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2009 In the Garden monthly columns
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In the Garden monthly
column
Since
2003, FBG executive director Jim Flint
has written a monthly column for the North
Avenue News,
Colchester Sun, Essex
Reporter, and Shelburne News.
Special thanks to Gardener's
Supply for generously sponsoring Jim's
garden column for the past four years. To view previous year columns,
click on the links in the sidebar.
August
5,
2010
Wow! It looks like 2010 may be headed into the record books as the
warmest
growing season ever in Vermont. Aided by abundant sunshine and
consistent rainfall, home and community gardeners are enjoying a
prolific yield of delicious crops.
Now it’s time to get ready to exhibit your prize vegetables at the 89th
Champlain Valley Fair, August 28 through September 6. The first step is
a visit to www.cvexpo.org
to look over the Exhibitor Handbook. Youths
and adults can enter the same categories, with the exception of the new
Vegetable Art Division which is just for kids!
 The
handbook includes tips to prepare your vegetables for exhibit,
including the quantity needed for each lot. Besides being clean,
uniform, appropriately sized, and free from damage, judges will look to
see if your entry includes the cultivar name and whether the variety is
true to form.
Successful entries often involve planning ahead. For example, onions
should be harvested at least a week before the fair to allow for drying
time. Tomatoes, on the other hand, should be picked the day they are
brought to the fair, so that stems stay green and fresh looking.
Allow yourself plenty of time on Friday, August 27 to transport your
entries to the Robert E. Miller Expo North building between 10 a.m. and
8 p.m. Superintendent Michelle Perry and the friendly Garden Center
staff will assist with check in and answering your questions.
Veteran judges Charlie Nardozzi and Larry Myott make their rounds on
Saturday August 28 awarding ribbons to entries from gardeners age 15
through adults. The heavyweight exhibits will also be weighed in on
Saturday. Charlie and Larry have judged vegetables for years and are
noted for their keen eye and consistency.
Younger gardeners participate in “face to face” judging for their
entries on Saturday afternoon. Ages 7 to 10 begin at 1 p.m. and ages 11
to 14 begin at 3:30 p.m. Each youth and an accompanying parent or
guardian will receive a free pass Friday to return to the fair on
Saturday for the judging, which is geared toward learning exhibit
skills. I’m looking forward to serving as the judge for the youth
vegetable sessions, which are also open to fair visitors.
With interest in gardening on the rise, now is a great time for
children, teens, and adults to celebrate summer by winning a blue
ribbon at the Champlain Valley Fair!
July
1,
2010
The 2010 growing season is off to an excellent start, with many area
gardeners harvesting their first crops about a week ahead of schedule.
In our family plot at Starr Farm, we’ve enjoyed delicious lettuce and
greens, and we’ll soon pick our first beans, cucumbers, and summer
squash.
 After a
busy spring, it’s tempting to take time off from gardening. After all,
the plants are growing in tidy rows and beds, and it seems that the
garden will take care of itself. Yet hidden in the topsoil, thousands
of weed seeds are just waiting for our leisure and an opportunity to
sprout, grow, and reproduce.
Stoked by summer sun and showers, common garden weeds such as
Chenopodium album (lamb’s quarter), Amaranthus retroflexus (red root
pig weed), Portulaca oleracea (common purslane), and Galinsoga
parviflora (quick weed) can grow an inch or more a day. Given a week or
two of uninterrupted basking, a carpet of tiny green weed seedlings can
quickly overtake their food bearing counterparts.
So before leaving for vacation, recruit a friend, family member, or
neighbor to cultivate your garden and keep crops well picked so they
will continue producing. Simply disturbing the soil with a rake and hoe
is often enough to set weeds back and give the advantage to your
vegetables and flowers.
Taking an additional step of mulching with hay, straw, or lawn
clippings will help to conserve moisture, increase soil humus, and
reduce weed growth. Although some hand weeding will be necessary within
rows, your focus can shift to the enjoyable tasks of harvesting and
eating fresh garden produce.
 Speaking
of mulch, here’s a way to counter weeds and support a good cause.
On Saturday, July 10, from 9 a.m. to noon, Friends of Burlington
Gardens will hold a Burlap Coffee Bag
Benefit Sale to support the Healthy City Youth Farm. The event
takes place at FBG’s headquarters at 180 Flynn Avenue in Burlington,
with free parking and complimentary cups of fresh coffee.
