Plot Style Community Gardening in Minnesota

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Plot Style Community Gardening in Minnesota

• A preparation guide for new community gardeners
• By Charlene Gruber and Kelsey Sparks

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What is a Community Garden

• Any piece of land gardened by a group of
  people.
• - American Community
• Garden Association (ACGA)
• A community garden is any space where plants are
  grown and maintained by a community to meet the
  needs of the community.
• -Gardening Matters

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Types of Community Gardens

• Neighborhood community gardens
• Educational
• School gardens
• Job training
• Gardens that support food banks or shelters
• Demonstration gardens
• Therapeutic gardens

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Finding a Community Garden

• Minnesota organizations
• Gardening Matters
• http//www.gardeningmatters.org/
• Minnesota State Horticultural Societys Minnesota
  Green program
• http//www.northerngardener.org/mngreen.asp
• National organization
• American Community Garden Association
• http//www.communitygarden.org/

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Plot Style Community Gardening

• Challenges
• Limited space
• Close proximity to neighbor plots
• Rules and guidelines
• Pest management
• Theft and vandalism
• Limited resources
• Site permanency

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Plot Style Community Gardening

• Benefits
• Neighborhood and community development
• Land access
• Crime prevention
• Cross-cultural connection
• Youth education
• Food production
• Health

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Garden Rules and Courtesy

• Do
• Learn and follow rules and regulations at your
  community garden
• Be courteous to neighbors
• Report neglected plots to the garden coordinator
• Maintain you plot
• Avoid
• Watering, harvesting, or cleaning neighbor plots
• Allowing your plants grow into neighbor plots
• Growing tall plants where they will shade
  neighbors

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Tools

• Some community gardens have tools to borrow or
  storage space
• Some common garden tools
• Trowel
• Hand fork
• Hoe
• Hand pruner
• Garden fork
• Shovel
• Gloves
• Wheelbarrow (great to have as a group on site for
  onsite compost bins)
• Water can or hoses depending on your water source

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Creating Community

• Annual picnic
• Share recipes
• Read newsletters and garden postings
• Host events for community members
• Send out press releases to the local newspapers
• Post articles in local town newsletters
• Get schools involved
• Art classes can design a sign
• Have a scarecrow contest and display at the
  garden
• Ask artists to display work
• Invite organizations to purchase plots
• Look for businesses and organizations willing to
  donate supplies

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Security in the Garden

• Know your neighbors
• Ask questions
• Attend meetings
• Accompany visitors
• Perimeter fences
• Deters animals
• May prevent intruders
• Vines can soften the look
• Personal safety
• Garden during daylight hours
• Keep a cell phone nearby
• Garden in pairs

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Soil Test

• Ask to see a soil test or test your own plot
• Helps determine fertilizing needs
• Determine soil pH
• Ensure fertile soil for plants and avoid over
  fertilizing
• Soil tests available at University of Minnesota
  Soil Testing Laboratory
• Contact your local extension educator
• Call the University Soil Testing Laboratory
• [phone]
• Visit the Soil Testing Laboratory website
• http//soiltest.cfans.umn.edu
• Lead testing can be requested

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Soil Composition

• Sand, silt, and clay
• Soil texture will affect watering
• Sand will require more watering that other soil
  types
• Clay can be prone to over watering
• Organic matter percentage
• Increases pore space in clay soils
• Holds moisture and nutrients in sandy soils

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Fertilizing

• Plant nutrition is essential for optimum yields
• Synthetic fertilizers
• These may not be allowed in your garden plot so
  check the rules carefully
• Organic fertilizers
• Examples blood meal, fish emulsion, manures,
  composts, cover crops, and green manure crops
• Fresh manure vs. composted manure

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Water Management

• Understand the watering system for your garden
• Consider any rules for water use with the system
  available
• Some offer steady sources while some will have
  supply tanks

Water tank at Cambridge Community Garden
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Water Management

• Mulch helps soil stay evenly moist
• Check garden rules before installing drip
  irrigation or other systems
• Avoid overhead watering
• Water early in the day
• Leaves dry quick preventing disease

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Selecting Varieties

• Most vegetables varieties perform well
• Avoid
• Varieties restricted by organization
• Aggressive / invasive varieties
• grow into pathways, neighbor plots
• Tall plants that shade
• Try
• Unusual varieties less common in stores
• Plants with special interest for children

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Challenging Plants

• Sweet corn
• Some require isolation to prevent cross
  pollination
• Affects flavor and kernels
• Example shrunken supersweet (sh2) types should
  be 250 ft. from other sweet corn types or field
  corn or planted at different times
• Isolation can be difficult without communication
  between neighbor plots
• Tall plants can shade neighbor plots
• Sunflowers
• Amarathus
• Corn
• Plants on support structures

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Challenging Plants

• Vine crops (watermelon, muskmelon, cucumbers,
  squash)
• Do not allow vines to grown into neighbor plots
  or rows
• Consider using support structures when allowed
• Beware of shading
• Look for compact bush types

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Contain Yourself!

