Planning
for your cool weather garden may seem premature, with highs still in
the 90s, but consider two good reasons to beginning a plan now on paper:
#1, it's blasted hot.
Even avid enthusiasts are avoiding the sun, aware this isn't the time
to trifle about outdoors. Providing sufficient water for thirsty plants
is plenty of energy already spent in the garden each day. There's no
need to watch and wait while planted fruits and veggies ripen.
And #2,
for those who expect to grow cool season varieties, or make changes for
next year's garden, the best success comes with a well-considered
strategy. (Next week's newsletter will have a link to GG's
LoveYourLeaves schedule for transitioning through August and September.
Get thinking now, and get growing when you're ready!)
To get
started, jot down a list of tasks to accomplish and begin gathering
supplies to make the most of your efforts and resources. If you're not
sure of the timely tasks or changes that need to be made, ask yourself
"What does my garden need?" After you discover what, then ask "When?".
Presto! Like
magic, the list of tasks and changes appears on your page, offering a
clear path to your improved or ideal gardening space. While there's no
need yet to start planting seeds, reflections on your current plot
makes for a better one next year, or next season. Need more information
right away?
Contact GardenersGuild with questions.
AT THE Hq: Members save big $ for one more day.
Stay cool on Friday the 31st & fund fall projects @GG while you save 40% on all supplies and decor.
What's on sale? Garden
totes and gloves, hand tools and long-handled too, birdhouses, books,
bird feeders and yard stakes, watering cans, pottery, platters, plates
and bowls, cutting boards, dishtowels, tea pots and storage jars,
glassware, lanterns and candles, kids tools and learning toys -- your
favorites! (Exempt from discounts: soil, plants and those pieces from
local artisans.)
Bring a friend and both save 50%. Sale ends Friday, July 31st.
EVENTS: Stay tuned, for free stuff and more!Expect exciting new modifications
to membership benefits and services at GardenersGuild. Through August,
network members will be finalizing new strategies for a more
sustainable organization. The focus is to better serve members and
extend outreach and education to the community:
+ Get access to lower prices and great quality, on demand, with the launch of
a member supply club. It will offer the best choices at a discount for our extreme Albuquerque habitat.
+
Share the healthy habitat message
with schools, your neighbors or the larger community using educational
materials developed in-house by GardenersGuild, and printed for local
conditions.
+ Easier ways to
participate in the discussion, designed for the needs of this diverse membership!
In
September, GG will launch these expanded services and informational
materials resulting in a better support structure for the group and
those creating positive change in a city environment.What's free at the Hq? All kinds of goodies for your garden, through the coming month.
Beginning
August 4th, pick-up shell flower and mosquito fish for your pond or
water feature. For composting cultivators, fill a container with worms
for free from the demo bin, which is pleasantly overpopulated. For
people who propagate, procure a pound of earthworm castings, plastic
pots for seed-starting, and all at no extra cost. Bring your extra
pots, or other unused material, if you have them... grower and member,
Peggy, is looking specifically for 1 gallon pots.
While supplies last! If possible, BYOPB. (bring your own plastic bag!)Watch newsletters for week by week developments and new free stuff each week.
LYL: neem, the bug-getter with gustoNeem
is a remarkable plant with which many of you are familiar. However,
careful testing in recent years has revealed that neem oil, as a pest
management solution, offers benefits in addition to its inherent safety
features.
Available in concentrate,
neem is an easy-to-apply
remedy that not only repels bugs, but also strengthens a plant's immune
system and reduces their susceptibility to pest attacks. Neem has
little, if any, negative implications in a habitat garden and will
target the most annoying bad bugs. "When bugs feed on plants with a
coating of neem solution, they will quickly stop eating, and will also
stop growing and reproducing." Long-term, pest management becomes even
easier with a regular and light application of neem as maintenance
throughout the year.
Insect pests which neem will control: Leaf-eating beetles, Cabbage caterpillars, Leaf-miners
Brown leaf-hoppers, adult grasshoppers, Greenfly (aphids)
Mealy-bugs, Onion thrips, Young scale insects, whitefly,
Surprisingly, Neem is shown to repel termites and most species of ants for over 1 month
Sourced in part from http://www.iirr.org/book.htm -- Sustainable Agriculture Extension Manual
If other things are bugging you, drop by Gardeners'Guild to get the scoop on your droop.
Make the most of your growing activities with Gardeners'Guild new group efforts: Submit an original article and/or photographs for print in the new area habitat magazine
Save money for your community, school or ecology project with GG's new buying group.
Collaborate in community/member booth at farmers'market for September and October.
Help in planning a neighborhood-wide October harvest and habitat festival. Contact the Hq now.
Explore your outer spaces. Express your ideas. Evolve through positive change.4012 Central SE ABQ NM 87108 505.268.2719 info@gardenersguild.org