The Gathering

Wisconsin Families Garden is pleased to support The Gathering in Milwaukee with fresh produce donations.

The Gathering's mission is "To provide meals and associated services to those who would otherwise go hungry. We respect the dignity and values of every individual we serve and value our volunteers who allow us to serve the community."

Their motto is "People in community feeding the hungry."

With the help of the hundreds of groups and individuals who volunteer every year as well as the many individuals, churches, local businesses and foundations who provide financial donations, The Gathering provides ten free meals per week at three locations in Milwaukee, serving over 100,000 people in need annually. The Gathering also collaborates with other organizations with complimentary missions, providing on-site services in the areas of Mental Health, Legal Assistance, Medical Referrals, and Supply Distribution.

For more information, including how to donate or volunteer at The Gathering, visit www.thegatheringwis.org or call 414-272-4122.

August Photos

August is a time to enjoy summer's heat-loving crops, including basil, beans, cucumbers, peppers, squash, tomatoes, and flowers. Thanks to the dedicated volunteers who watered, weeded, mulched, and harvested when I was out of town, the gardens continue to thrive!


8-22-10



Basil, 8-31-10


8-31-10

Kids Day

This afternoon was another Kids Day at the WFG Grafton demonstration garden. We had six 4-6 year olds participating, and everyone, both kids and parents, learned a thing or two about how food grows!

From the kids' perspective, I think by far the most exciting activity was pulling WEEDS! We actually had to form a line halfway through the weeding event, so that when I said, "I found another weed!" the whole group wouldn't come barrelling over at once, yelling, "Where?!!" and in exuberant eagerness, unknowingly trample each other and all the vegetable beds en route to that single weed.

Besides weeding the garden, we learned the basic requirements for plant growth above and below ground, we mulched and tied tomatoes (see Tomatoes!!!), and we harvested lettuce, green beans, turnips, cherry tomatoes, kale, cilantro and one cucumber. We also planted a mango seed to see if it will grow a mango tree!

The parents and I discussed methods of making compost, how to trim basil plants to keep them productive, and we were all fascinated by our discussion on how potatoes grow, why we hill/mulch them, and why the potato plants are currently growing tomato-like fruits on the them.

One of my favorite moments from today's Kids Day was right at the end, when we were heading inside for snacks. One of the little girls saw something she had missed, turned to look up at me, and with wonder in her eyes and utter amazement in her voice, whispered, "Is this a cabbage?" There's nothing that makes my job more worthwhile than a child discovering that those round green things we see in the grocery store actually, and amazingly, grow straight from the center of a giant, green plant with humongous, waxy leaves. It was absolutely precious!

Campus Kitchen at Marquette

Wisconsin Families Garden (WFG) is pleased to announce its support for Campus Kitchen at Marquette University with donations of fresh produce from the WFG demonstration gardens. The nationwide organization The Campus Kitchens Project has locations at 25 schools throughout America (including two in Wisconsin) and operates according to the following mission statement:

"To use service as a tool to:

•Strengthen Bodies by using existing resources to meet hunger and nutritional needs in our community;

•Empower Minds by providing leadership and service learning opportunities to students, and educational benefits to adults, seniors, children, and families in need; and

•Build Communities by fostering a new generation of community-minded adults through resourceful and mutually beneficial partnerships among students, social service agencies, businesses and schools."


Here in Milwaukee, The Campus Kitchens Project at Marquette University (CKMU) serves over 2,000 meals per month to area residents in need. Also, three times per year CKMU offers Culinary Job Training for under-employed and unemployed men and women in the Milwaukee area.

CKMU is staffed by a dedicated, friendly group of student and community volunteers and is coordinated by Amanda Parrell. If you would like to volunteer or make some other type of donation, please contact Amanda Parrell at 414-288-0342.

Tomatoes!!!

The first tomatoes of 2010 are ripe and ready!!! Many home gardeners have been curious about our Stake And String method of supporting tomato plants. Below you can see pictures of the process. Thanks to Blue Moon Farm for teaching me this method of staking tomatoes. Whether you use the Stake And String method, tomato cages, or some other method of supporting tomato plants in your garden, it really is a good idea to keep tomato plants off the ground, because you will have healthier plants, cleaner fruits, and higher yields.

