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Community gardens are sprouting up around the city

There’s a new crop of farmers around Tulsa. These community gardeners
aren’t interested in making a profit, but rather working the land
together to share the fruits of their labor.

Community gardening has long been popular, and often necessary, in
larger cities or urban areas where space is hard to come by. The idea is
beginning to catch on in smaller cities, including Tulsa, with people
who don’t have time to manage a backyard garden, don’t have the space to
start a garden or with those who simply enjoy the process of gardening
with others.

Demalda Newsome of Newsome Community Farms has four community gardens
around Tulsa, including one at Neighbor for Neighbor at 505 E. 36th St.
North and another at her home and site of the North Tulsa Farmers’
Market at 2620 E. 56th St. North.

“People should know how to grow their own food. It’s a basic necessity
that can’t be taken away from you,” Newsome said.

Newsome has made it her mission to open her gardens to low-income
families, who she believes will benefit not only from the harvest, but
from learning how to garden so they can pass it on to friends and family.

She has taken advantage of several grant opportunities that have
provided the funds to keep her community gardens going, and has brought
in funding to start two new community gardens in the fall.

Those new gardens are planned for Alcott Elementary and the Deborah
Brown Community School, where, Newsome said children will be hands-on in
the project from the beginning — from planting seeds, taking care of
the seedlings and weeding, to harvesting the fruits and vegetables.

“It’s a value for life, and something they can pass on to generation
after generation,” Newsome said.

Many of those who come to community gardens do not have farming or
gardening backgros.

In fact, some of the students at a new community garden on the
University of Tulsa campus had never even dug in the dirt before
becoming full-fledged gardeners in their space around Fifth Street and
Harvard Avenue.

TU student Chelsea Coleman knew a proposal for a community garden from a
novice gardener like herself might be a hard sell to university
officials, but her enthusiasm and ability to project how much interest
it would generate among students ensured a piece of university-owned land.

In working with TU, Coleman and other students developed a 15-year plan
to keep the garden going, and to extend its presence into the
surrounding community.

It also helped that the students had guidance, and plant donations, from
local farmers, including Emily Oakley and Mike Appel of Three Springs
Farms.

At 9 a.m. on Saturdays and throughout the week, TU students work in the
garden. The reward comes when their work is done, and they all take as
many vegetables as they like. At times when there is an abundance of a
particular crop, the students give away some of their produce. This
summer, the students picked the entire crop of onions and donated it to
Food for Thought for a dinner for the homeless.

Though it’s mostly TU students who are part of the garden, Coleman said
anyone in the area is welcome.

“We want community-wide participation. There are no separate plots –
it’s all taken care of communally,” Coleman said.

Some of Newsome’s gardens, including the garden at Neighbor for
Neighbor, serve specific purposes. At Neighbor for Neighbor, the garden
is a source for fresh vegetables in addition to the groceries already
received from the food pantry. Also, those who have taken loans from
Neighbor for Neighbor can pay off those loans by working in the
community garden.

“Repaying their loans in exchange for working in the garden is the best
choice for some,” said Anna Mowry, community projects coordinator for
Neighbor for Neighbor. “When you plant a tomato plant, you’re helping in
a number of ways — for the garden, for yourself. All you have to do is
give a little of yourself.”

Newsome believes it’s important for community gardeners to understand
their larger role in the discussion of community gardens and sustainable
agriculture.

“People say ‘Why is it that I don’t have food?’ when we should look at
how to grow it. Through the community garden, I want to teach people
entrepreneurial ideas like growing their food and then selling it at a
market,” she said. “We used to know how to plant our food, but somewhere
we lost that, and now we’re going to take it back.”

For many gardeners, the garden actually begins in January when the first seed catalog arrives in the mailbox. While the cold wind howls outside, we retire to a cozy chair and leaf through the catalog, carefully notating which varieties of lettuce and tomatoes to try and wishing we had the space to plant each and every flower so artfully displayed on its pages.

But have you ever wondered where your great-grandparents acquired the seeds for their gardens, before there were seed catalogs and fancy garden centers?

They saved seeds for the next year from their own gardens!

Saving seeds from your own flowers or vegetables is a wonderful way to fully experience the cycle of plant growth. It’s also much less expensive than buying seeds each spring, and seeds saved from your plants will be well suited to the peculiarities of your own garden’s growing conditions. Not only that, it’s also quite a simple process.

