Garden update: August 2024
Summer isn’t the only thing that’s heating up around the Mounds Park Community Garden. August is running hot with goings-on that are sure to delight and surprise! We’ve got some important announcements, updates, housekeeping items, and delicious recipes to share.
Here are a couple of highlights from a very sunny (and hot, and steamy) August:
Amazingly fun events you’re not going to want to miss
Donations needed to help pollinators this August and September
A much-needed update on the shed
The cardboard situation
A gentle reminder for members to control weeds in their plots and to clear obstructions in walkways
Etiquette for use of hose and water
Garden hauls + recipes
A look forward to autumn events
Read on for more information about our recent highlights!
Amazingly fun events you don’t want to miss
Aug. 4: The Finer Things Club
For August's Finer Things Club, our friend Lee Truer has kindly offered to read passages from two books: the River Garden of Pure Repose and Racing With the Wind.
We'd love to see everyone there and looking snappy in your finest duds. Please RSVP to the event if you'd like to join in the fun! Pinkies up!
Select this link to RSVP for the Finer Things Club on Facebook
August 17: Tour des Jardins
MPCG is proud to present the Tour des Jardins, bringing together the community gardens and urban farms of Saint Paul with the people who love them. This special event is a delightful blend of an open house, a bike ride, a culinary adventure, and a social gathering designed to bring people together in a fun and engaging way.
No matter how you choose to join us—whether you're riding a bike or driving—this event promises to be a ton of fun. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the unique ways our neighbors manage their spaces, explore various gardening techniques, and enjoy the vibrant community spirit that defines our city.
Come celebrate with us and discover the beauty and diversity of Saint Paul's green spaces!
Select this link to RSVP for the Tour des Jardins on Facebook
Late September: Story Hour at the Garden
What’s better than kicking it in the garden with a bunch of kids your age and listening to goofball rhymes and funny stories? Nothing! That’s what.
Coming in late September, an hour of funny stories and poems for kids (and adults who haven’t lost their sense of humor). Here are some titles of the terrible poems you’ll hear:
Miss Johnson’s obnoxious concoction for removing the gum from your hair
Passive aggressive housekeeping notes from Mr. Fluff-n-Stuff (the cat)
Pants
Winston Alexander the judgy salamander
And more!
If you like weird tales with unexpected twists, turns of phrase and tongue-fumbling crash-and-burns then you’ll love this hour of power for all ages. Bring a lawn chair and your sense of adventure! Details forthcoming.
Donations needed to help pollinators this August and September
A note from Mae Whitney, MPCG Pollinator Committee
As July comes to an end, the Pollinator Committee is already planning for next year’s pollinator patches here at MPCG, and we need your help!
We are looking for donations of established native perennials or any seeds you may have collecting dust. Your contributions will help create a thriving habitat for our pollinators.
We will be collecting donations and begin planting late August to early September.
Transplant & Seed Donations:
Look around your yard for spring and summer blooming perennials that have become overcrowded or have gone to seed. These are great candidates for donation this fall.
Some examples of pollinators we would love to see include: aster, bee balm, columbine, cone flower, hyssop, iron weed, milkweed, rudbeckia, sunflower, vervain, yarrow, etc.
If you're willing to donate but unable to split the plants yourself we can arrange for volunteers to help split and clean perennials for you.
Our goal is to focus on native varieties in our pollinator gardens as best as we can.
Information to keep in mind when donating:
We will only be accepting bare-root transplant donations.
Bare-root transplanting is important to prevent the spread of jumping worms. Best practices can be found here.
UMN Extension on how and when to divide perennials.
A list of divisible native perennials with notes on how and when to divide can be found here.
Resources:
A wonderful catalog of Minnesotan wildflowers can be found here.
MN DNR on landscaping with native plants.
MN DNR Native Plant Encyclopedia.
Enjoy the rest of your summer! I'm looking forward to enjoying the fruits of the season and experiencing the first fall harvest of the Mounds Park Community Garden with you all.
Happy gardening, and see you soon! 🌻🍂 - Mae Whitney
A much-needed update on the shed
While it’s great that we got an adorable and sturdy shed bought and delivered at an incredible price, it hasn’t moved very far since its arrival at the garden. Thank you all for your patience with this process. Between scheduling and hot weather, the project has taken longer than I’d hoped.