The food grade 24-inch x 36-inch burlap bags are popular as a
biodegradable weed mat for garden pathways and sheet mulching, and
they're great for sack races and sewing projects too.
Packaged in 20-bag bundles for $10 a bundle, the bags are offered on a
first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please visit the
FBG web site at www.burlingtongardens.org. Hope to see you at the sale!
June
3,
2010
At daybreak on Tuesday May 4, Pat and Cathy Palmer eased their team of
Percheron draft horses into a trailer, loaded on a horse drawn plow,
and headed north on Route 7 from their beautiful 55 acre farm in New
Haven, Vermont. An hour later they arrived at Hunt Middle School in
Burlington to prepare a quarter acre of land for the new Healthy City
Youth Farm.
While Pat nimbly guided Butch and Jerry along the plow furrows, classes
of intrigued students circulated between hands-on learning stations. At
the first station, Cathy Palmer shared how the powerful work horses are
trained to respond to the gentlest of commands. Cathy sprinkled her
talk with interesting facts about the team. For example, as a Percheron
ages its color changes from black to dapple gray, and finally to a
light gray which appears white.
Moving on to the Burlington School Food Project table, students tested
their palates with spring salad greens donated by Half Pint Farm;
chopped spinach balls flavored with breadcrumbs, garlic, and Vermont
cheddar; and fruit and yogurt smoothies made with City Market’s bicycle
powered blender. The taste tests help to introduce the flavors and fun
of eating fresh local foods.
Using artistic renderings of garden vegetables, food activist Bonnie
Acker captivated young imaginations with the diverse crops to be grown
at the Healthy City Youth Farm. At an adjacent table, Vermont FEED
director Abbie Nelson challenged students to match containers of seeds
with their corresponding fruits and vegetables.
As the draft horses finished the field, Friends of Burlington Gardens
program director Jenn McGowan began organizing the next steps to get
ready for planting. With help from Charlie Krumholz, the plowed site
was rototilled on May 8 to break up and smooth out the sod. On May 10,
a design with 40 raised beds was marked out. During the next two weeks,
Hunt physical education students and staff, community volunteers, and a
group of BHS after-school students pitched in to spread 36 yards of
Intevale top soil on the new beds.
From planting to harvest, the new Healthy City Youth Farm provides a
place where youths and adults can work side-by-side growing healthy
food and community. To lend support to the new project as a volunteer
or contributor, please contact Friends of Burlington Gardens at
861-4769 or info@burlingtongardens.org.
May
6,
2010
The
first Earth Day was conceived by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin in
response to the disastrous 1969 oil spill off the coast of Santa
Barbara, California. The nationwide grassroots event on April 22, 1970
combined environmental action to clean up litter with anti-pollution
teach-ins held on college campuses and community greens.
As an 11-year old growing up in Washington County, New York, I spent
the first Earth Day picking up trash with fellow 4-Hers and adult
volunteers. Together we hauled cans, bottles, mufflers, and bed springs
out of roadside ditches and onto pickup trucks. The country lanes of my
home town of Hebron were cleaner as a result, but the Earth Day event
was also about teaching the community.
Across the county, a design contest was held to create temporary
sculptures from the collected litter. Our team artfully arranged its
trash heap on a flatbed hay wagon at the end of our rural road. The
motley display was framed with colorful posters urging all who drove by
to take care of the air, water, and land around us.
Looking back, the experience of participating in Earth Day 1970
continues to draw me to environmental education and the need for
grassroots activism. Forty years later, on April 22, 2010, I found this
inspiration renewed by the dedication and spirit of children, teachers,
and community members participating in Earth Day events at two
Burlington schools.
The Sustainability Academy in Burlington’s Old North End organized a
day of service involving every student and teacher. Teams of children
fanned out across the schoolyard and neighborhood to learn and serve.
Small groups rotated among hands-on activities, which included planting
an Edible Forest Garden and mixing compost into raised beds that will
be used to grow fresh vegetables.
photo right:
FBG Program Director Jenn McGowan talks with Sustainability Academy
students about compost and garden soil on Earth Day 2010.
 At Champlain Elementary (photo left), a circle of
children, teachers, and parents
gathered after school to celebrate Earth Day and break ground for a new
school community garden. The hard work of clearing sod and building
raised beds will soon lead to a fertile and sustainable piece of land
where children learn first-hand how to plant, cultivate, and harvest
healthy food.
