Author Archives: Jenn

Community Garden Reservation Forms are Now Being Accepted!

Hello gardeners,

The moment you’ve been waiting for has arrived. 🙂  We are now accepting reservations for the community garden for the 2010 growing season!

Click here to get the form: http://sites.lafayette.edu/organicgardening/community-garden-forms/

Please return your form and payment to box  #9456 Farinon Center.  If you have any preferences about location, make sure you write it on the form.  Also, if you’d like to share a plot and are looking for another family, you can post that info here or email me and I’ll try to get you in contact with others (leap@lafayette.edu).

Spring 2010!!!

Hello gardeners!!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful winter and are ready for another great season!

If you are interested in having a community plot, the application forms will be available soon, but are not yet available.

I will post them to this website, send them to previous plot-owners, and send out a campus-wide email.  Those who had plots last year will have first priority on their plots again this year.

I will be in touch soon!

Shed Info!!!!

Ok folks,
Sorry for the delay! The shed is READY.

Here’s the deal…

We could make a long list of rules and such for keeping things in the shed, but instead I’m just gonna ask that you please just be considerate!! 🙂  There is a small amount of space for all of us to share, so try to limit what you keep inside.   I would recommend writing your name on your tools, ect. that you choose to keep in there.

One thing: Please do not use anything that does not belong to you unless you have permission.

Community Gardeners will have access to 2 walls of the shed:  dsc04691dsc04695

When looking inside the door, the short and long walls to your left are available for your use.

The combination to the lock will be sent to you via email.  You can start using it today!

Also, we will be painting the outside of the shed.  If you’re wondering about this interesting choice of color for the floor…we bought high quality (but oddly-colored) paint 70% off.  We will be painting the outside of the shed this color as a base and then painting brown on top.  We’ll be doing this next week so beware of the bright green shed!  This will only be temporary, I promise! 🙂

Surprise–It’s a Shed!

Hey everyone!

You may be wondering about that awesome-looking shed out at the garden!  It mysteriously popped up on Saturday (July 12th).  This shed was designed and built by a student, Scott Stinner, in the Sullivan Trail parking deck on campus.  Then John Wilson brought a big platform truck and we brought it over and assembled it over the weekend.

This shed WILL be available for your use to store things like garden tools and other small items by next week.  About half the space inside will be designated for the community garden and half for the student-run garden.  We will keep it locked, probably with a combination lock (and I’ll send you an email with the combination).

We will be painting it in the next week or so, and I’ll post again when it’s ready for use.hpim2501

Groundhog adventures

We caught a groundhog on Saturday in one of the Havahart traps.  Andy Smith, Mike Jordan, and I then took him in a ride in Mike’s van and let him go across a field.  The poor thing was terrified!! But hopefully he’ll be fine now and won’t be munching on our veggies.

The trap is NOT set right now, but if you see signs of groundhogs, let me know and we’ll set it again.

Left: The little guy in the trap.  He looked so sad!

On the Right: Andy Smith and Mike Jordan getting him ready for the ride over to the field (and Andy’s videotaping him too, of course! 🙂 )

dsc04560

dsc04562

Late Blight-Beware!!

Hey everyone,

Please check out these websites for more information on this disease that could be effecting your tomatoes and potatoes.  Please watch your plants carefully, as this could easily spread around to other plots!

6a00d8341c4fe353ef011571d49bbe970b-800wi

Here’s a couple websites with more information on the disease and what to do if you find it…

From the Morning Call: Penn State Master Gardeners Late Blight

“We’ve mentioned in recent blogs that late blight, a very serious disease of your tomatoes and potatoes, is hitting really early this year. Many home gardeners may be wondering what they can and should be doing. Here are some suggestions. Most of this material is from a 2004 fact sheet by A. A. McNab”


Picture and information from Morning Call.

Penn State Website: Serious Disease Threatens Home Gardens, Commercial Fields

Food, Inc.

foodinc

Hey everybody, check out this new documentary currently in theaters called Food, Inc.

Here’s the review:
Forget buckets of blood. Nothing says horror like one of those tubs of artificially buttered, nonorganic popcorn at the concession stand. That, at least, is one of the unappetizing lessons to draw from one of the scariest movies of the year, “Food, Inc.,” an informative, often infuriating activist documentary about the big business of feeding or, more to the political point, force-feeding, Americans all the junk that multinational corporate money can buy. You’ll shudder, shake and just possibly lose your genetically modified lunch. — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

Unfortunately it’s not in theaters too close to Easton, but it’ll be playing at the Pocono Community Theater on July 24th.  Check out the website for more info!

If you get a chance to see it, please comment here about your thoughts!

Wildlife at the Garden!

We’ve had a lot of cool wildlife spottings at the garden including an Indigo Bunting, vultures, and lots more.  Let me know if you see something cool, I’m keeping a list.  (Or if you could snap a picture, that’d be great too!)  Also, I’ll be working on updating the website over the next couple months to include a section on wildlife.

We’ve got a resident in the bird box I put up.  It’s a tree swallow.  Over the summer, there’s going to be lots more blue bird houses installed by a local boy scout troop, so we’ll have even more company out there!  And some organic pest control. 🙂

organic_bug_control_smalltreeswallowpair_small

Photos courtesy of D. Brandes.

Water is here!

Hey everyone!
The plots are looking great and just in time for this heat wave, the water is good to go.  Currently we have two taps running (one on the fence near the road and the other on the side near the hill).  Yay! 🙂

There will be three more installed once we get some more piping.  There will be another one on each side mentioned before and then one out in the back in the middle (there’s now a post out there with a spickit with no hose yet–you’ll see it!).

A few things to remember:

Here's one of the working water taps!

PLEASE USE SPARINGLY!  It’ll go quickly, please conserve it.

The water is not potable, please don’t let the youngin’s drink it.

The water is hot from sitting in the pipes all the time, so please be cautious.

Please don’t hook up a hose, just use watering cans.

Make sure it’s turned off all the way and if you see any dripping, please let me know ASAP!

This water system is courteous of Dave Brandes and some of his students (and funded by the Clinton Foundation grant!). Thanks for your cooperation and enjoy!

Photo of one of the taps courtesy of D. Brandes.