Happy Seeds of Wisdom Wednesday! This week we wanted to highlight a plant that often gets ignored in the garden. The wild herb plantain, which is often considered a weed, is commonly popping up around the community gardens and oftentimes taking over the pathways. It has been said that plantain was brought to Europe by Alexander the Great, and Europeans have spread it around since. Native Americans have actually referred to it as “Whiteman’s Foot” because it grew wherever white men had passed through.

Our garden community member Steve asks:

"Have you tried underground soaker hoses?

Place the hoses 3-4 inches below the surface, before planting.
Stick twigs in the ground over the hoses and plant between the lines.
Almost no evaporation of precious water
Almost no weeds since the water is underground - no mulch [needed].

Happy plants and a happy gardener."

Check out a helpful how-to video here!

Word on the street is that there is an awesome gardening workshop this Saturday March 7th at the Grace Lutheran Church and Community Garden from 10am-Noon!

Would you like to enjoy your garden for an extra couple of months?

Floating Row Cover Workshop at the State Street Community Garden

Example of metal hoops that support row covers

More metal hoops

Recyled fencing

Recyled irrigation hose

How to attach irrigation tubing: use wooden stakes, attach nail, place hose right over nail.

Are you looking for a simple way to renew your soil this winter? Plant a cover crop!

A cover crop will add nitrogen and organic matter to your soil while preventing erosion and weeds. Over the winter, instead of the rains washing away all of the hard work you've put into the soil, the cover crop roots will keep those nutrients and soil in your garden, and also help retain water. When Spring comes around, your garden will be ready for another bountiful growing season. Some common cover crops include fava beans, vetch, oats, buckwheat, and ryegrass.

Cover cropping is super easy! Many garden supply stores sell a mix of cover crop seeds. All you do is broadcast (scatter/spread) the seed evenly over your garden bed, cover it with straw or a thin layer of soil (to keep birds out and moisture in), and let the rain work its magic. When the cover crop produces flowers just chop it up and turn it in to your soil.
If you can’t chop up the cover crop before it goes to seed, make sure the seed gets incorporated into your soil as the seeds will now store most of the nitrogen.

How does this work? Some cover crops are plants which add nitrogen to the soil by a process called nitrogen fixation. These plants have a symbiotic relationship with special bacteria that live in their root nodules and fix nitrogen from the air. These nitrogen fixing plants include fava beans, vetch, and clove among others.

If you do plant a fall garden, don’t fret! You can still cover crop after your fall harvest. Buckwheat is an excellent cover crop which is not frost tolerant, so it works great as a mid-season option.

Looking to learn more about fall and winter gardening? Come to one of our garden workshops!

We are often asked, "How many Gardens do you have?"

Our Reply? "NONE!"

However to this date, the Gardens Project has facilitated the development of 34 community gardens in Mendocino and Lake counties.

Just in the past year, we've developed two new community gardens in Ukiah, hosted leadership development training for gardeners, updated and expanded the capacity of several existing gardens, and strengthened partnerships with many.

Here's a summary of all the fun we've had in the last year!

Coastal Garden Leaders at their first meeting in Janurary 2014, they graduate next month!

Garden Leadership Trainings
Over the last three years, we've trained 60 gardeners in Mendocino County to become leaders for their community gardens, increasing the sustainability of gardens and building community. Since January, we've worked with 20 of those leaders of on coast, and a group of leaders in Willits from our 2013 training have continued to meet. The Willits leaders hosted a garden tour on August 25th.

The capstone project of a year long leadership training is the Photovoice Project. Participants take photos from their gardens and add captions to capture aspects of their garden experiences to share with community members and policy makers. Click here to view Photovoice Projects.

Pinoleville Youth Build Students working at Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves Senior Apartments
20 new raised beds were created in Early Fall 2013 for Autumn Leaves. The Gardens Project partnered with and the Pinoleville Pomo Nation YouthBuild Program to create the raised beds. North Cal Wood Products donated redwood and Cold Creek Compost donated compost to fill all the new beds. All three have donated their time and resources to many other gardens working with the Gardens Project. See all the photos of the beds being constructed by these resourceful youth at our Autumn Leaves Photo Album!