As I write this column, an oil spill again threatens our country’s
fragile coastlines. My hope is that like the students on Earth Day, we
too will be inspired to learn and take action to better care for the
environment.
April
2,
2010
Vermonters
in rural and urban areas are increasingly interested in gardening as a
means to access healthy delicious produce at an affordable cost. Along
with a new crop of backyard vegetable plots, dozens of community,
school, and neighborhood gardens have sprung up across the state. The
sites provide fresh food and fertile spaces for recreation, learning,
and social interaction.
As each garden is created, new gardeners face the first time challenges
of planting and cultivating vegetables. In past generations,
horticultural skills were passed down from parents, grandparents,
aunts, and uncles. Today the internet provides a plethora of gardening
information, but there is still no substitute for seeking the help of a
skilled garden mentor.
 On
Monday May 3rd at 7 p.m., a class of 22 people will gather at Ethan
Allen Homestead to begin the 2010 Community Teaching Garden program.
During twice weekly evening sessions, UVM Extension Master Gardener
Denise Quick will skillfully guide the group as participants learn
hands-on how to successfully plant, cultivate, harvest, and preserve
fresh vegetables.
The Community Teaching Garden is geared toward adults, age 18 through
seniors. Each class member plants and tends an individual 4 ft. by 20
ft. raised bed garden. Participants also enjoy a share of the produce
grown in the ten common beds, from spring rhubarb to fall raspberries.
Limited income participants are eligible for scholarships that cover up
to half of the course cost.
The 2010 course fee is $120 per person if sharing a raised bed, or $200
per person for an individual raised bed. (That’s about half the cost of
an average CSA share.) The course fee includes 44 class sessions,
seeds, plants, supplies, water, tools, potlucks, and a cornucopia of
vegetables including mixed greens, root crops, tomatoes, peppers,
beans, squash, and more!
Many participants learn about the Community Teaching Garden from a
friend or neighbor. Others come across the program on the
burlingtongardens.org web site and are inspired to apply. If you are
interested after reading this column, please email me at
jimf@burlingtongardens.org or call the Friends of Burlington Gardens
office at 861-4769.
The Community Teaching Garden is open to anyone in the Burlington area
who has a sincere desire and commitment to learn how to garden
organically in a community setting.
Until next month, happy spring planting!
February
25,
2010
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the percentage of
household income that Americans spent on food decreased steadily from
24.2% in 1930 to 9.5% in 2004. On the surface this may sound positive,
but there is a paradox. As household incomes rise, less attention is
often focused on meeting basic dietary needs.
Here’s a brief history:
During the Great Depression, the federal government began paying
farmers subsidies to grow field crops such as corn and soybeans. The
subsidies made it cost effective to fatten livestock on feedlots, and
to manufacture corn syrup, margarine, and soybean oil. Because fresh
fruits and vegetable crops were not subsidized, their inflation
adjusted prices increased over time relative to mass commodities.
 In the
post World War II era, chemical fertilizers and pesticides reduced the
amount of people needed to grow food. Farms grew larger in size, and
cheap oil made it possible to ship food long distances. Producers of
convenience foods seized on new consumer markets and expanded their
advertising.
Recently I began a project to read and transcribe the letters my dad
wrote home during his college years at Cornell University. The letters
share the struggles of daily life in the Depression, as he worked his
way through school, having started with just the $60 his father gave
him to cover room, board, and books.
On his first day at Cornell, Dad ate the fruit and cakes he brought
from home. Through a friend, he found a job washing dishes and waiting
tables at a fraternity house. In lieu of wages, he labored up to six
hours a day for the meals needed to sustain himself as a student. He
was grateful for the food and work, studied diligently, and earned his
degree. Life lessons learned during the 1930s were never forgotten.
It’s timely in March to reflect on our household budgets. Can we invest
a higher percentage of time and energy in securing local fruits and
vegetables, or in growing our own? Can we free up money for healthy
food by reducing our use of electricity, eating less meat, and
decreasing miles driven in our vehicles?
Somewhere between having too little and having too much, there is a
balance point where better health and happiness lies. Perhaps we can
find that sweet spot in the garden in 2010.
p.s. To read my dad’s letters, visit http://ghflintletters.blogspot.com/
February
4,
2010
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, February is an ideal time
to look for ways to keep our hearts healthy and strong. In this spirit,
I’ve jotted down my top ten tips to eat well and be fit on a budget:
#10 Eggs: Whether from a backyard chicken coop or a neighborhood
grocery store, eggs are a low cost source of high quality protein.
