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Garden tools help make gardening easier. Here are a few recommended tools for your first garden plot: Hand Trowel Handy for moving seedlings to beds. Also ideal for making holes to place the plant into inside the beds. Hoe Hoes are used for larger‐scale weeding and gardening. The steel blade sinks into the earth to remove weeds and stir the soil, giving plants more moisture, nutrients, and growing space. Pruner/Clippers Pruners should fit your hand comfortably. Use them to make clean, accurate the cuts. Useful for pruning tomatoes. Hand fork Good for weeding around the plants, aerating, and turning the soil. Watering can To water plants in locations where your hose won’t reach. You can also punch a few holes in a plastic bottle. Spray bottle Use for spraying very young seedlings, getting rid of dust on plant leaves and treating pests. Garage sales, auction sales and flea markets are good places to find tools for less money. Remember, your garden tools are an investment. If you put them away clean and dry after each use, it will prevent rust and keep them sharp and ready for your next visit to your garden.
Helpful Extras to Boost your Garden Success
Tomato cages keep tomatoes and other climbing plants in proper growing form. Wire clothes hangers, with a little imagination and determination, can be fashioned into stakes or supports.
Recycle old CDs by hanging them in the garden. Light reflected off them scares unwanted feathered and furry visitors.
String and stakes can be used to gently support growing plants.
Tip: These tools are
best used by adults.
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welcome in the garden,
but ensure that they
are using child‐sized
tools and supervise
them. Working in the
garden with your child
is something they will
remember for a
lifetime!
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7
Some of the time that you spend in your garden will be spent on weeding, and it can be a fun and even therapeutic thing to do. Weeds compete with your vegetable plants for space, sunlight, water, and nutrients. Here are a few tips to make weeding easier:
● Start early in the season and remove weeds when they are small. This will save you a lot of time in the long run. Use your hoe, or just your hands, to remove weeds. With your hoe, use a chopping motion and run it along and just slightly below the surface of the soil. This should help you cut or surface (especially when they are small) weeds.
● Mulch your garden about 2‐4 inches thick between the rows and plants using grass clippings, bark mulch, compost, dried leaves, shredded newspaper or straw. A plastic cover can also be used (with openings for your plants). Just remember to remove the plastic cover after a couple of months so that your soil can breathe again.
● To pull weeds easily, water before weeding or weed right after it has rained. ● Don’t get discouraged and think that you have to get the weeding done all at once. Section off
your garden in appropriate chunks of time so that you can complete an area, heading to the next upon your return.
Insects and other pests may also try to sabotage your season’s garden harvest. While some bugs are considered pests (slugs, aphids, beetles, caterpillars, weevils), other insects (ladybugs, butterflies, dragonflies, and spiders) can support your garden by deterring unwanted pests and help break down organic matter in your garden soil. Here are a few tips to manage pests:
● Remove any sick leaves and plants. ● Make your own bug traps: try covering strips of bright yellow card with Vaseline or oil.
Alternatively, fill yellow bowls or containers with water. The insects are attracted by the color and drown when they fall into the water.
● Mix liquid soap detergent (choose a natural, phosphate‐free version) with water (about 2 tablespoons of soap for every gallon of water) and spray it on plants. The soap acts as a deterrent or creates critter discomfort, helping to deter insect visits. This soapy spray is especially effective for dealing with an aphid infestation.
● Spread crushed eggshells around plants. Snails and slugs will tend to avoid slithering over them. At the same time, the shells provide an added benefit by adding calcium to your soil.
● Rotate your crops. Changing planting locations within the same garden plot (and making sure that you replenish the soil each year with the addition of compost) helps create healthier soil.
● Some plants repel garden pests and can be planted alongside your vegetables to keep insects away. For example, marigolds are a natural rodent and rabbit deterrent.
● Plants such as fennel, dill, clover, coriander, and sun flowers are especially good at attracting beneficial insects into your yard.
● Plant more than you need so that if you do have some losses, there is still plenty left over.
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9
Butternut Squash Soup (recipe courtesy of Food Network Kitchens) One 2‐ to 3‐pound butternut squash, peeled and seeded 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 medium onion, chopped 6 cups chicken stock Nutmeg, salt and black pepper to taste
Cut squash into 1‐inch chunks. In large pot melt butter. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add squash and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove squash chunks with slotted spoon and place in a blender and puree. Return blended squash to pot. Stir and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Serve.