The plan coming up is to mark and level the footprint of the shed, which will be 2-3 feet from the west fence, with a foot-wide apron on each side. Surrounding this perimeter will be 4x4 posts. The posts will be secured to each other with screws and secured to the ground with rebar spikes. Within this perimeter, we’ll lay weed-suppressing cloth, and .75-diameter gravel for compacting, drainage, and a solid foundation.
For a video on what this process looks like, select this link.
Moving the shed into place will be another matter. It’d be nice to just lift the thing and just waddle it into its home. Or to use the Force. Since that isn’t happening, we’ll use jacks instead. We can lift the shed with the jacks, slide rollers of some sort under three corners (northeast, southeast, and southwest), and 4’x8’ plywood under the rollers. Using the northwest corner of the shed as a pivot, we should be able to push the shed until the door is facing south (toward the garden).
After the shed is moved so the door is facing south, jack it up again and slide skids underneath. Between the skids and the floor of the shed we could place 2-3 long bars for rolling it into place. This is a video of what the jacking and rolling process would look like.
I’m looking forward to getting the shed in its home. More than just a shed where we can store supplies and tools, I imagine this big/little structure could make a fine nerve-center for the garden. This is where we can better communicate with members who prefer to communicate beyond the digital realm. On my recent tour of Colonel Summers Garden in Portland, I loved how their shed is used to help organize a seed exchange. There are so many ways to use the shed, and I’m looking forward to getting this project completed.
Again, thank you so much for your patience with this process! If you’d like to help volunteer, please stay tuned to your email or Facebook where I’ll be posting updates and calls for lifters, rakers, pushers, etc.
The cardboard situation
Cardboard is great at suppressing weeds, killing grass, and decomposing to add much-needed brown compost to the soil. Buried in healthy soil, cardboard will soon break down and entirely decompose.
The Mounds Park Community Garden is largely covered in grass, and weeds are a constant battle. For us, we could use a great deal of cardboard to kill it all.
I recently came into a primo source for good, clean cardboard with minimal brass staples and tape. I struck up an agreement that will provide us with loads and loads of nothing but the very finest cardboard in Saint Paul. The group I’m working with is so excited to put their cardboard to better use than plain old recycling. And when they heard it’d be used to build pathways and social areas at a nearby community garden, they were even more excited to help out.
If it sounds like I’m fawning, it’s because I am. Our interaction was simply lovely and it was immensely heartening to work with people who were so eager to reuse, rather than recycle, and to help out our garden in the process.
The plan: to stockpile enough cardboard so that when it comes time to winterize the garden this autumn, we will have enough cardboard to cover all the paths and other areas. After that, we’ll cover the cardboard with either mulch or dirt, let winter do its thing, and voila! We’ll be ready for next year's growing season!
Here is a video (c/o our local expert Becca Smith) that explains this process in greater detail.
A gentle reminder to control weeds in your plot and clear obstructions in walkways
The title of this section pretty much says it all. This is a gentle reminder that all garden members are expected to keep their plots reasonably free of weeds. And if your plot is growing into walkways, it is expected you tie back or trim your plot to maintain accessible walkways.
Exactly what constitutes “free of weeds” can be subjective. A good rule of thumb is, if your plot has an excessive amount of weeds and clumps of grass, that is a good sign it’s time to start weeding. Plots that have weeds which are six inches or higher are considered officially unkempt and our steering committee will reach out with a polite request to remove the weeds from your plot.
If by August 15 (two weeks after the publication of this blog) you haven’t tended to the weeds in your plot, our Steering Committee will reach out to you with a request that you do so. If by September 1 the issue remains, you will be notified your plot will be forfeited the next year.
Now, here’s the good news: it doesn’t need to come to that! We all read the rules and agreed to them, and we’re all trying to help each other out and make the garden a beautiful, easy place to be. We thank you so much for your help.
Please reach out to the Steering Committee if you have any questions.
Hose and water etiquette
At times, the hose has been hastily bundled up and put away. This has the same mysterious effect on a hose as does wadding up headphone wires and stuffing them into your jeans pocket. Where do these knots come from?! How they develop into such mind-boggling conundrums will forever be one of the world’s great unknowns.
One thing we do know is, it doesn’t take but a proactive moment to avoid catastrophe. Please follow these easy steps to prevent water from leaking, and allow the hose to comfortably wind back into its home:
Turning off the water: leave the sprayer open when closing the spigot
Winding the hose: with the sprayer still open, this will allow for an easier, more uniform coil, and for water pressure to release as the hose is wound
Additionally, please stay tuned to the weather. This past June and July have illustrated how it is better to hold on watering your plot if there’s rain in the forecast. It is also advisable to hold on watering a neighbor’s plot, even if it looks dry. With the exception of a member who asked for help with watering while they’re out of town.
