From the Gardens Registrar: Korean Translation Requested: Pick Your Produce; Plots Still Available; Tomato Diseases; Weed of the Week – Velvetleaf; Thai Cucumber Salad; NO WORKDAY THIS WEEKEND

Hello Gardeners,

KOREAN TRANSLATION – The CALS Research Plot staff are looking for someone who can translate a short message into Korean. Would any of our gardeners be able to help? Please let me know. Thanks.

PICK YOUR PRODUCE – If your vegetable plants are producing well, the most important thing you can do to keep them going is to keep picking. I know – it’s exciting to pick your first cucumbers or tomatoes, but after a while it becomes a chore. (In January, you’ll be amazed to remember that you got tired this summer of picking fresh, local, organic vegetables.) But if you stop picking, bad things happen – one is that you will find giant killer zucchini in your plot that you won’t really want, (and neither does anyone else.) Or your tomatoes will just rot, and there’s nothing rottener than a rotten tomato. Or your plants will decide that they’ve achieved their objective, which is to develop seeds to reproduce themselves, and then they’ll stop flowering and making vegetables. Then you’ll have nothing. So keep picking, every day, if possible, or as often as you can get here.

Remember – if you’re getting more vegetables than you need, you can pickle, preserve, or freeze the excess. Also, you can put extra vegetables on the share shelves. Another very good option is to donate your extra produce to a food pantry. There are a number of them in the area. One is St. Vincent de Paul, at 2033 Fish Hatchery Road, on the south side of Madison. They accept donations six days a week. You can look here to see the hours they’re open, plus a phone number if you have questions: https://svdpmadison.org/donate/food/  Please bring only good quality produce to food pantries – food you’d enjoy eating, yourself (if you weren’t sick of eating it.)

WE STILL HAVE GARDEN PLOTS AVAILABLE – We still have about a dozen empty plots that are available for free to EH and UH gardeners - large and small, and in both gardens. Send me an email if you’re interested. Or if you have a friend who’d like a garden, plots are half-price for new gardeners.

TOMATO DISEASES – Are tomato plants subject to more diseases than other vegetables? Or does it just seem that way? Leaf spot, wilts, blight and other funguses, blossom drop, blossom end rot, sunscald: the diseases are practically endless. Unfortunately, some of these diseases are in our soil, and so are transmitted to our plants, year after year. The good news is that most tomato plants will keep producing, even after they are affected by disease. Here’s a basic article that describes some of the most common tomato diseases: https://www.bhg.com/gardening/vegetable/vegetables/tomato-plant-diseases/

VELVETLEAF – This is a common weed in our gardens. It’s in the mallow family (related to hollyhocks and okra), and has a pretty yellow flower, and a distinctive seedpod. It’s been used in China for its fiber, and was introduced to the United States as a fiber crop. But it’s very invasive, and has become a major pest in farm fields, particularly corn. It’s easy enough for gardeners to pull up. But watch out – it grows very quickly, and can get very tall: https://wimastergardener.org/article/velvetleaf-abutilon-theophrasti/

CUCUMBER SALAD – Sliced cucumbers are very good with dill, onion, vinegar, and salt. But maybe the greatest cucumber salad of all is Thai. Here’s a simple version: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/169593/thai-cucumber-salad/  Of course, you can use fewer hot peppers than this calls for. Some recipes also call for fish sauce, or other Thai sauces. Shallots are typical also. Peanuts are optional, if you’re allergic, but really good with this.

NO WORKDAY THIS WEEKEND

Happy gardening,

Kathryn