Orchard Happenings and Updates

We are geared up and ready to get planting! This Saturday, we will be talking about warm season planting at 10am at Weaver Creek Park and getting our gardens started! Join us tomorrow morning for planting tips and tricks, and some free bulbs to celebrate Mother’s day! We have a limited supply of flower bulbs and it will be first come first served starting at 10am.

We are in the process of removing some of the orchard trees which are suffering from extensive fire blight infections. Just a reminder that if you see us out and about removing trees with cans or bottles of disinfectant, this is what is going on. Fire blight is a bacterial disease which is spread via pollinators (it does not harm humans), but removing infected branches is a laborious process because we must sanitize our tools after every cut to further prevent the spread of the bacteria to healthy branches.

Gardening Heads up!
We work around May 12 for our Frost date, and will be planting tender warm season plants these next two weeks. There are some key techniques to keep in mind when planting, check out the sections below for more information on Companion Planting & Garden Plans.

To ensure the most bountiful year possible, we are trying to get everything in the ground now. It is definitely time to plant spinach, lettuces, or other cold season plants if you haven’t done so already.

Strawberry Spinach Salad
A fresh recipe and great way to incorporate Spinach into your diet this spring!
Garden Planning 
Plant with the mature size of your plants in mind!

When I imagine the ideal mid-season garden, I think of each plant having space with good airflow throughout the plant’s canopy (especially for tomatoes) with great access to sunlight and water (although not too much).

My favorite planting guide which includes information for the mature size of many common vegetables can be found here: https://cmg.extension.colostate.edu/Gardennotes/720.pdf. Make sure that you aren’t crowding your vegetable garden, airflow is important for preventing disease and a less-crowded plant will be easier to monitor for pests. Pest problems are nearly always 100x easier to manage when caught early in the season.

Consider Making a Grid Garden Plan or use one of the guides linked below.

I am a fan of using a modified block layout, like what is described in this article: https://cmg.extension.colostate.edu/Gardennotes/713.pdf. To be honest though, I like to skirt the rules and plant root vegetables (like carrots and radish) along the perimeter of my raised garden bed to eek out just a little more productivity.

Some wonderful resources with additional insights can be found below. I would highly recommend anyone interested in garden planning to check them out!
Companion Planting
Some plants do very well when planted alongside one another.
Companion planting is a technique Jovial Concepts tries to incorporate in each garden bed we take care of. It helps us efficiently use space by pairing up plants that work well together.

For example, the shade provided by tall heat loving plants, like large tomatoes, can help prevent some crops from bolting (growing vertically very quickly to produce flowers & seeds). Basil and Marigolds intercropped with tomatoes can reduce thrips pressure. Carrots and Onions are a curious pairing which work well together; the onions help ward off predatory insects and can mask the smell of carrots, while the carrots bring in pollinators.

The Three Sisters Garden Bed with Corn growing tall, Beans growing up the corn, and Squash growing around the base of the corn to help ward off pests, is one of the most famous examples of companion planting.

For more information on this topic, I would highly encourage you to check out this page from West Virginia University. It has a nice concise list of companion (and not-companion) plants : https://extension.wvu.edu/lawn-gardening-pests/gardening/garden-management/companion-planting

For any new gardeners feeling overwhelmed by all of the information, I would like to share this article which is a great one-stop-shop of information for beginners: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/home-vegetable-gardening-a-quick-reference-guide.

As always, I just can’t help but include a few additional resources on this topic.