Edgewood Neighborhood Garden

The three apple trees were planted on Saturday February 18th during sunshine followed by rain. The trees are getting lots of rain this week.

Dottie & Debbie started seeds in 6paks and put under lights. The little plants are emerging and will be ready for the garden in several weeks. Started are: lots of greens – Texsel greens; Lettuce: D’Hiver de Sante Marthe& Bunyards Matchless; Mustards: Dragon Tongue & Spicy Curls; Giant Red Celery; Nutribud Broccoli; Onions – Newburg & Karmen; Fava Beans & Sugar Snap Peas.

It’s time to get serious about the fence around the garden beds. More on that later.

bare root apples

Bring your gloves – there will be tools at the garden.

Way back in the Fall three areas were mulched to kill the grass at the north side of the Garden with the anticipation of planting bare root fruit trees in the winter. The reason for winter planting is that the winter rains will help to get the trees off to a good start.

Now that the area for the fruit trees is ready a few of us set out to select and dig the bare root trees. Early Saturday morning David, Rene & I visited the fruit tree orchard that the Avalon project had planted around three years ago. It’s located in a private backyard in north Eugene. I didn’t know what to expect when it got down to digging the trees up so that’s why I didn’t want to have a large group there. However we were able to select three delicious heritage apple trees that produce apples that you won’t get at the market. We were hoping for some pears however it appeared that many of the pear grafts didn’t take.

The grafted trees were on various root stocks. After some homework trees were selected with the EMLA111 rootstock because it seems most suitable for the Edgewood Garden soil. This rootstock is a semi-dwarf with a mature height of 18-22 feet. It has an excellent anchorage and no staking is required. It is very drought tolerant, can handle high soil temperatures and adapts to sandy and clay loam. Best semi-dwarf for heavy or poorly drained soils. Quite resistant to collar rot and Woolly aphids, and moderately resistant to fire blight. Rarely produces root suckers. EMLA111 produces an early and prolific fruit crop.

The three apple varieties that we brought back for the garden are:

Erwin Bauer

Eating apple. Medium size fruit, deep yellow skin with stripes. Flesh especially hard and crisp with sweet aromatic flavor.

Prima

Medium to large fruit with dark red blush over yellow. Juicy white flesh with mild subacid flavor.

Wealthy

Excellent dessert and multi-use apple, picked a few weeks early for cooking. Beautiful fruit ripens to bright red across the surface. Crisp, juicy flesh. Refreshing, sprightly, vinous flavor.

These bare root trees were ‘heeled in’ in my backyard and are awaiting planting next week.

Mark you calendar – Saturday August 20th from 9 – 11 AM we will transplant the seedlings that were started at the end of July. Bring gloves & hats and if you have little shovels that would be helpful.

Should anyone have extra working hoses (no holes, etc) that you can donate to the garden that would be a great help ! We have two overhead sprinklers.

Three week old seedlings

PLANTS FOR THE GARDEN

There are two types of beets – Autumn Harvest and Ukranian. There are also some Bulls Blood beet greens for salad eating.

Three types of kales were started – dwarf siberian, extremist agreements & sutherland. These kales are very hardy and can withstand cold, wet, snowy weather.

There are Oregon Trail shelling peas. These have a short maturity and should grow and produce before winter. Purple & green cabbages are ready to go into the garden and the Romanesca Italia broccoli was a nice surprise in my spring garden.

All of the plant starts are open-pollinated plants and many of the seeds were grown by ‘Adaptive Seeds’ here in the Willamette Valley close to Eugene.

Now is the time to think about and plan for the fall and overwintering garden.

On Sunday lots of seeds were started in 6 paks and are now under lights. Lights on for around 16 hours then off overnight. The seeds that were started are fall crops and some can overwinter. Seeds started include cabbages, chards, shelling peas, various kales, lettuces and beets. In about four to six weeks these plants should be ready to go into the prepared garden beds.

On Wednesday the three empty beds were fluffed up and and sprinkling of compost was added and topped off with a protection of leaves. These beds should be ready in time for the transplants.