Save seeds only from vigorous, healthy plants. Some plant diseases may be harbored in the seed where it will then be passed on to the next generation of plants. So don’t save seeds from a plant that is obviously diseased or has struggled all season. Collect seeds from the plants that have the characteristics you desire, such as height, hardiness, early or late ripening, flavor or vigor.

It is not recommended to save seeds from hybrid plants. Hybrids are the result of crossing two genetically different parent plants, both of which have been severely inbred to concentrate the desirable characteristics. The first generation, referred to as an F1 hybrid, is superior to the parents. But succeeding generations of plants grown from seed saved from an F1 plant tend to randomly revert to the characteristics of the original inbred ancestor plants.

Plants that are not hybrids are referred to as open pollinated. Many seed catalogs will identify which of their seeds are hybrids or open pollinated. If you intend to save your own seed, always start with open pollinated seeds. Some of these may also be identified as heirloom seeds. These heirloom varieties have been passed down for generations, often saved within one family for many years before becoming available to the general public.

Cross pollination is another concern for the seed-saving gardener. Cross pollination often results in seeds which have a different genetic makeup than that of the parent plant. Pumpkins, squash and small gourds may cross pollinate with each other, resulting in seeds that will grow to produce rather picturesque fruit. Sweet corn will cross pollinate with field corn or popcorn, and your 6-inch marigolds will cross with your neighbor’s 18-inch pompon marigolds. However, crossing will only occur within a species. Cucumbers won’t cross with squash, and cosmos won’t cross with pansies.

To avoid cross pollination, keep two varieties of the same species separated by as much space as possible. Some species, such as corn, are wind-pollinated and the pollen can travel great distances. These plants must be pollinated by hand and kept isolated from other varieties of their species. This can be done with corn, for example, by tying a small paper bag over selected ears before the silk emerges, then once the silk has appeared it is hand pollinated with pollen from the same plant or its healthy neighbors.

Seeds should be collected on a dry, sunny day. Frost doesn’t hurt most seed as long as the seed remains dry. Vegetables such as cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes should be allowed to become slightly overripe before their seeds are collected. Flower seeds and vegetable seed such as lettuce should be collected after the seedheads have become dry, but don’t wait too long, as many will shatter, meaning they’ll be dropped from the seedpod or seedhead if they remain on the plant too long.

Cucumber, squash and tomato seeds need an additional step before they are ready for storage. First the seeds must be separated from the pulp, then dried. Scoop the seeds from these vegetables, pulp and all. Place the whole mess in a container of water and give it a good stir, then let it settle a bit. The pulp will rise to the top while the seeds will sink to the bottom. Carefully pour off the pulp, and repeat the process until most of the pulp has been poured off. Then strain out the seeds and set them on newspapers to dry.

Seeds should go into storage as dry as possible. Give all seed a post-harvest drying period of at least a week, just to be sure they’re dry. Spread them out on a paper plate or newspapers in a warm area out of the sun while they dry.

It’s very important to keep the seed dry during storage. Store your dry seeds in tightly sealed jars, metal film containers, or old vitamin bottles. To save space, smaller quantities of several varieties of seeds can be stored in separate envelopes inside a jar. A cool, but never freezing, garage, closed-off spare room or cool basement can all be good places for storing seeds. Or simply keep your sealed jars of seeds in the refrigerator. Temperatures between 32 and 41 degrees Fahrenheit are ideal.

Be sure to label your jars and envelopes so when spring comes around again you’ll know which flower seeds and vegetable seeds you’re planting, and include the date the seeds were collected. Some seeds will remain viable for several years, but most will grow best if planted right away the following spring.

Try saving some vegetable or flower seeds from your garden this year and grow them next season. This endless cycle can allow you to realize the endless joy of gardening through all the seasons and all the stages of a plant’s life.

Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown
tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and
landscape plants.  Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.com as a
great place to learn more about gardening.  Article provided by
http://gardening-articles.com  If you use this article the above links
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Article Source: Sustainable Living Articles

I found this on Garden Simply the other day. Check out the date…

“Worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it, and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine manure for grain or grass.
- The Rev. Gilbert White of Selborne, 1777

They knew, even then, they knew..