Richmond Heights Garden Club Newsletter
March 2010
President– Jim Imler
Vice President – Debbie Tolstoi
Treasurer – Donna McDonald
Secretary – Stacy Haynes
Editor – Mary Grenfell
March Meeting: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 7:00pm The Heights 8100 Dale Ave.
Program: The Principles of Organic Gardening and potato planting! (7:00-8:00 pm)
• Compost, soil preparation, mulch, companion planting, native plants.
• Organic fertilizers and pesticides to use
• Garden structures, irrigation and weed control PLUS!
• A healthy recipe provided by Almut
• Jim Imler will present a hands-on potato starting activity. You’ll be able to take your potatoes home to plant.
• Debbie Tolstoi will also bring the seeds and starting mix to plant up more seeds to take home. We had leftovers from the February meeting.
The March meeting had about 22 people in attendance, but the great news is at least eight of those were guests! Everyone had some fun planting seeds for early starts. My broccoli seeds germinated in about 3-4 days! Thanks to Debbie Tolstoi for her organizing and instructions for planting and also to Stacy Haynes for helping to plan the meeting. We hope that Stacy is feeling better and that we will see her at the March meeting.
**The memorial tree for Ray Nevels will be planted in Forest Park by Forest Park Forever. Mrs. Nevels received a letter from Forest Park Forever and has written a thank-you to the Richmond Heights Garden Club for our donation of the tree.
**Jim Imler brought several creative early plantings of lettuce to give away. He used a gallon milk jug with lettuce planted in the bottom and the top half of the jug cut so that it left a “hinge” attached to cover the seedlings. In a most inventive manner, he used a hollow mailbox post to make a long, narrow planter which came complete with early lettuce.
**Ed Schmidt, our dessert wrangler, would like us to leave less environmental impact and so we will be using cloth napkins (with our own bamboo napkin rings) and reusable plates. At the February meeting Ed mentioned the book, No Impact Man in which a man challenges himself to leave as little impact on the earth as possible. Ask Ed about the details.
When the world says, “Give up.” Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.”
As you work in your yard (soon, we hope very soon) remember to pot up some divisions for the plant sale. Though we do order stock from a nursery, we make 100% profit on everything donated by members. Remember that we also do some silent auction items so if you know anyone that would like to donate garden related items, we’d be very grateful. We will also be signing up to work the day before/setting up the sale, working during the sale and any committees that Donna may need help with. Donna MacDonald is our plant sale coordinator again this year. She has done a great job in the past and it’s a big job with lots of details.
Do any new members need a membership roster?
This is our directory with the list of members, phones and such.
Let us know at the meeting if you need one.
This is our directory with the list of members, phones and such.
Let us know at the meeting if you need one.
We talk a lot about companion planting in vegetable gardens, but did you know that there are some plants that just don’t like each other? According to Jerry Baker these plants make “bad neighbors.”
| Vegetable | Don't Get Along With... |
Asparagus |
Onions, leeks, garlic, gladiolas |
Bush beans, pole beans |
Onions, leeks, garlic, and gladiolas |
Pole beans |
Sunflowers, kohlrabi, beets |
Cabbage |
Strawberries, tomatoes and even pole beans |
Carrots |
Dill |
Chives |
Peas (maybe that’s the other way around!) |
Cucumbers |
Potatoes and most herbs |
Peas |
Onions, garlic |
Potatoes |
Pumpkins, sunflowers, tomatoes, raspberries Potatoes are apparently true loner types |
Pumpkins |
Potatoes |
Strawberries |
Cabbage |
My you always have these blessings… A soft breeze when summer comes, A warm fireside in winter, And always the warm soft smile of a friend. Irish Blessing
Winnie Finn, Worm Farmer
What’s going on in the Compost Pile? : A Book about Systems
Garbage Helps our Garden Grow: A Compost Story
The Seed Vault
Composting: Nature’s Recyclers
A Tree for the City
Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai
Minibeasts in the Compost Heap
From Seed to Apple Tree
Lots of people have told me that a good old-fashioned cure for low magnesium in the soil (resulting in thin, yellowing leaves) is to use Epsom Salts. The theory is that since Epsom Salts are composed of magnesium sulfates they are helpful for magnesium or sulfur deficiency in the soil. Remember though that this will lower the PH of the soil. If your garden soil is acidic, it is recommended to use dolomitic limestone. This is a form of limestone that boasts magnesium and neutralizes the acidity. Remember to correctly diagnose the problem before assuming it is low magnesium. Kelp can also help with yellowing leaves. An interesting side note: Epsom Salts do not meet the standards for most organic certification programs.
~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from and Old Manse
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