged piece of natural land, there are no weeds. They are

found only in disturbed ecosystems such as our gardens. It is probably the sheer exuberance of weeds that tends to daunt us. You clear the garden so that everything is clean and brown, turn your back for a second, and there is a fine green fuzz of weeds over everything. In fact, clean brown earth is the opposite of good gar-dening and farming practice! Topsoil should never be left exposed, since nutrient degradation begins immediately, and the volume of precious topsoil is decreased.

Green ManureWeeds are the best, the toughest, and the fastest plant species Nature has developed to conserve the topsoil against erosion by wind and rain. They are the frontline troops designed to hold the land against further

damage until a succession of longer-lived plants can restore full cover to the disturbed earth. Whether the damage is caused by natural events such as landslides or floods, or by agriculture and gardening, the same succession of plant communities occurs until a stable community finally covers the damaged area. Farmers once burned off the trash from crops to clean the land, but the idea of clean brown earth is becoming less acceptable, especially in warmer areas. The weeds that annoy us continue to repair the damage we do, and although weeds compete effectively with our domesticated crops, we could do much worse than allow weeds to cover a spare patch until we are ready to plant it. Treat the weed cover as a green manure and turn it in when the first flower buds emerge. If we are still not ready to plant, the weed will rapidly oblige with a second green manure crop, quickly increasing the organic content of the soil.

Continued on page 5

The Project Grow Community Gardener Spring 2009 3

Project GrowProject Grow’s office is located at 1831 Traver Road Ann Arbor, MI 48105

Mission StatementProject Grow Community Gardens provide the space, education and inspiration to make organic gardening accessible to all.

Project Grow Community Gardeneris published three times a year: pre-season, spring, and summer.

Readers are encouraged to submit articles and ideas. Advertising and additional sponsorship are always welcome. Please email newsletter@projectgrowgardens.org

Board of DirectorsDevon Akmon, PresidentDustin Underwood, SecretaryJoan Bulmer, TreasurerMelissa Kesterson, Executive DirectorTerre FisherRoyer HeldKirk JonesCatherine RisengDamaris Suffalko

Community Gardener VolunteersSusan CybulskiTerre FisherLiz McDowell Pamela Schwarzmann

Project Grow memberships are $10 a year and include a subscription to the newsletter. Project Grow is a 501(c)3 organization; donations to Project Grow are tax deductible.

Board MeetingsBoard meetings are held at the Leslie Science Center, 1831 Traver. Please contact the office at (734) 996-3169 for upcoming meeting dates. All Project Grow members are welcome to attend.

www.projectgrowgardens.org

Melissa’s CornerReady, Set—Pick Out Your Plants!We’re all excited to get outside and get our hands dirty at the beginning of the growing season. Some of us can’t even wait for the outdoor garden and get an early jump on the season by starting seed inside.

For most gardeners who buy at least some of their garden plants, there are guidelines and “what to look for” hints that can be helpful when purchasing plants and seeds.

One of the most important things a gardener can do to insure success with a plant is read its tag or the description on the seed package. Whether buying for the perennial bed or for the vegetable garden, the description tells you the plant’s temperature needs and light requirements. Warm-weather crops such as tomatoes often carry the warning “set out after all danger of frost is past,” while a seed packet for cool-weather plants like lettuces will tell you that the plant will lose its productivity when temperatures become warm for a prolonged period. Many perennials are bred for shade and will thrive in medium or low light, but scorch and suffer in direct sun. Conversely, plants needing direct sunlight will perform poorly in low light. Choosing plants that match the situation where they will be grown goes a long way toward keeping pests at bay and controlling other problems.

When working with transplants, choose healthy pest-free plants. When purchasing plants or transplanting your own starts, look for strong stems and low-to-the-ground bushy (not leggy) growth. There should ideally be one plant per pot or cell (the exception would be clumping plants such as chives), and watch for size compatibility between plant and pot. Stay away from plants that are yellowed, have holes in the leaves or exhibit other signs of insect infestation or disease. Scars on the stem indicate where leaves have fallen off, another sign of a weak or diseased plant. Smaller plants are preferable since they often survive transplanting better. Also look for healthy white roots and plants that are well rooted but not pot-bound.

