A sign at a roadside produce stand in Manhattan, NYC

Garden Fun in "the D"

Every Wednesday Cultivating Community heads to Detroit to volunteer with Focus Hope and Summer in the City. We run gardening activities for a summer day camp, and help tend a community garden. The kids love getting their hands dirty and learning about plants!

Cori getting the 'Focused Hands Garden' ready for planting

Strawberry picking!

Planting!

Weeding!

Learning about plant parts and eating cherries

The entire crew; each camper has a high school buddy from Summer in the City 

The girls garden vs. ...

the boys garden.

Watermelon in the rain!

Fun in the garden with flying children!

If you are interested in volunteering, please email us at mbgna.cc@umich.edu, all are welcome!

Blueberry Picking

It is a good year for blueberries! The season is few weeks early this summer, and the picking is good at the Dexter Blueberry Farm.

The branches are heavy with sweet, sweet berries!

6.5 lbs of fresh blueberries in the bucket, 4.5 lbs of fresh blueberries in my stomach!

 The happy sun-kissed crew, can you spot the blue teeth?

We will be going blueberry picking again soon, email us at mbgna.cc@umich.edu for more info!

Sweet, sweet summertime at the Ginsberg Garden

                 

Allyson and Marissa show off their muscles while turning compost

Laurie and Serina with freshly harvested kohlrabis

Sweet sun tea with raspberries and stevia from the garden

Coriander ready for harvesting. Coriander is the dried seeds of the cilantro plant, and is used as a spice in many dishes.

Our first cucumber harvest! Yum!

Watch our veggies grow!

   

Marigolds and calendulas don't just look pretty, they also help repel pests from the garden!

Check out our new plant labels

This cucumber is making a run for it!

Dancing for Rain

We are in the middle of one of the worst droughts to hit Michigan in decades. Farmers in the area have been struggling to keep their crops alive with almost no rain and record high temperatures. As the national news highlights the rising corn and soybean prices, local vegetable and fruit farmers have been struggling too, and so has the Ginsberg Garden. But, thanks to our new drip irrigation system, our plants will be much happier!

Drip irrigation is great for gardens, even when drought is not a concern. The drip hosing soaks the soil slowly and at the soil line, which helps prevent disease and helps out the root systems of our plants. When watering from above with a hose, the water evaporates more readily and does not soak into the ground as deeply. Also, watering the leaves of plants (especially when using city water) can cause fungal diseases to develop. 

Right now, we have to use tap water from the Ginsberg Center for the drip hosing. But in the future, we hope to be able to use our rain barrels instead!

                                      

The water passes from a normal hose, through a pressure regulator and screen, then into the drip hosing.

Testing the drip hosing!

Thirsty cabbages are loving their new water source.

Fried Okra!

Our miraculous okra plants have survived aphid infestation, neglect, and drought. But sure enough, they produced lots of bright green and prickly okra pods! So we decided to try out a traditional Southern dish, Fried Okra.

Okra plants

Step One: harvest okra pods

Step two: cut up okra

Step three: dunk okra slices into buttermilk. Then roll in a mixture of corn meal, flour, and spices.

Step four: fry in lots of vegetable oil. The true Southern way is to fry in bacon drippings, but we weren't up to that challenge.

Step five: Yum! Enjoy some good ol' fried okra in the garden!

Summer arrives at the Ginsberg Garden

The Ginsberg Garden gets a make-over with straw rows and tomato trellises.

Jen and Liz install a fence around our hoophouse plot.

The sweet potatoes-in-a-box experiment is rocking out!

Tomato Staking

We experimented with a few tomato staking methods this year. One A-frame trellis, a teepee, a stake and weave system, and some sturdy individual stakes. The entire time we were drilling holes and pounding in the stakes, our mouths were watering with thoughts of fresh salsa, bruschetta, and tomato sandwiches! 

To construct this A frame trellis, we drilled holes in bamboo poles and then used zip ties and twine to secure the structure. Then, we then looped twine from the bottom of each plant, weaved it around the stem, and tied the twine to the top bar. 

Check out these tomatoes, loving the support from their new trellis!



Pest Control 

To ward off the aphids, earwigs, flea beetles, and cabbage worms that have been munching on our veggies, we have been experimenting with some natural pest control methods. We concocted a spray of water, Dr. Bronner's castile soap, and cayenne pepper; both soap and cayenne are toxic to insects. We also installed some earwig traps: yogurt containers with soy sauce and oil. The soy sauce attracts the bugs, and the oil traps them.

A damaged pac choi,with earwig trap behind it

Recent Harvests

Yum!

We harvested from our renegade chamomile plant. All of these flowers are now drying in my closet. Once dried we will have a tea-making workshop! Chamomile tea has been used for thousands of years to help with sleeplessness, anxiety, and upset stomachs.

If you are strolling down Hill Street make sure to stop by the Ginsberg Garden for a delicious raspberry snack!