Robbins Farm Garden

Our annual seed selection meeting will be held on Saturday, January 23 from 10 am to Noon. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the meeting will be held virtually. Please contact us to get info to join the meeting.
Everyone interested in the crops and varieties we plan to grow at Robbins Farm Garden this season is welcome. Prospective new members of the garden group are especially encouraged to attend and join in the discussion. Bring your seed catalogs and great expectations for the upcoming gardening season!

Mike, Michael and David planted all five of the new fence posts on the far side of the garden in one day! (Well almost – one still needs some digging). I (Alan) finished the rails on the Eastern Ave side. If the weather is good Tuesday evening, I’ll oil the rails, and should be ready to hang the fence fabric next Saturday. I have no doubt now we can finish this season.

The general fence-building process is:

1. Measure and plant the metal post bases, in a reasonably straight line, evenly spaced, right height, and plumb. Every so often we get lucky and just pound one straight down without any digging. Most of the time we need to dig a hole, get the post base in the right position, and pack the hole with rocks and dirt to hold it firm.
2. Cut a notch in each 4×4 posts for the irrigation lines and paint them with raw linseed oil.
3. Cut and fasten the 1×4 rails, making everything nice and square, and paint them with raw linseed oil.
4. Screw and staple the 1×1 hardware cloth to the posts and rails and trim up the edges.
5. And when the new fence is finished, we need to disassemble and dispose of the old one.

A couple of challenges left – we’re recycling about five post bases that are currently holding up the old posts, so we need to at least partially disassemble the old fence to finish the new one; what do we do with the Philosopher’s Stone?

Mid-summer is a time of transition in the garden. Today we pulled the spring peas and replanted the area with pole beans. (We use the same tall trellis for both.)
The garlic was also harvested today and replanted with turnip seed. Last week, we harvested the first spring broccoli and cabbage, and the last of the fava beans, which were replanted with fall peas.
Harvesting of our heat-loving nightshades (eggplant, peppers and tomatoes), okra and squashes (cucumbers, crooknecks and zucchini) has begun and the first of our bush beans were ready today.

Our everbearing greens (collards, kale, perpetual spinach and Swiss chard) are in full production and the sequentially-planted greens (arugula, mustard and lettuce) have been providing continuous harvests.
Next week, the first of the potatoes should be ready for harvest. That will herald replanting with fall brassica seedlings (broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower) seeded last month in our nursery bed.
The last of our spring salad turnips and the first of our onions were also harvested today. There is much to look forward to, and it’s feeling like the garden is in full swing!

A sign has been posted at the garden with guidelines for gardeners to follow in order to grow our food and keep everyone safe during this health crisis. A pdf of the sign is available here. The text appears below.

TO DO OUR PART TO STOP THE SPREAD OF COVID-19
WE ENCOURAGE GARDENERS TO:

• Stay home if you or those you live with are not well or not sure.

• Maintain physical separation of 6 feet or more.

• Avoid clusters (of more than 10), schedule gardening at different times.

• Use your own tools and take them home.

• Don’t leave things outside the fence while you’re working.

• Ask visitors to stay outside the garden fence.

• Use gloves and sanitizer to keep your hands clean.

• Cloth masks are (required).

• Sanitize commonly-touched surfaces: gate, locks, water spigot, hoses, storage bin, seed box, fertilizer bags.  

We left the smaller parsnips in the ground last fall and harvested them today.

The ground was already pretty workable, probably due to lack of rain, but still pretty cold.

The artichoke and allium seeds we planted on February 22 are off to a strong start. The front row has 1 pot of Tavor artichokes & 3 of Walla Walla onions; the middle row has 2 pots of Rossa di Milano red onions & 2 of Conservor shallots; the back row has 2 pots of Megaton leeks & 2 of New York Early storage onions. Next week, we move on to seeding our first brassicas and greens.

We’ve been making our own seedling soil for a decade. Yet, this is the first time we’ve attempted to document it as a recipe. For germinating seeds, like the leeks, onions and shallots we started yesterday, we use a light, less nutrient-rich mix.

• Coconut Coir – 1 brick (rehydrates to 0.33 cu ft)
• Compost (sifted & sterilized ) – 12 cups
• Vermiculite – 3 cups
• Sand (rough builder) – 3 cups
• Garden Tone fertilizer – 2 TBS
• Wood Ash – 2 TBS
• Limestone (ground) – 1 TBS

For transplanting the seedlings into 6-packs and small pots, we shift the mix closer to fertile garden soil by increasing the compost and nutrients.