Tags and descriptions often contain information about the plant’s resistance to insects and diseases. This information is enormously helpful if you or gardeners in your area struggle with a reoccurring pest. One example of a resistance description is the mention of VFNT on tomato descriptions, which mean that variety is resistant to Verticillium and Fusarium wilts, nematodes, and tobacco mosaic—helpful information if you have lost plants to these pests before.

Finally, handle your plants with care. Those that have bruised leaves or stems are more susceptible to attack at their damaged areas. Many disease organisms are spread in the film of water on wet leaves, so you should stay out of the garden as much as possible when it is wet.

Once the transplants are purchased or the seed starts grown, tending and nurturing becomes the gardener’s season-long obsession!

4 The Project Grow Community Gardener Spring 2009

Community Garden 2009 ScheduleMay, Saturday 8,9,10 Plant Sale at Matthaei

May, Saturday 16 Plant Sale at People’s Food Co-op

August, Saturday 22 Tomato Tasting at Homegrown Festival

September, Saturday 29 Heirloom vegetable event at Zingerman’s Roadhouse

October, Thursday 8 Annual Membership and Board mtg.

October, Saturday 17 Garden Cleanup

October, Sunday 18 Garden Close

Discovery Garden Schedule for 2009Discovery Garden Kick-Offs:

Wednesday, May 6, 5:00-7:00pm. •Discovery Gardens @ Leslie

Wednesday, May 13, 5:00-7:00pm. •Discovery Gardens @ The Farm

End-of-Season Garden Clean-Up and ClosingSaturday, Oct 17, 11:00am-2:00pm •Discovery Gardens @ Leslie

Saturday, Oct 17, 3:00-5:00pm. •Discovery Gardens @ The Farm

The Project Grow Volunteer Recognition DinnerWednesday, November 18, 5:30-7:30pm. At the Nature House •on the property of the Leslie Science & Nature Center. Bring a dish to pass and, if possible, your place settings.

Volunteer at Your GardenAll you folks at Grow’s larger gardens be sure to get to know your site coordinators and sign up for work parties. We all depend on each other to make the season successful.

County Farm Garden is located behind the Washtenaw Recreation Building, within the County Farm Park. It is Project Grow’s oldest and largest garden site. There is a tool shed for common use.

Site Coordinators Karl Longstreth CF B #11, 10, 10 272-7459, karleric@umich.edu

Jeanette Fontanive CF B #3

Damaris Sufalko CF B #13, #14 649-5118, damarisks@aol.com

Work Parties for 2009Sunday, April 26, 10am - 12pm: Spring Garden Kickoff

Saturday, May 9, 10am - 1pm: May Work Party

Saturday, June 13, 10am - 1pm: June Work Party

Saturday, July 11, 10am - 1pm: July Work Party

Saturday, August 15, 10am - 1pm: August Work Party

Saturday, Sept.12, 10am - 1pm: Sept. Work Party

Saturday, Oct. 17: Individual Gardens Close for 2009

Sunday, Oct. 18, 10am - Done: Community Garden

Closing/Clean Up

Airport Garden is located to the south of the runways and north of a woods. Enter the garden via the dirt road off the west side of S. State Rd., just south of the private hangars. DO NOT enter the garden through the airport or runways--this is very, very dangerous!! FAA regulations stipulate that this gate always remain locked. Follow the sign and pump stations to the garden area.

Site Coordinator:David Rosenberg, 734-662-6282, massage4@aol.com

Work Parties for 2009Sunday, May 17, Noon to 2 pm May Work Party

Wednesday, June 10, 7 to 9 pm June Work Party

Wednesday, July 8, 7 to 9 pm July Work Party

Sunday, August 16, 4 to 6 pm August Work Party

Sunday, September 13, Noon to 2 pm September Work Party

Guerilla gardening?Moving even farther outside the garden walls to the potential for community agriculture, let’s start with the surreptitious, with guerilla gardening. This is as much about changing perceptions of public space as it is reclaiming underutilized ground. Guerilla gardeners identify a piece of land, often public space like median strips although they can also strike vacant private lots. Then people plant and maintain food and/or flowers without seeking permission. Laguerillagardening.org shows some examples.