Step 1: Plant the tomatoes in a straight row. We plant our tomatoes at 18" apart. This works well for the Stake And String method. If you use tomato cages, I recommend allowing more space between the plants, as there will be less upward-only growth and more outward bushiness of the plants.

Step 2: After a few weeks when the tomato plants are 8-12" tall, pound stakes into the ground every 6 ft (every four plants). For determinate tomato varieties, 5' metal t-posts or even wooden posts will work just fine; for indeterminate varieties that may grow very tall and have high yields of heavy fruits, we use 6' metal t-posts. Take special care with the posts on the ends of the rows. They will only have inward forces acting upon them, so they should be angled outwards. Or, an extra post at the end of the row, pounded in at a 45 degree outward angle, will ensure that the soon-to-be heavy tomato plants don't outweigh their support system. This is a row of tomatoes from the WFG Milwaukee garden.



Step 3: Every week as the tomatoes grow taller, tie a heavy-duty string from post to post, supporting each side of the row, like we did below in the WFG Grafton garden. If you have a long row, the same piece of string can be used down and back on the entire row; it should be wrapped firmly at a uniform height around each post as you go. The strings should be tight but not constrictive to the plants' growth. Remember, as the plants get taller, their growing stems and branches also get thicker and will need room to expand within the strings. Generally, once a week is good enough for tying tomatoes. Each week the next string up will be 6-10" higher than the last. After securing the strings on both sides of the plants, gently tuck any outlying tomato branches under the strings, which will encourage upward growth of the plants.



Step 4: Harvesting tomatoes is a breeze with the Stake And String method. As you can see from this row of tomatoes in the WFG Grafton garden, all fruits are elevated off the ground. The tomato fruits and plants do not get muddy when it rains and the precious tomatoes that you have labored and tended to all season will be less prone to diseases and splitting. Essentially, by staking tomatoes, you can expect better yields and gorgeous, healthy fruits!

Beets & Potatoes

This weekend, little hands in Grafton direct seeded more cilantro and transplanted a variety of summer squashes and cucumbers. The tomatoes are now properly trellised, the rabbit-eaten lettuces and kales have all grown back, and the potato plants are showcasing elegant flowers. The weeds are growing nicely too, but I think we eliminated most of them. My suggestion to pull out the bolted radishes and arugula so the cilantro will have more room to grow was vetoed, however.... because they have exceptionally pretty flowers. It's true, they do. Silly me.



On an equally fun note, today as I was direct seeding greens in the rabbit-proof area of the Mequon garden, I came upon the first mature beet of the season. How exciting!



Then, since storms are in the forecast for tonight and the entire rest of the week, I decided now was the time, before everything gets all wet and mucky, to get out my digging fork and poke around investigatively in the potato patch. Good thing I did, because I found beautiful Yukon Golds.

More On Potatoes

After 10 days of pretty pastel purple flowers, the Rose Gold potato plants have dropped their flowers. Now the Yukon Golds are flowering (above front), as are the brilliant purple Red Clouds (below).

Flowering Potatoes!

Today we discovered the first potato flowers! I was so excited it was almost impossible to capture my expression on camera.

We have potatoes planted in all three of our gardens. In Mequon, five varieties of potatoes were planted on April 22. On June 11 the red potato variety Rose Gold is the first to flower. How exciting!

Tomato Planting & May Photos

It's so nice to have little hands helping in the garden. This weekend we planted tomatoes at the Grafton garden. It just goes to show that 5-year olds can be great tomato planters!

The Mequon garden is bursting with spring garden bounty! Here are a few photos.

I'm very excited about the flowering of the sugar snap pea plants! 5-24-10



A few days later, we've got pea pods starting to grow. 5-31-10



Fresh garden thinnings from our second harvest of the season. 5-8-10



Two weeks later, salad mix. 5-25-10 (In "Why Garden? Part 3" I mentioned how I love to wear a big straw hat. Here it is!)



Beautiful, crispy radishes! 5-25-10



The potatoes are coming up and looking very healthy! 5-24-10



A nitrogen-fixing Field Peas cover crop to nourish the soil. 5-31-10

First Harvest

How exciting, and delicious! Today we had our first harvest from a March 28th planting of greens from the Wisconsin Families Garden demonstration garden in Mequon, WI. Our first spring harvest included thinnings of pea shoots, baby spinach, baby radishes, and dandelion greens.