• Coconut Coir – 1 brick (expands to 0.33 cu ft rehydrated)
• Compost (sifted & sterilized ) – 24 cups
• Vermiculite – 3 cups
• Sand (rough builder) – 3 cups
• Garden Tone fertilizer – 4 TBS
• Wood Ash – 4 TBS
• Limestone (ground) – 2 TBS

About the ingredients:
The coir is made from ground coconut shells, and is a pH-neutral, sustainable alternative to peat moss.
The compost is all vegetable-matter based, from a home compost pile and from the ones at the main garden.
The Garden Tone organic fertilizer is rated at 3-4-4. For our eggplant, pepper and tomato seedlings, we often substitute Tomato Tone.
The wood ash is collected from a home fireplace, sifted to remove charcoal chunks.
The limestone buffers the pH of the compost. We use pure ground limestone. (Our garden soil tests high for magnesium, so we’re wary of adding more.)

Save the date – our annual Seed Selection Meeting will be on Saturday, February 1st in Community Room of the Arlington Police Headquarters from 10 am to 1 pm.

Everyone interested in the crops & varieties we will grow at Robbins Farm Garden this season is welcome. Prospective new members of the garden group are especially encouraged to attend and join in the discussion. Bring your seed catalogs and great expectations for the season to come!

The Arlington Police Headquarters is at 112 Mystic Street. When you enter the building, go directly up the stairs; the community room door will be on your left.

General Comments:

• Many of the seedlings were affected by putting too much Coast of Main fertilizer in the potting soil – some peppers and lettuce died, some eggplant and onions were stunted, tomatoes were okay.
• Several crops were affected by rodent predation: corn, eggplant, tomatoes, watermelons and, to a lesser extent, both winter squashes.

Garlic: very good, do again
Leeks: be more careful in planning for raised bed later in season, otherwise very good, do again
Onions: Sets did well. Seedlings suffered from over-fertilization of potting soil, most did well
Scallions: did fantastic in crappy soil, try rows @ 2” apart next year
Shallots: did well, but didn’t have two full rows of seedlings due to over-fertilizing potting soil
Walking Onions: did well, provided beautiful scallions in spring, transplanted bulblets over several weeks

Broccoli: early crop very good – fertilized when heads begin to form. Late crop did well too, good number of side shoots after main heads
Brussels sprouts: no aphids this year, some sprouts stayed small, but overall good. Plant on north side of bed next year to keep from shading bed
Cabbages: early crop did well, except some had rot at the base (disease?). late crop didn’t mature well, lots of cabbage worms – two types and late into season, also shaded by Brussels sprouts
Cauliflower: early crop was very good, do again. Late crop was the best yet, but plants had signs of Black Rot on the leaves (look into seed supplier and succession planting in beds)
Kohlrabi: fantastic, do again

Carrots: single crop of different varieties worked, most did well (Mokum not as good) a fair number of split roots this year
Celery: late (seedlings had to be replanted), but all were stocky and healthy, didn’t lose any to disease
Parsnips: good germination & thinning, but not as perfect – some stubby and with nodules – research

Basil: lost some seedlings to over-fertilized soil, plants that survived were okay, some dark spots (disease?)
Cilantro: both plantings were excellent, even though second planting began while shaded by squash leaves
Herbs: Chives all did well, divide in spring; Lavender old growth died over the winter but sprouted tons of new growth in spring; Lemon Balm did great, divide in spring; Rosemary that Steven wintered over was awesome; Savory did great, divide or root prune in spring; Tarragon was sad as usual (research), Thyme doing great (replaced English thyme plant in spring)
Nasturtiums: best ever, dense & productive without the mid-season die off, caught spring aphids early; no fall aphids
Okra: new variety a winner: didn’t lose any seedlings, pretty, uniform, vigorous, productive & tender when oversize. Try pruning early in season to make plants bushier
Popcorn: great germination on new variety, very pretty but tops of ears munched by caterpillars and entire patch was attached by some critter (rats or raccoons?) before all could be picked, thin to 1 plant per space if we grow again
Rhubarb: did okay, some leaf damage – beetles?
Sunflowers: 3-4 germinated and produced well, lower leaves eaten by Asiatic and Japanese beetles

Arugula: very good, do again
Bok Choi: early crop bolted, late crop didn’t germinate well, transplants did better than those left in place
Collards: not as robust but did okay, some leaf damage, check variety and seed source
Kales: did fine (dinosaur did better than usual), some leaf damage, try Redbor next year?
Lettuce: first several crops did great (except for over-fertilized 2nd indoor planting), some rot on denser plantings, thin better, try some disease-resistant varieties next year
Malabar Spinach: not stellar, can’t compete with nasturtiums
Mesclun: did okay in poor real estate, wasn’t reseeded, so became Red Russian kale bed later in season
Mustard: did well, reseeding well scheduled, green lasted longer than red
Perpetual Spinach: germination not great, but did okay in poor real estate
Swiss Chard: did okay, well thinned, research if more fertilizing and/or changing soil pH would help

