MCG's “Big Dig”
| April 30, 2011 |
Maplebrook Park in June
The ultimate event in hands-on gardening education! Don’t miss it!
Saturday, April 30th, 10 a.m.–12 noon
Casual picnic lunch to follow.
We’re having a “Cultivating Our Gardeners”
event at Maplebrook Park. Many people join our club because they want to learn about gardening. Well, we’re going to be doing some teaching. We’ll teach: plant identification, digging, dividing and potting local perennials, all while beautifying one of our largest public gardens and socializing with other gardeners. The event will be held at Maplebrook Park, and the results of our lessons will benefit the 2011 plant sale. Come with some your small gardening tools and long-handled shovels. A sharp knife would also be helpful.
Bring a sandwich and folding chair or blanket and join us for our post-dig, casual picnic lunch in the park. Hospitality will provide beverages and dessert.
Rain date will be May 1st, same time.
Plant Sale Planning Meeting
| March 27, 2011 |
Photo courtesy of Flickr: Andrea_44
There will be a planning meeting for the plant sale held this Sunday, March 27. Meet at La Matina at 11:30 for some coffee and chat. Afterward we can head over to the pruning demo.
You’ve got ideas and we need them! If you’d like to be involved in MCG’s only fundraising event, and all that it entails—the planning, collecting, organizing, watering, digging and other fun stuff only gardeners can truly appreciate, please come by. We need all hands on deck! If you aren’t able to come to the meeting but would like to help please email or call me and I’ll keep you updated on what is going on.
Composting Info from the Maynard Board of Health
Composting is a great way to recycle our organic “waste” into a beneficial soil amendment for our yards and gardens. Composting at home can also help reduce methane production at landfills. Using the compost in our landscapes helps store carbon in the soil instead of releasing it to the atmosphere. Compost creates healthy soil, reducing or eliminating the need for fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation. We can reduce our trash by 50 percent or more by composting leaves, grass clippings, garden debris, fruit peels, vegetable scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds, egg shells, paper towels, napkins and even paper bags.
It’s easy to make compost, and the Town of Maynard makes it even easier by offering rodent-resistant home composting bins for $35.00, over 50% off the retail price. To obtain a discounted compost bin, please contact or visit the Maynard Board of Health office.
The Board of Health sells The Earth Machine which has a capacity of 11 cubic feet, the equivalent of about 4 bags of leaves. It has a sliding door at the bottom for removing compost and a locking lid. It is made from 50% post-consumer recycled plastic.
The compost bins help hold in heat and moisture, keep animals out, and look more attractive than open compost heaps. Organic material will start to turn to compost in the bins in 3 to 6 months. Compost, known as “black gold” to gardeners, replenishes nutrients in the soil, helps retain moisture, makes the soil easy to work, and helps plants resist disease. Compost makes plants healthy so they can overcome adverse conditions without pesticides or chemical fertilizers.
Fill your compost bin using three parts “brown” material and one part “green” material. This provides food for the compost organisms in a recipe that will not create odors. “Brown” ingredients include leaves, straw, dried grass clippings, wood chips, sawdust, pine needles, and paper products such as paper towels, napkins, bags, plates, coffee filters, tissue and newspaper. “Green” materials include fresh grass clippings, weeds, fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells, manure, and seaweed. Make sure the materials are damp as you build the pile, especially the “browns.” As you build the pile, sprinkle on several shovelfuls of rich garden soil or finished compost after every 12” of fresh material.
Leaves are an important ingredient of a compost pile. Without them, a compost pile may become too wet and create odors. If you have leaves available, use them to start your compost heap and save the rest to add during the summer. Compostable food scraps and grass clippings should be buried under about 6″ of leaves, where they will decompose odorlessly. If leaves are in short supply, add plenty of paper towels, napkins and torn up paper bags to provide the necessary carbon, and always bury your food scraps under this material.
Most of the composting work is done by soil organisms that convert organic material to humus. They need oxygen, just as we do. Lack of oxygen will slow down the composting process and cause odors. Turn your pile, fluff it with a hoe or turning tool, or build air passages into the pile to keep your compost pile aerobic and odor-free. Or use a compost bin that allows air to penetrate the pile.
In about three months, the material will start to turn to compost. The material at the bottom of the pile will be ready first. As more time goes by, the level of compost in the pile will rise until it is easy to access just below the surface. You will know your compost is ready to use when it looks like rich, brown soil and no longer resembles the original materials.
Compost benefits all plants, and there are many different ways to use it. Add a handful of compost to each transplant hole when planting seedlings or potted plants. Spread another handful on the surface of the soil around the newly planted seedling, making sure that the compost is not touching the stem or trunk of the plant. Spread compost as a mulch around perennials, shrubs and other existing plantings. If you are planting seeds, apply one-half to three inches of compost and mix it in with the top four inches of soil in the seedbed. To rejuvenate lawns, screen your compost using ½” screening.
Sprinkle the screened compost on the lawn about ¼” deep. Screened compost is also excellent for reseeding lawns. Sprinkle it ½” deep over the bare spots and distribute new grass seed on top. You can even make excellent potting soil with compost by mixing equal parts compost, sand and loam.
For additional information, please visit the Maynard Board of Health office where composting brochures are available.
Pruning Demonstration
| March 27, 2011 |
Pruning Demonstration by Carl Cathcart at 1 PM. Carl is a consulting Arborist and a member of the American Society of Arboriculture. He will give a short informative talk followed by pruning demonstrations on the shrubs at the library and at the Maplebrook Park garden.
Flickr: galdo trouchky
Garden Club Potluck Brunch
| March 19, 2011 |
This is a Members-only event. Lots of gardeners, great food and talking to welcome the season of Spring. Watch for specific information about location and time in the monthly newsletter.
Flickr: rthsmshr
Celebrating Maynard
| March 5, 2011 |
A talk and interactive discussion with Bill Reed, an internationally recognized proponent and practitioner of community sustainability. What do we love about Maynard? What is the value in loving the place we live in? How can we build on our commitment to the place called Maynard to enhance its vitality and its inherent sustainability to solve the problems of the 21st century?
Reed will address our questions, stimulate our thinking and perhaps inspire us in our various roles in the community. MCG is a co-sponsor of this event which is being held at the Maynard Public Library and is open to the public.
Information on event start time coming soon.