Rhode Island Feeds

Roses have a reputation for being fertilizer hogs, but that may not be valid.  I have been growing roses for about eight years.  Taking my cues from professional rosarians and the internet, I gave my roses everything that was recommended and then some.  Of course, there is a fine line between overfeeding and underfeeding and there are many environmental and cultural variables that have to be factored into the equation.  However, I have to say my roses have always thrived and bloomed from June through November so the advice was good.  Or was it?

Della Balfour rose

For six years I faithfully applied fertilizer (8-12-4) in mid April and then every six weeks until mid September.  In addition to fertilizer I applied about one half cup of Epsom salt (for magnesium) to the soil around each plant.  Then in mid November I put down a shovelful of manure, a handful of superphosphate, some lime, and a small volcano of mulch around the base of every plant.  Two years ago I added a systemic pesticide product (there are several good ones on the market…I prefer Beyer) to the regimen and this was applied in the spring.

Well, last year I got lazy and only fertilized once, in mid April.  Everything else remained the same.  Much to my surprise, the plants seemed to be healthier than usual but I didn’t trust my observation so I decided to do the same thing this year.  My friends began to comment about how robust and healthy the roses looked and then I knew it wasn’t my imagination last year.  Except for the ever present and hideous black spot, all of the roses have stronger canes, larger, firmer, and greener leaves, and larger and more abundant blossoms.

Healthy rose leaves

I believe my new program has been successful because it may actually be stressful to overfeed roses…and probably other plants as well…especially when temperatures start climbing.  Of course, the money I save by buying one container of fertilizer instead of five every spring is enough to buy several new rose plants every year.  Now that’s what I call a win-win situation.

We’re THRILLED to announce that Southside Community Land Trust has been chosen for the Champions in Action Award. SCLT is being honored by Citizens Bank and NBC-10 for its work to encourage environmental stewardship and improve the natural environment.

Earlier today, SCLT’s Board, staff, program participants and supporters were joined by Ned Handy, Citizens Bank President, and Steve DelPico of NBC-10 for the Champions in Action award announcement at City Farm in South Providence. After a brief speaking program, the check was presented and everyone celebrated with refreshments, including the first of City Farm’s cherry tomatoes!

Citizens Bank and NBC-10 have teamed up to create the Champions in Action program – a unique initiative designed to reward non-profit organizations who help communities thrive. Each year, they choose four organizations for the Champions in Action award. SCLT is so excited to be a part of such an esteemed group! Many previous Champions in Action winners were in attendance at the announcement today.

Through this wonderful award, SCLT is grateful to recieve a check for $25,000 from the Citizens Bank Foundation, media coverage on NBC-10, and public relations and volunteer support from Citizens Bank and NBC-10.

Many, many thanks to Citizens Bank and NBC-10 for this honor. And thank you to all of the volunteers, supporters, and community partners who, for so many years, have made our work possible!

Look for news coverage of the announcement this evening on NBC-10. You’ll also find brochures profiling SCLT in every Citizens Bank branch in Rhode Island.

Click here to view more photos from the day!

Community Gardens Network Coordinator Erika Rumbley, Community Gardens Coordinator Liza Sutton, and Education Director Leo Pollock wait for the announcement.

Ned Handy, Citizens Bank President, makes the announcementas SCLT’s Executive Director Katherine Brown looks on!

The City Farm harvest crew takes a break to celebrate the award.

July 11 @ 2:00 pm
Allen and Jane Dennison 325 Newman Avenue Rumford RI 02916
Meeting topics will include a demonstration of the use of the Epi-Pen.
Please remember to bring chairs.
Directions: 95 North or South to 195 East, Exit 6 Right off the exit onto Warren, then the first right onto Broadway. Up Broadway and it will turn into North Broadway after passing the Henderson Bridge. Continue on North Broadway past the Rumford Fire Station and the Post Office (now road name changes to Newman Ave) to the intersection of 114/ 1/ 1A (Pawtucket Ave). Straight through the intersection (Newman Congregational Church on the left) and a few blocks up on the left is a yellow flag on a mailpost with a black mailbox. A small vegetable garden is evident also. The driveway to the setback lot is marked by the yellow flag.
Drop off passengers and park on a side road (Bishop Ave and Redland Ave are good parking options as the driveway is a circle and cars get blocked in).
Coming from the East Side, take the Henderson Bridge and left onto North Broadway. Coming from Pawtucket, take Newport or Pawtucket Ave until they intersect with Newman Ave at the big white church, and take the left at the light onto Newman Ave. Coming from The North/East (Rehoboth area), Get onto Route 152 and cross the causeway from Seekonk into RI and we are the third driveway on the right.

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I have a rather small and modest vegetable patch that I try to cultivate among my "lawn" full of flowers. Yet I'm mighty proud of all the ones thriving in this sweltering heat. Red leaf lettuce and the darker red-leaf...