Beans (bush): Dragon’s Tongue did great, Maxibel were very productive and attractive, Antigua not nearly as good, chicken wire protected bed from bunnies
Beans (dried): weren’t productive (maybe shaded by dense corn plants) bunnies kept away with chicken wire fencing when seedlings were young
Beans (pole): purple did great, try to find Garden of Eden seed again, Kentucky Wonder & Blue Lake did better than Kentucky Blue (beside Philosopher’s Stone)
Fava Beans: did great – productive, no aphids or wooly bear caterpillars
Peas: spring crop productive, Tall Telephone germinated poorly (next to Philosopher’s Stone), Sugar Snaps didn’t seem right – check seed source. Fall crop was highly productive, planted at the right time and covered with shade cloth to keep soil cool
Soybeans: did very well, but needed to infill plant twice, some Japanese beetle damage to leaves

Eggplants: failed to thrive – Orient Express & Japanese White Egg produced better, Black Beauty way too slow (try different variety next year), JWE & BB fruits had lots of small holes – insects (research)
Peppers: not a good year – disease? nutritional problem? over-watering? Potted plant experiment was inconclusive – pots were shaded and plants were from nursery. Lunch Box did better. Corno di Toro and Cheyenne did less well.
Potatoes: very good, do again
Tomatillos: always take too long to produce fruit, fertilize more?, mysterious picking happened mid-season, topped plants when Brussels sprouts were topped to reduce # of smaller fruits
Tomatoes: beautiful plants, excellent productivity, good fertilizing & pruning, Actinovate used in soil before planting and every few weeks for most of summer, lots of hornworms! Also serious rat predation – inflatable snakes helped late in season, maybe try chicken wire? Topped plants near end of season to put energy into ripening fruit. Place taller cherry tomato bed on north side of other bed. Consider non-wood stakes to limit soil-borne disease. Ramapo plants were strange – check seed supplier. Randy Boys not as vigorous or productive as others.

Beets: excellent crop, resilient and productive
Jerusalem Artichokes: flourished in same space as previous 3 years
Radishes: early crop did fine. Late crop okay too
Rutabagas: excellent – good germination and thinning – one was the size of a softball, a few were tiny
Sweet Potatoes: did great, good yield, had more Murasaki than expected
Turnips (cooking): very good, do again
Turnips (salad): early crop was incredible – best ever. late crop never fully matured – not good real estate

Butternuts: high yield, biggest came from 3 sisters plot. Try fertilizing more, maybe grow new super-tasty variety next year?
Cucumbers: good yield, the right ratio of slicing/pickling (4/2), slicing type did better than pickling, mildew not as bad, one plant ended up in 3 sisters plot
Delicata: produced well, planted more this year (fewer pumpkins), vine borers were a problem & were in actual squashes this year
Pumpkins: did well, produced 1-2 per plant (better than previous years)
Watermelon: much better this year, yummy and big, soil-borne disease took half the seedlings after planting, plant twice as many seedlings again next year, rat predation on later fruit
Zucchini: green did better than yellow, fewer borers, second crop didn’t reach full potential again

While I was watering the other day, I was wondering how long to keep the hose on each bed. Of course that depends on many factors, but I’m looking for a rule of thumb.

First I need to know how much water comes out of the hose:

With the water on full and the nozzle on “shower”, it took almost exactly 1 1/2 minutes to fill a 5-gallon bucket. So that’s 3 1/3 gallons per minute.

Our garden beds are about 6×9 feet, or 54 sf = 7,776 sq in. So 1 inch of water on the whole bed is 7,776 cubic inches. There are 231 cubic inches in one gallon of water. So it takes 33.6 gallons (evenly spread) to get one inch of water onto the bed. At 3.33 gallons/minute, that’s about 10 minutes.

How much “rain” does a vegetable garden need? According to numerous sources (like this one), about one inch per week, total. That’s convenient – 10 minutes of hose time per bed per week, evenly spread, if it never rains.

Of course, that’s a very broad guideline. Mature plants with deep roots could probably be watered with the whole inch once or twice per week. Newly planted seeds, seedlings, and transplants need to get water probably every day, because the roots are so shallow and the little plants have no capacity to store moisture.

Too much watering can be almost as bad as not enough. Soil around mature plant roots needs to dry out so the roots can get oxygen. Sometimes yellow leaves indicate too much water. A number of sources say that watering tomatoes too much compromises the flavor (like the discussion in this article about “dry farming”, which claims that stressed tomatoes taste better).

Wilting in the hot sun is a natural reaction by the plants to slow transpiration, so doesn’t necessarily mean that the plant is water-starved. Dig a little hole and see if the soil is really dry before getting worried.

So the answer to my question obviously depends on what I’m watering (mature plants with deep roots – or not), when the bed was watered or rained on last, and the forecast for rain or watering. Therefore my rule of thumb will be never more than 10 minutes on any one bed, usually probably only a few minutes – especially if the soil is already moist a few inches down – and maybe slack off a bit on the tomatoes.

Comments?

(This is a repeat of an earlier experiment from July 2017.)

A: About 1 inch per day – same as in 2017.

