I’ve been noticing spots forming on the squash plants. At first I ignored it, thinking it was just one leaf with funny looking white spots, but after it spread to a couple of the squash I decided to go into Plant Protector mode. Plant Protector to the rescue! The spots, I was informed via the worldwide web, are powdery mildew, a mildew that affects many squash plants if they are planted late in the growing season. Well given that we planted the squash super late in the season, I’d say it makes sense that the squash is being attacked by this mildew. Luckily it is not harmful to the fruit/vegetable of the plant, but it can become harmful if it kills all the leaves on the plant! No leaves=no photosynthesis=no food for plant=DEATH. And with death there will obviously be no vegetables.

No vegetables!? Faced with this dreary prospect I have completely thrown myself into the world of organic farming. Battling the powdery mildew organically is the only choice since I don’t want to spray nasty chemicals on the things that I will be eating. After searching through farming advice websites, I found a solution! Apparently the experiment was first completed in South America, and it was proven that spraying a milk/water solution on the affected plants will generally get rid of 90% of the problem. Not a fix-all solution, but when is something EVER a fix-all?

So today I tried the milk/water treatment. I found a spray bottle, filled it with 3/4 water, 1/4 milk and sprayed it on the leaves and stems of all the squash and pumpkin plants. I will repeat this in a couple of days–they say 2 treatments weekly should do the trick! This treatment was super easy to do. Now the only thing to do is wait. AND to take a shower because my hands and arms smell like warm milk. Ewwww!

Our community garden is funded in part through material donations and a collaborative grant awarded by The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo

I’ve never really been much of a gardener; keeping the one plant alive in my kitchen is basically the extent of my expertise. So when Michael and Caesandra began discussing having gardens around the ReSOURCE, I was totally psyched by the idea, but with my lack of veggie planting experience I never thought I would be helping plan them and making them happen.

Well, I’m happy to announce that we have officially started our community garden project! Two weeks ago, with the start of the summer youth program, Michael rented a rototiller and we ground up the soil and planted rows and rows of squash, watermelon, strawberries (that will come back in the next years), and flowers. They had all been growing in their respective containers for a month and we finally transplanted them. We’ve slowly been adding raised beds which contain eggplant, carrots, radish, beets, tomatoes, hot peppers, many types of beans, spinach, lettuce, and more and more delicious veggies! Everyday things are growing and producing vegetables that we can eat! Just yesterday I checked on the eggplant and it’s now two inches in size!!

Community gardens are amazing. They provide a place of hope and beauty in the neighborhood and the plants growing everyday highlights the great sense of pride we can find in growing our own vegetables and in turn pride in the community that helped to produce those vegetables. Community gardens are also a great place for socializing. Even on the first day I was talking to people from the neighborhood who were curious about what we are trying to accomplish. People I have never talked to before have started stopping by; it’s a great way to build a community and make friends. For example, I am now good friends with the neighbors across the street who generously supplied water when we didn’t have access to our own water supply yet. And the woman down the street stopped by to tell me she would like to spend time working on her own little plot in the garden too!

It is our hope that the beginning stages of this garden will blossom into a fully functional garden next spring and provide a food source as well as a source of pride for the area’s residents. Already I can see this happening; all it took was a little dirt, some seeds, and some TLC to liven up a former empty lot. Fingers crossed that there will be enough of a harvest this year and then we can invite the community out to enjoy all of the veggies, cooked in various ways. Perhaps a small harvesting celebration is in order so we can enjoy both the vegetables and each others’ company. Anyway, I hope you come for a visit or volunteer in our patchwork garden. It’d be great to see you there!

