what is this?

can anyone identify this plant/vine for me? it has flowers simular to zuchinni flowers and it has a small gourd that is round and smooth. it volunteered over a woodpile over the last month in a half. maybe pumpkin? let me know your thoughts.

Fall Gardening

How many of you are planning on doing a fall garden? Did you even know you could do a second season garden? The general rule of thumb I believe is to plant 6 weeks before the first anticipated frost and here in central Ohio the first frost is usually in the first week of October putting your planting date in the third week of August. So plenty of time to buy seeds and do any prep work you want to do! The following is a list of plants that you can put into your fall garden.


lettuces
spinach
peas
cabbage
carrots *
leeks *
beets
garlic **
kale
radishes


* These need planted rather soon because they have a much longer growing time - 70ish days or so.
**Garlic is typically planted in october, winterized (put straw on top of them), and harvested in late june the following summer. Home grown garlic is worth the effort though!

Stressed Potted Plants

(concept can be applied to the garden too)

Are your potted plants drying out too quickly in the hot weather?

There's a solution to this! Perhaps you have seen Aqua Globes advertised on Tv; these are hand-blown glass ornaments that can water your plants up to two weeks. These are available in boxes of two at Garden Ridge for 9.99 (or four for $14.99 online plus $7.95 shipping & handling).

However, you can accomplish the same thing by recyling used, individual-size, plastic, water bottles or clean glass pop bottles. Fill a bottle with rain or tap** water, invert, and stick into the soil beside the plant. The water will slowly drip into the soil-- creating less soil erosion than handwatering, and allowing the plant roots to absorb the water you are providing.

• Though the bottles can be simply inverted and their noses (tops) stuck in the soil, some people prefer to purchase a spike that the bottle can screw into; this helps stabilize the bottles. (I have not seen these available, but online, it is mentioned that Harbor Freight carried them at one time).
• Some people just put the bottles in the soil. However, others cut the round bottoms off the bottles so they can easily add more water as needed. I prefer to leave the bottoms on because on very hot days- like we've been having lately- there is no evaporation of water inside the bottle.

You can also apply this same concept to your garden plants by using 2-liter soda/pop bottles. For more information and different versions of pop bottle "irrigation", click here, 2, 3, 4.

- - - - - -

** Filling the bottle with water and allowing it to sit at room temperature for 24 hours makes the water better for your plants. See a brief explanation of city water & plants here.

OSU TO HOST MASTER GARDENER FIELD DAY JULY 20

See new ways to grow your own food at Ohio State’s annual Master Gardener Field Day, from noon-3 p.m. Sunday (7/20) at the Franklin County Master Gardener Vegetable Varieties Trial Garden, part of OSU's Waterman Agriculture and Natural Resources Lab, 2490 Carmack Road. Enjoy talks, tours, demonstrations on growing backyard vegetables and more. Admission is free and open to the public. Enter at the farm’s Kenny Road entrance, one-half mile north of Lane Avenue. OSU Extension and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center are the sponsors. Contact: Annette Swanberg, 529-9773

reminder

Garden Club Meeting Sunday evening!
Instead of a guest speak we are going to have a potluck.
Bring something made from your garden
or locally grown!
*but we're not picky, anything is fine!*

6 pm @ Whetstone Park
if it is raining 619 Blenheim
aka my house

don't forget

Don't forget, if you are interested in donating some of your garden to the local food pantry, bring it on sunday and jared boyd or i will take care of it. and if you want to bring more than what your garden produces, by all means fill up a bag from the grocery store! :)