We had two other activities, making seed pots out of newspaper and making seed tape out of water and flour glue on paper towels.

Next month, it's off to the fairgrounds!

We want to thank all the wonderful parents who are so helpful and learning side by side with our members!

We had a wonderful meeting with 15 new members! We decided to rotate our officers each month. Seasoned gardener Ellie Thompson volunteered to be treasurer for the year and to mentor younger member volunteers on our newly formed finance committee. Ideas were shared about fundraising - including creating our own garden vegetable cookbook! For our activity we made glycerin soap with our guest demonstrator Christine Kennedy. Next month we will be planning our garden boxes, learn about essentials of growing plants from seeds and we will make some newspaper seed pots and seed tape.

Our guest demonstrator, Christine Kennedy of All Things Herbal, shows the gardeners how to make glycerin soap with dried herbs from our gardens.

Pouring glycerin into molds - we added essential oils, herbs and food coloring.

Master Gardener Debbie showed members how to crush the herbs for their soap.

Ellie and David reviewed the club goals with everyone.

Our club members!

Our 2011 season will be starting up in February. Watch for blog updates!

Maggie

See you Saturday! Maggie

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/efans/ygnews/2010/05/

Use drip irrigation or a soaker hose to water plants. This puts water in the soil, where roots can take it up, not on the leaves, where fungi and bacteria thrive. If using sprinkler irrigation, water early in the morning so leaves dry quickly in the sun. Avoid watering as the sun goes down. Wet leaves will remain wet for many hours in the night, providing excellent growing conditions for fungal and bacterial plant pathogens.
Water deeply and infrequently. This will encourage growth of deep plant roots and will allow soil to dry slightly between watering. Continuously wet soil favors the growth of some root rotting pathogens and can suffocate roots. Amend heavy soils with organic matter to improve soil drainage.
Mulch the soil with an organic mulch like wood chips or straw. This will keep moisture in the soil and reduce humidity in the plant canopy. Mulch also helps to reduce the spread of plant pathogens that splash from leaf debris in the soil onto the lower leaves of plants.
Space plants to allow good air movement through the garden. This will help leaves dry out quickly after rain and irrigation.

Planting the Vegetable Garden
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1422.html

It was a cold and wet and windy morning but our gardeners are real troopers. Everybody and their parents worked hard and played hard. It was a fun day! We decided to hold regular monthly meetings throughout the summer. We will meet at 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at the 4-H building, weather permitting. If storms are brewing, we will meet at the Land Services Building. We will charter our club and elect officers.

A huge "thank you" goes out to all parents who supported us with tools and supplies and muscle! Many parents have offered to help with fund raising and club organization. What a fabulous group we have!

Some plants were requested and those are the first part of the spreadsheet. Following are recommendations for container annuals.

Please review the list - do some research and planning then let me or Debbie know - on Saturday if possible - your exact wish list for seeds and/or plants.

Maggie

Have your grid of 12 squares - each square representing 1 square foot for planning a 12 x 12 square foot garden -- planned for discussion. We will have Master Gardeners on hand to help us finalize our plans!

The actual size of our garden or gardens is up to us. We want to include at least one raised bed (size to be determined), one raised garden to accommodate wheelchair gardeners and other container gardens - style of your choice.

The group will decide what our final plans will be.

Please include a materials list and cost.

Stafford asked about using fertilizers in our raised bed gardens. What do you think about adding specific fertilizers for tomatoes, green bell peppers, squash and melons and other vegetables? Do you think that Mel's Mix will provide enough nutrients?

Here is a link from the Extension office on composting. http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG3296.html

We made our own newspaper pots and used then to plant tomato, green pepper, baby watermelon and bush bean seeds. We will document their growth in our notebooks.

Before our next meeting in April, we have plenty of tasks to complete so we are ready to finalize the plans for our square foot, raised bed and container gardens. Members will add to this blog along the way.

Thanks to everybody for a great success!