• Consider compact plant varieties
• Bush varieties of cucumbers, muskmelon,
  watermelon, and squash
• Determinate tomato plants
• Compact varieties of vegetables

Solanum Melongena 'Fairy Tale' Compact
eggplant
Lycopersicon esculentum Window Box
Roma Determinate tomato
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Contain Yourself!

• Materials designed to contain climbing or tall
  varieties
• Fences and trellises
• Pole beans, cucumbers, or squash
• Use varieties with fruit under three pounds are
  best
• Netting
• Use between stakes, on walls, or with structures
  noted above
• Cages or Stakes
• Tomatoes
• Teepees
• Pole beans
• Cucumbers

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Contain Yourself!
Large fruit may need support!
Cucumis sativaus Olympian Cucumber on a teepee
A French Charentais melon 'Savor on a fence
structure
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Contain Yourself!

• Some indeterminate tomato plants can become
  very tall!

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Annuals vs. Perennials

• Annuals complete their lifecycle in one year
• Most vegetables traditionally grown in Minnesota
  gardens are annuals
• Perennials live for more than two years
• Check rules for your community garden
• May be allowed when returning to same plot
• Utilize containers above or below ground for
  aggressive mints, horseradish, etc.

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Perennial Edibles

• Rhubarb
• Horseradish
• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Many small fruits
• Fruit trees
• Some mints
• Asparagus
• Chives

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Containing Perennials

• Perennials
• Utilize containers
• Set containers in garden
• Plant container with drain holes
• Keeps roots contained

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Planning

• Know the best date to start each plant
• Consider the last average frost date in your city
  as a guideline

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Planning

• Decide what you would like to grown
• Use an existing garden layout
• Create your own layout
• Consider plant spacing recommendations
• Use the sample layouts to get started
• Modify as needed

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Cool Season Vegetables

• These can be seeded directly outside as soon as
  the soil is workable
• Dates are approximate for Minneapolis/St. Paul
• Adjust for your location

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Cool Season Vegetables

• April 10
• Radish
• Peas

• April 15
• Beets
• Carrots
• Lettuce (leaf)
• Spinach
• Turnip
• Onion sets
• Onion transplants
• Onion seeds
• Head lettuce
• Potatoes (Irish)
• Kohlrabi
• Kale
• Collards
• Endive

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Cool Season Vegetables

• Transplant outdoors April 15th
• or when soil is workable
• Start seed indoors March 1st
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Lettuce (head)
• Early cabbage

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Early May

• May 1st
• Seed outdoors
• Swiss chard
• Cucumbers
• Parsnips
• May 1st
• Transplant outdoors
• Late cabbage
• Start indoors April 15

• May 10th
• Seed outdoors
• Pumpkins
• Squash, summer
• Squash, winter
• Sweet corn
• Date may vary with type

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Warm Season Vegetables

• May 15th
• Seed outdoors
• Beans (snap bush, Pole, Lima, dry shell)
• Muskmelon
• Rutabaga
• Watermelon
• May 15th
• Transplant outdoors
• Tomato (Seed indoors April 1)
• Celery (seed indoors Feb. 15)
• June 1st
• Transplant outdoors
• Eggplant (start indoors March 15)
• Okra (start indoors March 15)
• Peppers (start indoors March 15)

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Starting Seed Indoors

• Commercial seed-starting mixes are suggested
• Vermiculite and peat based
• Sterile
• Soil less
• Lightweight
• Free of weed seed

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Starting Seed Indoors

• Fill containers with soiless mix
• Moisten prior to filling or water after filling
• Plant seed four times as deep as the seeds width
• Label trays
• Cover with thin layer of vermiculite
• Allows light
• Maintains moisture
• Determine which varieties need light or dark
  conditions to germinate
• Consider heat mats