This afternoon the heat prediction is in the mid to high 80′s – quite a heat wave for Eugene. Small, new plants would not do well if planted in the hot afternoon sun. We’ll plant mid week when it’s cooler. Today seeds for the winter garden will be started in 6-paks in my garage at 285 E 47th, just a couple of blocks away from the garden. JOIN ME !!

~~BRING your gloves, hat & sunscreen~~

The Garden received a donation of plants from the ‘Victory Garden for All’ Project – lettuces, swiss chard, basil, artichokes, and peppers. And it’s now time to start seeds in 6-paks for the overwintering garden.

The bed where favas were can be filled in with chard and space left of overwintering kales and other greens.

The stalks of the favas

When the favas were harvested the stalks were cut close to the ground and the roots were left in the soil. The legume brings in and stores nitrogen in the little nodules in the roots. These help feed the next crop and greens love nitrogen.

Another project that can be continued during this in between stage is expanding the garden with the construction of additional beds. Lots of cardboard has been brought in and the leaf bin is full of broken down leaves.

The City of Eugene Neighborhood Leaders Council Committee on Sustainability (NLC CoS) is holding tours on summer weekends throughout Eugene. This year the Southeast Neighborhood tour will be near Spencer Butte Middle school. Visitors are encouraged to attend on bicycles, walk or alternative transport. The distance is short enough to walk.

Saturday, July 30th 10 AM to 1 PM

Begin the tour at 10 AM at Edgewood Neighborhood Garden (Edgewood Pool) access Mill street 2 doors north of 46th

Tour locations looking to the future with ecological action featuring: neighborhood garden, solar power, edible/medicinal plants, rainwater collection, ducks & chickens, lawn to garden, composting, winter gardening and more . . .

Should you have questions call 541-554-5221

Rene & David chopping down the fava beans

Not bad for two 4 x 8 beds of favas and one 4 x 8 bed of Potatoes.

Buried treasure

The writing on the signs in the potato bed disappeared over time in the sun and rain. There was a mix of Detroit Red, All Blue, Yukon and Russet.

A hill of potatoes

The fava beans stalks are great for compost. The hollow stalks allow for more air in the composting pile.

The harvest was divided among the garden volunteers.

Bart & Bob cutting down favas

Harvest time !

The favas have gotten top heavy with growth and beans and they’ve now toppled over. Some of the potatoes were harvested last week and probably the remaining ones can be dug up as well.

Favas & potatoes can make a great combination and are tasty on their own.

Come to the garden SUNDAY morning 10AM to noon is when the harvest begins.

This season has been very cool and wet. The legumes are loving it !

Time for more bolting lettuce to be removed and in its place pumpkins & butternut squash will be planted on FRIDAY June 24th from 1-3PM.

Strawberries are in need of being eaten and the sugar snap peas are here.

At our house we began to sneak a few potatoes – all blue and yukon. These two are the early season type.

With all the graduations going on this coming weekend and the incredible progress of the growing garden the official work party scheduled for Sunday June 12th is postponed until . . . TBD.

Friday morning June 10th Dave K brought in a load of broken down leaves that were dumped in the leaf bin filling it to the top. These can be used for building more beds.

During the next two weeks collect cardboard so we can begin building additional beds.

Sage & Cam thin out the greens bed pulling bolting brassicas out making more room for the over crowded lettuces.

Marjorie stopped by to pick a few leaves of lettuce and visit with Holly & Debbie.

Alexi helps himself to a little water while watering the potato patch.

Apples Trees Planted and Seeds Started

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 18th 2-3pm we’re planting fruit trees at the Edgewood Neighborhood Garden !!

Time for planting winter garden S A T U R D A Y AUGUST 20th 9-11 AM

Garden Update – last week in July

Planting Party Sunday July 24th 2-4PM CHANGE OF LOCATION

SE Green Neighborhood (not just) Bike Tour – Saturday, July 30th 10 AM to 1 PM

20 Pounds each – Potatoes & Fava Beans

Harvest FESTIVAL – Time for Fava Beans & Potatoes

Planting Winter Squash & Pumpkins

Garden Progress early June

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