Vinewood Park at the Peak of the Season!

Vinewood Park Community Garden
Vinewood Park Community Garden is a collaboration between the City of Ukiah and The Gardens Project. The Garden is located along the North end of the park, along the fence line in an area previously underused and covered in ivy. The garden provides 12 wheel-chair accessible raised beds serving the Walnut Village Senior Apartments as well as 16 additional beds for neighboring families and individuals. Pinoleville YouthBuild, our most valuable partner in garden construction, built the fence, raised beds and communication board for the garden. See more pictures of the garden!

Village Circle Gardeners, October 2014

Village Circle Community Garden
Village Circle Community Garden was developed in partnership with private land owners. This garden is one of the largest community gardens in Ukiah with 49 plots, second only to the State Street Garden which currently has 54 garden plots. Gardeners from the Cleveland Lane Community Garden have transitioned to this new garden in preparation for their garden closing due to expansion of the Grace Hudson Museum. Directly south of the garden are the Summer Creek apartments, who's residents are also participating in the garden. Thank you to Jason Dolan and Dark Horse Farming Company for providing labor and materials for the fencing, and also Ukiah Natural Foods for awarding the Gardens Project with a $2,000 grant to purchase fencing.

Tons of information for gardeners to see on the new boards.

New Communication Boards
Five boards were created for gardens to post communications, gardening information by the students of the PinolevilleYouth Build Program.

Seed Starting and Transplanting Workshop, March 2014

Gardening Workshops
Starting in Janurary 2014, the Gardens Project started a series of workshops that take a new gardener step by step through the gardening cycle. We are so thankful for all of our workshop presenters, and are looking forward to the ones still to come!

Past Workshops in 2014
Janurary: Planning your Garden with Brooke Wilder
March: Seed Starting and Transplanting with Carolyn Brown
April: Water Conservation with Linda Macelwee
May: Bed Preparation with Luke Howerter
June: Drip Irrigation with Peter Reynolds
July: Natural Pest Management with Dan Storm

Upcoming Workshops
Oct 11th:Composting with Luke Howerter
Oct 18th: Row Cover Season Extension with Gloria Jarrell

Want to know how to keep a happy compost pile this winter?
It's all about layers!

Check out this article from the Marin Master Gardener's web page for tips on sheet composting!

Wintertime is a great time to start your plants indoors to extend your growing season and beat wintertime blues!

Mother Earth News just published a great story on how to start seeds indoors, the link to the article is on our "How To: Grow Food" page. Check it out for more information on seed starting!

Some great tips from the article:
Don't start beans, peas or root crops indoors, they don't transplant well.
Use 1/3 coir 1/3 compost and 1/3 soil.
Moisten the mix before sowing your seeds, plant 2-3 seeds per cell/pot.
Cover with a plastic dome or plastic wrap until seeds sprout. After that, water only when soil is almost dry.
After 4-6 weeks, move them outside on a porch or protected area during the day, inside at night for one week, then transplant into your garden!

You might think there's no gardening you can do in January, but think again!
Now is the time to start your herbs and other plants inside for those of you who garden indoors or in a greenhouse. This site has plenty of useful information about container gardening.
Remember, most potting mix is too strong for most plants and doesn't drain well.
It's important to use a mix of 1 part potting mix to 1 part volcanic rock, like pumice (don't use vermiculite!)
Start your seeds in a flat or 1-2" pots, then each time your plants start to outgrow their containers, transplant them to a pot 2-4 time the original size. For example, if you start seeds in a flat, transplant the seedlings to a 2" pot, then transplant the established plant to a 1 gallon pot, and as it grows move up to a 5 gallon and then 15 gallon pot.
Also, check out this site for tips about small container planting using a vertical shoe rack!
If you think you don't have enough time or space for vegetable gardening indoors, try an herb garden!
This site has information about starting a basic beginner's herb garden. Just use the container gardening information above for your herb garden. This site has information specifically about growing herbs indoors.
Enjoy your mini gardens!

Remember to check our "How To" page for more gardening tips!