The Project Grow Community Gardener Spring 2009 5

Peonies as Cut FlowersBy Kirk Jones

Almost any peony makes a nice cut flower but if you cut them when fully open they often only last a day or two before shat-tering. To make the most of your peonies they should be cut while still in the bud. This is sometimes called the “marshmallow stage” because the bud feels soft but firm, like a marshmallow. At this stage the color is showing but the petals have not started to open. The marshmallow stage does not last very long so you need to check your peonies morning and evening if you want to catch it just right. You may have to experiment a bit at first before you “get the feel” of the marshmallow stage. Cut too early, the buds may not open at all. When you get it right, the flowers usually open the next day and then last for about 5 days.

Storing Cut Peonies When I first started growing cut flowers commercially, I carefully chose early, midseason, and late peonies to extend the peony season as much as possible. Then I read that this wasn’t really necessary because cut peonies can be wrapped in plastic and stored in the refrigerator for several weeks to be enjoyed later.

To store peonies, wrap the flowers and stems tightly in plastic wrap or a plastic bag. Leave an inch or two of stem sticking out of the plastic and wrap a rubber band around the edge of the plastic to make a snug seal. Do not put the wrapped flowers in water – just lay the flowers on their side in the refrigerator.

If the peonies are wet from dew or rain when wrapped and stored they sometimes get moldy. To avoid this, try to harvest the peonies when dry, or put the stems in a jar of water in the fridge for a few hours until the flowers cool off and any dew evaporates. Then wrap in plastic as above.

To use the stored peonies, unwrap them, cut a half inch off the stem, and place in warm water. The flowers should open in a few hours or by the next day. Cutting at the right stage is really important when cutting for storage because if cut too late, the flowers will quickly shatter after opening.

How Much to CutWhen cutting peonies you need to leave enough foliage on the plant to not set it back the following year. The rule of thumb is not to take more than one third of the plant. If you want really long stems, you should only take about one third of the flowers on the bush. If shorter stems will work, then you can cut all the flowers but only take about 1/3 of the stem.

Rethinking WeedsContinued from page 2

The Deep-Dig MethodUnderstanding how weeds flourish is the first step in learning how to control them organically. The soil holds a seedbank of weed seed. Even if no weed seed floated in from elsewhere, the soil would continue to produce multiple weed crops each year for about nine years. Light is the trigger for germination. Every time you dig the soil, a fresh batch of seeds reaches the light and is triggered into germinating. Armed with this knowledge, there are two things you can do: never dig and exclude light from the soil. The first of these principles, to turn the garden over as little as possible, is the basis of the deep-dig method used in Asia and Europe. Prepare a garden bed thoroughly when you first make it. Only the topsoil should be well dug and broken up, then compost and any soil additions such as rock dust are added. If you can resist the temptation to ever dig the garden again, your struggle with weeds will soon be over. Mulch the bed heavily, water well, and allow it to stand for a few days. The mulch will settle, excluding all light. Seeds triggered into germination by their brief exposure to light will be pale and withering beneath the mulch. After a week, pull the mulch aside just enough to plant seedlings or large seeds such as sunflowers, melons, beans and peas. In the following years, top the bed with a layer of compost and an occasional dusting of dolomite to ensure that the soil does not become increasingly acidic. Underneath the surface, the activity of earthworms will be aerating the soil, pulling organic matter down to the root zone and improving the soil structure.

6 The Project Grow Community Gardener Spring 2009

Project Grow wishes to thank the following businesses and individuals for their gener-ous support in 2008:

Susan Cybulski of InPrint Design for graphic design support and logo work

Lyndsay Babl of Meadow Fete Media for new web site look and redo

Dollar Bill Copying for printing and packag-ing donation

Zingermans Roadhouse and Chef Alex for Harvest Hootenanny event support and donations

Zingermans Creamery for Harvest Hoote-nanny event donations

Ernst Farms and Kevin Ernst for support and donations

Plum Market for donations

Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory for event donations

Seva Restaurant for event support and donations

People’s Food Co-op for plant sale location

Joan Bailey for PR support

Matthaei Botanical Gardens for plant sale location and plant propagation support

Vince Chmielewski of VC Web Design for web support and design

First Impression Printing for printing and product donation

And of course we would like to recognize the landowners who allow Project Grow members to garden on their land:

Ann Arbor Public Schools and the principals and staff at Lakewood School, Clague Middle School, Allen School, and Mitchell School

Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation

The City of Ann Arbor

Catholic Social Services

Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation

Leslie Science and Nature Center

Matthaei Botanical Gardens

Food Gatherers

Hillside Terrace

Your Support Appreciated!Thanks to everyone who came out to join us at Seva for our Eat Green for Grow event. More than 150 people attended to eat tasty fare, bid on amazing Silent Auc-tion items, and enjoy themselves all in the name of Project Grow. We can’t thank you enough for taking the time to join us that Sunday and throughout the year.