The first piece of the garden’s accessibility improvement project went up on Saturday: a custom-made garden gate. Though it appeared in one day, it had been planned for years and constructed over the course of months. Later this season, we will be constructing raised garden beds flanking the gate and replacing the fencing, starting with the entry side of the garden. See more drawings here.

Funding for this project was made possible through the Community Preservation Act as part of the Robbins Farm Park Improvement Project implemented in other parts of the park last year (which also included a stone dust path to the garden from Eastern Ave). Accessibility issues were identified through a Town-wide study of Arlington’s public parks conducted in 2014.

We are grateful for the opportunity to make these improvements to the garden and hope to have them completed within the next few years.

Finally, they are here – our first lettuce and spinach! The spinach has done particularly well this year. It’s a new variety: Regiment from High Mowing Seeds.

We harvested some lovely young Egyptian walking onions today. They were a delight to take home at the end of a full day of seed planting. These onions have thrived in some of the garden’s least desirable real estate and we’re grateful for their easy reseeding each year.

Mark your calendars with a big squash blossom star for Opening Day at the Garden on April 6th from 9AM to Noon.

Weather permitting, we will be cleaning up the garden, possibly planting early seeds and seedlings, turning the compost, checking the overwintered crops and harvesting parsnips.

Come join the fun!

Picking up lumber for the new accessible front gate and raised beds.

The first crop of 2019 seedlings, planted on Saturday, are up and growing under lights. The brassicas (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages and cauliflower) were the first to break ground, quickly followed by the greens (lettuce and spinach). The alliums (leeks, onions and shallots) and celery have yet to appear. Thanks to the seedling crew for getting things started!

Save the date – our annual Seed Selection Meeting will be on Saturday, January 26th in Community Room of the Community Safety Building from 10 am to Noon(ish).

Everyone interested in the crops & varieties we will grow at Robbins Farm Garden this season is welcome. Prospective new members of the garden group are especially encouraged to attend and join in the discussion. Bring your seed catalogs and great expectations for the season to come!

You will find the Community Safety Building (Arlington Police Headquarters) at 112 Mystic Street. When you enter the building, go directly up the stairs; the community room door will be on your left.

General comments:

• Fertilize EVERYTHING on a more regular basis – and not just with compost. Research to find ideal frequency & nutrients needed, by crop. Consider foliar feeding, e.g. with Stress-X or other seaweed-based fertilizer, which also helps to discourage foliar diseases.
• We need to be more ruthless in our thinning. Research ideal spacing, by crop, & adhere to that when thinning.
• Use an organic critter deterrent (spray and/or in small, ventilated bottles hung throughout the garden, possibly allowing us to avoid chicken wire around crops where the wire interferes with tending/harvesting.

Garlic: did well, fertilize in spring next year.
Leeks: did well, but not quite as robust as in some years.
Onions: sets did fine, seed varieties all did well, counting problems with seedlings, consider fertilizing mid-season.
Scallions: grew stronger and faster in sunny spot near gate, bed near bench took all season to mature. Scallions near bench were in thick hedges, consider distributing the seeds in thinner rows to make harvesting easier.
Shallots: did well, but didn’t have enough, consider fertilizing mid-season.
Walking Onions: provided spring scallions, first bulblet planting not as successful as second.

Broccoli: first crop slightly discolored (try fertilizing mid-way), second crop solid, but all headed up the same week. Late crop covered with insect screen, but lots of cabbage worms matured under the screen. No noticeable lasting damage from the worms.
Brussels sprouts: grew 3 varieties due to old seed (difficult to tell apart) some didn’t mature, aphids only on leaves.
Cabbages: early green did well (red variety was small), late varieties good (except Aubervilliers hardly headed up). consider covering spring cabbage bed with agrofabric when transplanting seedlings.
Cauliflower: early crop variety did well (some headed up very early), late crop didn’t all mature.
Kohlrabi: good way to use space in center of zucchini bed, but difficult to harvest, try starting as seedlings or maybe making a raised-bed, like leeks?

Carrots: first crop basically failed: poor germination and die off, second crop planted earlier than usual did well. Make sure to keep soil moist after sowing.
Celeriac: strong seedlings, plants did well; too close together. If we’re going to continue planting these, maybe we should plant half as many?
Celery: strong seedlings, most plants did well, may have wrapped too early, research blanching and companion plantings. We need to keep an eye on these once they are wrapped and it rains. A couple of them rotted. Needs calcium (eggshells) and boron.
Parsnips: poor germination despite pelleted seed (straw mulch or soil temperature?), those that matured were good, harvested late Late harvest after poor germination reinforced the need for serious thinning, as most of the parsnips harvested were a good size.

