Musings from the Squash Blossoms Community Garden
Old Man Winter just won’t let go this spring, but the Squash Blossoms are having none of it. It’s Season 3 for the community garden behind the Buzz Café, and plans are under way for a bountiful summer harvest. First on the list is taking stock of what went well last season—and what didn't.
Probably our most successful crop was cucumbers. And did we ever jar a bunch of delicious pickles, sweet and dill. Dozens of them. We also canned loads of beets using different recipes, including one with orange juice, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves that was to die for. This little gem came to us by way of a private demonstration. (Someone in the group has connections.)
In terms of unsuspected successes, I’m proudest of the fact that three of the four okra plants grew to about six feet tall and produced not only plentiful okra pods but also amazing ornamental flowers. I also learned okra has to be picked about twice a day during its most prodigious period; otherwise, it becomes woody and inedible. Okra harvesting was a nonissue the year before. Those tiny sprouts never made it out from under the shade of the insidious squash.
As for tubers, one of the season’s many highlights was our potato cook-off. At Sunny Hall’s home, we baked, boiled, and roasted eight varieties, judging each for taste and texture. We sat around the dining room table, ballots in hand, and munched our way through twenty-four samples. By the time we were finished, I don’t think anyone wanted to see a potato again, much less eat one. But we arrived at a winner. Actually, two. The Island Sunshine and the Red Dale. The biggest loser was the Carola, with Cathy Busking noting that it smelled like the I-55 landfill in the summer. So we don’t recommend that one.
The season brought us hard-learned lessons too. Probably the biggest one was in plant spacing. We were ambitious and optimistic, to say the least, in planting fifty-one tomato plants in approximately 400 square feet. Mother Nature got a good belly laugh out of that. Maybe our biointensive method was a little too intense, but we did gain a better understanding of air circulation as it relates to aphid infestation.
So this year we will be trying a new method for staking tomato plants: the Florida Weave. This technique involves placing a stake between every two plants, about three feet apart, and then stringing three or more lines of twine between them. As the plants grow, they are weaved in and out of these horizontal supports. As a result, they should have good posture and room to breathe. However, as the astute Francis Bacon once pointed out, “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.” So, we’ll wait and see what the tomatoes have to say about the setup.
The next challenge is watering. Despite the beautiful rain gauge Sunny and Tom built (see the blog for directions), optimal watering practices still elude us. The group’s plan for dividing up the garden will likely be a big help for this tricky issue. In the past, we shared responsibility for the care of the entire garden. And that worked pretty well, especially since some of us knew way more than others about gardening. Now that we all have some experience under our belts, we’ve decided to divvy up plots to have a more one-on-one experience with the plants. We will still share our harvest equally and work together as a team, but we will be captains of our own little regiments. It’s yet another experiment, so stay tuned to see how it goes.
Other big plans for the garden include an entirely new layout based on information we learned at Openlands’ Building Urban Gardens (BUGs) class. This inspired layout will feature more seating area, increased companion planting, thyme as ground cover, and vertical planting. We also plan to have “teepees” for our Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash), as well as a riot of colorful flowers.
Most important, we expect another year of continued fellowship and personal growth. After all, as the garden grows, so grows the gardener.
To learn more about the Squash Blossoms’ adventures in urban gardening, visit http://www.squashblossomblog.com.