Save The Date!! “Tick Prevention” at Hocking Valley Community Hospital 4/3/17 at 6pm

With spring upcoming and people starting to head back outdoors it is time to think about protection from ticks.  Ticks are a major vector of many diseases affecting humans, companion animals and livestock and the prevalence of these diseases has been rapidly increasing over the last decade.  On Monday, April 3rd at 6pm at Hocking Valley Community Hospital I will discuss tick diseases, identification and prevention methods.  The class is free and open to the public.

How to identify which tick is important,  different ticks carry different diseases and all ticks carry more than one disease.

Source: Tickencounter.org

We will discuss lifecycles.

Source: CDC

And go over how to protect yourself, your family, your pets and your livestock.   Ticks are tough to repel, many of the most common products are ineffective.

We will discuss what works and what does not work.

Space is limited to about 20-25 and classes at HVCH generally fill up.  The class is free so bring your friends and your questions.

Contact information:

Class instructor is Tim McDermott, DVM from OSU Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Office. Call (740) 380-8336 or email ljohnston@hvch.org to RSVP.

The Urban Farm – Winter Update

I know I told you all that The Urban Farm was done for the season, but actually there is something important going on right now that will be critical to our success in 2017.  The cover crop seed I planted in November has been slowly growing and helping the overall soil health.  It was very fortunate that we lucked out with lots of rain and moderate temps for the first half of winter.  I go to the farm and take pics every few weeks or so.  Here is the timeline in pictures:

shortly after germination, picture taken on November 29th

picture taken December 7th

some great growth so far. Picture taken January 3rd

Picture taken January 19th.

As soon as the daylight hours increase and it gets warmer, the rye will take off like a rocket, easily getting over 3 – 4 feet tall.

Save the Date!! Seed Starting Class at Bishop Educational Garden, Wednesday March 1st.

OSU Extension and Hocking Soil and Water Conservation District will be partnering to present a FREE workshop at Bishop Educational Gardens, the home of Lilyfest, on Wednesday March 1st from 6:30 to 8pm.

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Basic techniques for starting your own flowers, herbs and vegetables will be demonstrated as well as a discussion on how to construct your own home growing environment.

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Registration is recommended to ensure we have enough seating.  Bring your questions and your friends.  Bishop Educational Garden is located at 13200 Little Cola Rd. Rockbridge, OH 43149  (click for google map)

For more information or to register contact Rebecca Miller, HSWCD,  at 740-385-3016 or Tim McDermott OSUE at 740-385-3222 or email to McDermott.15@osu.edu

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The Urban Farm – fall harvest has started

The Urban Farm is now actually a farm.   The paperwork has been processed and we have gotten permission to proceed through the Ohio Senior Farmer’s Market voucher program.  Harvest started on some herbs from our own beds with some fresh fruit from the Chesterhill produce auction.  Sam will come up with some recipes based on what we have to sell seasonally.  We have apples, seckel pears and an assortment of fresh herbs including rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano right now.   I am thinking pork chops with sage and apples myself.

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While there is only one more week left in the voucher program,  these are also available for sale to the public.  Stop by The Southeast Ohio Regional Kitchen but do not dawdle,  once they are gone, they are gone.  Each box costs 5 dollars.  To order a box as well as some other great produce deals CLICK HERE FOR THE ORDER FORM FROM THE KITCHEN

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Save The Date! Update on the Veterinary Feed Directive Wednesday January 11th, 7pm

Changes will soon occur to hundreds of antimicrobial applications for livestock by the end of the year.   These changes will add the need for Veterinary oversight on how medically important antibiotics can be used in food and water in livestock.

A presentation on the basics of what the Veterinary Feed Directive rules will be going forward and how it will impact local producers will be held at the Youth Center at the Hocking County Fairgrounds on Wednesday January 11th at 7pm.

 

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Food Plots and Habitat Improvement to Benefit Wildlife

During the recent Farm Science Review I was given the opportunity to speak at the Gwynne Conservation Area on a topic of my choosing.  The guidelines were that it had to be Natural Resources focused as that is what that area deals with.  I have been doing some Food Plot stuff here in county so it seemed natural to pick that topic for the Gwynne.

Here is an overhead view of where I will plant.  Not a bad spot, not a great spot.  It has water although you cannot see it, but Deer Creek runs right behind it and a pond is right in front.  It has some trees but no good mast trees and not enough soft edges.  Site selection of plots is paramount, and cover is as important as food.  As the saying goes “they will visit if there is food, they will stay if there is cover”

gwynne-map

I will plant in the spot that has birdhouses

So here is the spot I will get to use.  It was a weed choked wasteland, but was burnt down with glyphosate and lightly tilled.

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And a  wild game seed mix was broadcast by hand on to the top of the soil.  Not a bad seed choice by variety: some rye, triticale, clover, oats and forage rape(a brassica).  That is cold hardy with nitrogen fixing, protein and some cereal grains.  Deer and Turkey will love it.

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This was done around August 1st.  Then it basically got hot and forgot to rain for weeks.  When I would go back to look at the plot I would see dry seed getting gobbled up by birds.   A soil test was done but was misplaced and turned in only a week before the Review.  No biggie,  I did not have the funds to fertilize, was more interested in seeing what the soil looked like.

