master gardener class with Roger Swain

I keep writing about this. What a treat the class was!! It was so great to hear Mr Swain talk from 9 am to 3 pm all about vegetables. I have 12 pages of notes. I wish I had a tenth of his knowledge. And a tenth of his ability to entertain a class. Super.

Anyway, here is a list of some of the highlights in his presentation:
- Local food production: 20% local food production is a good goal for New England. Currently it's about 5-7%. NE has the land resources for higher local production. It would not impact large areas of forest, would not leave the land bare like the 1800's. We have a untended, overgrown land and using it would be better.
- Home vegetable gardens: The more the better. It's better for land to be gardened than to let it go to weeds and invasive plants - open land needs to be tended to maintain health.
- Seasonal food: is one of the reasons for increasing home and local gardening. People have forgotten what it's like to eat seasonal food. Seasonal local food is much better for us than cheap supermarket food.
- Mr Swain grows about 30% of his food, which is way above average. (I think he meant 30% of ALL of his food. Not just 30% of his vegetables. Impressive.)
- Giving food: is an important part of vegetable gardening. If you get to the end of the season and haven't given food away it's a real shame.
- Organic gardening: Instead of "organic", he likes an approach he calls "PMO" pretty much organic.
- Raised beds: Make raised beds simply by digging sunken paths and piling the soil up to make a raised bed. This it easy to do, makes it easy to change the bed configuration next year, there's no pressure treated wood, and no rotting untreated wood to worry about replacing. They still provide the benefits of raised beds with warmer soil and paths to walk on avoiding bed compaction.
- Soil preparation: A rototiller is the worst invention ever! It puts oxygen into the soil, which removes nutrients, it destroys soil structure, and it raises buried weed seeds to the surface. Instead, use a broadfork to loosen and aerate the soil a little. - Weeding: Use a Dutch hand hoe and slice under weeds with the blade. (I've found that there are lots of different hoes called a Dutch hand hoe. He had one with a straight 12 inch wood handle and a triangular metal blade. They come in right- and left-handed versions. There are beautiful one at sneeboerusa.com, but probably nice ones at many on-line sources and local garden shops.)
- Mulch: Use thin (1 ml) black plastic on the beds. It lasts one year, then you can throw it out and not worry about storage. You could get the thicker 6 mil stuff, but it cost 5 times as much and doesn't last 5 years.
- Planting: In home gardens, grow plants close together giving every plant only the space it needs. Plant in patches rather than rows.
- Chipmunks and voles: Use have-a-heart traps. But don't release the animal somewhere else like in your neighbors yard (in MA it's illegal to move any wild animal from one place to another). Kill the animal. Killing pests comes with the territory of gardening.
- Bug control in general: "The bug on the rose is evil, but so is the person who sees only the bug."
- Zucchini: Use black plastic mulch, cut holes in it and plant, and then cover the plants with Remay fabric over low hoops. This keeps the plants about 10 degrees warmer and also keeps the vine borer wasps out. Remove the fabric when the first female squash flowers appear.
- Potato beetles: At the 1st/2nd instar, spray with BtSD. (I am thinking this approach may also be appropriate for bean beetles, though I didn't ask him.)
- Corn ear worms: Just lop the top of the corn off before you eat it.
- Blueberry maggots: They are not toxic to people...
- Potatoes: Save your small potatoes and regrow them for about 4-5 years. That's how long it takes for pathogens to become a problem. Every 4-5 years, get a new stock of certified disease free ones and start again.
- Winter: Use winter rye ground cover. In the spring, use a weed whacker to turn it into coleslaw. (I didn't get the full story here. I don't know if you need to turn this into the soil to disrupt the roots, or if you can leave the "coleslaw" on the top of the soil while the roots compost? The question is whether the roots will regrow.)

He also talked about storing vegetables and listed many of his favorite varieties. I'll post about each of these separately.

the basics of growing a vegetable garden

I have a giant notebook compiled from my Master Gardener class. Of course, the vegetable section was one of my favorites.

I was interested to see how our manual breaks down the major components of growing a vegetable garden. 1) Planning and 2) Maintaining growth momentum.

Planning includes site selection, soil, type of garden (raised beds, etc), how you will irrigate. It also includes planning what to grow, how much, and what to plant where. It includes deciding whether to grow from seed or use transplants, where to obtain these, and generating a planting schedule.

Maintaining growth momentum includes what you need to do after the garden is planted (or after seeds are in pots under lights). I'm thinking that this component includes both maintaining good momentum of plant growth, as well as - maybe more important - maintaining momentum of the gardener. For the vegetable plants, maintaining momentum requires using proper practices for individual plants such as fertilization, irrigation and mulching, weed control, pest control, succession planting, cold protection, harvesting, winter clean up and cover crops. (For the gardener, maintaining momentum for an entire season requires ...?)

