Urban Gardening Challenges

Urban gardening is not without its challenges. Some that we've been facing and implementing solutions to are:

• Groundhogs! Furry and cute but such nuisances in our garden! A family of groundhogs lives underneath the shed outside the garden fence and regularly feeds on our crops. Our peas, lettuce, cabbages and many of our cucumbers were demolished quickly by these critters. The young groundhog newly kicked out of its parent's den moved in underneath our composter inside the garden fence.
  

• Solution: We have tried so many things! Pinwheels, scarecrow, bells on the fence, blood meal, dog hair, and finally a live trap awaits the groundhog this very evening. Fingers crossed!

• People! Passersby have stolen some of our bamboo poles used to stake our tomatoes, ripping the plants out in the process. Our first ripe tomato was also stolen from the vine. This is saddening to me and the youth who work so incredibly hard to make this garden thrive.

• Solution: painted sign indicating the food is grown by youth in the community for the food banks. More community awareness would help as well.
  

• Pests! (insect pests this time): Japanese beetles have been eating some of our basil (they like the purple kinds the best). They seem to have disappeared over the past week. Cucumber beetles have been infesting our curcurbits (cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins) for the past 2 weeks. The young larvae feed on the stems and roots of plants in spring, then emerge as adults, feeding on the leaves and fruit. These insects can produce a bacteria when they eat the plants and cause what's called bacterial wilt on the plant.

• Solution: Daily manual squashing of the cucumber beetles in the mornings to reduce the population. Removal of leaves affected by bacterial wilt. The beetles are more lethargic in the mornings and cannot fly away as quickly with the morning dew on their wings. Controlling the population of beetles in turn controls the bacterial wilt.

 

Bacterial wilt on the stem of a pumpkin plant

 

Yellow and black striped cucumber beetles and bees on a pumpkin flower

Despite the challenges, the garden is a rewarding place. A place where ideas become reality, and growth is visible and exciting. A place of constant learning. The youth who have been coming out regularly to volunteer, even in the rain, have been absolutely wonderful and the garden could not run without their devoted efforts.

Busy Bees in June & July

It is time for a garden update! The garden has been very busy. We are now harvesting plenty of fresh vegetables for local food banks and youth from the community are learning a lot about how to grow vegetables and herbs organically.

Here's an update of what's been happening in the Emery garden since June:

Early to mid June: We transplanted hundreds of seedlings! Tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, okra, onions, zucchini and more. Many more crops were direct seeded including watermelons, winter and summer squash, beans, carrots and beets. It took us a while to get this done as we had to wait until the beds were a little less wet after all of that spring rain we received in order to prepare the beds. Ideally seedlings could be planted a month or so earlier.

The grade 9 art class created beautiful painted signs and some wire sculptures for the garden. The sculptures have been installed and the signs will be put up in late August.

Okra

July & August (so far): We've been caring for our plants and ensuring they grow strong and healthy. Weekly tasks include: suckering tomatoes and cucumbers - this involves pinching off the growth at the nodes of the plants to direct the plant's energy into producing fruit. Staking tomatoes and building cucumber trellises. Pinching off basil flowers to help them flourish (we have a lot of basil!), and dead heading marigold flowers are weekly garden tasks which help the plants grow well and keep the garden looking good.

 

Tomatoes, Basil & Marigolds grow well together

 Italian Large Leaf & Corsican Basil amongst sweet & hot peppers

Regular weeding using hands and hoes helps our crops grow -  less competition for light, water, space and nutrients. The uprooted weeds left on the soil's surface to bake in the hot sun break down and become valuable organic matter for the soil.

 Provider Bush Beans will be producing beans soon!

Team garden walks allow the students to take a close look at the garden to see what needs weeding, watering, harvesting and to assess if there are any problems such as disease or pests.

The last of the mulching of garden paths was completed in late July/Early August.

Zucchini plants and freshly mulched pathways

We've been preparing beds (turning over and loosening soil with shovels and garden forks) all throughout June, July and into August. We've seeded lengthy beds of carrots, beets, and turnips for fall harvest.

 Rows of Little Finger Carrots with tomatoes in background

Companion planting is a technique practiced in the garden. Some companion plantings we've experimented with are: 3 sisters (corn, beans, squash), Onions & Cucumbers, Onions/Lettuce/Carrots, Tomatoes & Basil, Peppers/Okra/Basil, Beets & Dill, Eggplants & Potatoes, Sunflowers & Cucumbers, Kohlrabi/Turnip/Dill.

Cucumbers grow up the Sunflower stalks

Corn, Pole Beans, & Pumpkins grow as a trio

We've been harvesting a variety of vegetables and herbs once or twice per week since early July, including:
Basil, Mint, Chives, Dill, Parsley, Oregano,
Radish, Swiss Chard, Carrots, Beets, Turnip, Collards, Green Onions,
Okra, Zucchini, Cucumber, and our first tomatoes and purple jalapeno peppers this week!
Produce has been donated to the local Ontario Vegetarian Food Bank, as well as North York Harvest Food Bank.

Weighing, cooling and packing up the veggies to take to the food bank

 The youth volunteers and paid student workers at the Emery garden are truly amazing! They make the garden run and work extremely hard to grow this food for the food bank through the PACT Grow to Learn Urban Agriculture Program. Congratulations should go to them for all of their efforts.

-Bonnie
Garden Coordinator