Basil: plants did well, some insect damage (wooly bear caterpillars)
Cilantro: first planting good, but spotty germination afterward
Nasturtiums: did well (took over Malabar Spinach), consider planting with zucchini. Overtook the malabar spinach seedlings, consider bigger gap between them.
Okra: strongest seedlings ever, all matured, need mid-season fertilizer.
Popcorn: new variety similar to old variety, slightly less productive.
Rhubarb: hanging on, but not thriving – research ideal conditions. Rhubarb definitely loves sun, so moving it to a sunnier spot would help.
Sunflowers: awesome!

General: consider insect screen for more crops, esp. Collards, Chard, Lettuce, Spinach.
Arugula: first planting good, but spotty germination afterward.
Bok Choi: both crops did well.
Collards: did well, some insect damage early in season.
Kales: chicken wire worked well for bunny protection, some insect damage.
Malabar Spinach: strong seedlings plus self-seeded plants did fine on side without nasturtiums.
Lettuce: germination a problem all season (lots of transplanting), early seedlings did the best.
Mesclun: grew fine in shady bed, need to establish schedule & find someone to adopt. Good way to use up old greens seed at end of season.
Mustard: green not as robust as red, need to establish schedule.
Perpetual Spinach: did well again, even in terrible location.
Spinach: seedlings bolted a bit, seeded crop had spotty germination. Needs lots of calcium (eggshells).
Swiss Chard: some die-off (rot or fungus) early, try transplanting to fill gaps, use larger piece of screen to cover Poor productivity- need to research possible causes of rot/die off problems. Screen definitely helped causes problems.

Beans (bush): chicken wire worked well for bunny protection, germination problems with yellow varieties, lasted just long enough to meet first pole bean harvest. Infilled yellow bean several times; could germination issues be related to the company we ordered from (not our usual source)?
Beans (dried): saved (from bunnies) by chicken wire, though not as many perfect beans due to lots of rain late in season It would be helpful for these beans if we could remove the chicken wire once the beans were tall enough. We couldn’t do this because several of the squash plants had grown through the chicken wire.
Beans (pole): saved (from bunnies) by chicken wire, purple variety was early & good, green variety was later & good, Romano types weren’t as good as Garden Of Eden.
Fava Beans: best yield yet, but hit by wooly bear caterpillars.
Peas: uneven seeding & washout from rainstorm, yet good yield from spring planting. Fall planting had typical poor germination (high soil temp).
Soybeans: chicken wire worked great to prevent bunny damage, germination not great, replanted some areas twice.

Eggplants: all needed staking, Asian type most productive, Italian type hit by insects and dropped off early, white variety less productive.
Peppers: did well, reasonable yield. Matured a little slower than patio plants at home. Pick off any flowers on seedlings or low on the plant. Avoid extra nitrogen.
Potatoes: all did well. Might do better following the bean bed in rotation.
Tomatillos: grew 3 plants (rather than 2), healthy, productive plants but small fruit.
Tomatoes: awesome! Left extra leaders, fertilized every 2 weeks, mulched and finger pruned. Only disappointment was determinate Defiant. Possibly increase spacing between plants since the extra leaders spread I think I lost control of the pruning at some point in the season. It’s a quandary because we don’t want to decrease the number of tomato plants but things were definitely out of control. Oh, and the clover died off because of the shading from the tomatoes. Rutgers tomato did poorly- probably should take it (and the Defiant) off the list.

Beets: only one crop this year, seedlings were weak, but those that survived did well. Likes pH neutral soil; try adding 10% elemental boron.
Jerusalem Artichokes: grew well, lots of flowers and tubers.
Radishes: standard varieties were fine, daikon variety wasn’t worth the effort, late season planting partially washed out by rainstorm, try growing with salad turnips after onions.
Rutabagas: interesting experiment, needed to be thinned and given space.
Sweet Potatoes: remove all slips from tubers to produce more (don’t let them get too large), experiment with deeper planting.
Turnips (cooking): did well.
Turnips (salad): early crop did well, late crop (after onions) was awesome.

Butternuts: good yield, needed fertilizer mid-season.
Cucumbers: good yield, but short season due to wilt/mildew. Distributed cucumbers weren’t as productive or disease resistant this season. Heavy feeder, give frequent fertilizer.
Delicata: hit with borers, but still reasonably productive.
Pumpkins: good yield despite borers, needed mid-season fertilizing. Mildew/wilt left a few small immature pumpkins.
Watermelon: seedlings almost wiped out by mechanical damage, only one melon.
Zucchini: seedlings were strong, plants hit hard by borers, but good, long yield from both varieties, try starting a second crop earlier than in 2017. Consider covering squash with insect screen until the first blossoms emerge to reduce chance of moths laying eggs. I agree that it would be good to try an insect screen experiment next year, possibly with not all of the plants because of space concerns.

Second sighting of our resident praying mantis.  It was resting upside down on the chives.

