A Few Snaps From Around The Garden

The garlic bed:
Apple blossoms:
Daffodils in bloom:

Whew! Garden Beds Are Ready For May Planting

Thanks to everyone, especially volunteers Jeff, Nicole, and Debbie, who came out to work on digging and clearing our garden beds and spreading compost.

Before:

After:

The main garden now has wood chipped paths so we can avoid walking IN the permanent planting beds and compacting the soil. One of the goals of planting in permanent beds instead of in traditional rows, is to allow the soil to keep its crumbly texture season after season. This means the soil will remain well aerated, allowing water to percolate easily and nutrients to be easily exchanged between plant roots and soil life.

Also, some of you were interested in finding out more about the compost we used ... it's screened leaf compost from Greencycle Grillo in Milford. For more info, visit their website here: http://www.greencyclegrillo.com/.

Kill and Eat! Controlling Garlic Mustard

Hmmm. Just noticed this patch of Garlic Mustard edging its way into the garden.

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is a dispersive biennial weed that can be easily identified at this time of year by 1) its clusters of tiny white flowers and 2) the yummy garlic-horseradish scent its leaves emit when crushed. (For a more technical guide on how to identify it, go to: http://dnr.wi.gov/invasives/fact/garlic.htm).

The plant can become problematic wherever it gets a foothold: due to its incredible seed production, it can quickly disrupt native woodlands, where it out-competes other species and diminishes diversity along the forest floor. Unfortunately, it has no known native pests to keep it in check (besides us). So, to control our little patch, we should plan to cut or pull the flowering plants now, before seed production is able to take place.

For more info, check out the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group fact sheet, here: http://www.hort.uconn.edu/cipwg/invader_month/invader_of_the_month_Mar06_alliaria.pdf

Or, to learn how to EAT it out of existence, check out this recipe for Garlic Mustard Pesto from Grist: http://www.grist.org/article/where-the-wild-things-grow. (But of course make sure you know how to properly ID it before you attempt to ingest it.)