Veggie Gardening – At Home And In The Community

By LAURA GROSS-HIGGINS

Thinking of having a garden this spring? Well, you are not alone. Somehow the combination of COVID-19 and supply chain problems has made having a home garden more appealing. And if you live on the Upper Cape, you are rich in community resources.

Since I live in Falmouth, I contacted a few people from Farming Falmouth, an organization that supports gardeners, gardening and farming. Patricia Gadsby, the media outreach person for Farming Falmouth, is the first person I spoke to. She is also one of the organizers of the Falmouth Farmers Markets held during the season at Bigelow Marine Park.

Her advice to beginning vegetable gardeners is to observe what works in your garden and when. Keep a notebook of what works and what doesn’t. For instance, she recommended planting some things at a time when they are less likely to be predated upon, like kale by cabbage moth caterpillars. Or know that you can buy varietals of strawberries and raspberries that bear more than once so that the critters can get some but you can, too. And Pat advised planting vegetables in pots, something my husband does, too. It allows you to garden outside your beds.

Ellie Costa of Falmouth is the vice president of Farming Falmouth. She suggested taking the time to observe how many hours of sunlight your prospective patch gets. You need four to six hours of sunlight to grow most vegetables. She said new gardeners should think about what they want to eat. She also recommended having a notebook and filling it with information from researching on the internet, from what you have observed and from what other gardeners may tell you. She said it’s hard to remember the following spring what worked the season before, so a notebook helps.

Ellie spoke of amending the soil with compost. She has bins that are made from discarded wooden pallets. She read up about the carbon and nitrogen cycles and also said there is no one way to garden and your garden can evolve. For example, she said when she started, her soil was sandy and she planted kohlrabi, which did well. But after a few years, the soil got richer. and the kohlrabi did not do well. Another vegetable that does better in sandy soil is carrots. It is important to know and to be flexible.

As a source of information for gardening concerns, she cited the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension service. Ellie said she had a problem with cabbage root maggots. At the time, she did not know what the problem was. She took her kohlrabi to the Horticulture Clinic at the county extension office and learned these maggots were the problem.

She also said to get the soil tested. You need to know how acidic or alkaline it is. The soil on the Cape tends to be a bit acidic, which blueberries love, but you need a sweeter (more alkaline) soil for asparagus. The Cape Cod Extension used to do soil testing at events all over the Cape. Since COVID, they now do it at their office on the Lower Cape.

One suggestion she shared similar to one made by Pat Gadsby made an impression on me—to observe when the cabbage moths are laying their eggs. Ellie suggested covering your growing plants with a fleece that you can get at Mahoney’s or maybe Soares garden centers or in seed catalogs that will let sun and water through but doesn’t allow the moths to lay their eggs on the leaves. Then, when the moths are gone, you can uncover your beds. Or as Pat suggested, you can wait to plant until after the moths are no longer laying. If you have a small garden and the time, you can also pick them off the underside of their leaves. The fleece sounded faster. I have done the pest removal by hand, and it’s slow.

Rotating crops is important; some plants renew the soil of nutrients that others use in growing.

And one more interesting thing Ellie Costa shared was about a no-till method of gardening. She lays aged compost to a depth of two or three inches and plants her seedlings in it. She said some people, like author and gardener Charles Dowding, believe the soil has its own organic structure that rototilling upsets. So you may want to try that.

Options For Gardening

I have to admit my husband, Bob, is a longtime gardener, and we have our own garden. We have both rototilled and also just turned the soil over by hand. We had fewer volunteer plants with the rototilling.

But what do you do if you don’t have a yard you can garden in? One of Pat’s suggestion was pots on the deck. That may not be enough of a garden for you. Pat told me that Ellie Costa has plantings all over her yard. Sounds like she maximizes the ground she has to grow in.

And for lengthening your growing season? Ellie said she buys varietals of broccoli and Brussels sprouts that can grow even in the winter. She said she will go out to the beds and get what she needs, not pull up the whole plant.

I asked Ellie if she started her own seedlings. She said she gets some at Pariah Dog Farm on Trotting Park Road in East Falmouth. They are open most Sundays during the year, from noon to 7 PM. She buys her tomato seedlings from Jennifer Christian of Feather Light Farms (featherlightfarms@gmail.com). Her farm sells greens to restaurants, but she also has a mobile farmstead. Jeny is president of Farming Falmouth.

Ellie also gets seedlings from another Jennifer: Jennifer Irving, the founder of Jenny’s Edibles & Blooms. Her business has open greenhouse events, plant sales, speakers and demonstrations every Saturday and Sunday in the spring. You can google her for more information.