Quick Fresh Tomato Sauce (recipe courtesy of New York Times Cooking) 5 pounds tomatoes ¾ teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon tomato paste 1 garlic clove, halved 1 basil sprig 1 bay leaf Cut tomatoes in half horizontally. Squeeze out the seeds and discard, if you wish. Press the cut side of tomato against the large holes of a box grater and grate tomato flesh into a bowl. Discard skins. You should have about 4 cups. Put tomato pulp in a low wide saucepan over high heat. Add salt, olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, basil and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a brisk simmer. Reduce the sauce by almost half, stirring occasionally, to produce about 2 1/2 cups medium‐thick sauce, 10 to 15 minutes. Taste and adjust salt. It will keep up to 5 days in the refrigerator or may be frozen.
Zucchini Bread (recipe courtesy of Paula Deen) 3 1/4 cups all‐purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3 cups sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 4 eggs, beaten 1/3 cup water 2 cups grated zucchini 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.
10
Composting 101 There are different ways of making a home compost heap or bin: on the ground in a container, or in a pit dug in the ground. It’s always good to give your municipal recycling department a call to find out what support materials they might be able to offer you as you begin your composting journey. Composting is basically the recycling of organic materials. Anything that used to be a living entity, be it a carrot, leaves or an apple, can be recycled through the composting process. To make composting happen, you need to put a basic recipe into action. For backyard composting, the two best sources of these ingredients can be found in your kitchen and your garden. The ingredients come from two categories: the “greens” and the “browns.” Greens are materials like fruit and vegetable trimmings, tea leaves, coffee grounds, prunings from plants and grass clippings. Browns include dried leaves, coffee filters, shredded paper and small branches. It’s best to completely avoid including meat, fish and bones, fats and oils, dairy products, sauces and pet waste in your compost as these will smell bad and attract rodents. The composting process works best when the organic pieces are small. Chopping up a banana peel or shredding the leaves before adding them to the compost pile will do wonders to speed things up. To begin, find a shady spot to set up your heap or bin. In filling up your bin, think of it as if you were making lasagna. Alternate your greens and browns. Adding some finished compost or soil from your garden provides a start‐up crew of micro‐organisms to speed up the composting process. Don’t add thick layers of any one kind of organic material. Grass layers should not be more than 2 inches deep, and layers of leaves no more than 6 inches deep (think about cutting, chopping, drying and crumbling them before putting them in your bin).If you can, let grass dry first or mix it with dry, coarse material such as leaves to prevent compacting. Turn or mix the contents of your bin every couple of weeks or each time that you add new materials. This helps keep the compost well aerated and mixes up the materials. To make things more convenient, consider keeping a container in your kitchen to collect the scraps destined for your compost bin. The composter contents should be moist, like a wrung‐out sponge. If the contents are too dry, they will take too long to compost; and if they are too wet, they may begin to smell. The composting process can take from two months to two years, depending on the materials used and the effort involved. To accelerate the process, the pile must be a balance between green and brown materials and be turned frequently. Compost is ready for use when it is dark in color, crumbly and has an “earthy” smell. You can sift the compost through a screen and put the larger chunks of recognizable materials that haven’t fully “broken
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11
down” back into your bin to be further composted. And once your compost is ready, you can spread it on your lawn, in your garden, around trees or combine it with potting soil for your plants. Crop rotation and cover crops For each location within the garden, it is best to grow a different kind of crop each gardening year. To manage this, map out your garden space each year, and rotate accordingly. For example, if you grew a root crop in a particular place one year, go for a leafy plan the next, and a nightshade the next. Crop rotation is important to improve and maintain soil fertility and to prevent the spread of pests and diseases. Cover crops will also boost nutrients within the soil during the off season. At the end of a season, plant a cover crop such as red clover. Known as green manures, these types of crops are “turned under” (that is turned back into the soil) and add organic matter back to the soil and help reduce weeds. Additional Resources Get involved with local networks that are working to grow food together. Join Facebook groups and network as you grow in your passion for growing your own food! Here are a few opportunities in the DuPage County area:
DuPage Food Growers Network ‐ https://www.facebook.com/DuPageCSGardensForum/
The GardenWorks Project ‐ www.gardenworksproject.org
The GardenWorks Project Suburban Agriculture Resource Center, 103 W. Washington St., West Chicago. Our gardening book and tool lending library is available to home and community gardeners. Check our website for open hours.
The Garden Club of America – (www.gcamerica.org) The Garden Club of America is a volunteer nonprofit organization comprised of 200 member clubs and approximately 18,000 members throughout the nation. GCA local clubs promote a greater understanding of the interdependence of horticulture, environmental protection, and community improvement.
University of Illinois Extension ‐ http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state/index.php Your local library Your local library will likely have many books and resources available to those interested in gardening and horticulture. Your local library may also know of community resources and organizations that can connect those interested in gardening with clubs and member organizations. Contact us! The GardenWorks Project PO Box 1244 St. Charles, IL 60174 [email protected] | www.gardenworksproject.org