From the Gardens Registrar: Frost Warnings Tonight and Tomorrow Night: Garden Thefts; Lakeshore Nature Preserve; Putting the Garden to Bed; Juncos

Hello Gardeners,

FROST WARNINGS! - The latest weather forecast predicts low temperatures tonight and tomorrow night in the mid-thirties. We might escape frost this time, but I would suggest that you cover tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers the next two nights, if you want to be sure they survive. The weather is likely to warm up by the weekend, and stay warmer for another week or so.

GARDEN THEFTS – There have been reports all season of thefts and even vandalism in gardens in both locations. The culprits are generally not gardeners, and unless someone actually catches them in the act, there is no way we can stop them or prosecute them. So please be alert when you’re in the garden, and keep an eye on anyone you don’t know who’s in somebody else’s plot. 

Also, I want to remind people that no gardener is allowed in another person’s garden without that person’s permission. In some recent theft complaints, a gardener who has been away from their garden for several weeks stopped in to pick produce, and found their vegetables already picked. Just in case it was a fellow-gardener who picked it: do not consider a garden abandoned just because you see vegetables there that haven’t been picked. If you think a garden may have been abandoned, please email me, and I will check with the gardeners for that plot. 

THE LAKESHORE NATURE PRESERVE – The Eagle Heights and University Houses gardens are part of the University’s Lakeshore Nature Preserve, which exists to protect the undeveloped lands and the plant and animal communities along the shore of Lake Mendota. No collecting or picking of plants, wood, stone, earth, or animals is allowed. So please, if you need sticks for your garden, do not cut saplings in the woods that surround the gardens, and do not take fallen branches. We have sticks in barrels at both gardens for gardeners’ use.

PUTTING THE GARDEN TO BED FOR THE WINTER – If your garden is done for the season, do yourself (or the next gardener at your plot) a big favor, and do some quick maintenance this fall that will make planting in the spring much easier. You can do this work any time until the ground freezes, but why not do it soon on a warm, sunny day when you’re looking for any excuse to be outside? The simplest fall maintenance is to pull out your dead plants and weeds, and take them to the weed pile, and then cover your beds with a thick layer of leaves from the leaf pile. This will protect and enrich your soil, and give you a good surface for planting in the spring. 

JUNCOS – Our gardens are now playing host to little birds in the sparrow family called Dark-Eyed Juncos. These birds spend their summers in the far north in Canadian forests, and their winters in the United States, in fields, parks, and backyards. They’re easy to recognize – black or dark grey on top, and light grey or white on the bottom. They also have white feathers in their tails which are visible when they fly. They arrive here in October, and will stay until March or April, so they’re one more sign of fall.

WORKDAY – I’ll send out workday information separately.

Happy gardening, everyone.

Kathryn