Benson Community GardenBenson, Nebraska

We asked the Douglas County Community Garden Network how they deal with late season frosts. Here are the responses we received (more coming as we get them):

I have always found that row covers help (any old sheet will do).  You can also cut off the bottoms of plastic milk or pop bottles and put those over the seedlings- kind of a terrarium effect.  Hope that helps
Beth Drickey, BS, PHR
OneWorld Community Health Centers

 

The important thing to remember is that certain vegetables can handle frosts and snow just fine.  These would be cool season crops like brussel sprouts, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and radishes.  For these vegetables, the cold weather actually enhances their flavor.

Lettuce and spinach can handle some cold temperatures—to about 28 degrees F.

Warm season vegetables like tomatoes and peppers will need to be covered.

Kathleen Cue

Lifelong gardener (and all-around nice guy) Doug Pagel put together our “shopping list” of tools we’ll need to have on hand for the community gardeners. Because the Garden is completely dependent on the generosity of individuals and organizations, please consider helping us by donating one of the following:

TOOLS

Gravel shovels (curves to a point, not a flat shovel blade; for digging up beds, turning compost, etc.)

Long-handled, flat-bladed spades (these are for digging up beds in the Spring and removing sod)

Long-handled 5 or 6 pronged forks (for turning compost piles, Fall cleanup of beds, etc.)

D-handled spading forks (some folks call these potato forks; great for digging up plants, working beds, mixing in compost, dividing plant roots, etc.)

Garden rakes (for smoothing dirt and leveling beds after working them up)

Leaf rakes (for Spring and Fall clean up and maybe having a team go to some community neighbors places in the fall to harvest leaves for the compost bins!)

String & stakes (for marking rows in beds, string/twine can be used to tie up & support plants, etc.)

Hoes

SMALL HAND TOOLS:

Hand trowels (hand shovels for planting transplants, etc.)

Hand 3-pronged cultivators (not long handled kind; for weeding in between plants in beds and loosening soil)

Water cans (these can be used to mix up compost teas and use on various plantings; can be used when someone is using the hose or to reach inaccessible places that we may not have hose to reach)

Garden hose lengths (can’t remember, do you have 2 tanks? If 2, then two lengths of hose to reach any part of the garden. These are also needed to water dry spots in the compost bins when turning them.)

Kneeling pads (for those who like to “get down” in the garden beside their beds and work without getting their knees all dirty or to keep them from getting sore. Get them big enough to fit both knees on them.)

Wheelbarrows (for the size of the garden, I would get 2 at about at least the 5 cubic feet size; they’re deep enough to haul large bulky loads like leaves, & yet haul lots of compost to fill beds or add amendments)

Hose accessories -

Nozzle for end (once you have the hose extended out to beds, you don’t have run back up the hill and shut it off quicklyc. Good for spraying off tools and wheelbarrows too.)

Splitter for hose (they have attachments for your hosebib that screws on enabling you to have 2 hoses off of one bib. You can water with 2 hoses at once.)

Watering wands with shut off valves (I love my wand with a shut-off valve! I can be working on planting, then right afterward water everything, shut off the water right there and don’t have to run back and shut off the faucet. Will also save water from tanks.)

OR… become a FOUNDING SPONSOR by clicking HERE!

The Douglas County Health Department kindly spearheaded and compiled their long-awaited “toolkit” – a resource for those interested in starting a community garden. We’d been hearing about it for a long time, and began to think it may be mythological like unicorns or El Chupacabra. But – as promised – this afternoon it was released on their website …and it’s jam packed with information, answering many of our questions.

The PDF on their website it about 8 megs. Click HERE to download it.

We took the liberty of downloading it, running some PDF optimization (file-crunching) software on it and uploaded it to our servers. If you’d like a <3 meg version of it, click HERE.

Many thanks to Mary, Patty and Connie at the DCHD for taking the time to put this document together!