Everyone gardens using different techniques. Unless we’ve been specifically asked to help a neighbor out, it’s best to hold off watering other people’s plots.
Select these links for more information on hose etiquette, and tips for watering community gardens.
Garden hauls + recipes
It is early August, and it is hot as hell. We are officially in the dog days of summer.
I, for one, am suffocated by this heat. I’ve been dreaming of the inevitable approach of Autumn, crunchy and blessedly cool. I find myself looking everywhere for the first signs of the coming season.
Before even the first leaves begin to turn, one of my favorite first signs of Autumn are those garden hauls, still warm from the sun, crusted in dirt, crisp, and bursting with flavor.
The metallic peppers and toothy cabbage. The earthy tang of heirloom tomatoes that, with a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar, rock salt, and a twist of black pepper are nearly enough to offset the trauma of living through an election year.
Many of our members have been posting pictures of their recent hauls from their plots on social media. Some have even mentioned recipes that sound fabulous. It makes me swoon to think of the possibilities, the textures, and the many foods that will come of these spoils.
It is in the spirit of the finer things in life, you should check out some of these super easy (and delicious) recipes:
Janice Anderson’s (definitely not low fat but) delicious baked zucchini
Slice zucchini (no need to peel) about 1/2" thick
Grease a baking dish
Layer zucchini with your favorite Italian cheese(s), salt and pepper and a few dots of butter
Cover and bake until tender
Pairs well with a glass of rose, Dirty Dancing and a couch
Lee Truer’s zucchini boats
Slice a large zucchini lengthwise and remove seeds and the mushy part
To stuff the zucchini, I use:
Farrow or rice or quinoa
Diced onion
Carrot
Mushroom
Sometimes eggplant or broccoli
A small amount of diced potatoes
Garlic or garlic scamps
Toasted pecans
Chopped dried Montmorency cherries
Fresh herbs of choice
Grated cheese
Saute onion, carrot, mushroom, and other veggies with a small amount of butter or olive oil then add a cup of cheese. Put stuffing inside prepared zucchini - - be generous with the amount of stuffing in zucchini, so don’t hesitate to compact it and mound it up.
Top with seasoned bread crumbs and or more cheese
Sometimes I add either lemon or apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar
Cook zucchini (with a little water or veggie broth in it) in the oven until the outer zucchini boat is soft
If you want a charred flavor, you can finish on the grill. But if you do, don’t cook in the oven for quite so long
Janice Anderson’s Caprese Salad
Alternate layers of sliced tomatoes with fresh mozzarella
Drizzle with balsamic vinegar
Sprinkle your favorite chopped herbs on top
For an extra colorful dish, use different varieties of tomatoes
Lee Truer’s stuffed peppers
Slice 2 peppers in half and take out the insides
Sauté 1/2 lb ground turkey (or chicken or beef) in oil with balsamic vinegar with salt pepper and finely diced garlic and onion
Add diced carrot if desired
When onions are translucent and the meat is cooked, turn off the burner
Add fresh herbs of your choosing.
Add 1.5 cups of cooked farro
Add a small amount of pasta sauce, about 3 tbsp
Add cheese (i prefer parmesan and sharp cheddar mix)
Mold mixture into pepper cavities
Top peppers with grated parmesan, grana padano, or a hard, salty cheese of your choice
Bake at 350 in a pan covered with foil with a small amount of water or veggie broth in the bottom of the pan
Bake until pepper is softened
To add crunch to the top, broil for a few minutes
A look forward to autumn events
Fun fact: getting a community garden ready for winter is almost as much work as preparing it in the spring. There's much to do, from covering the plots and walkways with cardboard to storing all our benches, chairs, and other items that shouldn't be left out during the winter. To tackle these tasks, we'll be organizing a big volunteer event, or possibly a couple, to help prepare the garden for the colder months. But it's not all work and no play!
We're excited to announce our upcoming Harvest Festival, a big garden potluck where everyone is invited to bring a dish and celebrate the official closing of the Mounds Park Community Garden.
After the Harvest Festival, we're considering hosting a Haunted Garden for Halloween, with one route featuring spooky elements and the other route offering a "lightly haunted" atmosphere suitable for all ages, from kids to adults. It's going to be a fantastic way to wrap up the season and get everyone into the Autumn spirit!
- Nate
