Wow, great webpage. I wish I had a nice looking garden as well as a nice webpage!!!!
Kney….I hope this post works
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!
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.
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. 🙂
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:
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.
I’m back! …and weeding!
Hey everyone,
I’m back from my interim trip so I’ll be in the garden taking care of the 1-acre (a.k.a. weeding and weeding!). If you have any questions or comments, you can direct them to me… leap@lafayette.edu.
Thanks and happy gardening! 🙂
Jenn
Farewell for a couple weeks!!
Hey all,
I’m going to be away on an interim trip (to the national parks in AZ and UT) until June 13th. I’ll be semi-reachable via email. For anything urgent please contact Dave Brandes (Brandesd@lafayette.edu) or Andy Smith (Smitham@lafayette.edu)–they’re my excel advisors for the summer.
The plots are lookin’ GREAT!! Keep up the good work! 🙂
Happy gardening,
Jenn
Community Gardening–Come start!!
Hey everyone!!
Many gardeners have begun to work in their plots and they’re lookin’ GREAT!! Sorry I haven’t updated in awhile..I’ve been at the garden lots! 🙂
Here’s some pictures from about a week ago (so much has changed since!).
The fence is complete–the gate is a little difficult to get open. We’ll try to fix it soon!
Ryan family plot–lookin’ good! 🙂
Reiter family plot–the very first one planted! 🙂
Poor Jodie Frey’s (and friends!) plot–two groundhog holes, but they haven’t come back yet!
First row of plots.
And a couple students and me started planting the large 1-acre plot last Tuesday. Here’s some pictures from that day..
The FIRST seeds. 🙂 It was some yellow sweet corn.
Pooja Shah and Scott Stinner workin’ hard!
And we worked REALLY hard! 🙂
Anyways…feel free to get started out there! I’m not sure what the key situation is for the parking area. If you haven’t received it yet, you should be getting one soon! The water situation is still under-construction, but will hopefully be done soon! Sounds like there’s supposed to be rain in the next couple weeks too! Phew!
Have a great holiday weekend!!
Jenn
Fence Building
This morning a group of gardeners were out at the field to finish the fence. John Wilson lead the crew in stringing the deer busters mesh along the posts that were set last week. As John stapled, several of us pulled the fence material taut and pulled it along the fence line to have it ready. As a section was finished, the taller guys used black tie straps to secure the fence material to the line along the top.
Once we had two sides complete, a few others came behind and began trenching and burying the bottom edge of the fence material. This should help prevent the smaller critters from crawling under the perimeter.
While all this was going on, Jenn and others began marking out the individual plots and setting the garden signs. They used the cut ends from the posts to help mark the boundaries better.
The crew attaching the fencing material caught up to the other group who was finishing attaching the wire along the top of the posts.
Saturday Mornin’ Gardening
Hey everybody,
We got a LOT of work done today. All the fence posts are in, we cut them to be about even height (~7 foot), and hung wire around the top.
We had a lot of enthusiatic help from students, faculty and staff including John Wilson, Cliff Reiter, Annette Diorio, Art Kney and his daughter Elise, LEAP/SEES students: Scott Stinner, Britta Moore, Tom Golazewski, Paul Creme, and Laura Bochner (and it was her 21st birthday!!)
We’ve still gotta: put up the fencing with fence staples and attach it to the wire at the top with zip ties. I think we’re planning on working on Friday morning to finish it up. Let me know if you can come!!
Thanks to everyone for coming out and helping today!!
And THANK YOU to Derek Smith for the yummy snacks..fruit and cookies from the farmers market! 🙂
Jenn