Learn how to provide food and habitat for insects that are beneficial to your garden through a choice of delightful plants.  Ways to integrate them into your garden and kitchen will be taught.  This will be a hands-on experience, enabling you to create a simple Mason Bee house to take home with seeds and/or small plants to get you started at home.

Charlotte Dion preparing a sheet mulch garden at New Eden in 2010

Spring is finally here and it time for another round of New Eden’s Sustainable Living Classes. This spring we will be offering courses on a variety of “homesteading” skills and  earth friendly practices  from raising chickens to making strawberry preserves.

The list of courses include No Dig or Sheet Mulch Garden Beds, Compost Tea, Chicken 101, Shiitake Mushroom Cultivation, Creating Habitats for Pollinators and other Beneficial Insects,  Strawberry Preserves Workshop and 2 classes on the Basics of Organic Gardening.

For more information and to register online – go to the New Eden Collaborative Workshops page.

Our first workshop, Basics of Organic Gardening is Saturday, April 9th, 9:00 am to Noon kicks of the Spring 2011 Workshop series. Register now!

Hummingbird Moth

New Eden’s beloved Chuck “Butterfly Man” Mead has been taking a photographic record of our flying visitors. The butterfly garden (50 plants surrounding the veggie  plots) that Chuck has planted appears to be working. Numerous hummingbirds, butterflies and hummingbird moths have been spotted. Attached are a picture of a yellow swallow tail butterfly and a hummingbird moth. These were seen on and near the butterfly bush (dark purple flowering plant near the center watering faucets).

Swallow Tail Butterfly on Butterfly Bush

We are an organic garden and want to stress that PREVENTION and VIGILANCE are the keys to keeping harmful insects/diseases from destroying crops.

Prevention includes:

Proper spacing of plants: While we all hate to thin our healthy little seedlings, crowded plants encourage insects, bacterial, viral and fungal infections.  If disease appears, we must remove diseased leaves, stems or whole plant if necessary to prevent spread.  DO NOT PUT THEESE DISEASED PLANTS ON THE COMPOST PILE. They have potential to infect the compost and spread the disease. Take them out of the garden and dispose of them by bagging them up as trash.

Frequent (preferably daily) inspection of plants for insects and their eggs:

Don’t forget the underside of the leaves where many lurk!—is the best way to keep it under control.  Hand picking in a small garden is not too onerous.

Careful Watering: It is preferable to water as early as possible so leaves don’t stay wet overnight, encouraging the fungal diseases so prevalent in this climate.

Row Covers are an excellent option for protecting vulnerable plants until the flowering stage and also protects from  mild frost.

WEED, WEED, WEED: To minimize disease and pests it is essential to keep weeds under control in your garden and the garden paths. Please keep your plot clean and free of debris.

If, in spite of your best efforts you have an infestation you may use:

Insecticidal soap, including diluted dish detergent and “Natural” controls such as garlic spray or baking soda are acceptable and safe.

NEEM although considered organic is prohibited in the garden due to its potential harm to bees and other beneficial insects.

Bacillus Thurengensis may be used for squash borer or cabbage worm if necessary.

Copper Sulfate or “Bordeaux mixture” may be used for fungal disease which we are likely to get on our tomatoes.  It is best to catch it early as it spreads and will do much damage, seriously decreasing our yields.

No other substances are to be used in the garden.  Well-tended, healthy plants are more resistant to disease so again, a little TLC is the best medicine.

Happy gardening!
Erin