So, I'm now moving into the planning season. I've already received a couple seed catalogs. At our community garden, we're planning programs we'll run next year. I'm looking forward to trying some changes in my garden including improving my soil, installing drip irrigation, interplanting, and trying some new varieties. I'm even planning for the weather; The Old Farmer's Almanac says that after a mild, snowy winter, our area will have a cool and wet summer. Ha! That's hard to believe! We're still in a severe drought here. I think I'll take that forecast with a grain of salt.

I'm a certified master gardener!

I'm certified!!

I've passed the 50 hours of classwork and 60 hours of supervised gardening, help line, etc, and two exams to earn certification as a Master Gardener. It was a challenging course given by the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association (MMGA). I recommend it highly to anyone in central Mass. Also, most states offer their own MG courses.

Every week we had full day lectures given by top experts in the field. They really did bring in the best. Topics included soils, composting, botany, insects, garden design, perennials, berry plants, pruning, vegetable gardening, and others. Every day I would go to class with such anticipation and leave feeling like I wanted to get right out in the garden and practice what I learned. It was fantastic.

update - October has been keeping me busy

Oh gee, I meant to post regularly and here again, I've gone a long time without posting. So much is going on. (I'll fill in some back posts soon.)

I've been getting good harvests regularly, still. Lot's of lettuce. Also beans, summer squash, and peppers. All the green tomatoes I picked two weeks ago (thinking we were getting a hard frost), are on my kitchen counter and rapidly ripening. I make sauce every time I get a bowlful of ripe ones. We use that in a few days, or freeze it.

With all my beans, I've canned two batches of pickled three bean salad. A recipe that we love. I now have a pantry full of this, mixed vegetable pickles, sandwich dill pickles, and tomatoes in all different forms: salsa, Rotel-style, crushed and pizza sauce.

My Master Gardener class is coming to an end soon. I finished up my final exam today. All my homework and the 60 hours of gardening volunteer time are done. I'll miss the great classes. Our final class is tomorrow and it's on ... VEGETABLES!! Yeah. We have a treat - Roger Swain (TV host of "The Victory Garden" show) will talk to us from 9 am to 3 pm!!! I have been looking forward to this since the class started back in April. I'm told he's "a hoot". (I don't know how I'll be able to sleep tonight.)

I've been putting a lot of time into my community plot. I've stepped down as the Coordinator as of the end of this year and with my extra time I want to do a really nice job on my plot next year. I cleaned out all the summer debris, made a second compost bin, and leveled the soil in all the beds. Some of my raised beds, made 6 or 7 years ago out of untreated pine, are rotting and falling apart. I removed the wood and made raised areas with paths between. I planted 60 cloves of garlic in one bed and planted the rest with winter rye. It looks very well tended.

I've been working to make sure we have a smooth transition to new leadership at our community garden. I was so happy that many gardeners have stepped up to participate in leadership. Our new management will be a committee of 7 gardeners (including me). I think a committee will be so much better than just one person. I am very pleased.

I've been spending time with Suzie. We both miss Skippy. Suzie completed an obedience class yesterday. She is very smart and very motivated. It's fun to do classes with her. We've gone on long walks and just relaxed and hung out together.

I've been watching TV - who can avoid watching presidential politics this year!!

But best - I'm getting ready for my puppy who is coming this Saturday! Charley. I can't wait. I have been puppy-proofing our house, assembling comfy crates, re-reading puppy training info, and visiting him every couple weeks. Last week I helped the breeder bathe all 6 pups in Charley's litter. I'm sure I'll have a million puppy photos to share soon.

today's garden work

rake edges of front lawn and clear out winter fallen branches
mow, lime and fertilize lawns
haul 2 truckloads of branches to Town DPW
finish mulching the back cottoneaster and peony bed
fertilize my blueberry bushes

I think I can start on my vegetable garden next!!! Yeah. It's about time.

My Master Gardener class this week was given by a professional landscape designer. I could definitely relate when she said a goal of design is to minimize the amount of lawn and the amount of mulched beds! I've spent 2 weeks tending to lawns and mulching beds. It's a lot of work!

master gardener help line

I'm working as a volunteer at the Mass Horticulture Master Gardener help line tomorrow. It's open MWF, 10-2 EST. Give us a call if you have a garden question. I'm just a student still and will be in the background helping out. The certified master gardener will answer the line. Phone: 1-617-993-4929. Or email us at mghelpline@masshort.org.

master gardener class

I've signed up for a Master Gardener Certification class. My first class is tomorrow. It's a class offered by the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association held at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Horticulture Center at Elm Bank and includes 60 hrs of volunteer time and 80 hrs of class time. I'm excited to learn everything about many topics including composting, turf, weed ecology, botany, soil science, etc, etc. All taught by experts in the fields. I am excited about the first class tomorrow - Soil Science by Dawn Pettinelli. I love soil! I also can't wait to hear the last class - Vegetables, taught by Roger Swain! Awesome! Roger Swain is my hero.