Around the Garden
Herb Garden
The herb garden is planted and is growing nicely. Please collect only the quantity of herbs you will use or about 10% of the plant foliage.
Garlic!
Garlic needs even soil moisture during the growing season but no extra moisture during the last few weeks before harvest. Hardneck varietals grow scapes as they mature. At the end of each scape will be a small bud like a flower bud. Scapes should be clipped off as they round their second curve to encourage bulb growth. Harvested scapes are great in any meal you want a garlic flavour for. Bulbs can be harvested in late July or early to mid-August when the top half of the leaves have turned brown.
You could also be adventurous and let the ‘flower’ open resulting in garlic bulbils (image below). These look like aerial garlic bulbs. Hardneck varietals produce aerial bulbils at the end of the scape, while softneck varietals rarely produce bulbils. The garlic bulbils are clones of the mother plant and can be eaten or used to plant new crops in the fall (though it will take about 2 years to get a decent harvest from them because of the initial small size of the clove).
Image Source: The Laidback Gardener
Dead heading and bolted plants
Lots of early flowering herbs (chives, dill, etc.) and cool weather crops (spinach, lettuce etc.) send up seed heads or bolt in hotter weather. A kind reminder to deadhead your seed producing plants so they don’t self seed where they are not wanted. Deadheading also encourages the plant to produce more leaves for you to eat. Seed heads need to be put in the municipal compost at home or in the garbage as the Common Ground compost pile is not hot enough to kill the seeds. Bolted plants will no longer produce flavourful leaves and should be pulled and composted. Fear not! As the weather cools in late summer or early fall you can replant these cool weather crops for one more round of growing.
Resources:
The Laidback Gardener
John Boy Farms
https://garlicseed.ca/pages/growing-garlic-in-alberta
Thank You
Thank you to the Garden Angels for keeping the garden watered during this hot summer! Your sweat equity is much appreciated.
Upcoming Events
Calgary Horticulture – CalHort has ongoing information and education sessions. You can find them here at their Events Calendar
Common Ground in part of Garden On a coalition of South Central Community Gardens. The next installment is at our garden (in-person if permitted; virtually if not)
On Tuesday July 20, 2021 from 7-9pm join Janet Melrose for “How’s the Garden Growing” Q&A. More information and tickets can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/garden-on-how-is-your-garden-growing-tickets-136230470003?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
Safety
Common Ground is a public space. We occasionally have vandalism in our garden. If you see vandalism, report it to hellocggs@gmail.com.
If you find drug paraphernalia in the garden please contact the police non-emergency line (403-266-1234) or DOAP Needle Response Team (403-796-7388). The DOAP Needle Response Team has a trained crew that will come to collect used needles and other items on public and private property.
Covid-19 continues to require that gardeners observe provincial health protocols. Use of garden gloves, hand hygiene on high touch areas (taps, hose nozzles, locks and shed tools) is encouraged and please have someone else help if you are feeling unwell.
Communication
Members wishing to send information for list-wide distribution can send an email to plots@cggs.ca which will be forwarded to all members. Questions, comments and concerns in and about the garden can also be sent to hellocggs@gmail.com
Common Ground Garden Society 