From the Gardens Registrar: University Houses Berm, Kindness to Fruit Trees, Remove Your Tomato Blossoms, Organic Field Day, Pickled Cabbage, and Pickled Cucumbers

Hello Gardeners,

THE UNIVERSITY HOUSES BERM – Last Saturday, our work party worked very hard to place wood-chip mulch on the berm around the weedpile. The mulch will compact over time to create a spongy substrate where we can plant small fruit plants, such as strawberries. We will follow up by installing drip irrigation lines in that space. The objective is to have a useful green area, behind the emerging blackberry hedge, to screen the weeds from the apartment houses.  

There is a separate pile of very highly-rotted wood chips nearby, at the south-east corner of the gardens, for the use of gardeners. Any gardeners who want woodchips for their plots should take mulch from that pile, and not from the berm. Also, please do not dump weeds on the berm.

FRUIT TREES – Our fruit trees at Eagle Heights and University Houses were planted for the gardeners, and you are welcome to help yourselves to the fruit. But recently, people have been seen attacking the trees, and we’ve found trees terribly damaged. If you see someone getting rough in their attempts to get all the fruit, please do what you can to stop them.

REMOVE YOUR TOMATO BLOSSOMS – Now that we’ve passed September 1, if your tomatoes are continuing to bloom, you should take off the new blossoms. There won’t be enough time for new tomatoes to ripen, and removing the blossoms will encourage your plants to put their energy into ripening the tomatoes you already have.

ORGANIC FIELD DAY - The UW’s West Madison Agricultural Research Station will be holding an Organic Field Day on Sunday, September 11, from 2pm – 5pm. The address is 8502 Mineral Point Road, in Verona. (It’s really just outside of Madison.) Come for an interactive field day on organic vegetable variety trials and production! Walk through ongoing trials and ask questions of plant breeders, pathologists, entomologists, seed company representatives and fellow farmers about current issues, management practices and varieties. http://westmadison.ars.wisc.edu/

SAUERKRAUT, KIMCHI, TSUKEMONO, CHINESE PICKLED CABBAGE – Do you make some kind of pickled cabbage? Would you like to share your recipe? Would you like to share some of the finished product? On September 24, we will have a garlic-planting class at Eagle Heights, starting at 10am. After the class, would any gardeners be interested in teaching or learning about preserving cabbage for the winter? Please let me know.

WORLD’S EASIEST CUCUMBER PICKLES – For you lucky gardeners who have more cucumbers than you know what to do with, here is a really easy recipe for refrigerator pickles: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/230227/monas-easy-refrigerator-pickles/

WORKDAY – We’re going to have another workday at University Houses Gardens, on Sunday, September 11, from 8am – 11am. The tasks will be clearing paths and continuing work on the (above-described) weedpile impoundment structure. Here’s the link to sign up: http://doodle.com/poll/3k397n8rnpcst7qv

Happy gardening, everyone.

Kathryn