Anybody there?

Dear gardeners, please comment if you use this blog or its links anymore - including the planting calendar links.

EC Garden Google Group!

We now have our own EC Garden Google group! This is a tool that will allow for easy communication between gardeners. You can choose to be updated of any new messages by email, if you wish, which makes it it even easier.
Currently, the group is restricted to invited members - which are current gardeners or other members of the EC Garden mailing list (ecgarden@ucdavis.edu). Though this may change, for now please check your email box for your invite and post away!

The group can be accessed at this address: http://groups.google.com/group/ec-garden

Group specific email (questions, concerns) can be sent to: ec-garden@googlegroups.com

Happy grouping!!!

Blog Settings

Hey everyone, I set the blog settings so that only EC Garden bloggers can comment on our posts, because we were getting spammed out.

Does anyone want to administrate the EC Garden blog? Please contact ECG: 752-9118.

Experimental College Community Garden

Hey everybody, here ara a couple of links with vegetable planting dates for the Sacramento area (thanks in part to the Solano Park Garden Association).

Vegetable Planting Calendar for Sacramento



Vegetable Gardening at a Glance - including Sacramento area planting dates


I hope these links work out, but if not, they are also listed in Links.

Wash your veggies

Hello fellow gardeners,

I thought I would send this along. During the aerial anti-mosquito spraying last week, the plane veered around the Student Farm, as it was registered organic. But in doing so, its flight path was directly over the EC Garden. For everyone's information, both Pyrethrin and PBO which were the active ingredients in the spray, degrade in sunlight, most during the first day after the spray. However, it would still be a good idea to wash your veggies. On that note, you should probably be washing them anyway... unless you like manure bacteria on your food. Mmmm manure.

The research conducted during the spray showed that spiders and dragonflies were not affected by the spray, and my bees had a sum total of one visible mortality outside my hives. (My own bee experiment suggested that bee loss was minimal, although I didn't have very much data.) I don't think we should have any problems with the beneficial insects in the garden post-spray.

Whenever you wander around in the garden, off away from the cultivated areas, it might be good to keep an eye out for standing bodies of water, such as ponds, puddles, buckets, and tires. Let me or one of the garden coordinators know about ponds that need fish, or you could always pick up some fish yourself! Every acre of land that breeds mosquitoes makes future West Nile sprayings more likely.
Karl

Washington State Offers Organic Farming Degree.

To read all about it, click here.

Mystery "Weeder" !

An interesting thing seems to have happened today in our garden - someone has come and "weeded" some of our cover crop.

Now, we'd like to give that person the benefit of the doubt but it does seem odd that someone should enter our garden and pull up several handfuls of barley and other cover crop sprouts then neatly pile them along the margins, doesn't it?

We can only assume that our "mystery weeder" had the best intentions, like that they were trying to help out by removing some noxious weed from our garden, but nevertheless we have a couple problems with the whole thing, namely:

1. While we don't mind people coming to check out our crops - even grabbing a tomato or two - we feel as though we've been trespassed;
and
2. What was uprooted from our garden was not a weed but was in fact a crop that we intentionally planted - from seed which we paid for - that is intended as a beneficial and integral part of our garden.

We suppose that the "weeder" was looking for bermuda grass - our advice is that the mystery weeder ought to do a google search for bermuda grass so that he or she is aware of what bermuda grass looks like before trying to do anyone a favor! Actually, there are a couple of stems of bermuda grass in our garden that the mystery weeder passed over in favor of uprooting our cover crop!

Anyway, if the mystery weeder is you (or if you know the mystery weeder), here are a couple more thoughts:

1. Although we're curious, we don't need to know who you are nor do we need an apology - but please don't do any further work in our garden!
2. If you feel the need to weed, check the shed for the plot reclamation committee as they likely have suggestions for which plots need weeding - there are even several abandoned plots near ours which are in desperate need of weeding - including one which is almost entirely bermuda grass.

