Garden Club News

21 June 2005
Gardeners:

IMPORTANT
     The west campus tiller has recently been left with the tines all jammed 
up with plant debris.  It would appear that someone tilled ground that still 
had tall weeds on it, which then got wound around the tines.  Worse yet, the 
tiller was put away snarled with the debris on at least two separate occasions.  
Allowing the tines to become snarled puts inordinate strain on the transmission 
of the tiller, and leaving it that way is very inconsiderate of other users.  
Please mow your plot before you till it and check the tines for debris before 
putting the tiller away.  The tiller cost over $2000 to purchase and we do not 
have sufficient club funds to replace it any time soon.
     On a related note, the west campus DR mower (the "big" mower) is out of 
service until further notice.   Please try to keep the electric fence line 
mowed using the small mower, but obviously mowing of fallow plots and other 
lower priority areas can be ignored until the matter is resolved.

Website
     Our website http://gewa.gsfc.nasa.gov/clubs/garden/ 
has been looking better and better with the efforts of Sam Jones (plot 45).  
Sam wants to add photos of the gardens to the website.  
He will be taking digital photos of the gardens over the next few weeks and 
uploading them.  If, for any reason, you do NOT want a photo of your garden 
plot on the website, please let Sam know.

Pest/Disease Watch
     At least two gardeners on west campus have reported wilting leaves on 
cucumbers.  The suspicion is that vine borers are making their annual 
appearance, although nobody has made a positive ID.  I plan to spray my 
mine with SEVIN as soon as possible to kill the egg-laying adults.
     Rabbits are appearing in overwhelming numbers this year.  It looks like 
the foxes have abandoned us.  If anyone has suggestions on how to prevent 
the rabbits from cleaning us all out, please let me know.  Affected crops 
have been peas, beans, and swiss chard.  (Oddly-carrots and lettuce have been 
untouched)
     Mosquitos are also an issue.  Please avoid leaving standing water on your 
plots.  This is particularly the case for anyone who is keeping a "rain barrel" 
on their plot.  Be sure to cover your rain barrel with a rigid cover or netting 
to prevent mosquitos from using your barrel as a breeding tank.  Obviously 
there are plenty of breeding pools in the woods and surrounding areas, but 
anything we can do to keep their numbers down is desirable.
     Thanks to the members who put out the alert on the cucumber beetles 
two weeks ago.  My squash & pumpkins  are doing much better now!  
     The club website has several useful links for disease/pest identification 
and treatment options.

Upcoming Meeting
     It seems that a number of issues have been coming up recently that merit 
having a real club meeting.  There have been some requests for equipment 
purchases/repair, club policies on planting trees/shrubs on plots, mowing, 
reviving the effort to get water to the west campus gardens, and increasing 
membership dues.  I can schedule the meeting to happen at either lunch time 
or in the 5pm-7pm window.  If you have strong feelings on what day and what 
time the meeting should be held, please let me know.  If you have an agenda 
item you want to be covered at the meeting please let me know.  Please be 
sure to put "Garden Club Meeting" in the subject line of your message to ensure 
that I see your message.  I get a LOT of email, and I am trying to get unburied 
from a 2 week absence from the office.  I will probably choose a date/time for 
the meeting by the end of this week.

Happy Gardening!

Anne-Marie Novo-Gradac