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Seedlings

• Use fluorescent lights (cool white)
• Four inches above the seedlings
• Twelve to sixteen hours of light daily
• Harden off plants from the garden center or
  those you have seeded is recommended prior to
  planting
• Bring plants outdoors for part of the day to
  gradually adjust to wind and temperature
  fluctuations for one-two weeks

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Chemical Use in theCommunity Garden

• A substance or mixture of substances intended to
  prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate a pest, and
  a substance or mixture of substances intended for
  use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or
  desiccant.
• Minnesota state law (18B.01 subd. 18)
• Definition of Pesticide

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Chemical Use in the Community Garden

• Pesticides include
• Herbicides for weeds
• Insecticides for insects
• Fungicides for fungi
• The label is the final authority on how you may
  legally use any pesticide
• Read the label carefully and follow all
  directions
• Many community gardens do not allow pesticides
• Check your garden rules and ask questions before
  using any products

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Weed Management

• Weeds in the community garden
• Creates an undesirable appearance
• May develop seeds that blow into neighboring
  plots
• Compete with vegetables for space, water, and
  nutrients
• Allowing weeds to overgrow may cause you to lose
  your plot
• Manage weeds in your garden plot so you can be
  welcome back to the community garden the
  following season

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Weed Management

• There are various options to manage weeds in your
  garden plot
• Mulch
• Hand pulling or hoeing
• These methods may be prohibited in your garden
• Synthetic herbicides
• Read label carefully if allowed in the garden
• Roto-tilling

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Weed Management

• Mulch
• Manages weeds
• Conserves moisture
• Moderates soil temperatures
• Blocks soil splash
• Adds organic matter

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Weed Management

• Synthetic Mulch
• Plastic sheets
• Effective for blocking weeds, but also block
  water when drip irrigation is not used below
• Increases soil temperature for warm season crops
• Landscape fabric
• High cost for a vegetable garden setting
• Ground up tires
• Difficult to remove
• These artificial materials do not break down
  readily and may not be allowed in your plot
  garden

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Weed Management Organic Mulch

• Organic mulches
• May be a good choice for a community garden
• Some may need to be removed at the end of the
  season

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Weed Management Organic Mulch

• Wood chips and pine bark
• May require additional nitrogen since the
  woodchips use nitrogen as they break down
• Avoid mixing into the soil at the end of the
  season
• Clean straw
• Weed free straw avoids introducing weed seeds
• Grass clippings
• 1-2 inches of dry clippings
• Avoid those from lawns treated with herbicides

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Insect Pest

• Insect pests can create a gardening challenge,
  managing them can require some planning under a
  community garden setting
• Hand picking
• Synthetic insecticides
• Organic insecticides
• Traps barriers
• Repellents
• Beneficial insects

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Insect Pests

• Pesticides may be prohibited in your garden
• Alternative management methods
• Remove weeds, debris, and spoiled fruit where
  insects may harbor
• Monitor for insect holes in leaves and hand pick
  insects as you see them
• Utilize barrier methods like floating row covers
  or Reemay
• Reemay polyester cloth allows 80 light and water
  in but insects out
• Secure Reemay or row covers over plants early in
  the season before insects are active
• Secure with rock or soil to secure the edges so
  insects cant slide in
• Varieties that require insect pollination will
  need to be uncovered at a specific time

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Insect Management

• Beneficial insects and organisms can be effective
  if planned wisely
• Discuss with coordinator and gardeners
• Beneficial insects may move to other plots
• If other gardeners use insecticides, the
  beneficial insects may be affected
• Consider beneficial insects species more likely
  to stay in a small area

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Disease Management

• Cultural practices to manage disease
• Sanitation
• Water
• Avoid overhead
• Water early in the day
• Choose resistant plant varieties
• Crop rotation
• Refer to University of Minnesota Extension
  publications for details on your specific crop

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Harvest

• Do not harvest neighbor plots without permission
• Consider asking someone to harvest your plot if
  you should be out of town
• Share your harvest
• Friends and neighbors
• Food banks

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End of the Season

• Note cleanup deadlines
• Remove plants and synthetic material
• Attend season end meetings and events

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Put the Community in your Community Garden!

• Encourage each other to maintain your plots is
  important to gain community support
• Encourage individual involvement
• Local organization involvement

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Plot Style Community Gardening in Minnesota

• A preparation guide for new community gardeners
• By Charlene Gruber and Kelsey Sparks

56
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