Another local seedling source, besides the local nurseries, is Green Dragon Farm at 225 Sandwich Road. And Ellie said she also goes to the Woods Hole Public Library’s Plant Sale, which is held in mid-May

Ellie Costa’s last piece of advice was to start small. Do a calendar and figure out the growing season for what you want to grow. It’s important to know if you are starting your own plants when it is time to start your seeds indoors so that they will bear produce in a timely fashion. And pay attention to frost dates. Many Cape gardeners don’t plant their tender seedlings until Memorial Day weekend. Peas can be planted as soon as April when the ground can be worked. And spinach and lettuces are planted earlier than Memorial Day because they bolt (go to seed in hot weather). And I say to pay attention to what zone is recommended for the plant you want to grow.

Community Gardens

Falmouth also has three community gardens: the one at the Falmouth Service Center, another at Emerald House in East Falmouth and the Marina Andrews Gardens at Tony Andrews Farm. Here people apply to have plots. Because of the interest in gardening, many of these sites are already in use, with waiting lists, and only advertise for gardeners when there are spaces available. I did speak with Pamela Wolfe-Schumacher who is on the Emerald House Community Gardens Committee. Emerald House has 34 plots and four raised beds. There are no openings at this time for the regular beds, but there are two openings in the wheelchair-accessible garden this spring. She said they are hoping to offer additional plots in 2023.

The committee is working with the Emerald House Museum to make the gardens and museum a living part of the property’s social and agricultural history. The house was bought by the Emerald family in 1906. They farmed the property and a grapevine they planted is in the center of the gardens, still viable and cared for. Emerald is one of the two Farming Falmouth community gardens. The other is the Marina Andrews one mentioned earlier. The group gets help from the Falmouth Department of Public Works. There are volunteer days as well. One way that the Emerald House community gardens helps the community is through its “Share the Bounty” program on Thursdays at the farmers’ markets. Gardeners donate excess produce to the Falmouth Service Center during the produce harvest season. In thanks, the gardeners who donate get a $1 voucher for each weekly donation that can be used at the farmers’ markets held at Bigelow Marine Park on Scranton Avenue.

Pam said the gardeners water the roots, not the plants, at the gardens. And that she espouses no-till gardening and no-work gardening. She referred to the lasagna method of building the soil, alternating grass and mulch and then soil in layers. She said they never use Roundup. Some of the plants they use are donated by Jenny’s Edibles & Blooms.

There are also community gardens in Mashpee (Mashpee Community Gardens), Sandwich (Roberti Farm Community Garden) and Bourne (Valley Farm Thrift and Garden). You may want to explore what is available in your community. They were still in existence before COVID but might be less active now.

I talked to Pat McKean, who is involved with the Sandwich Community Garden. She said they always appreciate volunteers who don’t want to have a plot of their own but who want to get their hands in the dirt. You can contact her at 508-888-6405. Pat said the Town of Sandwich has been quite helpful. They are looking for someone who can help with increasing access to the gardens for someone who is disabled and with some landscaping issues. And just like the Emerald House gardens, they would love to expand. Her group also helps the community by donating produce to the Sandwich Food Pantry and to the Savor the Summer program through the Sandwich Public Schools.

Cooperative Extension

So far I have focused on individual gardens in your yard and the idea of community gardens.

The other resource for novice gardeners is the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension. It has different programs for all levels of gardener, novice to expert. One is Backyard Horticulture, which has a class each January and February. So keep it in mind for next year.

I talked to Russell Norton, horticulturist and agriculture educator for the extension, who said a program called Eat Your Yard is often held in March. The extension also runs a program called Master Gardeners each year. People apply in middle to late summer, and the course begins January 1. At this time, there are a little more than 200 Master Gardeners. They are often volunteering at the demonstration garden at the Barnstable County Fair at the Cape Cod Fairgrounds in July. The Master Gardeners are at the Harvest Fest in October, too. They provide an informal education by answering questions from the public. Mr. Norton gives talks to groups about garden pests and other subjects, too.

The horticulture clinic that answered Ellie Costa’s question about what was affecting her plants is run through the extension offices at 212 Mid-Tech Drive in West Yarmouth.There is a mailbox outside where you can leave a soil sample (in a sealed bag) and any plant you have a question about (also in a sealed bag), and there are forms there to fill out to accompany what you drop off. They contact you when they have done the test or addressed your issue. People can also call or email (with images). These services are free of charge. Go to www.capecodextension.org to get more information.

So I hope that you will find this information of use. Whatever you grow, just know there is a network of people who can help you. Gardening can be a transformative activity; you get to create, nurture and reap what you plant, and then you can share it with others.