Author: Timothy McDermott

Ohio Local Foods week at the Logan Community Garden

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Ohio Local Foods week is August 7th- 13th.   We live in one of the finest of agricultural states as well as a outstanding region for fresh meat, vegetables and fruit.  I try to source local food as much as possible to feed my family as I like to see where it comes from and know its story.

To celebrate Local Foods Week in Hocking county I will be at the Logan Community Garden off Radio Lane behind the City of Logan’s maintenance facility on Tuesday August 9th at 7pm for a free event open to anyone in the community for a garden walk to see different ways folks like to grow and to answer any questions people have.

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To me the best local food you can eat is the food you grow yourself, be it in your backyard or your community garden.  I can grow a significant amount of my family’s produce and I am happy to show you how to do that for your family if you want to learn.

The buckwheat cover crop experiment at the Logan Community Garden had a good growing season.

 

Hope to see you at the garden.  Take a walk around and see how amazing it is.  The Logan Community garden will have open plots for the 2017 season so you can start your planning now and get your name on the list to reserve a spot.

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Cover Crop Experiments

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One of the best ways to improve a patch of ground is by using a cover crop.  Cover cropping is when you plant a certain plant or mix of plants into an area to solve an problem or improve the soil. Things cover crops can do include:

  • add biomass
  • smother weeds
  • drill through hardpan
  • increase fertility
  • prevent runoff and erosion
  • tie nutrients up in the soil

Almost sounds too good to be true, but it is not.  Cover crops have been used for a long time in agriculture and with the increased focus on preventing nutrient loss into our waterways and the resulting problems this has resulted in, you will be hearing more about them in the future.

Currently I am monitoring/helping with three different small scale cover crop experiments.  I do not have 100 acres of corn or soybeans so I am observing them in three different community garden experiments.

Experiment 1: Demonstration garden at the fairgrounds. 

Tomatoes into no-till residue

Tomatoes into no-till residue

Rob and Rebecca planted winter rye, crimson clover and vetch into the raised beds last fall and crimped them over in spring, the tomatoes went straight into holes in the residue and are doing great.  This cover crop mix added fertility from the legumes, mulches the soil to prevent disease and water loss, prevented erosion over winter and added biomass from the top growth and root remnants. The tomatoes are doing great.  If you go to the garden, you will see they are outperforming tomatoes planted into straight compost.

Experiment 2: Logan Community Garden

Buckwheat in unused plots

Buckwheat in unused plots

The Logan Community Garden had some space that needed filled that was not going to be used this season and had a fair amount of weeds present.  The cover crop for this area needed to smother weeds, prevent erosion,  keep the soil in use, tie up nutrients and be easy to manage. The crop chosen was Buckwheat, which is elite at all these needs.  The crop is entering flowering right now if you visit the garden and will be a magnet for pollinators, helping the vegetables the gardeners have as well.  It will be mowed to prevent it from setting seed and allowed to decompose in place adding organic matter.

Experiment 3: Wallace Community Garden

BMR sorghum x sudangrass

BMR sorghum x sudangrass

Sheesh,  what guy planted this? (me).   This spotty planting of BMR(brown mid-rib) Sorghum X Sudangrass is being used as a three year rotation in my garden plot.  My needs are for weed control, increased fertility, increased biomass/organic matter and sub-soil drilling through hardpan.  I have not used this variety before, but have heard many wonderful things about it and its reputation is stellar.  It will get very tall, like corn, and should completely take over this plot by mid summer.  I will mow it to keep it a couple/few feet tall which will signal the roots to double down on root growth.  I will let you all know how this turns out over the season.

Would you like to learn more about cover crops?   I will be talking about cover crops as well as Fertilizers, Organic Matter and Soil Health on Tuesday June 14th at 7pm in a FREE class at the Youth Center,  bring friends and questions and hope to see you there.

Zika Virus in Ohio

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A topic that I have been getting questions on and is a currently making headlines globally is about the Zika virus.  I will attempt to provide as much information as possible as it relates to Zika virus here in Ohio.

Here is a map of the United States with laboratory-confirmed  Zika virus infections. (Data as of May 4th, 2016, Source – CDC)

zika-by-state-report-05-04-2016

Ohio as of 5/4/16 has 12 confirmed cases of Zika virus, none of which was contracted locally, all of which were contracted via travel.

Currently, per the CDC, Zika virus disease and Zika virus congenital infection are nationally notifiable conditions.

The Ohio State University experts have done a great job of keeping us Educators in the loop and pertinent on the progress of this disease.

Volume 20, Issue 2 of PEP-Talk:

Zika Virus Special issue.

This issue of PEP-talk summarizes information about the potential Zika virus threat to Ohioans that was presented at an April 26, 2016 conference sponsored by the Ohio Department of Health.  Credit to the authors:

Mary Ann Rose, Program Director;  Chrissy Kaminski, Program Coordinator;  Adam Ziadeh, Program Assistant; Chad Kramer, Program Assistant
SUMMARY:

 The Disease and Current Status in Ohio

 
The disease is primarily spread through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito. The illness is mild in most people, lasting for several days to a week with most common symptoms including one or more of these: fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis. As many as 80% of those infected do not realize they have the disease. However, if infected during pregnancy, the disease may cause microcephaly, a very serious birth defect, and more rarely, severe effects may occur in adults. Currently there is no treatment or vaccine for the virus. As of April 26, 2016 there were no local mosquito-transmitted cases of Zika in the continental U.S., but there had been approximately 380 travel-related cases, with 12 of those cases in Ohio. In addition to mosquito transmission, the virus can be transmitted by men to sexual partners, and by blood transfusion.
Full Printable PDF of research findings———>The Disease and Current Status in Ohio – ZIKA
Knowledge of the disease, mosquito types, and transmission are important.  Keep up on your repellants and make smart choices.  Contact me if you have any more questions about this disease.

