T-Shirt Poll
Dessert Night
| January 22, 2010 |
Save the date and plan to join us at 7 pm on Friday, January 22 for Dessert Night (contact us [Email address: maynardgardeners #AT# gmail.com - replace #AT# with @ ] for location). This is a great opportunity to invite friends who might like to join MCG to come and meet some of the members. There are always lots of delicious desserts and other savories. Bring a small dessert or snack and your favorite garden story to share.
Composting with Worms
Happy Earth Day! Here are thirteen ways gardeners can help the environment. Composting is definitely on the list, and this article gives an overview of one type of composting that’s easy to do in small spaces, even indoors, all year long.
Vermicomposting is the practice of recycling organic matter by feeding it to worms. Not all worms can be used for vermicomposting; the most commonly used worm is Eisenia foetida, aka the red wriggler. These worms can eat up to 50% of their own body weight in organic matter per day and double their population every 3 to 4 months. Worm compost is rich in nutrients and microorganisms and makes a great fertilizer for house and garden plants.
There are lots of good reasons to compost with worms:
- It’s easy
- It’s fun
- Worm bins take up very little space
- It can be done indoors, so even people without yards can do it
- It can be done year-round
- It diverts waste from landfills, thus helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Vermicomposting in Six Easy Steps
- Acquire a bin. Instructions for purchasing or building your own can be found at http://tinyurl.com/wormbin (PDF).
- Prepare the bedding. Instead of soil, composting red worms live in moist newspaper bedding. Like soil, newspaper strips provide air, water, and food for the worms.
- Using about 50 pages, tear newspaper into 1/2″ to 1″ strips. Avoid using colored print, which may be toxic to the worms. Place newspaper strips into a large plastic garbage bag or container. Add water until bedding feels like a damp sponge, moist but not dripping. Add dry strips if it gets too wet.
- Add the strips to the bin, making sure bedding is fluffy (not packed down) to provide air for the worms. Bin should be 3/4 full of damp newspaper strips.
- Sprinkle 2-4 cups of soil in bin, which introduces beneficial microorganisms. Gritty soil particles also aids the worms’ digestive process. Potting soil or soil from outdoors is fine.
Add your worms. Special composting worms can be purchased online or at some specialty stores. A pound of worms is plenty to start with for the average family.- Feed the worms. A balanced diet includes fruit and vegetable scraps that would normally be thrown away (such as peels, rinds, and cores) along with eggshells (crushed), tea bags, coffee grinds and filters, breads/grains/cereals, and wood ash from the fireplace (in small amounts). Limit the amount of citrus fruits and onion skins that you place in the bin. Do not add meats, bones, oils, or dairy products.
- Bury food scraps in the bin. Lift up bedding, add food scraps, then cover food with bedding.
- To help the worms eat your scraps more quickly, cut into small pieces—the smaller, the better.
- Measure the amount of food. For a new bin, start with just one pound. After a week or so, you can start feeding worms approximately 3 times their weight per week.
- Monitor the bin every week to see if the worms are eating all the food. Adjust feeding levels accordingly.
Cover the worms. Place a full sheet of dry newspaper, burlap, or cardboard on top of the bedding. This will help maintain the moisture balance, keep any possible odors in the bin, and help prevent fruit flies from making a home in the bin. Replace this sheet frequently if fruit flies are present, or if bin gets too wet. Cover the bin with a lid made of plastic, plywood or cloth. Leave the lid ajar or drill holes into the bin so the worms get some air. Place the bin away from windows and heaters, out of the elements, ideally where the temperature stays between 60-80°F.- Keep worms happy! Feed them about once a week. If bedding dries up, spray with water. If bedding gets too wet, add dry newspaper strips. Fluff up bedding once a week so the worms get enough air.
15th Anniversary Garden Tour & Tea
| June 19, 2010 |
Members and guests only. Tour some of our longest-running members’ gardens, followed by a dessert/tea potluck! Help us celebrate 15 years of making Maynard more beautiful together.
Ruah Donnelly: Plant Hunting (Open to the Public)
| May 11, 2010 |
This free speaker event will feature Ruah Donnelly discussing plant hunting in the Northeast! The lecture will be held at the Maynard Public Library, 55 Nason Street, and is open to the public.
Topics may include:
- Growers and suppliers in New England offering unusual locally grown plants that will thrive in your garden.
- Specialty nurseries supplying beds and borders, container gardens, rock gardens, grass collections, ponds, woodlands, seashore gardens, shrubberies, and conservatories.
- Picturesque New England nurseries that are destinations in themselves, from family farms to fashionable greenhouses.
- Regional hybridizers of distinctive daylilies, hostas, iris, azaleas, orchids, and other horticultural treasures.
- Nursery locations, Web sites, e-mail addresses, and ordering information; maps and clear directions
- Nearby attractions, from historic sites and roadside diners to local destinations for gardeners
- A comprehensive index to plant sources in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
- A gardener’s guide to locating exotic annuals, dazzling perennials, native wildflowers, romantic roses, contorted conifers, medicinal herbs, rare bulbs, heirloom seeds, plant-hunters’ trophies, and the newest hybrids for gardens in New England.
Ruah Donnelly is a lawyer, garden writer, and well-known lecturer on the pleasures of plant-hunting. She is the author of The Adventurous Gardener: Where to Buy the Best Plants in New England, winner of a 2001 Quill & Trowel Book Award from the Garden Writers’ Association of America.
Dessert Night
| February 26, 2010 |
Another dessert night to banish the winter blahs… plus we’ll do some seed swapping! Members only.
Spring Brunch Potluck
| March 20, 2010 |
Our annual spring brunch potluck is the much-anticipated event where we vote in our officers and committee chairs for the year and celebrate the exciting start of another gardening season (plus eat a lot of yummy brunch food!). Members only.
Plant Sale
| May 22, 2010 |
Our annual plant sale takes place near the corner of Maple and Summer, behind MapleBrook Park.
In addition to our usual selection of locally grown perennials, we will also have some rarer perennials from a local grower, annual baskets, and herbs. Our prices are lower than you’ll find at any garden center, but the quality is high. As usual, volunteer advisors will be available to help you pick the right plants for your garden.
Sorry, no early birds!
Plant a Row for the Hungry in 2010
Sustainable Gardening Tour and Lunch: Beaver Lodge
| May 23, 2010 |
Fee: $25 (members and their guests)/$50 (non-members)
Limited to 25 participants
Contact us if you would like to sign up.