Al in the shade house

Al Noblett working in the shade house.

Al became a garden volunteer nine years ago when he attended a park plant sale and was "drafted" by other volunteers. He holds a wealth of knowledge about plant identification.

Al's specialty is plant propagation, and his favorite plants are orchids. He's a member of the local orchid society. By reading and self-study, Al finds many sources to identify plants and ways to prepare new starts. Al is getting very busy since we have started propogating plants to save from the community garden area.

Al, a Lehigh Acres resident, is originally from North Carolina where he retired from the Ashville Citizen Times.

Community gardens elsewhere

Here is a link to a community garden sent to me by Sue Moore. Browsing this blog you will see that it is fairly new. It is designed with raised beds like ours will be, and you will notice the strong response from the community.

http://delawarecenterforhorticulture.wordpress.com/

Today on the New York Times online there is a featured article about the next level of urban gardening: gardens on the roofs of city buildings. Here's the link:

Urban Farming, a Bit Closer to the Sun

The Shade House

Here is the shade house before we began to clean it up. Making the shade house safe and functional is a key near-term project. We need it to propagate plants that will be lost when the ground is cleared for the community garden, and we need it to raise plants for a plant sale this fall. This structure must remain usable until it is replaced during the construction of the Botanic Garden.

The enclosed house is sound and only needs some replacement lath to hold down the screen, some work on the doors, and repair of the tables inside. The "lean-to" area needs some new posts, new shade cloth, and some new tables.

Mabel Vega, a park supervisor, is coordinating a grant for materials and the services of an Eagle Scout to build new tables.

Seeds

Welcome to my journal about the happenings among the gardeners and the plants at the Gardens at Lakes Park. My name is Dave Bush and I have just completed the Master Gardener training program.

The beauty of nature touches our spirit like few other things. A beautiful flower or tree nurtured by someone is very special, and most people are touched by experiencing them. This is why the garden volunteers are here. My wife Alma and I are here to make sure the gardeners have what they need to tend the gardens.

My main duty as the coordinator of the garden volunteers is to be the communication link between the volunteers and the organizations that hold sway over us: The Lakes Park Enrichment Foundation, the Lakes Park staff, and the Lee County Extension office.

#$%&* Weeds!

Weeds, weeds, weeds! They're everywhere. We've had less than a month of rain and the weed population is exploding in the garden. It's frustrating for gardeners everywhere but there are more weeds at the Lakes Park gardens than I see in the other gardens I tend. I think it is especially frustrating for the gardeners at Lakes Park because it seems like all we are doing is pulling weeds, and there are other more interesting things we need to do.

We really must be doing these other tasks right now as we prepare for the community garden so what we need is a strategy to approach the problem:

• Know the enemy. Identify the most prevelent species to help determine controls for them.


• Work on areas that have the highest public visibility; for example, the rose garden and the wedding gazebo.


• Spray (glyphosate) in open areas where desired plants will not be harmed.


• Hand pull weeds that are close around desired plants.


• Add more mulch.


• Think about weed control when designing a new plot. Many of the beds do not lend themselves to eficient weed control. For example, where groundcover plants are used the weeds are not a problem.

Mulch is a key, of course, and I've noticed that many areas do not have enough. In other areas the mulch has decomposed and is now more akin to seed germination media.

I would also like to suggest that no one spend more than half their time pulling weeds. Spend the other half doing something interesting and just enjoying the garden.

Mystery Tree

Recognize this tree? I've been asking around to find out what it is and all I could learn was that Stephen Brown knew what it was and that it is rare. Well I asked Stephen about it and he got back to me right away with the answer. It is the calabash tree. Check out Stephen's fact sheet at this link:

http://lee.ifas.ufl.edu/Hort/GardenPubsAZ/FactSheet/CrescentiaAlataCalabash.pdf

Doesn't Stephen take great pictures?! I can't wait to make some maracas!

Preparing for the community garden

The major project related to the community garden for the garden volunteers is to move or propogate the plants that currently occupy that space. So far we have surveyed the plants that are there (completed by Janie Steffins) and we have root pruned and top pruned the smaller moveable plants.

The pink porterweed has been moved by Marcy Watts to the path leading to the Peace Garden. This is where we are concentrating our butterfly plants and we are calling it Butterfly Way.

Al Noblett has begun taking cuttings. I know that he has done the ylang-ylang (cananga tree) but I don't have a complete tally.

I will try to post the survey sketch and plant list here soon.