Sent 6/23/14

Dear Gardeners,
Well the bugs and I have been weeding and I'm keeping up with the weeds but just barely. We have had so much rain that the gardens are soggy, but the plants seem happy with the muggy weather. Please check your plot for even small containers holding water since these can breed mosquitoes and we don't want to be growing them along with the vegetables.
On Wednesday, June 25, we'll have a workday at University Houses to chip some of the common plantings and clear space for leaf deliveries as soon as the truck can get in. We'll work from 5 pm to 8 pm. If you would like to volunteer, please email me and I'll get you some additional information.
There is also a notice about free compost forwarded by one of our gardeners  See:
Free Compost at 2 Dane County Compost sites through end of June.
https://www.countyofdane.com/press/details.aspx?id=3409
Links with details and hours:
 https://www.countyofdane.com/pwht/recycle/compost_sites.aspx
We are getting some reports of potato beetles as well as the cucumber beetle and squash bugs. Be sure to check your plants and hand-pick off the insects to combat them. We are waiting to time our spraying for the most efficiency on the potato beetles.
We are also starting our donations to the food pantry, Share the Bounty, on July 2. Look for more details next week and be sure to plant a row for hungry families who don't have gardens.
Enjoy the flowers as some of the summer daisies, poppies and lilies are coming in.
Gretel, Garden Registrar

Sent 6/20/14

Dear Gardeners, Whew, what a week we have had with sleep interrupted with thunder and sirens. Hope all of you were safe in the storms and that we can dry out a little over the weekend. The garden plants actually look happy for the warmth and rain. If you have hard-neck garlic in the garden, you should start seeing the scapes (flower buds). These are delicious and removing them helps the plant devote more to the bulbs. See recipes and pictures here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/29/garlic-scape-recipes_n_1637590.html Cut the scapes once the flower has curled around a full circle and cut close to the next leaf. They can be stir-fried or eaten raw and are mildly garlic flavored. This Sunday, we will try to have an Eagle Heights workday from 8 am to 11 am at the gardens with plot clearing, weeding in the common plantings and some clean-up work. Please email if you would like to work this opportunity and I'll get you more details. Please let me know if you see Colorado Potato beetles on your potatoes. We will be spraying with an organic spray, but we want to time the application for the best results with the smallest amount of spraying. Hand-picking is really a good idea if you have only a few and is very effective. Our email was down (with the rest of campus) since Tuesday night and some emails are coming through slowly so please let me know if you emailed and didn't get a reply. Hoping we don't get the violent storms again and no more outages.  Stay dry, Gretel, Garden Registrar