The Garden has a New Addition!
Thanks to the efforts of the North Beach Master Gardeners, our community garden has two beautiful new hooped garden plots.
Sushila Ravard and Valorie Savisky, local master gardeners, worked tirelessly to add wind resistant covers on top of two of their four Demonstration Beds that have been in Garden by the Sea for the last 3 years.
The covers are made with a double layer of UV protected 6ml plastic over PVC supports on a frame of treated lumber. These structures will create a greenhouse effect to keep the plants warm, allowing gardening well into the winter months.
The Master Gardeners have been partnering with Garden by the Sea over the years to allow the gardeners and the community to “look over their shoulders” as they conduct research on coastal gardening issues such as perennial and annual vegetables for cool climates and pollinator plants that attract bees and butterflies. And one of their plots over the last two years was dedicated to a NASA project using ozone sensitive plants that react to higher ozone levels before humans, animals or other plants notice a problem.
The new hooped gardens, sometimes referred to as cold frames or cloche houses, will be used this fall and winter to grow two different cover crops. Cover crops are used as “green manure” which transfers valuable nutrients into the soil naturally. In the late winter/early spring the plants will be turned back into the soil to decompose before new crops are planted. Already the Master Gardeners have sprouts of fava beans (also known as broad beans), crimson clover and daikon radishes coming up strong!
It will be interesting to watch the growth of these plants over the next few months. Also, a soil test was done prior to the fall plantings, and another test will be done later in the spring to determine how many of the key nutrient levels (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) were improved by the cover crops. We will certainly report the findings in one of our upcoming newsletters next year!
If you are interested in building your own hooped garden, click on this article link for helpful way to get started: Build-Your-Own-Hoop-Garden
Also, for plants that can be planted in October (some without a cold frame), click on the link: Vegetables-to-Plant-in-October
