Sunshine Community Gardens

30 January 2020

www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org

Gardener's Picture page

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If you are signed up to receive the Weekly Weeder and have not been receiving it, here is a troubleshooting page to help. If this doesn't help, please let Sharon at scgardenweb@gmail.com know. Thanks.

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Community Gardens Article in Producer Grower

Check out the linked article below about Community Gardens with Sunshine as one of the Gardens featured and President Steve Uecker is quoted on the benefits to the community from community gardening.

https://www.producegrower.com/article/enriching-communities-through-gardening/

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Ready for Spring Plant Sale?

Saturday, March 7, 2020 is coming soon. Have you signed up for Volunteer Duties Yet?

Mowing: Recent rains have let our grass grow. Please start mowing now. It will help with plant sale work.

Facebook: Our plant sale needs your social media contacts. Let everyone know you are a proud member of Sunshine and are doing want you can to help our only fundraiser of the year.

Very Important Job for Plant Sale: Labels

Besides every pot needing a label, we have larger labels to identify where the individual types of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, tomatillos are. For several years, one person has been taking care of this. It's a large job and this year we'd like to split it up a little bit more. It involves printing, stapling, organizing. It also needs to be done before the plant sale.

If you are available and interested please let me know. I'll put you in touch with our main labeler and we can move on from there.

As for the individual labels for the pots, there will be further information soon. Watch this space.

Volunteering For the Plant Sale

Lots of you have signed up to help on SignUp Genius. Please continue to fill in those spaces. And remember if you believe you cannot commit to a time, let Janet or Randy know if you want to help some alternate time. Every member of Sunshine should be helping with this huge production. There are jobs for all level of involvement. Thank you in advance.

Use this signup for bringing Food for Volunteers on Sale Day.

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Beware of Root Knot Nematodes

Gardener Walter Kuhl took the photos below and writes about these garden pests as follows:

"I want to share some information about a garden foe that every gardener should be aware of--root-knot nematodes. Disclaimer -- I am not an expert, I am simply a fellow gardener who has had to deal with root knot nematodes a few times during my gardening years. The pictures included are okra and eggplant roots from plants at Sunshine that show characteristic root-knot nematode damage.

Nematodes are microscopic roundworms that live in the soil. There are thousands of nematode species, some are beneficial, unfortunately some species, like root-knot nematodes, are plant parasites that prey on most types of vegetable plants. Root-knot nematodes invade plant roots causing galls that drain plant nutrients, stunting or even killing the plant.

If you find evidence of root-knot nematode infestation in your garden, try to prevent cross-contamination and spread to the rest of your garden and to other gardens:

• Dispose of the infected plants, especially the roots, in the dumpster, not in our compost pile.
• Clean your garden tools well after working that area. Rinse all dirt off. Spraying the rinsed tool with 10% bleach will kill root-knot nematodes. I have also read that leaving the tools in the hot sun to bake will kill nematodes.

Ridding a garden of root-knot nematodes is difficult. Approaches include:

• Increasing organic matter and beneficial organisms in the soil with compost and organic fertilizers.
• Planting Elbon rye as a winter cover crop. Elbon rye roots trap root-knot nematodes and also provide organic matter when tilled in.
• Crop rotation. Alternate planting nematode susceptible and resistant crops.
• Soil solarization. Unfortunately this kills beneficial soil bacteria also.

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Weeder Content

Please email your article or suggestion to Holly Gilman by end of day Wednesday.

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