Dear Gardeners,
Such a plentiful rain we have had. The plants seem to be growing overnight (along with the weeds). I saw my first bat this week as twilight came on. We are hoping some of them will set up housekeeping in the gardens since they are such good insect eaters. Many dragonflies around too!
This Saturday, May 31, we have a workday scheduled for Eagle Heights with weed work, path repair and many other chores. We could use a lot of volunteers so please consider coming now before the heat gets worse and the bugs more pervasive. Reply to this email if you would like to work this opportunity and I'll get you more details.
We also have reports of ticks coming home on people from the gardens. The State reports that this is a particularly bad year for ticks so please check yourselves out for hitchhikers when you get home. Check your children as well since ticks have been known to carry multiple diseases. More information is available here:
http://labs.russell.wisc.edu/wisconsin-ticks/
With the weeds growing so fast, we plan on starting our weed juries this weekend or very soon. We use a jury of peers to identify plots that are abandoned or have weeds going to seed so that we can move gardeners from the waiting list into abandoned plots and get the weeds dealt with before they seed into all the neighbors. More information on this process is on the website here:
http://www.eagleheightsgardens.org/policies/jury.shtml
If you see a bright pink notice in your plot, you will have two weeks to take care of the problem and we can help if you are overwhelmed. Mostly we want to keep the plots moving forward and get everyone to have a successful garden.
Please be careful with planting tall crops not to shade your neighbors' vegetables and don't let the squash and cucumbers run wild into other plots. Many of you are eating greens from the garden already and even the summer tomatoes and squash are looking great. Don't forget to plant a sequence of beans, cilantro and other crops so that everything doesn't come ready at once.
Happy eating,
Gretel, Garden Registrar