Choose a local supplier, such as Shadow Cross Farms or Maple Meadow
Farm, whose cartons are stamped with the Vermont seal of quality.
#9 Spinach: Fresh spinach is versatile and packed with Vitamin A,
iron, and fiber. For a quick salad toss the leaves with a simple
dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and maple syrup.
#8 Tea: Steer clear of soda and energy drinks, whether diet or
the sugary variety. As an alternative, enjoy hot or iced tea with lemon
and a teaspoon of honey.
#7 Movement: A regular regiment of stretching and exercise
strengthens joints, bones, and muscles. A daily walk is one of the most
affordable ways to keep fit.
#6 Fresh air: Exhaust fumes contain a dangerous mix of noxious
gases which damage lungs and can lead to cancer and heart disease. Keep
a safe distance from cars, trucks, and buses, and avoid idling for more
time than is necessary to defrost or defog your windows.
 #5
Homemade soup: To make soup stock, boil a chicken carcass or ham
bone, cook down peeled garden tomatoes, or whip up a rue with milk,
butter, and flour. Simmer vegetables and herbs in the broth and enjoy
the rich flavors.
#4 Carrots: Loaded with beta carotene and fiber, carrots are
great for your eyes and digestive tract. Eating a few raw carrots after
a meal will also massage gums, neutralize mouth acids, and help clean
your teeth.
#3 Oatmeal: Old fashioned rolled oats take about five minutes to
cook. Use a ratio of one cup water, one cup milk, and one cup oats to
make two large servings. Sprinkle in a handful of raisins and drizzle
maple syrup on top for a delicious start to your day.
#2 Apples: If you’re traveling south on Route 22A, Sentinel Pine
Orchard sells utility apples fresh from cold storage for $6 a half
bushel. Their packing plant is located west of Shoreham at 832
Witherell Road. For information and hours, call 802-897-7932.
#1 Gardening: According to author Michael Pollan, a $70
investment in a vegetable garden can yield $600 worth of fresh organic
produce. That’s food for thought and better health!
January 7,
2010
Some sixteen million American
men and women served their country during World War II. The Department
of Veterans Affairs estimates that two million are still living, while
900 veterans pass away each day.
My
father, Gilbert Hall Flint, belonged to “The Greatest Generation.” He
died at Pleasant Valley Infirmary in Argyle, New York on December 16
and was buried in the nearby town of Salem, where he served as an
agricultural teacher for 17 years and as school principal for 12
years.
 Dad was born August 14, 1918 in
Smithfield, New York. He grew up on the farm that his great-great
grandfather Jabez moved to in 1782 after serving with General
Washington in the Revolutionary War. He attended the same one room
school house where four generations of Flints learned to read and write.
As a
teenager, my father rose at 3:20 a.m. each morning to milk 17 cows by
hand. Fieldwork and haying were done with horse drawn equipment. Milk
was kept cool in a spring house and delivered daily to town.
Dad
graduated from Amenia High School in 1936 and from Cornell University
in 1940. He taught high school agriculture for four years before being
drafted into the army. His basic training took place at Camp Blanding,
Florida, along with several of his students.
Preparing for the Battle of the
Bulge, my father was one of two infantrymen pulled aside at the last
moment to instruct the next wave of recruits. When the war ended, he
spent a year overseas helping the Japanese people rebuild and modernize
their agricultural system.
He
married Florence Winfield, a home economics teacher, on November 25,
1949. Together they raised a family of six children on a farmstead in
Hebron, New York, nurturing the unique abilities of each offspring.
During my
boyhood, Dad taught me to hoe a straight row. He imparted his pride in
a well maintained garden, his love for sharing knowledge, and his
gratitude in being able to serve others.
When I
asked Dad how he would like to be remembered, he emphasized his family,
teaching, and military service. On a sunny December day at Evergreen
Cemetery, an honor guard played taps as he was laid to rest. His
grandson Jabez stood by in army uniform, gave a final salute, and
presented the flag to my mother.
Well
done, Dad; your legacy carries on.
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Friends of
Burlington
Gardens & the
Vermont Community
Garden Network
180 Flynn Avenue Studio 3
PO Box 4504
Burlington,
Vermont
05406-4504
802-861-GROW
www.burlingtongardens.org
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