For the last three years I have not let up begging our gardens intern, Lilah “Weed Woman” Anderson to write a guest post for the blog – on any garden topic of  her choosing (vegetable gardening, please.) At long last, she gave in! Accompanying photographs are also by Lilah. Blithewold’s vegetable garden has undergone some big [...]

You know it is going to be a record breaker when the butterflies are flitting around the garden with you and your cup of coffee. They appear early if the temperatures are warm and today they were in abundant evidence.... Layanee DeMerchant

I found the blue-eyed daisy (osteospermum) with spoon-shaped petals, a new hybrid from Proven Winnersa month ago. The relatively small plants in 4-inch pots were quickly transplanted into the ground in full sun. 6.20.10 The two plants I purchased only...

Female ALB. illustration: US Forest Service

This is my third post on the subject of Asian Longhorned Beetles (ALBs) . Considering what is at stake – our eastern forests – I should probably be writing even more often about these insects.

These unwelcome visitors arrived in the United States in wooden pallets, and proceeded to kill every tree in their paths. Worcester, Massachusetts has been particularly hard hit, losing about 25,000 trees at last count. For more background information on the ALB, go here.

The big worry is that the beetles could be living undetected somewhere and that it will be discovered when the damage has already been done. So it is very important that we keep our eyes peeled for signs of the beetles, especially now,  in July, when they emerge through dime-sized holes in tree bark after spending the winter as larvae, feeding on heartwood and killing trees.

Watch for holes like these. photo: USDA

Please be on the alert for these devastating pests, and report any insects – or their signs – that you see.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Asian Longhorned Beetles have been discovered in Boston. A small infestation was found in six maple trees at Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain, near the Arnold Arboretum. The trees have all been removed, and officials are now trying to determine the extent of the infestation. People living in the Brookline, Newton and Boston areas should be especially vigilant.

We heard our first cicada today and that to me is the signal of high mid-summer. All along this season we’ve been a good two weeks ahead – starting way back with the daffodils. I hadn’t allowed myself to worry about what this might mean for August and September until I saw the daylily Hemerocallis [...]

As part of an on-going series, we have the pleasure of receiving updates from Chris Fiecoat, this season’s coordinator for The Children’s Garden at City Farm.

The Children’s Garden is a 20 year old program that brings 200 elementary and middle school students to City Farm for place-based, summer-long gardening and education enrichment.

The summer heat is finally upon us as we await the arrival of this year’s participants in our Children’s Garden Program. In the weeks leading up to the program, I’ve been very lucky for the chance to learn about new farming methods and, more importantly, about the active community focused on urban agriculture in Providence.

Groups of students from local community organizations and schools will be joining us in the Children’s Garden as we explore the wonders of growing food, from harvest to plate. Some of our lessons will include: composting and soil health, how plants grow, how to identify insects and birds and ways to use the garden as a creative space. Together, we’ll learn to use our senses and ask curious questions about the natural world.

The Children’s Garden program culminates in our annual block party, City Fest, on August 24. Join us as we celebrate the end of our young gardeners’ growing season with music, games, food and fun.

Chris Fiecoat

Children’s Garden Coordinator ‘10

Scabiosas, commonly known as pin cushion flowers are very attractive flowering perennials. This year I have a new addition, called Black Knight (Scabiosa atropurpurea). 6.27.10 The flowers are slightly larger than knautia and S.ochroleuca (yellow) . The black knight has...

Stinging Nettle

HerbDoc has some thoughts on nettles:

Stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, is an herbaceous perennial which grows from 3 to 7 feet tall and blooms in June.  If you’ve come in contact with it, you won’t soon forget it as it is covered with many stinging hairs (tricomes) whose needle-like tops come off when lightly touched.  These tops contain several chemicals including acetylcholine, histamine and serotonin which cause pain and itching that can last for up to a week.

As painful as its bite is, I wouldn’t be without a patch in my yard.

Fresh nettle has an abundance of nitrogen and is often added to my compost pile as an activator.  In the very early spring, when the leaves are tender, it can be picked and boiled (to remove the stinging hairs) and eaten like spinach.  These young leaves are also very popular in Northern and Eastern Europe where they are made into soup.  Nettle is rich in vitamins A, D, iron, potassium, manganese and calcium.  Do not use as a pot herb after it blooms because it forms cystoliths which may cause urinary and kidney problems.  Dried leaves can be used for teas which were often part of spring tonics.

Stinging nettle was used by ancient Roman soldiers for urtification, a process of flogging oneself.  This was done to treat tired, painful legs on long marches and stimulated circulation!  It has also been used as a treatment for arthritis and rheumatism in Germany, and extracts of the plant are said to control dandruff and eczema.

Dock

If nettle grows freely in your yard, it is a sign that the area has high fertility and contains phosphorus.  Its growth also encourages beneficial insects.  Should you come in contact with nettle, look for dock, another common weed in Rhode Island.  Rubbing the leaves on the affected area will alleviate the burning and itching.  Other folk remedies include horsetail, Jewelweed, or the topical use of milk of magnesia.

