News from the Edible Demo Garden
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April 2024: The Importance of Soil Testing
The soil in the Edible Demo Garden gets a lot of attention. Compost and organic amendments are added regularly. Moisture levels are monitored, and rainwater is supplemented with drip irrigation and hand watering.
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March 2024: Making Soil for Seeds
The rain in February flooded the areas around the garden beds in the Edible Demo Garden. Volunteers were busy digging trenches to redirect the water away from the planted areas and salvaging any crops that were still productive.
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February 2024: Rotating Crops
While the rains limited some of the garden work during January, it was the perfect time to assess the condition of the garden beds and plan for the spring and summer crops.
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January 2024: Planting Time for Artichokes
While artichokes may not be on every gardener’s cool season vegetable list, they are fun to grow, and December is the right time to plant them for an early spring crop.
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December 2023: Caring for the Soil
After the fall harvest was over, it was time to clean up and replenish the soil in the Edible Demo Garden. Healthy soil is fundamental to the success of the next season’s crops.
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November 2023: The Versatile Eggplant
There is always room for eggplant in the summer Edible Demo Garden. It’s an attractive well-behaved plant that doesn’t sprawl or climb and it thrives in...
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October 2023: An Abundance of Squash
The summer harvest was in full swing in the Edible Demo Garden in September. Volunteers harvested beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, and lots of summer squash...
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March 2023: Straw Bale Gardening
Setting up straw bales for growing spring and summer veggies has become an annual event in the Edible Demonstration Garden. Over the years, a number of different edibles have been tried in the straw bales but the most successful have been....
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April 2023: A Year in the Garden
Located in a corner of the Indian Valley College Organic Farm and Garden, the MMG Edible Demonstration Garden was created in 2016 by Marin Master Gardeners in collaboration with IVC to build knowledge and provide hands on experience in organically growing a variety of edible plants.
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June 2023: Gardening Organically
It’s often the desire to avoid pesticides that makes organically grown produce especially appealing. Pesticides can be a health risk not only for consumers, but also for those who grow, harvest, and distribute food crops...
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September 2023: Starting With Seeds
All the annual edibles in the Demo Garden, with a few exceptions such as potatoes and garlic, started as seeds. Planting seeds is a year around activity for garden volunteers...
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August 2023: In Praise of Rhubarb
Visitors to the Edible Demo Garden often don’t recognize the large attractive plants with the big, bright green leaves growing in a corner garden bed...
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July 2023: Trellises for Plants that like to Climb
Last month volunteers worked on building permanent trellises for several garden beds. Constructed of metal stakes and heavy wire, the trellises will provide strong support for beans, peas, cucumbers, and other climbing edible plants...
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May 2023: Sharing the Garden with Birds
Despite the cool wet start to spring, it was time to plant summer veggies. The straw bales were fully seasoned and waiting for plants and the seedlings in the greenhouse were ready for planting...
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February 2023: Growing Veggies in Bags
A primary purpose for the Edible Demonstration Garden is to show how many ways fruits and vegetables can successfully be grown in Marin. Deciding what and where to plant is an ongoing endeavor requiring a combination of knowledge, experience and a “let’s try it” attitude...
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January 2023: Welcoming Worms
Finding earthworms when turning over soil in the Edible Demo Garden beds is a cause for celebration. Earthworms gravitate to improved soil, so their appearance is an indication that the soil is healthy and is providing the food and moisture that the worms like. The worms then do their job and help create the conditions that produce vigorous plants...
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December 2022: Horseradish Harvest
Several years ago, raised beds were built to provide garden space for growing spice plants. These were plants such as ginger, turmeric, and horseradish, plants not commonly found in backyard gardens...
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November 2022: Fall Garden Activity
Fall is an active time in the Edible Demo Garden. Volunteers have been busy harvesting summer produce and, simultaneously, planning and preparing for winter crops. It was time to say goodbye to the sunflowers and the last of the cucumbers and start planting cool season veggies like radishes, onions, and cabbage....
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October 2022: The Many Benefits of Growing Herbs
Herbs are among the most reliable plants in the Edible Demonstration Garden. Some garden spaces are dedicated to growing perennial herbs and other established beds accommodate annual herbs on a rotation schedule. Culinary herbs belong in an edible garden for many reasons...
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September 2022: Introducing the Honeyberry
A small bush grew unnoticed at the edge of the Edible Garden for several years until a new garden pathway was needed and the bush was in the way. Only then did a garden volunteer find a tag identifying the bush as a honeyberry. This prompted some research because few of the seasoned Master Gardeners involved knew much about honeyberries...
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August 2022: Managing Pests in the Organic Garden
The plants are lush and green, and the harvest has been plentiful in the Edible Garden in July. Contributions to the IVC farm stand and Community Supported Agriculture included summer squash, cucumbers, beets, onions, carrots, fennel, rhubarb, and basil...
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July 2022: Plant Partners
In June, new ‘Big Moose’ pumpkin seedlings were planted in the area of the garden known as “the back forty”. However, volunteer sunflowers had already taken over this garden area, which had been left fallow during the winter...
