From the Gardens Registrar: Compost for University Houses; DATCP; Entomology Lab; All About Beans; Planning for Vacation; No Workday This Weekend

Hello Gardeners,

COMPOST FOR GARDENERS AT UNIVERSITY HOUSES– We sold off most of our compost last weekend, but we still have eight or so cartloads left. UH gardeners may request a cartload by signing up at this doodle link: https://doodle.com/poll/2nc5r49kqn9fx89r  Just enter your name and plot number. The compost will be delivered on Sunday afternoon, directly to your plot, in the same order that gardeners sign up. When the compost is all gone, it’s gone, for this year. The price is $5 per cartload. I’ll contact you once it’s been delivered to ask for your payment. This offer is for UH gardeners ONLY.

DATCP - The State of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection has a division that studies and tracks insects that damage crops and gardens all around the state. They have recently set up 8 insect traps in garden plots at Eagle Heights. The traps will remain until September, and then the results will be analyzed to see what insects we have, and how many of them. Thank you to gardeners who agreed to host one of these traps. And if there’s a trap in your plot, and you didn’t agree to it being there, please let me know – we’ll get it moved.

During the growing season, DATCP issues weekly Wisconsin Pest Bulletins, and they’re quite interesting. Reading them lets you know what insect pests are starting to multiply around the state and heading in our direction. There are also suggestions for how to combat them. This is a link to their homepage: http://datcpservices.wisconsin.gov/pb/index.jsp  If you’d like to subscribe and get the
Bulletin in your inbox, you can sign up on the homepage.

UW ENTOMOLOGY DEPARTMENT – And lastly, speaking of insects, the UW Madison Entomology Department has an Insect Diagnostic Lab to help people identify insects, including garden pests. They can also provide specific information about pest control (although they don’t have an organic focus.) If there’s something crawling around your tomatoes, and you don’t know what it is, or what to do about it, here’s a link to their website: http://labs.russell.wisc.edu/insectlab/contact-us/

BEANS – Beans are generally planted around here in late May or early June, but with the cold wet spring we’ve been having, it’s taken longer for the soil to warm up this year. If you haven’t planted beans yet, it’s not too late – this is an excellent time to start them.  In fact, some people plant them several times over the season to give themselves a continuous crop. The warmer the soil, the faster and better the seeds will germinate, and the plants will continue to bear most of the season. Unfortunately, we are subject to insect pests for beans, such as Bean Beetles and Japanese Beetles. But hopefully you’ll still get a decent crop before the beetles destroy your plants. Beans are easy to grow, and good to eat, whether you eat them green, or as shell beans or dry beans. They are also good for your garden, since they can take nitrogen out of the air and put it in your soil. Here’s a nice article from Seed Savers on how to grow them, as well as how to save seed for next year: https://www.seedsavers.org/grow-bean

VACATION? – I never go anywhere, but it’s my understanding that other people do. Some of our long-term gardeners actually travel quite a bit, and yet, their gardens continue to look beautiful. How do they do it? One: they plan for their absences, and leave their gardens well-maintained and mulched before they leave town; Two: they let their garden buddy or buddies know they will be gone, ask them to water if it gets dry, and tell them to pick ripe produce rather than leave it to rot in their plots; Three: they are mentally prepared to do some catch-up garden work when they get back. Remember: a garden will not go into suspended animation just because its gardener is on the other side of the planet for a month. Plants keep growing, including weeds. Especially including weeds. So, if you’re going to be gone for more than a few days during the summer, plan ahead. If you don’t have a garden buddy, you might consider joining the Dane County TimeBank, so you can try to find another gardener to help you out. (And you might be able to help with their garden while they’re out of town.)   https://www.danecountytimebank.org/

Happy Gardening,

Kathryn