Praying mantis

Public welcome to this family-friendly, free, self-guided tour
Saturday, September 29, 2018 – 11 AM to 2 PM
Seven Locations Around Arlington, Massachusetts
Visit seven beautiful public gardens, each offering lessons in environmental sustainability

Join us on Arlington’s self-guided walking tour to explore and learn about (and from) some of our beautiful public gardens! You will get a chance to visit a wide array of locations, from the Cyrus E. Dallin Elementary School gardens to the community space of Magnolia Gardens. This event is a great way to hear from local gardeners, pick up new planting methods, and learn about the gardening opportunities provided by the town of Arlington. Free admission, all ages welcome. We hope to see you there!

Tell us you’re coming and share this event on Facebook, #AnOutdoorEducation

Maps of the event will be available (coming soon) or at any of the stops along the tour:
Robbins Farm Learning Garden – all kinds of vegetables will be ripening
Dallin School Green Team garden – includes backyard composting demo/Q&A by Jeremy Marin at 12:30 PM , and “Meet the Hawk” by Arlington’s Animal Control Officer Diane Welch at 11:00 AM
Hurd Field Rain Garden – includes Stormwater Awareness activities for the family with DPW’s Jack Turner
Arlington Reservoir’s Habitat Garden -see native plantings in their fall glory
Bishop School learning garden and Green Team pollinator garden– includes “Meet the Hawk” by Arlington’s Animal Control Officer Diane Welch at 1:00 PM,find out how Bishop is integrating gardening into their curriculum
Arlington’s new orchard – a hidden gem
Magnolia Community Garden – tour the newly-expanded Arlington Recreation community garden, includes a lesson on backyard composting best practices with garden compost coordinators Allie and Steven

Our first harvest of Sugar Dumpling squash and Baby Bear pumpkins of the season.

The first Saturday in July ushered in our first major harvest of beets, eggplant, peppers, potatoes and zucchini. The tomatoes aren’t far behind!

We still have some surplus seeds available for the asking. Here’s the list Steven has compiled:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pu1BuPvCr71CRBn0YJMtRKehiqTRIgQ8-RJJtLXjofI/edit#gid=0

We’ve been starting our cucurbit (squash family) seeds indoors under lights to get a leg up on the season for a few years. Last year, we noticed that the germination rate for these seeds was unusually poor. This was brought into painful focus when only 1 of 33 of our Baby Bear pumpkin seeds germinated. A clue presented itself when we noticed that this pumpkin variety was the only one of our cucurbit seeds that was offered as treated seed.

Following our notes from last year, we started all our cucurbits in sterile soil this year. The results are now in, and they are striking. The one-to-one comparisons are shown in the table below. Each of the varieties shown were grown under the same conditions from the same seed from the same source for that year (2017 for non-sterile and 2018 for sterile).

[It’s important to note that we start most of our indoor seeds in sterile soil. In fact, we sterilize compost and make our own soil mix using coir, sand, vermiculite, wood ash and organic fertilizer. However, we decided to risk the non-sterile mix for the cucurbits because we start them just 2 weeks before they’re planted in the garden and they seem like such robust seeds.]

On average for all the cucurbit seed, the germination rate went from 53% for non-sterile soil to 94% for sterile soil. As for the pumpkins, we opted for the treated seed this year… and the germination rate went from 3% to 83%.

The newly-transplanted tomatoes, eggplants and okra are seeing real sun for the first time today in the greenhouse. They will be ready to go outside and get full sun soon, in preparation for being planted in the garden. We will have well over 100 seedlings (including all the wonderful peppers, tomatillos and basil) when planting day comes…

After a long cold winter, it’s finally time to work at the garden again. We will resume our regular Saturday hours (9 to noon) and hope to catch up with our planting, harvesting and cleaning up.

A brisk Opening Day in 2015.

We look forward to seeing you there!

In attendance:  Alan Jones, Mike Smith, Steven Lee, Allie Durak (from Magnolia, she asked if she could sit with us).

 Ecofest was well populated.  We got a mix of visitors, a great many who were attracted to the big screen display showing a slide show of our garden. Some oohed and ahhed over the seedlings.  A few were potentially interested in joining, one of whom does worm composting!  Somewhat more were interested in talking with us about problems they were having with their garden.

 I told people to come visit us Saturday mornings, 9am-Noon.  For those who wanted to know when our first Saturday would be, I told them to contact us thru our website “contact” link.  Three gave us their email addresses anyways.

 So as soon as a first gardening date is decided, I’ll let these people know.

 –steven

Save the date – our annual Seed Selection Meeting will be on Saturday, February 3rd in Community Room of the Community Safety Building from 9:30 am to Noon(ish).

Everyone interested in the crops & varieties we will grow at Robbins Farm Garden this season is welcome. Prospective new members of the garden group are especially encouraged to attend and join in the discussion. Bring your seed catalogs and great expectations for the season to come!

You will find the Community Safety Building (Arlington Police Headquarters) at 112 Mystic Street. When you enter the building, go directly up the stairs; the community room door will be on your left.