Our community garden is funded in part through material donations and a collaborative grant awarded by The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo

Reading Michael’s blog entries, I’ve realized that Michael and I have something in common; we love drawing messages from books we read and sharing them with others. I rediscovered a book yesterday, a book that I used to read all the time but in recent years have put on the back shelf. It’s a wonderful story of new beginnings and of hope—a feeling that I find abundant in the Buffalo ReUse atmosphere. Anyway, the story is The Wump World, written by Bill Peet, and it’s about a planet full of these cute capabara-like creatures (Wumps) that is taken over by Pollutians from the planet Pollutus. The Wumps are forced into hiding while their world is destroyed by pollution. The world becomes so polluted that the Pollutians give up and leave, finding it easier to leave than change their ways and stop polluting. The Wumps emerge from hiding to find their world completely contaminated and it seems like things will never be the same, but wait! Among the smog-filled miles of highways and skyscrapers, they find a patch of grass! The last page is a picture of a plant growing up from under the concrete and I believe it holds a strong message: no matter how bad things seem or how much a place has been destroyed, it can still be rebuilt. Put in the context of Buffalo, this story tells me that there is so much potential in this city. It has been neglected for a long time, but we can rebuild it and rebuild our communities. New beginnings can happen in this city. Wump World is a short read and I recommend you share its message with anyone who will listen.

Last weekend was Father’s Day and I felt the pressure to do something special for my father. Now, my Dad is totally into gardening so I thought, what better present than supplying him with an easy way to help his garden grow? I bought him a kitchen compost pail—a small version of an outdoor compost—so that he could throw our kitchen scraps into it (more specifically, the egg shells from his spinach and feta omelet, bits of burnt toast compliments of me neglecting to check the toaster, and some stalks of gooey celery that I found rotting in the back of my fridge).  In a couple weeks the scraps will decay and turn into beautiful compost, high in nutrients, that my father will be able to add it to his garden.
It’s really simple, and there are so many ways to go about countertop composting.  There are stainless steel compost pails and some with filters to minimize odors and they can get costly.  But you should  buy a container that fits the size of your cooking needs–big families that eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies will find the counter top compost pails too small–they’d fill up every day.
At ReUse HQ, Michael uses a 5 gallon plastic rubbermaid bin with a lid (it cost $5 at “Tarzjay”)Not because he cooks or eats a lot, but because he doesn’t have time to run back and forth to the compost pile every day–actually he doesn’t even have much time to eat!  The tub is about a foot deep and it’s kept under the sink next to his garbage can.  We cleaned out the office fridge and disposed of some pretty scary stuff–including what might have been sweet & sour soup!  Composting is so easy–everyone should do it.

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This summer, we are teaming up with Grassroots Gardens and creating twenty community gardens across Buffalo–ten on the east side and ten on the west side. In order to do that, we need a lot of compost! Compost is decomposed organic matter that is very rich in nutrients which will help our gardens grow well. To get a large amount of compost we have created our very own compost pile…
First, we pounded in some stakes and stapled chicken wire to it to create an enclosure. Then, we found some stuff from our garbage and threw it in. With very little effort and within a few weeks time we will have nutrient rich compost for our community gardens. Simple as that! Now, we are looking for you to help us out. The more organic waste we put into the pile, the more compost we will make, so please read the list below to discover what you can donate to our compost pile and then bring it on over to 298 Northampton!

While everything can eventually be broken down, the main reason to avoid putting any meat or dairy in our pile is to avoid attracting unwanted pests. Also, chemically treated yard trimmings will kill the “good bacteria” that breaks down your waste and adding diseased plants could potentially spread the disease to plants in the area. Did you notice the cups in our compost pile? The may look like plastic, but they’re not; these are special biodegradable cups made out of corn that we can put in our compost! Please feel free to drop off any waste donations and make our composting and community gardens a success!

If you’re not sure whether something can be composted, visit some of the websites below. For the Compost This website, just type in your item into the search box and it will tell you whether you can throw it in our pile or not! The EPA website gives a great introduction on composting, and the Recycling Revolution website offers another list of what and what not to compost.
Look for a post next week featuring ideas to start collecting compost at your home!