Lilyfest 2016

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Bishop Educational Gardens will host the celebratory 25th year of Lilyfest this year on July 8th, 9th, and 10th.

LILYFEST25TH_LOGO_150

Celebrating 25 Years!

About

Lilyfest’s history dates back to 1992 when Bobbi and Bruce Bishop first hosted the event at their home in the Hocking Hills, Ohio. Bruce Bishop’s lily gardens were showcased and five artists displayed and marketed their works. Lilyfest has grown to over 60 artists, with live music throughout the three acres of beautifully designed gardens, showcasing ponds and a variety of unique garden sculptures. Look for plant sales and ask a master gardener your garden-related questions. Enjoy the Butterfly House and stroll through The Lost Viking Hoard Encampment. See you there!

Volunteers are needed!

Anyone who wishes to volunteer to make this festival happen CLICK HERE to access the volunteer page.

Master Gardener Volunteers and Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalists are encouraged to staff their program booths to answer questions.

Save the Date – May 10th, FREE CLASS “Pests and Diseases in the Garden”

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Last class I offered in the Seed to Storage gardening series drew some folks all the way from Washington County.  Feel free to make the drive to the Hocking County Fairgrounds on May 10th at 7pm for a FREE class on “Pests and Diseases in the Garden”

hornwormA Beneficial and a Pest

 

This Tomato Hornworm was snacking on my Juliets.  When those little white egg cases hatch the Braconid Wasps will feed on the Hornworm and then spread throughout my garden doing good things.

Brood V Cicadas 2016

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I am located in Hocking County, but this has application for the entire Buckeye Hills region. In fact the entire Easter portion of the State of Ohio, a little Maryland, Pennsylvania, …….

The 17 year Brood V Cicadas should be emerging here shortly.  Once we get 4 days in a row of mid-sixties soil temps 8″ deep all heck is going to break loose in the cicada world as 1.5 million Cicadas per acre will start emergence.  They were last seen in 1999.

(Cool video from Cleveland.com/Plain Dealer)

The Bugdoc from OSU has a publication on Periodic Cicada Control Tactics.

Small planting window – early spring vegetables

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The ten day forecast has us looking at warm wet weather.  Normally in March I would say wait a few weeks before planting much outside, but this is an opportunity to get some seed or transplants if you have them in the ground.  Don’t get crazy with planting right now, but if you have a few square feet in your garden you can put seed in that if you are successful will give you an early vegetable harvest.  I would still follow with another planting or two in a few weeks to stay on a normal rotation.

I plan on putting some transplants in that I started when I did a Seed Starting Program for the Four Seasons Garden Club in Logan.

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They will go under cover in my kitchen garden.  I am not really worried about the cold, but the squirrels and bunnies will eat them if I don’t.  Deer would be a problem as well.  There is very little food out there for wildlife right now, so don’t plant any for them.

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This is also a great time to take a look at your compost pile and think about giving it a mix.  If your compost pile looks like this:

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Stir it up and let Mother Nature water it for you.  I am definately a cold compost pile person, but even a little bit of improvement will go a long way towards finished compost later in spring.

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Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalists – Hocking County

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The Hocking County chapter of the Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalists will be holding training classes for certification in 2016. Information on costs and how to apply are at the end of the post.

Here is the class schedule/topic list:

Hocking Hills Region

Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist (OCVN)

Class Schedule for 2016

DATE                  TIME                   SUBJECT                                        LOCATION

Apr 23                9A-1PM             Geology                                         Laurelville Public Library

Paul Knoop

Apr 26                530-930PM      Mammals                                     Bishop Education Center

Rebecca Miller

Apr 30                7-11AM             Ornithology                                 Waterloo Wildlife Station

Heike Perko

May 3                 530-930PM      Botany                                           Crane Hollow

Joe Moosbrugger

May 7                 9A-1PM             Forest Ecology                             Christmas Rocks SNP

Jim Osborn

May 10              530-930PM      Entomology                                 Old Man’s Cave

Pat Quackenbush

May 14              9A-1PM             Soil/Plant Ecology                      Gilmore Home Albany

Gordon and Wanda Gilmore

May 17              530-930PM      Herpetology                                 Clear Creak Metropark

Marcey Shafer and Jamie Kidwell

May 21              9A-1PM             Archaeology                                Hopewell Culture Natl Hist Park

Bret Ruby

May 24              530-930PM      Interpretive Techniques           Boch Hollow SNP

Jeff Johnson

May 28              9A-1PM             Aquatic Biology                          Clear Creak Metropark

Tommy Springer

 

HERE is the link if you are interested in taking the classes.  Class size is limited so contact us as soon as you are able.

Seed Starting – Save the Date

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I have been in the basement planting many things getting ready for the upcoming gardening season.  This El Nino winter already has me thinking spring.

There will be a Seed Starting workshop at the Youth Center at the Hocking County Fairgrounds on April 12th, tuesday, at 7pm.

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Hope to see you there.