Garlic: very good, do again
Leeks: very good, do again
Onions: sets did well, seed varieties did great, but lost a few Walla Wallas to rot, start picking them earlier
Scallions: did well, try broadcasting for higher yield or give more real estate, thin assiduously
Shallots: very good, do again
Walking Onions: did well, don’t forget to replant bulblets next year without Melissa

Carrots: 1st crop had poor germination (pelleted seed) & small carrots. 2nd crop did well (regular seed), plant in warmer soil, consider a single crop, keep volunteer dill and fennel out of bed
Celeriac: did well, find out how to get larger bulbs
Celery: very good, do again
Parsnips: yow za!

Basil: did great, even late into season, grow fewer plants? Intersperse with cilantro?
Cilantro: crowded between rocks and squash, 1st seeding failed, later seedings did well, was very hardy
Nasturtiums: did super well until hard frost, no aphids
Okra: seedlings did well, most survived transplanting, consider transplanting later or covering with plastic, experiment with pruning to increase yield
Popcorn: some bunny damage, but did reasonably well, good harvest
Rhubarb: did well, look into long-term maintenance requirements
Sunflowers: few plant with small flowers, try moving away from Jerusalem artichokes
Sweet Clover: transplanting worked well again

Arugula: crowded between rocks and squash, all plantings successful, early plantings bolted
Bok Choi: both crops did well, transplanting into failed soybean bed worked well
Collards: single row worked well
Cress: 1st planting did well, 2nd planting mostly failed, try something else next year?
Kales: did well, but only after several plantings and caging due to bunnies eating seedlings
Malabar Spinach: good seedlings this year, not as tall as last year
Lettuce: Pirat, Little Gem, Sandy and BSS/Nevada good, replace Red Salad Bowl with New Red Fire
Mustard: 1st planting mostly bombed, 2nd planting did well (lasted into November)
Perpetual Spinach: did well in bad location (lasted into November) no screening required!
Spinach: both seedlings and seeded crops did well, grew in the same space, screen cover a success
Swiss Chard: slow start, bad germination, reseeded… use Rainbow Mix next year, start in warmer soil?, fertilize more heavily, screening worked well (removed mid-season)but remay might have been better
 

Beans (bush): green and yellow varieties hit bad by bunnies, only Dragon Tongue did well
Beans (dried): bunnies hit seedlings hard and repeatedly, few survived to produce beans
Beans (pole): bunnies attacked seedlings (most recovered after caging), Blue Lake outperformed Kentucky Wonder
Fava Beans: did great, caught aphids early
Peas: 1st crop had poor germination, but highly productive. 2nd crop timed well, both plots produced
Soybeans: destroyed by bunnies, even with disco decorations

General: keep volunteer dill and fennel out of beds
Beets: 1st crop (started indoors) did best, covering with screen helped, hit with ants & moss, just grow seedling crop & replant with fall peas?
Jerusalem Artichokes: did really well
Sweet Potatoes: slips started well, decent crop, but fewer full-sized tubers than usual, soil too cool? keep volunteer dill and fennel out of bed
Turnips (cooking): Golden Globe did well, Gilfeather didn’t have nearly enough time to mature
Turnips (salad): 1st crop did well, 2nd crop didn’t, try planting in onion bed with radishes next year?
 

Butternuts: Metro PMR wicked awesome, good spacing. Butterbush (3 sisters) bombed
Cucumbers: renegades did well, main planting did even better, picking and slicing types easier to tell apart
Delicata: best yet, good yield, less mildew but hit by borers
Pumpkins: grow Baby Bear (single plant did great), start seeds in sterile soil, be vigilant about borers
Watermelons: tasty, but stunted and unproductive
Cousa squash: wasn’t as special, and didn’t do as well, as we hoped. Just grow zucchini next year?
Zucchini: did well (one plant produced into November), 2nd crop should be started earlier (almost had time to produce)
 

A: About 1/2 in per day (July 26 evening- July 29 morning).

A: About one inch per day. (July 19 evening – July 22 morning)

The grass is always greener…

High mowing suggests trimming onion seedlings when they reach 5" to make them grow thicker and stronger.  We did not remember to trim them while they were growing under the lights, but decided to try a side-by-side comparison with some plants trimmed just after transplanting them in the garden.

Many of our transplanted walla-walla onions were very close to the recommended 5" height for trimming.  I selected a 5×5 grid of the onions (out of the 14×5 grid of walla wallas planted) and trimmed the tops.

Below is a picture ot the allium bed before and after the trimming experiment — rows 3-7 from the back/right edge are the walla walla onions.  Most of the walla wallas near the bottom of this picture were close to 5", so the grid of 5×5 walla wallas on the bottom was selected for the trimming experiment.

Before trimming

After trimming

Close up of one of the walla wallas before and after trimming — the leaf was trimmed from 7" down to a little over 1".