Special thanks go out to Seva Vegetarian Restaurant for hosting us and helping to make this event a fantastic culinary reality. We think our favorite dish of the day was Cardinale Ravioli. We recommend Seva anytime!

And thanks, too, to our Silent Auction donors from around the community. A delightful array of items made this year’s auction one of the best ever!

Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum

Schakolad Chocolate Factory

Falling Water

Downtown Home and Garden

Dogma Catmantoo

Good Scents Gardens

Acme Mercantile

Nature and Nuture

Colin O’Brien

Frog Holler Organic Farm

Pictures Plus

A Focus on Native Pollinatorshttp://plant-materials.nrcs.usda.gov/

Pollinators are an integral part of our environment and are critically important in 35 percent of global crop production. Worldwide, there are an estimated 20,000 bee species, with approximately 4,000 species native to the United States. The non-native European honey bee is cur-rently the most important crop pollinator in the U. S. However, with the number of honey bee colonies in decline because of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and other problems, the role of native pollinators is even more important. Native bees provide free pollination services that contribute an estimated $3 billion worth of crop pollina-tion annually to the U.S. economy. With these kinds of monetary savings provided by native pollinators, it behooves us to do what we can to protect and encourage this valuable natural resource.

Protecting, enhancing, or providing habitat is the best way to conserve native pol-linators. Habitat enhancement with native plants provides multiple on-farm benefits. In addition to supporting pollinators, native plant habitat will also attract beneficial predatory insects that may lessen the need for insecticide use. Pollinator habitat will also provide habitat for other wildlife and birds, serve as windbreaks and buffers, help stabilize the soil, and ultimately improve water quality.

Continued on page 7

The Project Grow Community Gardener Spring 2009 7

Continued from page 6

Pollinators have two basic habitat needs:

1. a diversity of flowering plants across the spring, summer, and fall seasons

2. egg-laying or nesting sites

Many garden areas may already have an abundance of habitat for native pollinators. Marginal lands such as field borders, hedge rows, sub-irrigated areas, and drainage ditches offer both nesting and foraging sites. Wood lots, conservation easements, farm roads, and other untilled areas can also provide habitat. Many times poor quality soils, unfit for crop production, may be useful as pollinator habitat.

For pollinators to be most effective, nectar and pollen resources are needed all season. Evaluation of the existing plant communi-ties on the margins of crop or garden land should include and conserve early-season and late-season blooming plants. Early spring-flowering plants provide an impor-tant food source for bees emerging from winter hibernation, and late fall-flowering plants help bees build up their energy reserves before entering winter dormancy. Bees need nesting and overwintering sites. In fact, for supporting native bee popula-tions, protecting or providing nesting sites is as important as providing flowers.

Native bees often nest in inconspicuous

locations. Most of North America’s native bee species (70%) are ground nesters. These bees need direct access to the soil’s surface to excavate and access their nests. The majority of ground-nesting bees are solitary, though some will share nest entrances or cooperate to excavate and supply the nest. Still other species will nest independently, but in large aggregations with thousands of bees excavating nests in the same area.

Approximately 30 percent of bees in North America are exclusively solitary wood nesters. These bees nest in abandoned beetle tunnels in logs, stumps, and snags. Thus, dead limbs, logs, and snags should be preserved as pollinator nesting areas wherever possible. A few bees can chew out the centers of woody plant stems and twigs to make nests there.

To look for ideas about plantings in and around your gardens see: http://www.pollinator.org/guides.htm.

Be sure to watch for exciting educational events during National Pollinator Week June 22-28.

Non Profit Org.US POSTAGE

PA I DAnn Arbor Michigan

Permit No 289

1831 Traver Road, Ann Arbor MI 48105