Gove Community Garden Montpelier, VT

11/02/2023

garden primed for a nice rebound in 6 months. growing and eating your own homegrown food is one of the most important revolutionary things you can do for positive effect for the world.

10/17/2023

Last year voles ate half, or more, of my sweet potatoes. So this year I planted 75% more so I would get enough.. The flood on July 10 flooded my sweet potato patch. Growth was a bit stunted, so lots of smaller potatoes, but not single sign of vole damage. I think they drowned in the flood.

07/02/2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w77zPAtVTuI

plants grow up turning in spiral circles.

Kidney bean time lapse with soil cross section. Showing how roots ant upper part of plant grows.Play speed - 17280x (one shot every 9 minutes 36 seconds play...

05/07/2022

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/07/secret-world-beneath-our-feet-mind-blowing-key-to-planets-future?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR3kA5IJ-J9MgEgYYgVmqb4PzBOhquWAiIUYt7DyZ9k5DQ5_Nc3CwaQp18w

Don’t dismiss soil: its unknowable wonders could ensure the survival of our species

05/03/2022

Garden plots are tilled now.
Rain all day Wednesday will settle the ground.
Frost is possible Fri and Sat

04/27/2022

We are going to meet soon with the lawyers who have taken over the management of the Gove property.
We had a brief talk last week and I asked for the continuation of the garden this summer.
A new lease will have to be in place, and terms of access and use determined by the lawyers. They most likely will allow the garden, but it probably will be the last year.
I will post updates when we get a meeting done with the lawyers.

10/25/2021

Epic October harvests this fall.
2 pecks of peppers(not picked by Peter Piper), 145 lbs of sweet potatoes from 1/3 plot, more than 300 winter squash.

09/26/2021

Weather forecast is for the warm weather to continue until at least Oct. 5. It still could remain above freezing for another week or 2, but you should get harvesting, and preparing to cover up any frost sensitive plants after by Oct. 5.

08/30/2021

A little woodchuck got himself caught in a hav a heart trap today at the garden.
Maybe the rest of my cabbages have a chance to head up now.

07/11/2021

Striped cucumber beetles are on your curcubits right now. The adults are on leaves and flowers, the new larvae are chewing your roots, and the the pupae are ready to emerge from the soil, and turn into adults, who also spread virus in their p**p. They love the bitter chemical in the young leaves, but especially love yellow flowers.
Some growers plant a few yellow squash as a trap crop with their other curcubits, because they have the biggest yellow flowers, and most of the beetles will go to those plants. Especially feeding heavily at dusk or evening, they then can use insecticide on those beetle filled flowers, and avoid putting insecticide on their other curcubits.
Another trick used, is picking the fruit off the yellow squash frequently, to keep the plant producing those big yummy yellow flowers the beetles congregate in, keep them on the yellow squash, and away from your other squash, cukes, melons.

06/30/2021

Colorado Potato Beetle
Remove and kill the potato beetle larvae now. An easy way is to hold a bucket under the leaves and shake the plants so the larvae all fall into the bucket. Bring the bucket to the river and create a feeding frenzy with the fish.

Striped Cucumber Beetle
The adults are laying eggs at the base of the plant. The larvae hatch and chew the roots. They can introduce virus to the plants, that will kill the plants later. The adults chew only the young leaves. To stop them use row covers until the plants flower, or use Spinosad organic bug sprays in the evening only or after a rain, when the bees are not out. Spray right into the base of the plant, not just the leaves. Spinosad kills the pollinating bees, which you don't want.