For a few hours on Sunday a living room-full of us were spirited away across an (insignificant) ocean to a place where gardeners grow. I’m still suffering (though suffering is definitely the wrong word for how I feel) from something kind of like jet lag. I feel like I was picked up and put back [...]

Hey Gardeners,

I’m helping to build a community garden for an elementary school which we’re hoping to plant things by next week. If you have any plants that maybe getting too much shade or need to be thinned out, please let me know as soon as possible by contacting me using the contact form here. Thank you so much!

A new warehouse holds the key to linking farms with institutions responsible for feeding thousands of Rhode Islanders every day. We need your help to make it a reality.

Yes! I’d like to contribute now.

Only 1% of what we eat comes from RI farms.
The other 99%? We see it as a huge opportunity for strengthening our family farms and addressing community health issues like childhood obesity and diabetes.

We have the farms. We have the food. We have the trucks, drivers and delivery routes. We have the people on the inside at places like schools, hospitals, grocers and restaurants championing fresher, healthier food.

What are we waiting for? Farm Fresh RI needs an upgraded warehouse - the critical infrastructure - to handle the large quantities of produce needed by schools, hospitals and other big food buyers.

But with the unexpected loss of grant funding, we’re in a tough situation. There’s simply no way we can continue to meet the new demand from school and hospital customers without the right warehouse equipment.

We’re hoping to raise $10,000 from the community in the next 30 days as part of the necessary $75,000 investment we’re making this summer in our warehouse space in Pawtucket (by our Wintertime Market site). It will help us grow from last year’s $225,000 in local farm sales to a yearly $2.5 million in 2013. That’s a lot of local food, local jobs and a lot of healthy school lunches.

Please donate today. A contribution of any amount will help. We have some donors lined up, but that won’t yet cover it. A new walk-in cooler, freezer and cold packing room are simple, but they will yield an abundant harvest on dinner tables across Rhode Island for many years to come.

If you care about changing the way we eat… If you want a future where local farms, fresher flavors and healthier communities are the default, not just the 1%… Your donation can make it a reality!

Freesia is one of my most favorite fragrant flowers -- and cut flowers, as well. 6.29.10 Freesia belongs in the family Iridacea with about 14 -16 other species. The genus was named in honor of a German physician, Friedrich Heinrich...

Really, summer is just in its' infancy here in Rhode island but not so the perennials. Many are blooming two weeks ahead of schedule. The astilbe are in full bloom right now at the end of June. Last year's photo... Layanee DeMerchant

I got this in my email a couple days ago (sorry for the delay) and think it would be a fun thing to do. Let me know if any of you are interested in going and I’ll let her know or pass on her email to you..
———————-
Hello,

I work for the company that is producing Mutual of Omaha’s “proud sponsor of life’s aha moments” campaign– visit www.ahamoment.com to see what an aha moment is and the great real stories we filmed during the campaign in 2009.

Associated to that, we have a 34-foot Airstream mobile film studio that is traveling the US on a 25-city tour to capture the country’s aha moments. We are headed to Providence next Tuesday, June 29th & Wednesday, June 30th, and would love to invite the board and members of the Fox Point Community Garden to share what lead you to become involved with the garden, and how your lives have changed since. We love what you are doing for the community, and I am sure there was a moment you each knew you wanted to dedicate your time to this cause. You would just have to step into the Airstream studio for a few minutes and tell your story on film, which would be posted to www.ahamoment.com .

We would love to have any of you that are interested! We will be parked at Burnside Park (at approx. 2 Kennedy Plaza, on the Washington Street sidewalk near the ice skating rink), Tuesday, June 29th (11am to 7pm) and Wednesday, June 30th (11am to 7pm).

Let me know as soon as possible and I can reserve some time for you, thanks!

photo: Cornell University

A news release from the University of Connecticut has some sobering news for commercial growers and home vegetable gardeners: late blight has recently been confirmed in Connecticut.

Who can forget last season’s devastating outbreak, and the widespread destruction it caused.  The fungus- like organism, Phytophthora infestans, affected potatoes and tomatoes throughout the northeast, and there was a good chance it would overwinter. Now, it seems, it did.

For more information, including useful photographs of infected plants, go to the Uconn website.

Cornell University has an excellent fact sheet on managing late blight. Bear in mind, though, that “management” usually involves pulling up all infected plants, stuffing them in plastic bags, and throwing them in the trash, NOT the compost pile.

And finally, Cornell also has a good – but scary – map indicating the parts of the country where the most favorable conditions for late blight can be found. Click on the “late blight forecast model” link.

We all should be hyper vigilant with this pathogen, because its consequences are dire: total loss of affected crops. I will keep you informed of new developments, and I wish you all a blight-free growing season.

There has been a lot of spam attempts on the site lately, so I’m currently working out another solution. For now, when you use the forum, please include your plot number and name with your post if you have a plot-specific request… thanks for your patience while I work on this.

k