How Our Garden Grows

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

(Editor's note: Farmer Dan and the St. Therese community garden were featured, along with Hunger-Free Minnesota, in "Grow with KARE" on Friday, July 27. All of the produce in the St. Therese garden is donated to food shelves. Dan is providing weekly updates about garden activity and donations.)

Aug. 1 — There was a birthday party at the garden this morning. Five seven-year-old girls were all over the garden harvesting and tasting everything they picked. They wanted to know if they could "bite" whatever they pulled, and I told them as long as they weren't afraid of a little dirt…And they did.

They harvested…112 pounds today to ICA Food Shelf, for a total of 349 pounds so far this season. Today we had some cabbages that were about six pounds apiece. When we dropped them off, the girls learned that…their efforts had an effect…most of what they harvested would be on dinner plates tonight. You can't get much fresher produce than that.

We're still having a few four-legged pest problems. The deer still leap the fence to get at the green beans and there's a bunny named Francis that's fond of them as well!

I've been asked about Japanese beetles. They actually haven't been as bad in the garden this summer as in previous years, but they'll be around until late August and there are about 400 different plants they like to eat. The plants will still produce, but the beetles are a nuisance. The only thing I've really found that works is picking them off the leaves and leaving a big pail of soapy water at the base of the plant for them to roll into. They roll off the leaves to the ground as an escape mechanism. It's a 2X per day kinda chore…to keep them in control.