A few of the walla wallas in the 5×5 grid were almost double the height recommended for trimming because they had been seeded a week earlier.  For the sake of uniformity, I trimmed these onions too, but left close to 3" of the onion top as opposed to 1-2" for the smaller ones.  Below is an example of one of the larger walla wallas before and after trimming:

The trimmed onion tops caught up with the untrimmed tops quickly.  By week 4, they were similar in size and it was difficult to tell them apart.

We harvested the onions on July 22.  There still was no strong noticeable difference between the trimmed and untrimmed onions. Both conditions grew well and had good sized onions, but the trimming did not seem to give much, if any, advantage to the onions.

Save the date – we will hold our annual Seed Selection Meeting on Saturday, January 28 in Community Room of the Community Safety Building from 9:30am to 12:30pm.

Everyone interested in the crops & varieties we will grow in the garden this season is welcome. Prospective new members of the garden group are especially encouraged to attend and join the discussion. Bring your seed catalogs and great expectations for the season to come!

You will find the Community Safety Building at 112 Mystic Street. When you enter the building, go directly up the stairs in front of you. Our meeting room is on the left.

Garlic: best ever (see journal post)!
Leeks: did well, despite drought
Onions: less impressive than 2015 (due to drought?) – try mid-season feeding, more compost, increased spacing? Sets did well
Scallions: bad year, poor germination on both plantings – try more vigorous variety? try switching location with Shallots? add nitrogen fertilizer?
Shallots: plants from seed did better than sets – try 2 seed varieties?
Walking Onions: 2nd planting of bulblets did well (1st planting mostly failed), harvest of previous year’s plants tasty

Carrots: difficult year due to drought, early crop slow, stubby & multi-rooted, fall crop needed 2 plantings, many didn’t mature – try pelleted seed next year
Celery: best ever!
Fennel (bulb): first seeding failed, second seeding plants small again – try slow-bolt or heat-tolerant variety? try replacing with celery root?
Parsnips: best crop to date, timing good, pelleted seed rules! – thin better next year

Beans (bush): yellow and striped varieties good – try new green variety
Beans (pole): timing good, Garden of Eden Romano did well, Northeaster Romano produced faster, but had a short season & stringy beans, Kentucky Wonder and Trionfo Violetto not very productive – try new green variety?
Fava beans: germination and spacing good, bad timing with aphids and flowers, be vigilant next year
Peas (spring): all early varieties did well (Sugar Snap had second wind)
Peas (fall): variety excellent, produced well and late into season – use shade cloth for summer planting to keep seed cool & provide support
Soybeans: did well

Beets: damage by leaf minor – use row cover next year, try starting some indoors
Jerusalem Artichokes: did great in new location, less mildew & aphids – reduce space next year?
Potatoes: decent harvest on all types, no loss of plants, some scab on purple variety (look into causes)
Radishes: both varieties (early and late crops) did well
Sweet Potatoes: all slips did well (from our tubers), simple planting in rows also worked – very good, do again
Turnips (cooking): did well, but some seed dried out – try covering seed with shade cloth?
Turnips (salad): spring & fall crops did well – plant more carefully & thin better next year

General: grow winter squashes in rows next year; groups of 3 harder to check for borers, try interspersing with other crops in perimeter beds to reduce spread of diseases
Butternut squash:  our most productive variety, did well relative to other squashes
Cucumbers: both types better w/mildew, but hit hard with bacterial wilt, volunteer plant in pepper bed held out the longest – try 2 plantings & early varieties?
Delicata squash: tasty variety, but only 1 squash per plant
Pumpkins:  bad borer (borers hid inside stems) and mildew damage, best variety so far (bush type, grow on ground)
Watermelons: good year, volunteer plant also produced
Yellow Summer squash: less robust than zucchini, destroyed by borers early – try second planting? Try cousa type?

In the fall of 2015, we prepared a proposal to replace the fence and improve the accessibility of the garden. The proposal was developed with guidance from the Town's ADA Self-Evaluation Report on Arlington's public parks and open spaces (prepared by the Institute for Human Centered Design for Arlington's Recreation Department and Park and Recreation Commission).

Our proposal was presented to the Park and Recreation Commission and the Friends of Robbins Farm Park Board in October 2015. The proposal was subsequently included as part of the Robbins Farm Park Field and ADA Renovation Project in the Community Preservation Committee's 2016 Funding Application, approved at the 2016 Town Meeting.

Engineering consultants hired by the Town for the Park Renovation Project are currently developing plans through a series of public meetings. It's our understanding that our garden proposal will be the subject of a separate review of as part of this public process. We hope to begin the work in 2017.

Our Proposal submitted in October 2015 (pdf)
Options submitted with proposal (pdf)

There’s a rule at the garden: all the plants we grow must be edible. You might think this would eliminate flowers. Yet, we grow several plants that (though edible) are most cherished for their blooms.

Flowers attract pollinators, welcome visitors and cheer weary gardeners. And too often we forget to mention them. Here are a few of our favorites.