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June 2022: Welcome Pollinators!
Flowers are abloom in the Edible Demo Garden raising expectations of a bountiful harvest to come. Now the bees just need to help by doing their pollinating job and the fruits and veggies should appear. Pollinating, though, can get complicated. The bees need to be present and obliging and the right flowers need to bloom at the right time...
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May 2022: No Digging Needed to Grow Potatoes
Growing potatoes in straw may seem like a crazy idea but the success of this method in the Edible Demonstration Garden suggests that this no-dig approach could be an option for home gardeners. It can be especially appealing when working with rocky clay soil...
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April 2022: Ready, Set, Spring Forward!
With the onset of spring, the pace of activity in the Edible Demonstration Garden has picked up. It’s time for planning the edibles to grow this spring and summer, preparing the garden beds, and sowing the seeds...
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March 2022: Growing Blueberries
Blueberries are the focus of the newest demo garden project. Blueberries grow on long-lived and attractive shrubs and are both delicious and nutritious. They can be an ideal addition to an edible garden or to a home landscape if their growing conditions are met. Whether these conditions could be met in the edible demo garden is the question driving the project...
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February 2022: Getting Bare Root Fruit Trees Off to a Good Start
The addition of new fruit trees added excitement to an otherwise routine month of garden maintenance. An enthusiastic group of Master Gardeners planted six organically sourced fruit trees along the garden perimeter in line with the existing plum and pear trees...
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January 2022: Choosing Bare Root Fruit Trees
December was a slow time in the garden. We added a few plants like leeks and arugula but our workdays were limited due to the regular rain that came through our county. No one is complaining though since our drought conditions have eased somewhat....
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December 2021: Composting & Testing Your Soil
November and December are clean up times in the garden, as well as assessing the state of our garden after growing all of those heavy feeder summer vegetables...
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November 2021: Integrating Native Plants in Your Edible Garden
In October the EDG team, with inspiration and planning by members of the MMG Native Plant Guild, added a native plant area to our edibles garden. This small garden was installed around a vernal pool that is at the back of our garden. Fall is the best time to plant natives so that they can reap the benefit of the upcoming rainy season and become well established before the summer heat.
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October 2021: Seedling Transplanting Tips
At the Edible Demonstration Garden this month, we have been following best practices for seeding our winter garden plants in the greenhouse. These practices were outlined in last month’s article. This month, we will begin moving some of these seedlings into the garden.
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September 2021: Growing Your Own Plant Starts
The end of the summer is approaching and some of our plants are producing heavy harvests, particularly our summer squash, which are growing in straw bales. (See our new YouTube video on Straw Bale Gardening.)...
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August 2021: Growing Tomatoes and Physiological Problems
What are those brown areas on the tomatoes and what’s causing the plant’s leaves to roll up? Often the cause is physiological, which is a fancy way of saying the symptoms are caused by environmental stresses and not by pests or disease.
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July 2021: Summer Harvesting Tips
The summer solstice has passed and our garden team is waiting for the abundance of the summer harvest. Every gardener wants to pick vegetables at the height of their quality. You can’t depend on the “days to maturity” indicated on seed packets because conditions vary year to year. How do we determine when a vegetable is just right for the picking?
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June 2021: Fertilizing Your Soil
May found our team tucking summer harvest seedlings into our beds and anxiously monitoring them to make sure they have everything they need to thrive. Fertile soil is a must and the primary nutrients needed are N, (Nitrogen) P (Phosphorous), and K (Potassium)....
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May 2021: Straw Bale Gardening
The word last month was ‘weeds’. This month, it is ‘straw’. Straw is one of the most versatile materials for our vegetable gardens. Our team uses it in many ways...
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April 2021: Controlling Weeds
March brought many unwelcome guests to our garden. Weeds! Weeds compete with our crops for nutrients, water, sunlight, and space...
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March 2021: Growing Edibles in Drought
The Edibles Demonstration Garden team took steps in the last month to move toward spring and summer plantings. We also made the decision to postpone our dreams of expanding our fruit tree orchard until the next bare-root season...
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February 2021: Winter Pruning
As we welcomed the New Year, our winter garden had come to life. We are now harvesting the fruits of our fall labors: beautiful heads of broccoli, arugula, spicy mesclun mix, lettuce, spinach, kale...
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January 2021: Propagation
December arrived and found our team enjoying some well-deserved rest. The planting of our winter garden is finished and now we are just waiting for it to start producing.
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December 2020: What to Grow in Winter
What a busy month we’ve had in the Edibles Demonstration Garden. We finished out the busy summer season by harvesting our winter squash...
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November 2020: Cover Crops
This fall our team has been busy ordering seeds for our winter garden and then starting them in the greenhouse to get a good jump on our plantings.
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October 2020: The Fall/Winter Garden
Fall has arrived and the Edibles Demonstration Garden (EDG) has begun the shift to our fall/winter garden.
