Dear Gardeners,
Whew! I'm not used to the warm weather, but the plants are loving it. The onions and garlic are finishing up along with some of the potatoes and the green beans, cucumbers and even tomatoes are coming in.
In the wildlife side, we are pestered with small rodents, especially voles, but there are two new sightings that may help. First, we have had multiple sitings of mink in the gardens. Last year, one was sighted at University Houses and this year at Eagle Heights. These may be from the same family, but probably not. One Eagle Height's sighting was a younger one. Mink are weasel-like with furry long tails and their favorite food is voles (Yeah!). They do have a bad temper and sharp teeth so don't corner them or approach closely, but we are happy to have them around.
Secondly, the pair of cranes in the Preserve lost their first nest, but were seen in Eagle Heights with a new chick (called a colt). The young one is only about a foot tall, all legs and bill and fluff, and guarded carefully by the parents. Please don't approach too closely, but the parents seem used to us gardening and are rather calm unless any dogs are around. We rejoice in their success in offspring after a couple of years without any young.
We will have a workday this Thursday evening (7/24) from 5 pm to 8 pm to work on the Eagle Heights arbor and other common plantings. It is likely to be cooler by then. On Saturday, 7/26, there will be a workday from 8 am to 11 am. That day, we'll be moving wood chips, working on the weed pile area and paths. If you would like to work either of these opportunities, email me and I will get you more details.
Upcoming workdays: We are going to have a need for workers on Thursday, July 30 and Sunday, August 3 when the plumbing for the 100/200 water line is being replaced. We have had problems with this, our oldest plumbing, for some time and the line is not buried very deep so prone to problems. We will be replacing it with a better line and new faucets but that means digging up the old line, placing new and attaching faucets. We want to minimize the disruption of water supply and the other water lines will remain working during the time. So if you want to be part of this project, set aside some time to help on Thursday evening or Sunday morning next week. I'll have more details later.
Now is the time when you may have more produce than you can immediately eat. Of course you can share with family and friends or give to the Food Pantry on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. You might also want to preserve some of it for later meals by canning, freezing, pickling, dehydrating and other methods. This is a chance to learn some new techniques. Check out our website for some pointers at the bottom of this page.
http://www.eagleheightsgardens.org/tips/gardentips.shtml
This is probably the last week to put in the final bush beans.  You can start to put in some fall crops now. Think about Napa cabbage, bok choi, spinach, lettuce, radish, carrot, beet, kale, arugula and many more greens. The flea beetles die down in the fall and so these crops do even better than in the spring.
Giving thanks for the generosity of the earth,
Gretel, Garden Registrar