Garden alert! Bugs and fences need your attention.

Bugs! 

Squash bugs are out in droves. It's very important that everyone tends to their bugs. If you spend time eradicating bugs and eggs in your garden and your neighbor is not, you'll soon have bugs again.

It's important to inspect your plants -- especially any kind of squash, but any plant they can hide in -- underneath the leaves, on the stems, and the earth around the stem for bugs. Egg bunches will be under the leaves in an area usually smaller than a nickel.

The offenders:

The squash bug, about the size of a pencil eraser:

The stink bug (may not be exactly the right bug, but looks just like this) about 3/4 of an inch long:

Stink bug nymphs, very tiny:

Eggs from both these bugs are similar, and will be grouped like the photo. They look like tiny seeds. Do not just throw them aside: Take along a small container of soapy water, remove the eggs from the leaves and put them in the solution, and dispose of them at home. 

The Fence

The fence has been torn and pushed down several times in the past week. We suspect there may be deer or racoons (or both) breaking into the garden, or becoming trapped inside and destroying the fence on their way out. 

We will be repairing the fence as soon as we can -- but do appreciate it when you look after it, too. Please take a look at the fence when you are there, and mend it if you can and let us know if it's broken.

Please don't forget to close the gate when you leave the garden. 

Also (smaller problem), please take all your equipment home and put all garden equipment back in the garden entrance before you leave. Plot owners are responsible for keeping the garden neat. If you bring helpers, please show them where things are put away. If you have any questions, please let us know!

Last But Not Least

Everything looks wonderful! You guys are doing an amazing job on your plots. It's a pleasure to walk through and see all the hard work everyone's doing. THANK YOU! :)

    

The garden is in full swing this weekend, and we walked over after Fifer's Day for a look. I was so impressed with everyone's progress! I took some pictures -- not everybody's pictures came out, but there's some beautiful stuff over there this weekend. Nice work, everyone! 

Flerra Community Garden, Fifer's Day 2014

      

 

Update for everybody

First, thanks to everyone. The garden is almost full - almost twice the number of gardeners this year - and everything looks fantastic.

We need to knock the manure pile down soon - probably on Saturday morning before Fifer's Day. I'm aiming to be over there to do the work around noon. If we can get a few people to help, we can have it done in under an hour.

There's also the option of adding a community corn plot in one of the few empty spots. If I can get a show of hands from people interested, we'll get the seed and sort our row assignments. We've done this in the past to great success. The advantage: Everyone gets corn and by combining the rows, we guarantee pollination. So wave your hands - or email - and we'll get started.

Eggs underneath the leaf.

These guys. We hate these guys.

They're back: The cucumber beetles have made their annual appearance. These little nasties are about a centimeter long and black and yellow striped. Because we are and organic garden, we can't nuke the hive from orbit, resorting instead to subtler methods. The best way is to get over and hand pick the beetles and squish them. It's oddly satisfying. Then check over the leaf for eggs. If you find them, scrape them into a jar full of dish washing detergent and water. If you knock them on the ground, they hatch and you haven't solved anything. Then spray the plant with Neem oil. This will need to be done several times to ensure we have an impact.

The pump works. Not particularly well, yet, but we're trying to make easier. We'll put some bottles over this week for priming water, although that hasn't been needed yet.

If you notice deer incursion, let me know ASAP, so we can address it before it becomes a real issue.

Finally, it's not July yet, but now's a good time to start thinking ahead to the AG Fair in September. Enter your best and brightest for ribbons and bragging rights. Abby Floyd has won the largest sunflower contest twice for plants over 12 feet tall. That's like four of her. [See, bragging rights]. We'll post a link to the sign up when it becomes available.