In the photo, that's a pea shoot. Yes, pea plants are edible!



We cooked a great meal with local ingredients. Below are eggs from Milo's Poultry Farms (Bonduel, WI), sprouted rye bread made by Cybros (Waukesha, WI) dressed with Organic Valley of Farms Pasture Butter, and last but not least, our own delicious garden thinnings of greens.



We look forward to more tasty, garden-fresh produce soon from our urban gardens in Mequon, Grafton, and Milwaukee.

Growing Power

Wisconsin Families Garden attended Growing Power's 2010 Earth Day Celebration. What a wonderful place and what a wonderful day!

Growing Power is currently the only farm remaining in the city of Milwaukee. They grow on 1.5 acres at 5500 W. Silver Spring Dr., which is just 3 miles west off of I-43. Growing Power is dedicated to sustainable food production, youth & community education, as well as sustainable food production research.

At the Earth Day Celebration, we got a fantastic tour of Growing Power's Milwaukee facilities. We learned how they make compost from food waste they collect from locations throughout the city. We saw their bins of redworms, which help break down the compost into smooth, rich soil. We learned how they recycle water in their stormwater collection and aquaponics systems. We saw greenhouses, hoophouses, fish, chickens, turkeys, and goats. We enjoyed eating Growing Power's fresh salad mix, watercress, pea shoots, sunflower sprouts, as well as other delicious food prepared by local chefs.

For more information about this fabulous organization, please visit Growing Power's website at www.growingpower.org.

Spring Is Here!

Can you believe the amazing hot, sunny weather we're having this week?
If you haven't done so already, now is the perfect time to start planting your cold-hardy spring vegetables, like peas and spinach. These seeds will germinate well in the slightly warmed-up soil, and they won't be harmed if the weather turns back to usual Wisconsin spring temperatures.

If you don't already have an established vegetable garden, check out the latest Wisconsin Families Garden Gardening Info Series topic entitled, "How to Select a Garden Site".

Save $$$ by Gardening

Tonight I attended the 2010 Business & Community Expo sponsored by the Granville-Brown Deer Chamber of Commerce. I talked to various people about Wisconsin Families Garden, LLC, my background in organic vegetable farming, as well as my goal to get kids involved in gardening.

Everyone I spoke to agreed that teaching kids at a young age about healthy eating habits and teaching families about growing safe, non-chemically-laden food is a wonderful endeavor.

I also heard the comment, "But Eating Organic Is So Expensive!" In response to this, I made an investigative trip to two grocery stores on my way home tonight, and I wrote the next WFG Gardening Info Series post about how growing one's own vegetables can supply one with delightfully fresh, naturally-grown vegetables at what could potentially be a very low cost. To see the article, click here.

WFG Spring Garden Info Series

Wisconsin Families Garden, LLC (WFG) is hosting a FREE online spring Gardening Info Series about:

-Why Garden?
-Selecting a garden site
-Preparing the garden for planting


"Growing Gardens, Growing People!"

Goals

Goals for Wisconsin Families Garden, LLC's
Ozaukee & Milwaukee Families program:

1) To share with children and adults the fun and wonder of gardening.

2) To encourage gardeners of all ages to be wildly creative in and out of the garden.

3) To provide opportunities for parents and other important adults to spend meaningful time and connect in loving, learning-focused ways with their children.

4) To encourage healthy eating habits for children and adults by allowing them to experience for themselves the amazing taste of garden-fresh produce!

5) To educate interested individuals about the safety, health, and importance of growing one's own food and/or eating fresh, local, sustainably grown food.

6) To provide a supportive environment where children and adults can grow like gardens, as individuals, families, and communities.


"Growing Gardens, Growing People!"

The Idea

"Growing Gardens, Growing People!"

This is the site for individuals and families in Ozaukee & Milwaukee Counties and the surrounding areas who are gardening with Wisconsin Families Garden, LLC and wish to add a social, learning-focused, creativity expressing, self esteem building aspect to the gardening experience.

My name is Brenda Foster. I am the founder of Wisconsin Families Garden, LLC and a native to Ozaukee County. My background is in organic vegetable farming and my vision is to use the gardening experience as a medium to empower children and adults to grow like gardens, as individuals, families, and communities.