For reference, the plot in question, one of our three plots, is located just east of the shed on the main path and has its south end under the shade of the walnut tree. Just to avoid any potential future confusion for the mystery weeder.

Thanks,
Wesley and Ariel

community bench mosaic designs

Design 1: Sun and Moon - we could do a moon on one bench and a sun on the other, or choose either the sun or the moon for one bench and then choose one of the designs below for the other bench.
Design 2: Hands and vines
Design 3: Tree
Design 4: Fractal
Design 5: Seasons - the back of each bench would be "divided" and would have a mosaic/sculpture of a seasonal plant. The actual mosaic would be a little simpler than shown above, and would probably have only one or two plants per section. If you like this design, please feel free to say which plant you would pick for each season.


Hi,
The earthen benches in the new EC garden community space are nearly finished, and they're looking great. We will be finishing the cobbing this Saturday during the Whole Earth Festival. As part of the final work, we'll be doing a mosaic on the back of each of the benches. We need your input - please help decide what design you'd like to have on our community benches!

Last week several gardeners and students came up with a number of design ideas. The top picks are above. Please comment on this blog or email cmharvilla (AT) ucdavis (dot) edu with which design(s) you like best. We can do the same design on both benches, or we can mix and match.

The mosaics will be made out of river rocks, and the cob can also be sculpted as part of the designs. When we're finished we'll have a beautiful, lasting gathering place created by the garden community. Your input is valued as we make this decision together...and of course, we hope to see you on our last building day this Saturday! *Thanks*

Extra Stuff

I've got a bunch of extra sprouting potatoes (russets - 2# and reds - 2#) and some sprouting garlic. Does anybody want some?

I've left the potatoes on the table in the shady grove, just to the east of the toolshed. Take as many as you'll plant. Enjoy!

Dr. Vandana Shiva

Please distribute widely:

The California Student Sustainability Coalition's

Education for Sustainable Living Program
presents

Dr. Vandana Shiva

An inspirational lecture on sustainable agriculture, and social justice

In 1993, Vandana Shiva received the Right Livelihood Award (the Alternative Nobel Prize) “… for placing women and ecology at the heart of modern development discourse” Dr. Shiva is a physicist, philosopher, ecofeminist, environmental activist and writer. She is the founder of Navdanya, a movement in India for biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, and social rights. Vandana Shiva is also Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy, she is the author of hundreds of articles and many books including: Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace. She is a leader in the International Forum on Globalization, along with Ralph Nader and Jeremy Rifkin and she addressed the World Trade Organization summit in Seattle, 1999, as well as the recent World Economic Forum in Melbourne , 2000.

UC Davis, 194 Chemistry
Tuesday, April 25th 6:10-8:00
Admission is FREE

Easter Egg Hunt

The EC Garden is such a great place to be. I've been thinking for a while that we should do more fun stuff there. Last year, I took my family to the EC Garden during WEF to see if anything might be going on - nope. This year we have something: Finishing the Cob Benches on WEF Saturday! Other opportunities await us: Easter Egg Hunt, EarthDay/Mother's Day/WEF, Solstices/Equinoxes, Holidays, and much more.

I want to make the EC Garden a place where people want to spend their time, where people can't wait to come when vacation starts, a place that people want their families to come visit on special days.

We're counting down to the day of the Easter Egg Hunt! HELP, we need eggs! Please poke holes in the top and bottoms of eggs and blow them out so we can paint and dye them to hide for the hunt this year. If we don't get enough empty eggs, I'll have to use plastic eggs.

Gardeners, Domies, and friends of the EC Garden are blowing out eggs. We need about 100 more. Don't make me turn to the plastic industry, email us (ecgarden) to let us know how many eggs you've got for the Easter Egg Hunt.

Thanks

Thanks to whomever dumped the grass over by my plot today (near the old compost piles). I had a huge wheelbarrowful of oats and, being 5 days overdue to have a baby, got tuckered out. My husband Joel and I came over in the late afternoon to tend to it, and it was gone. Thanks so much to the mystery person who took care of it.