Here is the soil test.

deer-plot-results-gwynne

Yikes that is a crazy soil test.  Totally different than what I see in Hocking.  High pH with increased calcium and magnesium.  Not a ton of fertility and a low organic matter percentage.  Basically we planted in poor soil, did not fertilize, did not use herbicides and planted at the wrong time.  I basically did everything wrong.  And it showed.

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Too bad deer and turkey don’t love foxtail, thistle, milkweed and wild parsnip.   I did see some cool stuff in there though, like the Monarch caterpillars on the milkweed.

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And the Black Swallowtail caterpillars on the wild parsnip(they like everything in that family of plants – celery, parsley, carrots, dill, etc..)

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It was a successful class as I used this opportunity to show what NOT to do and quite honestly that can be just as effective.  Next year I think I will do it a little differently.  Maybe do half correct and half incorrect, I have the incorrect part down pat.

Let me know if you want to incorporate a wildlife plot on your land.  It is probably too late to get going planting from scratch, but not too late to plan and do site evaluation.  In fact fall is the perfect time for that.

The Urban Farm at Southeast Ohio Regional Kitchen

I am starting a project at the Southeast Regional Kitchen here in Hocking County that has the potential to impact many people in the Buckeye Hills region in a positive way.  The Southeast Ohio Regional Kitchen is a part of HAPCAP(Hocking, Athens, Perry Community Action) and is also part of the Southeast Ohio Regional Food Bank.   This Food Bank is the distribution hub for Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Morgan, Perry, Vinton and Washington counties.

In the ten county service area 1 in 6 individuals are considered food insecure including 1 in 4 children.  Our aim in this project to try to improve on those numbers.  In Hocking county we have many trees, but few food producing farms.  My project is to partner with the SEO Regional Kitchen to start an urban farm on unused land on their grounds to grow our own food.   My farming partner will be Sam Gress, Food Services Coordinator at the Kitchen.  We will start by providing food for seniors in Hocking county using their federal Senior Farmer’s Market vouchers and then expand the farm.

To start the farm, we need to start growing something.   Sam and I put in a perennial herb garden last week which once we finish our paperwork with the state, makes us farmers.  We started with a weedy overgrown ornamental bed:

Phase I: Perennial herb garden

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Cleared out the weeds and amended with compost

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And then planted three flats of donated perennial herbs which can be sold or added to the commodity distributions or in the cooking/processing for meals on wheels. (Thanks to Rick Webb, Webb Perennials, Logan OH for the herbs and Athens-Hocking Recycling center Athens, OH for the mulch)

 

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Phase II of the project will be started in fall of 2016 and will be the addition to six raised beds to start vegetable production.

Phase III of the project tentatively scheduled for 2018 is the addition of more raised beds and a possible hoop house/high tunnel for seed propagation and season extension.

We hope to expand distribution to other counties in the future.  The Buckeye Hills counties that are served by the SEO Regional Kitchen are Athens, Hocking, Meigs, Morgan, Perry and Washington.

Container Gardening class at Hocking Valley Community Hospital Wednesday September 7th at 6pm

I am working on a really neat project right now that I am excited about.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Latricia Johnston, Director of HVCH Foundation and Community Relations for the Hocking Valley Community Hospital about helping them design a project to celebrate their upcoming 50th anniversary.  They have an event upcoming and wanted to show off the hospital which they are rightfully proud of.   We bounced some ideas on the phone to come up with something cool.

They have a really neat courtyard in the middle of the hospital.

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The plan is to plant a container vegetable and herb garden with 5 different stations of containers that will be used as a display of healthy produce with a collaboration from HVCH Nutrition and Food Services.  The timeline was to have this done by the end of September.  That was not a ton of time to get a veggie garden fully planted, but with some awesome donations from Rick Webb of Webb’s Perennials and two runs to get dirt in my truck I got the herbs, tomatoes, and peppers in.  More veggies will follow in late summer.

HVCH flyer pic

The garden is coming along nicely and should make a great display for their 50th anniversary event.  I wish it would rain so the Master Gardener Volunteers and myself did not have to make so many watering trips but what can you do about that?  I will be teaching a class on container gardening in concert with Denise Kiamy, Director of Nutrition and Food Services in September.   Info is below courtesy of the HVCH weekly newsletter.  It is free and open to the public and will showcase how anyone can have a garden even if you do not have a yard.

Gardening class at HVCH Sept. 7

 

Hocking Valley Community Hospital in partnership with Ohio State University Extension presents: Successful Strategies & Healthful Benefits for Growing Herbs and Vegetables in Containers.

Growing in containers can let the home gardener have a successful gardening season even if they have limited space and time. Come learn the basics of container gardening with a presentation as well as hands-on display of a container herb and vegetable garden. Gardeners of all skill levels are welcome to attend this free class taught by Tim McDermott, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Ohio State Extension.

Denise Kiamy, Director of Nutrition & Food Services will share the nutritional benefits of eating the fruits of your own labor! Join our guest speakers in the HVCH Courtyard on Wednesday, September 7th at 6 p.m. Please call 740-380-8336 to register for this FREE event. Limited seating is available. Snacks to be served made from the container produce.